Jubilance Again

The champagne bottles are open and soaking into the clubhouse carpet and the grass on the field. Reporters are running amok, interviewing any player or coach in sight. Flash bulbs are making fireworks in the stands. The platinum trophy with 26 flags waving is hoisted into the air. No, the Colorado Rockies haven't won the World Series and no, it is not 2004. It's 2007 and the Boston Red Sox are World Champions.

This journey started back in November when the Red Sox won the rights to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka. It began in the second round of the 2004 MLB draft when Dustin Pedroia was picked by the Red Sox. It started on November 14, 1966 when Curt Schilling was born. It started in January of 2007 when Jon Lester, recovering from a grueling battle with cancer, received a clean bill of health and began to throw.

This team may not have destroyed an 86 year curse, but they have united a nation once more in jubilation and ecstasy. For fans and baseball purposes alike, they are perfect. They are champions.
When a reporter asked Manny Ramirez shortly after the game how he compares the championships, Manny replied by saying that it is like comparing your children; they are both loved equally but are too different to be comparable.

In 2004, the championship was all about the past, the ghosts, the spirits, the hopes and dreams that had survived for generations, passed down like a family relic. In 2007, the championship is purely about this team, about now, about hope and diversity and perhaps a future. This team is about of rookies and fireballers, red-haired men and smaller statured men. They command all the love that can fit into a heart, they pack Fenway every night, they shut down highways and ignite passion in businessmen otherwise captivated by blackberrys. Best of all, not many from this team are leaving. There are no words to describe the love this team receives.

When Papelbon threw that last pitch, it was a mixture of ecstasy and shock. Nothing had sunk in. You yelled "They did it! They won! They are World Champions!" and then you didn't know what to do next. Perhaps you shook hands, gave a high-five, hugged. It was a pure ability to be captured by the moment, lost in Varitek jumping into Papelbon's arms, in Mike Lowell hoisting the MVP trophy. You want to cry and you want to scream and you want to laugh and just jump. It's fresh and beautiful and a feeling you wish you could hold on to forever.

So thank you. Again. Thank you Youk, thank you Dustin, thank you Jacoby, thank you Ortiz and Manny and Lowell, thank you Tek and J.D. and Coco and Lugo, thank you Beckett, thank you Papelbon, thank you Schilling, Daisuke, Lester, Timlin, Javy, Gagne, thank you Okajima, thank you Hinske and Cora, thank you Bobby Kielty, thank you Theo, Warner, Henry and Lucchino. Thank you Red Sox.

We won. You won. You are champions of all of baseball.

2007 Boston Red Sox. World Champions.