SOX WORLD CHAMPS, AT LAST

Be honest. The Red Sox World Series victory Wednesday night was anticlimactic. Of course, Sox fans will take a World Series victory any way they can get it, especially after an 86-year drought. But, the Sox made it look easy. There were no extra inning games, no blown leads, no come-from-behind wins.

The result, the first world championship since 1918, was awesome. The route there was pleasantly straightforward from a team that, need you be reminded, was one out away from winning the series in 1986 (their last appearance) when the game and the series rolled away. Normally, for the Sox to win there is agony involved. Thankfully, this short World Series was devoid of it.

In many ways, the American League playoffs were much more exciting.

The unprecedented comeback from a three-game deficit, the sweet defeat of the rival New York Yankees, Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. These are what many fans will remember about the season of 2004.

There was a time – long ago – when Red Sox victories were ho-hum news. The last Red Sox World Series victory, over the Chicago Cubs, was announced on page 11 of the Bangor Daily News. That victory was not a big deal, as the paper noted, because the Sox had won every World Series they appeared in. They won the inaugural series in 1903. They also won in 1912, 1915 and 1916. The 1918 victory gave the Sox the record for the most “victories for the overlord ship of the baseball world.” Little did the newspapermen, players and fans know that the streak was at an end. The Sox did not appear in the series again until 1946, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games.

The front page of the NEWS on Sept. 12, 1918, was dominated by war news. “Uncle Sam Calls His Fighting Men to the Great War Muster,” a banner headline announced above a story about 13 million men between the ages of 18 and 45 being asked to register for military service as the United States prepared to enter World War I. Another story told of a reign of terror in Petrograd. Even the setting of a horse-racing record in Syracuse, N.Y. beat out news of the Red Sox.

A few, including the world’s oldest man, Maine native and Sox fan, 113-year-old Fred Hale Sr., remember the 1918 series. But generations of Sox fans have grown up hoping in vain for a championship. Many have died without that wish being fulfilled. Now, thankfully, the curse – real or imagined – has been laid to rest, too.

While one championship does not wipe out decades of woes, Red Sox fans can no longer be an aggrieved lot. Their team is now in third place in terms of all-time World Series wins. Red Sox fans can now shave, change their clothes and replace the thread-bare cap that brought their team good luck. And they should really feel sorry for fans of the Chicago Cubs, who have gone without a World Series championship since 1908. Now, that’s a curse.