Word: reds
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...look, Red Sox Nation. Your team is becoming everything you used to hate...
...Boston Red Sox have swept the last two World Series in which they've appeared. The last team to achieve that feat was the New York Yankees, who won eight straight in the 1998 and '99 Fall Classics. Last off-season, the Sox overpaid for two free agents, outfielder J.D. Drew (five years, $70 million) and Japanese pitching phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka (six years, $52 million), just like the damn Yankees usually do. These players, however, did produce in the post-season: Drew's grand slam against the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series helped propel...
...have a manager, Terry Francona, who failed at his prior stop as big-league skipper, but is now universally adored by his players. Doesn't he sound like Joe Torre, who had lost at all his previous managerial posts, but leaves the Yanks beloved like Yogi Berra? Young Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon saved three games in his first World Series, a performance reminiscent of Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera, perhaps the best post-season stopper of all time...
Slow down, a Sox fan might say. We've only won two Series in four seasons, while the Yanks won four in five years; now, that's one of those tiresome dynasties. But this Red Sox team run should have legs. "The difference between 2004 and 2007 is that this team is built to last," says veteran pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has played in Boston since 1995. "With the core of young guys and veterans who are still producing, this team will be doing special things for years...
...Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino famously called the Yankees "the Evil Empire" for spending cash to win World Series after World Series. But with a $143 million payroll, two Series trophies on his mantel and the promise of more to come, Lucchino is no Luke Skywalker...