COLUMN | October 29, 2009

World Series woes for foes

| Columnist

The Fall Classic will be all too classic this season for me. As a Red Sox fan, I’ve grown accustomed over the past few seasons to finally seeing my team play in the World Series — and if they didn’t, well at least it wasn’t the Yankees. I even thought I was going to escape this temporary relocation to New York state without seeing the Bronx Bombers play deep into October. It was not meant to be, though, not this year — it looks like the boys in pinstripes are back and better than ever.

It’s not that they don’t deserve it — because they do. This team looks like the same one that haunted my childhood of baseball watching. There is no weakness to pinpoint — their offense is loaded, the pitching staff is solid and the bullpen is anchored by the greatest closer of all time. It’s impossible to argue with the way these guys play the game.

The same goes for the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies. It looks like the team that was once the epitome of losing is going to now be a perennial powerhouse, and at least with their monstrous offense, they have a shot against New York. But as much as my inner Red Sox fan does not want the Yankees to win, my inner baseball fan has trouble stomaching the idea of a repeat champion.

So here is my plea to the Yankees and the Phillies: Please, please, please just make it interesting. No more of these sweeps or five-game series. Let’s have a nail-biter, let’s have some edge-of-your-seat action, and let’s have what World Series baseball is supposed to be all about.

Honestly, it’s difficult to even remember the last seven-game World Series. To do so, you have to go all the way to 2002 when the Anaheim Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants. Now that was a series. Not only was it seven games, but four of them were decided by just one run.

For us die-hard baseball fans, the offseason is far too long to sit through without our boys of summer. We need to go out with a bang, something that will help us last through the cold, snow and endless NBA highlights on SportsCenter.

Because of this, I don’t even think I’ll pick a team to root for this year. (Though something tells me the Bostonian in me will make me pull for the Phillies). Instead, I’m just rooting for some quality baseball. My baseball gear is getting ready for its annual five-month hibernation, and after watching hundreds of games this season, all I need is a few more games to end on a high note. I need something to last me until April when every team starts anew because, as I and every other fan of the 28 teams that won’t be playing this week say, there’s always next year.


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