Red Sox- Rockies Wrap-Up......and A-Rod!!

Flashing the Trivia: Where was the beer "Blue Moon" first brewed? (answer at bottom)

"God blessed Jon Lester with cancer just to show a lot of people that you can overcome something that's so hard in your life you think, 'I'm not gonna make it.' He's going to be able to take his faith in God and the strength God gave him and tell a lot of other people a great story."

-- Boston Red Sox reliever, Mike Timlin

A-ROD OPTED OUT OF
HIS CONTRACT
WITH THE YANKEES!

Oh and the Red Sox won the World Series, but whatever...



I've decided to start each of my blogs with a trivia question and a quote. I liked that quote pretty much because Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox should have been the story of last night's game, but it wasn't, it was Alex Rodriguez. I'll get to that later, first, let's do a quick wrap-up.

The Boston Red Sox-Colorado Rockies World Series was about as shocking as it was uneventful. As you all know already Boston wrapped up the series in a four-game sweep with a 4-3 victory. A game that didn't really provide a tense moment until Hideki Okajima let up a Garrett Atkins 2-run home run drawing the Rockies within one run.

Then again when you have Jonathan Papelbon and his 0.00 ERA in 10.2 innings this postseason on the mound with a 3-0 series lead, how tense could a situation possibly be.

The team was led by rookies Jacoby "Free Taco" Ellsbury, probable Rookie of the Year Dustin Pedroia, and World Series MVP Mike Lowell who combined went 18-49 (.367 BA) and had 11 RBIs in the series. While the Rockies, as a team, only hit .218 with 10 RBIs.

But it was clear the World Series was won, like it always is, by quality pitching as the Red Sox had a team ERA of 2.50, with only 10 walks in all four games combined. Perhaps this was also a sign of the Colorado Rockies overaggressiveness at the plate as the Red Sox also tallied up 36 strikeouts in 36 total innings pitched.

This clip here, pretty much sums up the Rockies postseason.



I mean, I knew the National League was bad, but when a team sweeps their way through the postseason only to get totally dominated in the World Series? I think the National League needs a DH, as much as I love the National League game and hate to admit it. But that's a argument for another day.

I was expecting more out of this series as I thought it would be much closer than it was. Come on, I figured they would at least win next year's ace Ubaldo Jimenez's start.

But I did get to see something I didn't expect...the birth of a dynasty. That's right Yankee fans after 86 years of being cursed/inept/having Mo Vaughn, a dynasty is on the horizon for those hated Soooxxxx and their Soooooxxxxx Nation. I'm rather shocked this hasn't been mentioned much, the Red Sox have what it takes to be a truly dominant team. Of course this doesn't come close to guaranteeing a championship.


Who can deny that the Red Sox will unquestionably have the best rotation in baseball (well pending what happens this offseason) with a top-4 of Josh Beckett, a seasoned Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, and an up-and-comer who has already thrown a no-hitter Clay Buchholz.

I don't really need to talk about their dynamite offense and the back-end of their bullpen. Only their middle relief needs some patchwork. But they are definitely a solid middle reliever or two away from being an 100-win team.


Oh and my predictions. I wasn't all that far off, they're for fun anyway. I hit Game 3 head-on. I didn't know about Jon Lester until it was too late. Though for the Red Sox it was a great move for both baseball and the franchise considering what Lester has been through. Also they were up 3 games to none, they could afford to lose a game.

I seriously have no idea why Clint Hurdle thought it was a good idea to start Aaron Cook who hadn't pitched in months. Get with it!. Francis was your top gun this year, if your gonna go down, Francis should have had his chance to keep the ship afloat. He would have been especially fired up because of a chance at redemption from his Game 1 performance (which I did not expect).


Now for Mister "Uno Tres" himself and his love-to-hate-him agent, Scott Boras. I did not want to know during the eighth inning of Game 4 that A-Rod was opting out of his contract with the Yankees. I wanted to enjoy the spectacle of the World Series. Like Peter Gammons (the only baseball analyst who knows what hes talking about besides Ron Darling) said:

"What’s unfortunate here is the total disrespect for the game of baseball. This is the World Series. [Boston’s] Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester are doing what Alex has never done: playing in a World Series game. And to want the attention on this day is kind of a sad commentary and it might be a bit of a ‘buyer beware,’ because, again, he’s never played in a World Series game…maybe there’s a reason.”

When it comes to baseball I'm very much a traditionalist, but as a businessman, I can appreciate the move as soulless as it was. There was no bigger of a stage to set-up the prime free agent this off-season. It was a brilliant move from a business perspective, it's what Scott Boras does best. I don't dislike A-Rod, I love what he does for the game on the field. I'm rather confident that he's doing what he's always been doing without steroids (though seriously I'll be devastated if I ever find out he was juicing or on HGH or whatever). And I will be first in line to celebrate when he breaks Bonds's record. But how he's hurting the game off the field is impossible to ignore.

I was listening to Tony Paige on WFAN on the radio tonight and what he said made perfect sense. A-Rod (well really Scott Boras, who has A-Rod by a string because it's his financial job to do so) only gave hints at not opting out during the season so the Yankees would offer him a ballpark figure of a contract offer that would set the bar for a bidding war to begin with other teams. Integrity has long gone out the window for these two (this move really undermines the Yankees franchise), but like most of what Boras does, it was a great business move. Let the bidding begin at $27 million! (I'd say it ends at $30 million a year for five years, A-Rod doesn't want to be tied down for too long, "greener" pastures are always looming.)





I'll close my post with talking about the true MVP of the World Series.






Well it's of course gotta be Jacoby Ellsbury. Because of whom today, (October 30th), I enjoyed a free taco. Since he was called up in September, Ellsbury was always fun to watch and instantly became one of my favorite players in baseball because of his small-ball offense (bunting and stealing bases), big time defense, and the fact that he's actually part of an Indian tribe (he's of Navajo decent) in Colorado.

I was considering buying his shirt off of Ebay, but at this point I feel obligated. Any sports star who contributes to me getting a free taco is high up on my list.

Here's to my new favorite Major League Baseball player, Mr. Ellsbury.

Yeah, so I lied about the longest post thing....


Flashing the Trivia answer: Coors Field, that's right, there's a Microbrewery inside of Coors Field and Blue Moon was actually developed there.