Rox vs. Sox

It's finally time for the World Series to start. Back when I was a lad, when it was simply AL champ versus NL champ, the World Series was over by mid-October, but as baseball does its best to seem more and more like the NBA, we get a marathon that could last as long as November. The teams have been set: the Boston Red Sox, who came back from a 3-1 deficit to vanquish the Cleveland Indians, and the Colorado Rockies, who wrapped up their ticket over a week ago and have been cooling their heels ever since.


It should be an interesting series. On paper, the Red Sox are a clear favorite, with big-time post-season heroes like Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Curt Schilling and Josh Beckett, while the Rockies are full of no-names. But a lot of sports wags are talking about momentum. The Rockies have won 22 of 23, but have had a nine-day layoff, while the Red Sox have won three in a row with their backs against the wall. Momentum is one of those intangible things that clueless sportswriters toss around probably because they can't name more than a few Rockies players (I know I couldn't until the playoffs started). Momentum, it seems to me, is something you have until you don't have it anymore, and as the old saying goes, it's only as strong as your starting pitcher.


The Red Sox starting pitcher for Game One will be Josh Beckett, who in a short career has established himself as one of the great post-season pitchers of all time. If, however, the Rockies can beat him, they will have a huge emotional lift and could well be unstoppable. I think Beckett will win tonight, though, and the Sox will win in six.

As for who I'm rooting for, well, that's always complicated and sometimes I don't know until I watch the game, and sometimes it changes mid-series. I was rooting for the Indians in the ALCS, because they are now the sad sacks of the American League (inheriting that mantle from the Red Sox). I will root the Red Sox vs. the Rockies, though. I have always liked the Red Sox, probably because they are the mortal enemies of the hated Yankees. As for the Rockies, it is a great story but there's something that rankles me about it. Baseball should not be a sport where a team can play middlin' for months and then get hot and win it all, the season is a five-month slog. This shouldn't be basketball or hockey. The Rockies just haven't earned it.

Also, I was troubled by news stories that the Rockies clubhouse was full of super Christians, who had banned rock music and Playboy from the locker room, and led their general manager to declare that the winning streak was divine providence. The fastest way for me to root against a team is for them to suggest that God is on their side. If there is a God (which I don't think there is) surely the exploits of grown men playing a game in tights would be far down the list of His interest. An article in yesterday's New York Times clarified the issue, though, stating that players of all faiths and creeds are welcome on the team. Players of high moral fiber are sought for, and there's nothing wrong with that (this started when a high-paid free agent, Denny Neagle, got kicked off the team after getting busted for soliciting a prostitute). Music of all kinds can be played in the clubhouse (even Black Sabbath?) but there was no clarification on whether Playboy is still contraband.