Red Sox Claim First World Series in 86 Years

RAY SUAREZ:

It was a four-game domination with timely hitting…

JOE BUCK:

And that ball is ripped into right field. Walker is back at the wall. The Red Sox score first again. What a start. 1-0 Boston here in game four.

RAY SUAREZ:

And powerful pitching.

JOE BUCK:

Molina strikes out on a ball down and away. One out here in the third inning.

RAY SUAREZ:

Last night the Red Sox won game four 3-0, making them World Series champions in a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. Players celebrated winning Boston's first World Series since 1918, rushing the field.

JOE CASTIGLIONE:

That forever put that 1918 chant to rest.

RAY SUAREZ:

And spraying each other with champagne in the locker room. Thousands of fans in Boston and across New England also celebrated the end of the so-called curse of the bambino, which began when the Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

RAY SUAREZ:

Here to discuss the series and the long-awaited win is Leigh Montville, author of "Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero." Montville was a longtime sports columnist for the Boston Globe and later for Sports Illustrated, and I'm guessing someone who didn't get a lot of high-quality work done today, huh, Leigh?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

No, not at all. I've been hearing from people I haven't heard from in a long time, on the Internet and on the phone. It's all kind of nice and sweet.

RAY SUAREZ:

And Boston a happy place today?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Oh, yeah. It's like the whole universe has been tilted. It's like we've been sitting here waiting for the messiah, and finally the messiah has showed up. We just don't know what to do. We're kind of bouncing around and wondering how we should act.

RAY SUAREZ:

Well…

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Happy, I suppose.

RAY SUAREZ:

It sounds like it. Let me ask you a left brain and right brain question. Amidst all the joy at finally winning one after all this time, is there much reflection on what kind of World Series it was?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Well, it seemed like after the Yankees series and all of that stuff that the World Series seemed kind of dull and just matter of fact and get it out of the way. It wasn't a classic World Series at all. I don't know what happened to the Cardinals. But they really didn't show up.

RAY SUAREZ:

So if you asked Boston fans on the street today, are they still pretty jazzed about getting up off the turf and making their archenemies the Yankees the biggest chokers in playoff history?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Sure. Anything you can do badly to the Yankees is good for here. It's been such a long time of being second fiddle to the Yankees. I mean, the Red Sox finished second to the Yankees seven straight years. They finished second this year before the ALCS. People just don't know what to do. They've never beaten the Yankees in a meaningful series championship round thing. It's just strange. It's really strange.

RAY SUAREZ:

I found a wonderful quote today from the author who wrote the book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." The title may have had the Red Sox in mind. Rabbi Harold Kushner says…

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

He was from Brockton, Massachusetts.

RAY SUAREZ:

Yes, he is. "I would like to think this will make us normal. But will it be as much fun when we're normal." Are the Boston Red Sox just another baseball team now, one that loses a lot, wins occasionally?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Well, that's the question. I mean, it's… that's the tinge of sadness here, that the story is done. You know, we've kind of finished this big beach, one of those sagas you take to the beach and it's 900 pages and you start reading in June and finish in September, this is kind of the end of the book. It's all come out well. We just don't know what the sequel is.

RAY SUAREZ:

I guess we find out now whether Red Sox fans really secretly relished their victim hood and won't quite know what to put on in its place.

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

I think we have. I think there has been a secret relishing of victim hood. I remember last year when Aaron Boone hit the home run in extra innings in the seventh game to beat the Red Sox, I felt kind of sad for about five minutes, and then there was a little part of me that said, well, yeah, the story goes on. I mean, I have never lived… I'm 60 years old and I have never lived under this situation. It's always been you lose the argument in the end. It's very, very strange.

RAY SUAREZ:

Well, the New York Daily News this morning had its headline "See you in 2090" figuring that lightning might not strike again for 86 years, but now that mantle of futility moves elsewhere and I'm wondering if Red Sox players do, too, because that's been the model with very successful teams recently.

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Well, sure. I don't think so. I think the owners here are committed to spend money. In both Arizona and in Florida when they won the World Series, they just started… they had a yard sale and sold everybody off. I don't think that's going to happen here. I think the roster will look kind of different next year, but I don't think they're going to sell everybody off.

RAY SUAREZ:

They do have to figure out what to do with piles and piles of reverse the curse t-shirts, however. Is there a parade there tomorrow?

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

There is a parade on Saturday. I think that's going to be the big event. They're thinking as many as five million people could come to that. I think that's… I think there are people up in Maine who have always said for years and years, if the Red Sox ever win it, I'm going to that damn parade. I think they're going to be here.

RAY SUAREZ:

Leigh, good to talk to you.

LEIGH MONTVILLE:

Good to talk to you.