Bill Bucker Finally off the Hook

Well, that wasn’t hard, now was it? (Think Derek Lowe is going to get a nice contract next year? Hmmm.) The Red Sox shut out the Cardinals 3-0 last night to complete the four-game sweep of St. Louis, giving Boston their first World Serious championship since 1918. Yankee fans will be forced to discard their “1918” chant and memorabilia and come up with a new slogan. (How about “Red Sox Suck?” It’s worked in Beantown for years.) After a rousing ALCS, the World Serious was a cakewalk for the Sox, as the Cards went out with a whimper not a bang. Yesterday,Mike Carminati to observed:

As an NL guy, I am now convinced that the NL is like the NBAís eastern conf. The best team there isnít as good as a borderline playoff team in the AL.

Meanwhile, congrats to the Sox and their fans. As I mentioned here before, my thoughts go out to my cousin Scott Adams, and my good friends John Parthum and Mark Pinell and Edward Cossette. In addition, I know Hart, Beth and Sully are whooping it up. It’s a crisp and sunny day here in New York. I know they must be feeling wunnerful. As well they should. Finally, I couldn’t help but think of my old friend Mary Lou Leddon as well. I met Mary Lou, a Boston native, when I was 11 or 12 years old and she became one of the pivotal figures in m life over the next 15 years. She grew up a die-hard Sox fan, though she warmed to Bernie Williams and Joe Torre’s Yankees over time–she had lived in New York since the late 1970s. Mary Lou died of brain and lung cancer in 1999. So she missed last night, but I know somewhere, like so many Sox fans who passed away before getting to experience this moment, she is smiling.