Face it Yankees fans, your time as the best team in baseball has passed. The Red Sox are the new face of baseball, the new top dog and the most popular team in the country. Red Sox Nation is more than just a gimmick created by the front office to bring in money, it is a true nation.
When the Red Sox travel around the country the number of fans they bring is insane. The Sox fans often outnumber the home fans and make it seem like a Fenway Park game. If you close your eyes after a David Ortiz home run in Fenway Park South, also known as Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, you would think you were in Boston.
That is just one of the many reasons why the Red Sox are better than the Yankees and it is a fact that Yankees fans are going to have to accept. It’s been seven years now since you Yankees fans celebrated a World Series and really, you haven’t even come close.
The turning point in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry will forever be the 2004 American League Championship Series, when the Red Sox came back from three losses to win the ALCS and then eventually the World Series. That series could have crushed the Red Sox and left us fans to years more of suffering, but instead it ignited us and ended the years of horror.
This year’s team may not be the classic Red Sox team that I grew up loving, with a lot of hard working players and a few stars who are dominant.
Instead the team includes overpaid veterans, like Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew, and inconsistent veterans, like Curt Schilling and Eric Gagne. Those four players were exactly what I always hated about the Yankees.
But what makes this team one of the best in years is the youth and enthusiasm that Dustin Pedroia, Josh Beckett, Jonathan Papelbon, Clay Bucholz and the many others bring to the team.
Mike Lowell has shocked everyone with his great season and has been the team MVP for the second half, stepping up to help cover for the lower-than-normal production from Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, due to injuries. Lowell is the perfect player for Boston faithful. He works hard, he gets dirty, and he likes to drive the ball into the Green Monster.
The offense may be inconsistent but the pitching is what makes this team great. You may have Joba, but the Yankees are protecting him like a baby. What happens if the Yanks are in game seven of the ALCS and up by two runs in the eighth inning- will you put in Joba even if he pitched the day before or will you trust the game to Kyle “Wild Thing” Farnsworth?
Despite Gagne’s struggles, I still think he is better than anyone you have in your bullpen and he is our THIRD best reliever. If the Sox can get seven innings out of our top four starters each game, even just six innings, I feel we can trust our bullpen to lock things down in the playoffs.
There is always a moment in a historic season that you look back on as that one magic moment. The Red Sox have had that already, as Clay Buchholz energized the Sox faithful in Fenway Park and shut down the Orioles with a no-hitter.
The Red Sox will take full control of the American League East by sweeping the Yankees in this up-coming series and finally win the division.
This team may never be looked at as one of the greatest Red Sox teams ever, even though they will win the World Series, but it will be remembered as the starter of a new dynasty.
So get used to second place Yankees, because it’s going to be a long time before you win the American League East again.
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