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 NBA’s eastern conf. The best team there isn’t 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.