2.03 Summarization

AP Images © 2010

Chants, curses can't stop Red Sox

NEW YORK (AP) _ who’s your daddy, indeed.

No chants, no curse could stop the Boston Red Sox.

They turned history on its head and the New York Yankees into baseball’s most stunned losers to reach the World Series for the first time since 1986.

"All empires fall sooner or later," Boston president Larry Lucchino said.

He had once branded the Yankees "the Evil Empire," and he fought them hard without the resources that Yankees boss George Steinbrenner had. But even with a far lower payroll, the Red Sox had enough stars to come through with one of the greatest victories in the history of the franchise.

"I'm just thinking of all those great Red Sox teams that could never quite beat the Yankees," said Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, proud that he helped put together one that did.

The way they're playing, rolling to four straight wins with everyone clicking, they just might win the whole shebang for the first time since Babe Ruth was on their side back in 1918. 

All of us who wrote off the Red Sox after they lost the first three games, and seemed to have lost Curt Schilling to injury, were wrong. Crow pie is hereby served. 
Now Yankee fans have a small idea of how Red Sox Nation has suffered, watching its team find incredible ways to lose over and over. They can't truly grasp the depth of the annual ordeal without going through it for generations, but losing this one hurt to the Big Apple's core.

At one minute after midnight, the Red Sox closed out the Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 when Ruben Sierra grounded out to second base. Nothing whacky happened. No ball through someone's legs, no errant throw, no sudden breeze from the supposed ghosts of Yankee Stadium. Just a simple throw by Pokey Reese to first and the Red Sox were the American League champions.

They had been hugging each other in the dugout for several innings, and now they leaped on each other on the mound as the Yankees watched.

"I'm embarrassed right now,'' said Alex Rodriguez, who was nearly traded to the Red Sox before going to the Yankees. "Obviously that hurts _ watching them on our field celebrating. Being up 3-0 and not being able to put the knockout punch. That hurts. ... I'm going to need to go somewhere for a while and just hide.''

There were different heroes on different nights. David Ortiz, the unanimous choice for MVP, hammered one more homer in the first inning Wednesday night off Yankee starter Kevin Brown to kickstart the Red Sox after his walk-off hits helped them win Games 4 and 5. 

Then Johnny Damon, all but invisible the first six games in a 3-for-29 slump, pounced on the first pitch from reliever Javier Vazquez in the second inning for a grand slam into the right field stands. Damon, a .304 hitter with 20 homers during the regular season homered again in the fourth a two-run shot that put Boston ahead 8-1. The rout was on.

"I hadn't been as aggressive as I was during the course of the season,'' Damon said. "With the bases loaded, I knew Vazquez was trying to sneak a fastball by me so he can start working on his changeup or whatnot. I jumped on the first fastball.''

Derek Lowe, the forgotten man in Boston's rotation much of the season, came up with a gem _ a one-hitter over six innings. It was his second huge performance of the ALCS. When Boston faced elimination in Game 4, he started and held the Yankees to three runs on six hits in 5 1-3 innings. 

When Pedro Martinez pitched in relief in the seventh, Yankee fans predictably chanted "Who's Your Daddy?'' It seemed silly with the Red Sox leading by so much, even though the Yankees came up with two runs against him. On this night, in this series, even with Yankee fans holding up photos of Ruth to evoke the fabled "Curse of the Bambino,'' the Red Sox were the Yankees' daddy.

"I've only been here a couple of years and I can't imagine what people in Boston have been suffering through,'' Kevin Millar said."Not many people get the opportunity to shock the world. We came out and did it. We made history by getting to Game 7 and made history again by winning it.
"You know what? We beat the Yankees. Now they get a chance to watch us on the tube.''

The humbled Yankee, winners of the AL East during the regular season, gave full credit to the wildcard Red Sox for coming up with this win.
"When we get to the postseason, it's whatever team is the hottest,'' Derek Jeter said. "It's not always the best team that's going to win. And I'm not saying that we are a better team than they are. I'm just saying that's how it goes sometimes. There's been years when we've had a pretty good team and we just weren't hot at the right time.''

They were on fire the first three games, especially Game 3 with a 19-8 victory in Fenway Park and then they were frigid. They lost in ways that Red Sox fans were used to seeing their teams lose. In extra innings two nights in a row. Against a pitcher with an ankle tendon held together by stitches the next. And finally against a slumping hitter who found his home run stroke and a forgotten pitcher who came through in Game 7.

40 – 50 Word Summary: The Boston Red Sox are a baseball team in the Major League Baseball. People said they were cursed as they did not win a World Series game in decades. In 2006, they won against the Yankees making the Yankees the most stunned losers since 1986.

15 – 20 Word Summary: The Boston Red Sox are an MLB baseball team who broke a curse in 2006 after beating the Yankees.