2018 World Series: The Red Sox are champions, the Dodgers looking for answers

LOS ANGELES – For the first time in five years, the winner of the World Series was not a team that had a painful legacy easily identifiable. The 2018 World Series champions were not the "17 Astros" who had never won. They were not the "16 Cubs, who had not won for more than a century, nor the" 15 Royals, who had just emerged from a two-decade period in the service of baseball jokes. No, this year's champion was the Boston Red Sox, who has done it many times and seems to be able to do it several more times.

That's exactly what the Red Sox have always wanted.

The Red Sox are the tyrants they have always wanted to be. They never wanted your pity. They never wanted your pats in the back. They wanted to crush their enemies, to see them led in front of you and to hear the lamentations of their fans. That's what's best in the life of a sports team. That's all the Red Sox have always wanted, being the normal bully of a team, competing with all other bullies.

For example, one of the bullies who is about three and a half hours southwest. Something like that.

It is not this fourth championship that made them lose Club Sad. The second put them on probation and the third date of the cancellation of their membership and refund of their contributions. But it's the one that makes it another championship in a long series of upcoming championships. That does not mean it's not special, or the Red Sox or their fans should be spoiled. This means that it probably does not end with good memories that are kept close to everyone's chest for the next 50 years.

This will probably end in another at some point, because that's what baseball bullies do.

There are things that separate this league from the others, of course. For beginners, knowing that this is not part of a bigger story, from Bambino or worse to first, helps Red Sox fans really appreciate this team nice team. Maybe not for you, and maybe not for the average fan, but certainly for them.

When you're a Red Sox fan who does not have to worry about the Red Sox legend, you understand that Mookie Betts is amazing, that the country's youth crowd will be around for a good part of the decade . Every city falls in love with their World Series champions, personalities and stories. It's an offer. But this is the year when Red Sox fans have been able to concentrate, without fear of emerging from the shadows of New York.

Over the past 40 years, the Yankees have won five world series and the Red Sox four. It's basically a tie. In the last 20 years, is a tie. And if you consider that the bulk of the Yankees championships happened when the reserve clause was in effect, and that the players could not really let the Yankees, well, that does not look like sport. It's a new era where the Yankees are the Red Sox and the Red Sox are the Yankees. That's all the fans of the Red Sox asked for in the first place.

The other thing that sets this championship apart is that this team is better. It's almost certainly the Red Sox's best team for over 100 years. Freaking Ruth's Babe was the only team to compare in the 1910s, while there were eight teams in the AHL and there were no playoffs. These teams had the advantage in terms of winning percentage, but this year's team had the advantage with raw wins, and they continued to increase and complete their total. The 2018 Red Sox have won 119 games this year, including the playoffs, 10 more than any other Red Sox team in history.

You can view the 154-part calendar to discuss the meaning of this statistic, but I do not see the goal. The 2018 Red Sox were probably the best version of the team ever assembled. A victory in the World Series does not prove it, but it is a beautiful exhibition to present.

They were so good, everyone.

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It is worth detailing Why the Red Sox were so good, of course. It's not a complicated story.

The Red Sox were excellent because they wrote well. They drafted Betts in the fifth round, the selection right after Scott Snodgrass. They drafted Jackie Bradley, Jr. in the first round, just after Larry Greene. They wrote Andrew Benintendi very high in the first round, right after Tyler Jay.

The Red Sox have been so good that, in these specific situations, all other baseball teams have been drafted as if they were trying to make the Red Sox also effective. All he needed was a recruit director with an intuition, and that would have ruined everything. Betts must have fallen to them in the fifth round. Benintendi had to be there with the seventh choice.

The Red Sox were great because they used the vast financial resources of New England Sports Ventures and Fenway Sports Group to buy players. At one time, I would have been crazy about that, but after the last season, I dare say it's refreshing. Yes, spending money can really improve the teams. What a brave new world.

The Red Sox were so good because they used these vast resources to buy the right players. They chose Johnny Cueto, Zack Greinke and David Price, and they chose the guy who helped them win a world series. They could have used Yu Darvish or Eric Hosmer, but they chose J.D. Martinez, who helped tremendously.

The Red Sox were great because they were aggressive in the big-name market, taking advantage of their busy farm system to get stars like Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel, as well as contributors like Eduardo Nuñez and Nathan Eovaldi. They identified their targets and jumped on them, and they were better for that.

The Red Sox were great because they also took advantage of a stupid chance. Come on, Steve Pearce was a 35-year-old free agent who no matter who could have had with a major league contract this offseason, and it was a spare part that no matter who could have had for a modest offer in July. Now he is the MVP of the World Series and a folk hero.

The Red Sox were also good because they hit 5,000 with two playoffs. Do not expect this to happen again. Do not expect this to happen to anyone.

The Red Sox have been great because of a combination of smart moves, spending ability and random bounces, in other words. Do not be angry at lucky rebounds either. They are part of all the championships.

Think of a World Series Championship as if it were a non-hitter. You get to point out all the awesome launches and dominance, but at the same time you can also point to everything that should went bad, but did not do it. The spectacular shots that save a player who is not a batter do not really prove that the pitcher did something good after all, and yet the pitcher always gets the most merit.

In this essay, I am going to prove that the World Series Championships are nothing like anything. Webster defines a "championship" as being …

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Three years ago, I wrote an article titled: "David Price is always outstanding, so shut up."

He has aged well.

