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October 29, 2007 Prospectus TodayDogpile DayIt is a cliché to say that we can't quantify everything in baseball. As the amount of information we have grows, as people like Dan Fox and David Pinto emerge to parse that information in new and innovative ways, as we gain a deeper understanding of the processes behind the statistics, we get closer to being able to measure the game and its players with a precision heretofore unimagined. Baseball science, as it were, is in its heyday. After tonight, however, I know what cannot be quantified: being able to claim the word "champion" for your own, to scream at the top of your lungs that you're the best, and get no argument. To dance on a field with your teammates-no, your work family-and embrace and have, for that moment, the knowledge that no one is better than you are. Tonight, for the first time, I saw that moment up close, and I have no good way of relaying it to you in Prospectus terms. There's no Value Over Replacement Feeling, no Equivalent Emotion, no Smile Shares. There's just the look on a man's face when he's wearing the entire Cooperstown Collection, fresh off the factory floor, soaked in cheap champagne and cheaper beer, sporting the "What Not to Wear" miniseries combination of goggles and a baseball cap. There's no measure for that; you have to see it to appreciate it, and even then you can't really understand it. Men play professional baseball for any number of reasons, and we pick those apart at our leisure to fill column space, to generate mouse clicks and revenue and make a name for ourselves. Make no mistake, though: however much these men enjoy the playing, the adulation, the paychecks and the power, they live for this. We should all have this feeling at some time in our lives. We should all set a goal, work towards it, achieve it and celebrate ourselves when we accomplish it. I envy these Boston Red Sox, who played baseball in 2007 better than any team did, and will forever be known as champions for it. Win number 107 fit the pattern of numbers 101 through 106-the Red Sox took a lead, getting ahead with a run in the first, and tacking on tallies in the fifth and seventh, the latter a solo home run by World Series MVP Mike Lowell that chased Aaron Cook from the game. Despite leaving the field down 3-0, Cook was as good a story as this Series provided, throwing the Rockies' first quality start since Game Three of the NLCS, and keeping them in yet another game in which the bats didn't make an appearance. He was extremely efficient, going past four pitches to just three hitters in his first two times around the lineup. He got 15 ground balls by pitching to his strengths; it just wasn't enough. Lowell's homer set loose a string of power; in a Series that saw two homers hit in the first 33 innings, the two teams combined for four over the final three. Brad Hawpe matched Lowell's blast in the bottom of the inning. Bobby Kielty restored the Red Sox' three-run lead with his own in the top of the eighth, a shot that ended up as the difference in the game after Garrett Atkins launched a two-run blast off of Hideki Okajima in the bottom of the inning. All the late fireworks left the Rockies where they didn't want to be: down a run, and facing Jonathan Papelbon. Terry Francona continued his pattern of bringing in Papelbon once the tying run reached the plate, and Papelbon responded by pounding the strike zone, getting five outs on 23 pitches, just five of them balls. The outing was not without its scares-both Brad Hawpe and Jamey Carroll will be cursing the humidor for a while-but Papelbon extended his career postseason shutout streak to 14 2/3 innings, and threw his glove in the air to set off the celebration. Of course, Papelbon had a game to save because Jon Lester was even better than Cook was. Getting his fastball up to 93 at times-including when he made a power strikeout of Matt Holliday with a runner on second in the third inning-Lester looked like the top-tier prospect he was before cancer derailed his path to the big league rotation last fall. While he did seem to tire past the 80-pitch mark, his 5 2/3 shutout innings made the sweep possible, and provided a preview of someone who could be another above-average Red Sox starter in 2008. Papelbon, Lester…the Red Sox got contributions from even more products of their farm system. Jacoby Ellsbury led off the game with a double, and scored the first run. Manny Delcarmen relieved Lester and closed out the sixth. The 2007 World Series may have been where the high-payroll, high-profile Red Sox of the past passed the torch to a different team. Both, today, are champions.
I'm headed back to New York for a few days, then on to Phoenix for Baseball HQ's First Pitch Arizona, four days of AFL games and baseball talk with a great group of people. This space will be filled a bit less frequently over the next few weeks, but I'll be here with a report from Arizona, awards talk, and inevitably, analysis of what is going to be an active and expensive offseason. Thanks to everyone who read our postseason coverage, from John Perrotto's on-the-spot reportage to the nightly World Series chats to David Laurila's Q&As from the park and all the analysis from everyone on staff. I want to single out our partners at Sports Illustrated and SI.com, especially editors Chris Stone and Jake Luft, for their support. They made it possible for me to attend my first World Series, and I make no apologies for the fact that I experienced the last week first and foremost as a fan, rather than as a journalist, analyst, or contractor. I had more jaw-to-chin, hayseed-in-the-big-city moments than I can recount, and I loved every one of them. If being at a World Series-or any ballpark-ever loses its thrill, I'll give up this gig faster than Jacoby Ellsbury can go from home to first.
Joe Sheehan is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 0 comments have been left for this article.
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