11/01/18. Baseball ended Sunday night. The Boston Red Sox defeated the LA Dodgers in 5 games to win the 114th World Series, their 9th World Series championship and their 4th in the 21st Century. This victory makes the Red Sox one of the best franchises in the new millennium. In general sports talk, it makes Boston the most prolific sports city in America. In baseball, football, hockey, and basketball, Boston has won 11 championships in the new millennium, the most of any city.
It was a thrilling season, and I greatly enjoyed watching the Sox win the championship. I've been following this team since July, and nightly baseball has become a part of my routine. What will I do now that the season is over? The 2019 season doesn't start til March. I knew it would end. It had to. The players have earned a long offseason. The team is battered and injured from playing so long and so well. Rookie manager Alex Cora will fly down to his hometown of Caguas, Puerto Rico. He loves his home very much, and has used his position and celebrity to advocate for aid to PR in the wake of Hurricane Maria.
Pitcher David Price had an absolutely masterful season. He has been in the majors for a good number of years, and although he is a talented pitcher, his playoff record is horrendous. Before 2018, Price had a record of 0-10. He's one of the worst in postseason history, and has gotten into fights with the media over it. Everybody, and I mean everybody, expected him to fail in the postseason. I expected him to fail. He did fail in the first round of the playoffs against the Yankees, lasting less than two innings and giving up three runs in Game 2, the Yankees' only victory in the series. Price got the loss for a record of 0-11 in the playoffs. When it came time to face the Houston Astros in the next series, everybody expected the status quo to be maintained. It wasn't. In Game 5 against the Astros, the go-ahead game to the World Series, he threw six masterful innings, gave up zero runs, and struck out 13. Price, backed up by the Red Sox offense which was the strength of the team this year, beat one of the best pitchers in the majors, Astros' star and former MVP Justin Verlander. Price's outing came out of nowhere, and completely changed the narrative about him. He did just as well in Game 2 of the World Series against the Dodgers, and then won the final, championship-winning game on Sunday. David Price has turned it all around. While his current postseason record is still just 3-11, which sounds abysmal, the truth is that the numbers don't tell the full story. The point is, if there's anybody that deserves a long, happy offseason, it's him.
Still, the end of 2018 baseball feels like the end of an era. Some players will be leaving in free agency, and some players will join. With a franchise-best record of 108 regular season wins, and an absolutely dominant postseason performance of 11 wins and 3 losses, this is simply the best Red Sox team in history. Maybe not the most historic, as the 2004 team ended an 86 year championship drought. Even so, this team destroyed the competition. They never lost more than three games, the only team to do so this year. They brutalized their ancient rivals, the New York Yankees, in the first Red Sox-Yankees postseason series since 2004. This Red Sox team is the king of the baseball world this year. Simply put, we shall never see their like again.
The offseason will be a restless time for me. All of a sudden I have three extra hours to kill every night, which I haven't had since July. I only just got into the sport, so I have no idea what it must be like for guys who have been watching for 10, 15, 20 years. All I can do is wait it out. I'll keep up with the team as they make trade moves and sign young prospects. March is gonna be a fun time. I can say, as much as I love it, it's a tough sport to keep up with. It did cut into a lot of my free time, and that can surely be used productively. I'll focus on my writing and career, try to get my life in order post-graduation.
I guess all I can say is this: Thank you to the 2018 Boston Red Sox. You made it a wonderful, magical year, and completely changed my life.
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