What you would not like about the post-season: That all that freaking must mean something, that the players fail because they did not bite into a cocoon of desire to come out into the open of success, that the players succeed because they have succeeded. he, defined as he, which is something that can not be acquired, can not be bought, his just he. You know baby, he.

The most stupid people come out of the stupid rocks to explain why some athletes have failed at times since the beginning of the sport. There was a story about David Price, how he always failed at the wrong time. And then he came out and had his second brilliant start, bringing a championship to a city that took a tremendous amount of time to kiss him.

If you think of a silly story for a scarf for anyone – in any sport – go for it. Post-treatments are too short and rare to worry about insufficient results in a small sample. Be excited about hikes like Steve Pearce, Jarrod Dyson or Marco Scutaro. Do not focus on chess too much. It's not good for health.

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Which brings us to …

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oh, come on, not yet, son of one

Look at these names. Looooook to these names. These five pitchers combined for 18 young Cy Youngs. Saberhagen is the only one who has not won three or more (he has won two). These pitchers were the best in baseball when they made those elimination starts. And they all messed up a lot.

What does this tell us? This baseball is difficult. That the post-season is difficult, especially. That these big pitchers had to face a glove of big teams. Whether throwers are kind enough to be asked again and again to help their teams stay alive.

There is, however, a subtle difference between Price's narrative and Kershaw's narrative: we can absolutely point to how Kershaw's material is different, and that makes a huge difference. In his last start against the Cardinals in 2013, he was sitting at 94 and hit by 96. At that start, he was sitting at 91 and hit by 92.

Which means there's no reason to bump Kershaw with this Kershaw and present them both as proof that the rough, rough stuff in his skull is why he does not have a World Ring Series. It's ridiculous. They are extremely different launchers.

This Kershaw has not failed because it's a choker in series, or what you have to do. This is because he is not a force of nature capable of defeating all others. It's just an excellent pitcher who has to face some excellent hitters. Sometimes the excellent hitters win.

The Kershaw who could beat all comers, Sandy Koufax's spiritual and physical heir, failed for all kinds of bizarre reasons, and he certainly could have used a race stand to make the points stand out.

This guy, though, is just a great pitcher. Sometimes these guys are screwed, even if it's not fair.

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And if we're going to talk about Kershaw, we have to talk about the Dodgers, who are the excellent Clayton Kershaw teams. There is no shame in this comparison. It's too obvious to ignore.

When I was younger, the Atlanta Braves were an object of fascination for me. They won 14 consecutive NL East titles between 1991 and 2005, but only one world series. Considering that in the days leading up to the second Wild Card, each team had a one in eight chance of winning, which seemed to be a win for 14 playoff places. It was proof that it was wrong to be a fan of the Braves.

No, goodness, no, it was awesome to be a fan of the Braves. Maddux and Smoltz and Glavine and Chipper, with what wins and wins and wins every year. What a wonderful golden age of baseball. Watching the championships was an idiotic way to watch them.

For example, what did Kerry Wood do with a two-run double against Russ Ortiz? How was it a referendum on what the Braves had built over the decades? It was not proof that the Braves did not know how to win. This was not proof of a bad construction of the list. It was just the baseball gods playing crappy drunkenness with stolen money.

Again and again. With money stolen.

The Dodgers are an obvious parallel, and I want to shake all the sad supporters, all the defeated fans, and remind them how special it is to win six divisional titles in a row, as it's wonderful to win two pennants in a row. There are so many, so many great moments cooked in all these races.

And although I'm too tired to draw a comprehensive list now, how do you think Max Muncy's home run in the 18th round is on the list of all-time delusions in baseball history? -ball?

Dude, it's up there.

At one stroke, the Dodgers, effectively eliminated, ended up believing that they would come back with revenge. The cocktail of exhaustion and fatigue, tension and importance have made it one of the purest baseball experiences that any fan can appreciate.

It counts for something. Yes, everything was screwed up because of Mitch Moreland, Ryan Madson and everything you want to do on the bonfire, but they had a moment. Man, what the Orioles would have given for this moment this year. Or the Blue Jays or Padres or Reds or Giants. This one burst with delirium, where everything was completely and irrefutably Is it worth it.

It's a beautiful thing and I wish I could appreciate it more when I was young and silly. The Dodgers are too rich and smart not to stumble in a championship. Until then, they'll have the six division titles and moments like Muncy's draw. That does not seem enough, but only because you are too close. It's damn awesome once you step back.

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But the Red Sox are champions again, the tyrants they have always wanted to be. If they do it again next year, my stars, I will be short of words. For now, though, we can focus on what they did well, namely, oh, everything. The Red Sox's list of errors can fill in a Post-It note if you're writing wholesale, and the Red Sox's unqualified success list is intended to fill a 300-page book that will sell for $ 21.95 and will be released before you. You have finished your holiday shopping.

The fact that they have done this four times in the last 14 years is unfortunate because it makes them look easy. It is not so easy. There will be droughts and dry periods, even if the teams are excellent. Just look at the Yankees in the last 10 years.

"Just watch the Yankees" is something that also attracts the attention of the Red Sox. Even after their fourth world series victory in the new millennium, there was a song of "YANKEES SUCK, YANKEES SUCK" in the crowd at Dodger Stadium.

Last May, Marc Normandin finished his column with a meme. I do not know why it should end differently.

Yankees fans will roll their eyes. The Red Sox fans will laugh and finally get what they have always wanted.

The Red Sox are official tyrants, and they do not care what you think. You will have plenty of time to think about this before seeing it next October.