Congratulations, BoSox

I wouldn't call myself a Red Sox fan, for one basic reason--I'm not one--but I did root for them this postseason because, well, they weren't the Yankees, and besides, my parents have become big fans since we all went to Fenway Park a few summers ago. I can't help but take some pride in indirectly getting them hooked on baseball and the Sox, and I enjoy the pleasure they get from following the team.

Boston clearly had the best team this year and deserved to win, but it was a great run for the Rockies. There wasn't a lot of suspense this postseason, but the Red Sox are a fun team to watch, so their presence elevated the playoffs somewhat. Good thing I feel that way because it looks like the franchise will be a playoff mainstay and World Series contender for many years to come.

The end of baseball season always makes me a little sad, as it signals the end of summer, the onset of colder weather, and all those other metaphorical harbingers of lost innocence and whatnot. But I have some DVDs of the Pirates when they were actually good--1979--to tide me over till next year.

While I'm at it, let me give a Bronx Jeer to the Yankees for doing their best to upstage the postseason with their drawn-out melodrama over firing and hiring managers. It certainly could have waited a week or two. I won't blame them for the Alex Rodriguez announcement being leaked during the final game of the World Series--I'm assuming that was all Scott Boras--but it was yet another example of how all the stupid Yankee talk dominated baseball discussion.

Forget all that goofy theorizing that baseball "needs" the Yankees to be good, though I suspect on one level there is some truth to that. I just wish the media would give us a chance to really test that theory by not inundating us with Yankee news even when their season is kaput.