THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28. 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
Battling for the 'bee
OG
WA
Courtney Kublen/KANSAN
Red Sox sweep Cardinals
Jake Deckert, Larned freshman, reaches up as Vishal Patel, Wichita junior, jumps up to bat the Frisbee down with Dennis Knoernschild close behind him. They played ultimate Frisbee yesterday afternoon on the lawn in front of Strong Hall with nine other people they live with in Pearson Scholarship Hall. The group plays about two times a week and keeps things fairly competitive by switching up teams.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Boston Red Sox players Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and David Ortiz celebrate after the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in Game 4 to win the World Series at Busch Stadium in St. Louis last night.
ST. LOUIS — The Boston Red Sox — yes, the Boston Red Sox — are World Series champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it.
Charles Rex Arbogast/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat, the Red Sox didn't just beat the St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, they swept them for their first crown since 1918.
After all that, the Red Sox made it look easy.
Johnny Damon homered on the fourth pitch of the game, Derek Lowe made it stand up and the Red Sox won 3-0 last night. Edgar Renteria grounded out for the final out, wrapping up a Series in which the Red Sox never trailed.
Chants of "Let's go, Red Sox!" bounced all around Busch Stadium, with Boston fans as revved-up as they were relieved. Only 10 nights earlier, the Red Sox were just three outs from getting swept by the New York Yankees in the AL championship series before becoming the first team in baseball post-season history to overcome a 3-0 deficit.
It was Boston's sixth championship, but the first after 86 years of frustration and futility. Since the Red Sox last won, there were two world wars, the Great Depression and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union.
Gone was the heartbreak of four Game 7 losses since their last title, a drought — some insist it was a curse — that really began after they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.
Damon's leadoff homer and Trot Nixon's two-out, two-run double on a 3-0 pitch were all that Lowe needed. Having won the first-round clincher against Anaheim in relief and then winning Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. Lowe blanked the Cards on a mere three hits for seven innings.
Relievers Bronson Arroyo and Alan Embree worked the eighth and Keith Foulke finished it off for his first save.
Even the heavens reacted to the news with a total lunar eclipse. And what a reward the Red Sox earned for their first Series sweep: They get to raise
the World Series banner next April 11 in the home opener at Fenway Park, with the Yankees in town forced to watch it.
The Red Sox became the third straight wild-card team to win it, relying on the guts of Curt Schilling and guile of Pedro Martinez. And they took it in the same year they traded away popular shortstop Nomar Garciaparra.
86 years in the making: Title lifts curse off Red Sox Nation
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ST. LOUIS — Harry Frazzee was ready for the reaction. The Boston Red Sox owner had just sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan.
"Ruth had simply become impossible and the Boston club could no longer put up with his eccentricities," he said. "While
Ruth, without question, is the greatest hitter the game has ever seen, he is likewise one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men that ever wore a baseball uniform."
So began what's now known as The Curse of the Bambino, on Jan. 3, 1920. It lasted until last night, when the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 for a sweep and their first World Series title since 1918.
The Series flag will return to Fenway Park on April 11, and the Yankees — of all teams — will get to watch it rise. New York, which blew a three-games-to-none lead against the Red Sox in the AL championship series, is the visiting team in Boston's home opener.
For the first time in more than eight decades, the Red Sox can put behind them the sad history
that is so well known by players and fans who suffered with them for all those years.
"I heard about it before I got here," Boston closer Keith Foulke said yesterday. "I mean, it's funny that a team that's this good hasn't won for all those years, but the reason they didn't win wasn't because of a curse. The curse thing doesn't affect anyone here."
The Red Sox had won five of the first 15 World Series before the trade. Ruth, then a pitcher, too, threw a six-hit shutout against the Chicago Cubs in the series opener, winning 1-0. He then beat the Cubs 3-2 in Boston in Game 4 on three days' rest.
When Stuffy McInnis gloved second baseman Dave Shean's throw to first on Les Mann's grounder to seal Boston's 2-1
victory in Game 6 at Fenway, the reaction was muted. Perhaps it was because World War I caused the major leagues to stop the season a month early. That final game, played on Sept. 11, drew just over 15,000 fans.
"Boston is the luckiest baseball spot on earth, for it has never lost a world's series," The New York Times reported the following day.
PAUL DAVIS A STRONG VOICE FOR KU AND HIGHER EDUCATION
In 1999, the Kansas Legislature enacted the Higher Education Reorganization Act. In exchange for allowing community colleges into the Regents system, KU and other state universities were promised increased funding to bring faculty salaries up to peer levels. Unfortunately, the Legislature hasn't lived up to its promise. State Representative Paul Davis has been working hard in Topeka to change this. Paul worked with Governor Kathleen Sebelius and legislative leaders to obtain over $9 million in new funding for Kansas universities in 2004. Let's send Paul back to Topeka on November 2nd to keep fighting for us!
- co-authored a plan that would increase funding for KU and other universities so that the promises of the 1999 Higher Education Reorganization Act are met.
PAUL'S RECORD
- advocated for an overdue pay increase for KU faculty and staff.
- supports funding higher education properly so that there will be no further tuition increases for KU students.
- fought efforts to restrict the academic freedom of KU faculty members
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