What began as Rocktober quickly became Soxtober

The Colorado Rockies entered the World Series winning twenty-one out of twenty-two games and carrying an untainted playoff record; the Boston Red Sox did not care. What began as Rocktober quickly became Soxtober.

After a hard fought seven game series against the Indians, the Red Sox, along with Manny Ramirez’s dreads and Papelbon’s dancing, reasserted their dominance and swept Cinderella right out of the World Series.

The two teams sport conflicting styles: the often overlooked Rockies full of homegrown youth versus the nationally recognized BoSox and their large array of bought talent.

Yet this victory begs the question; is a traditionally dominant team with deep pockets thoroughly dismantling a homegrown squad that captured the baseball nation’s heart a good thing?

The answer, just like baseball, remains rather complex and multidimensional. At the very core sits a more interesting and actually more relevant question: Is baseball a game or a business?

Technically it does maintain properties of both, but what once clearly started as a game for children seems to have evolved into something much greater, an avenue for unbelievable profit for businessmen.

For those people who believe baseball is primarily a business and only a game after the financial aspects are cemented, then the Red Sox victory is without question beneficial to baseball and, indirectly, capitalism.

The team with the most resources, larger fan base and ability to make shrewder business decisions attained an unquestionable and very systematic victory. Wise trading moves netted not only the team hardware for capturing the title, but also garnered individual awards. Third baseman Mike Lowell and starting pitcher Josh Beckett, both obtained in a trade with Florida, were named the World Series MVP and ALCS MVP.

On top of all that, the Red Sox achieving a World Series berth ensured that an Indians-Rockies Fall Classic did not materialize which would have resulted in some of the lowest television ratings of all-time for October baseball.

Whether people hate or love the Red Sox remains irrelevant. They produce large television audiences due to their high profile roster and the polarizing effect they have. Perhaps all this was indeed good for baseball; it certainly made for better television revenue and enforced the belief that rings can be bought.

However, for those who believe baseball will always remain a game rather than a profitable enterprise, as I do, then the behemoth from Boston winning it all casts a shade of disappointment on an otherwise very interesting postseason. The best team in baseball throughout the entire season won…who cares?

Sports are not about predictability or what will happen, they are about what can happen or even better yet, what should not happen.

The most memorable World Series, or Super Bowl, or any other championship occurs when the team that few, if any, believe can defeat seemingly insurmountable odds to attain ultimate glory and, for a moment, transcend the barrier between improbable and impossible.

Unfortunately for Boston and fortunately for Colorado, in a few years from now, people will not remember much about the 2007 World Series other than a superior team from New England beat a team from a town best known for being home of the Broncos.

Yet, unless Boston wins some more in a row to become a dynasty (very unlikely) this Fall Classic will remain relatively inconsequential, as it did not invoke moments such as Kirk Gibson’s monumental and dramatic homerun in the 1988 World Series or Joe Carter’s walk-off bomb in the ’93 World Series that carried underdogs to victory.

These four games simply proved that the better team will usually win, something that is very logical and expected, which are the antithetical reasons of why people actually care or become emotionally invested in a team.

The best thing about sports are the moments that make you turn to a friend, jumping up and down while hugging and saying as Jack Buck once said “I can’t believe what I just saw!”

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