2004 Season Rewards and Denies

By Diane Grassi

Now that the confetti has been strewn and the hangovers are wearing off, those of us outside Red Sox Nation can applaud the efforts of the many clubs that provided us with an outstanding MLB season. Unfortunately, once past the League Championship Series, the World Series did not hold up to expectations as a competitive one for baseball fans outside of as well as inside of the St. Louis and Boston areas. The season's finale left most of us limp and wanting for more.

Perhaps the drain of the American League Championship Series and the National League Championship Series which were wildly competitive for the most part, exhausted the Fat Lady as she had a bit of laryngitis. And while articles and book deals and high-paying endorsements will be doled out to the Boston Red Sox and their individual players well into the 2005 season, the ending to the 2004 MLB season left a lot of us perplexed and yearning for a more balanced and tidier ending.

As the Gold Glove Awards are announced the week after the World Series Champions are crowned, followed by the Cy Young Award winners, the Leagues' MVPs, Manager of the Year Awards and various other awards for individual players' merits, it could be a very long winter, and more so for many of the clubs who remained very competitive this MLB season through the last two weeks and who got ever so close.

Certainly, the World Champion Red Sox deserve all of the accolades they are now receiving, and probably more so because of their 86 year drought between World Series Championships. That said, the last time we saw a sweep in the World Series was in 1990 with the Reds steamrolling Tony La Russa's Oakland A's who had swept the San Francisco Giants just the season before in the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series in Oakland. And both the 1989 and 1990 World Series were not well remembered primarily due to their lack of competition. And competition is what makes a World Series worth remembering.

So, all of us folks outside of Red Sox Nation must savor the moments throughout the season in which we witnessed performances of individual feats as well as team collaborations. Certainly the National League Division Championship Series comes to mind in which the Houston Astros overcame the Atlanta Braves and then went on to challenge the St. Louis Cardinals for seven games. St. Louis had to work hard to put out Houston's light. The story of the Houston Astros will not be lost on baseball fans across the country, as they came back from the dead after August 14, 2004 when they turned it all around. Too bad the Cardinals did not take a page out of Houston's book when they went on to play Boston in the World Series.

What we as fans must reconcile now over the winter, is how the season ended and the lackluster play primarily of the NY Yankees and the St. Louis Cardinals who were the two best teams in baseball over the course of the season. That is, they each won more games than any other teams in each of their leagues with 101 and 105 wins, respectively. And we cannot forget the Yankees 61 come from behind wins in the regular season and adding one for good measure in the post-season, beating an all time record of come from behind wins within a season.

But the writing was on the wall, as the Yankees' long ball was predominantly their strong suit all season, and their come from behind wins while admirable was required time and time again, as the pitching staff never got off to the starts they needed. And St. Louis, losing one of their starters at the end of the season and keeping their pitching staff together with a wing and a prayer during the final weeks, was always suspicious going into the post-season. But most remarkable is how both St. Louis and NY were shut down offensively by Boston, having been previously compared to the "Murderer's Row" 1942 St. Louis team and the 1961 Yankees, respectively.

The disappointment in the way the NY Yankees crashed and burned, losing four straight games in the ALCS to Boston after being within two outs of winning the American League Pennant, was a devastating loss and now will be noted historically as well. Had it been a really competitive ALCS, as most of the NY-Boston games had been throughout the season, it would have been a more gratifying one for fans to witness, regardless of the outcome. And unfortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals somehow followed the Yankees' terrible script of how to play the Red Sox, continuing to make it a World Series of devastating proportions for them as well.

As fans we always remember the way the MLB season ends, how our individual teams made out, and how the game held up throughout the season. The game excelled throughout the season with parity ruling the day until the last weekend, where four California teams were in it and followed more closely than they had been in decades. We all were able to enjoy good League Division Championship Series and followed the National League Championship Series with great interest. And we did get to witness three well-played games in the ALCS. Thereafter the wheels came off for the Yankees and the Cardinals then mirrored their efforts. The way in which the results were cast was terribly unsettling. Somehow the balance of competitive play, present all season, could not hold up in the ALCS and the World Series.

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox, the 2004 World Series Champions. And let us aim for the 2005 season to be as fulfilling as 2004. And we can only hope that the ALCS and the World Series will be more competitive in 2005 as it could not be any less so. Anybody ready for Hot Stove yet?