SPORTS 7B emer-ected Brian oed in orated Field, ink in here team backup These in all going to boud of year, 1,578 f dis- finally head. season. we no e it to not this won," came heave a at and sleep n't get ." to a spent up adress West e that play- THE UNIVERSITY HARLY KANSAN TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2007 alcal 15 begainst hiding a o in a Field. in the elphia short and we about," around h. We much t we ASSOCIATED PRESS MLB Boston Red Sox Royce Clayton, flanked by teammates Jack Beckett, left, and Jonathan Papelbon, right, holds the World Series trophy after defeating the Rockies in Game 4 of the World Series at Sunoco Field in Denver. Denver fails to bring excitement World Series lacks competition from weak National League ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER — Three World Series sweeps in the past four years, with a five-game bore mixed in. What happened to drama in October? Josh Beckett, Manny Ramirez and the relentless Red Sox didn't do baseball any good by crushing Colorado in four games. It was a blowout from the beginning, when Boston took the opener 13-1 at Fenway Park. And with the games regularly ending after midnight EDT, there wasn't much reason for casual fans to stay up late and watch. That was the trend all postseason — five of the seven series ended in ho-hum sweeps. But don't expect an apology from anvone in Boston. Yawn. A trip to the dentist is more exhilarating. "To go through this from Day 1 until now with people that you really, really care about makes it really special," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona Sunday night after his team closed out the Rockies with a 4-3 victory at Coors Field. Still, for many fans, the only real excitement this month came in the AL championship series as the Red Sox rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat Cleveland in seven games. Once the World Series got under way, the big boys from the American League easily dispatched their NL counterparts — again. Starting with Boston's sweep of St. Louis to end an 86-year title drought in 2004, AL teams have dominated three drive-thru Series in the last four seasons. The Chicago White Sox swept Houston in 2005, and the Red Sox outscored Colorado 29-10 this year. The only exception was last season, when the Cardinals beat Detroit in five dreary games. Not exactly scintillating stuff. the stretch. The young Rockies won 21 of 22 games to take the pennant for the first time in their 15-year history. But then they had to wait around for eight days before the World Series started. When it did, they were rusty. The Rockies got blown away by Beckett's 97 mph fastballs as homegrown ace Jeff Francis struggled to find his command in Game 1. "The layoff hurt us. There's no doubt about it." Todd Helton said. Colorado did put up a mild fight, losing a pair of one-run games. But the Rockies hit only .218 in the Series, squandering one scoring chance after another. On the mound, they finished with an unsightly 7.68 ERA. The Red Sox batted .333, the second-highest average in Series history behind the 1960 New York Yankees — who lost to Pittsburgh. Yet the Rockies earned Boston's respect. "We beat a very good team. I hope nobody forgets that, because they gave us a battle to the end," Francona said. "I know when you look at 4-10 it may get lost. It won't on us. They're classy people and a classy organization." After decades of famous failures, the Red Sox have become a model organization themselves. They've reached the playoffs four times in the past five years, and there could be more championships to come. This team is loaded with young talent: Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz. "When our organization started adding pitching, the curse kind of went away." Francona said. Only eight players from the 2004 club were still around this year. So it's no wonder the Red Sox celebrated with such gusto Sunday night, as if they'd never won it all before. "A lot of guys weren't here for that," said Lester, the cancer survivor who pitched 5 2/3 shutout innings to earn the Game 4 win. "This is exciting." Boston has a few important decisions to make this offseason: pitcher Curt Schilling and World Series MVP Mike Lowell can become free agents, along with several lesser players. But much of the team's core returns, including David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Kevin Youkilis. "I learned a lot from these guys this year and in the postseason," Ellsbury said. "This has been a great experience." The Red Sox have a knack for building dynasties at the start of a century. They won five titles from 1903-18. Perhaps they're in the middle of another big run. "I mean it when I say that there's not a bad guy in this clubhouse," Lester said. "Hopefully, we'll be doing this a lot more, getting to the playoffs and having a lot of fun" Maybe their next postseason series will even be a thriller. 816 W 24th St Lawrence, KS 60546 (785) 749-5750 www.zblsmaela.com ZLB Plasma MLB Rodriguez opts out of contract; timing angers baseball fans BY RONALD BLUM ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK - Major League Baseball had this message for Alex Rodriguez and agent Scott Boras. Shame on you. Boras announced during Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday night that A-Rod was opting out of the final three seasons of his contract with the New York Yankees. The timing left baseball officials livid. "We were very disappointed that Scott Boras would try to upstage our premier baseball event of the season with his announcement," Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said Monday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "There was no reason to make an announcement last night other than to try to put his selfish interests and that of one individual player above the overall good of the game," DuPuy said. "Last night and today belong to the Boston Red Sox, who should be celebrated for their achievement, and to the Colorado Rockies, who made such an unbelievable run to the World Series." ASSOCIATED PRESS Red Sox fans sure took notice fast. After their team won the title for the second time in four seasons, they stood behind the visitors' dugout at Coors Field and chanted: "Don't sign A-Rod!" New York, which failed to make the World Series in all of Rodriguez's seasons, maintained Monday that it will not attempt to re-sign A-Rod now that he has opted out. Hank Steinbrenner did not make much of Boras' timing. "It doesn't matter to me," he said. "But I'm sure there's a lot of people that aren't very happy about it. Other baseball people, the commissioner's office, the Red Sox." "Kind of strange timing," Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said after Boston completed its sweep of Colorado. "No chance," Hank Steinbrenner, a son of owner George Steinbrenner, said Monday at Legends Field. "Not if it's made official." Third baseman Rodriguez opted out of his $252 million, 10-year contract with the Yankees on Sunday in what appears to be the end of his career with New York. Major League Baseball chided Rodriguez's ack for making the announcement during Game 4 of the World Series. Hank Steinbrenner said the team left messages with Rodriguez, and "we really wanted to meet with him." "We wanted him to stay a Yankee. We wanted to let him know how much we wanted him," he said. "The bottom line is ... do we really want anybody that really doesn't want to be a Yankee? How the heck can you do that? Compare him with (Derek) Jeter. Jeter, since he was a little kid, all he ever wanted to do was play shortstop for the Yankees. That's what we want." New York was preparing to offer Rodriguez a four- or five-year extension worth between $25 million and $30 million annually and had hoped to meet with A-Rod to present the offer. "We expressed our interest in keeping him in pinstripes, and requested the opportunity to convey those feelings to him directly with the Steinbrener family in an open, face-to-face dialogue." Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said in a statement.