Bye Bye Beard

The famous beards on the faces of the Red Sox players are gone. Recently, two key members of the Red Sox team and the bullpen cop shaved their beards. Ever since the American League Divisional series, bullpen cop Steve Horgan has become an icon in Boston.  Mr. Horgan shaved his beard along with Shane Victorino and David Ortiz. Gillette offered to shave the players and the cops beard to raise money to help raise awareness for prostate and testicular cancer and men's health issues. Currently, the trimmings of David Ortiz's beard can be bought for $11,000.

The Duck Boat

Recently the Red Sox conducted their ticker tape parade through the city of Boston to celebrate their World Series win. One thing that separates a Boston parade from any other city; the duck boat. The players are dispersed throughout roughly 20 duck boats to cruise through the city. When the parade reaches the Charles River, the boat enters the water to finish the parade. After the parade was over, Jake Peavy wanted to duck boat legacy to live on. He purchased the duck boat he was on for $75,000. The name of the boat Peavy was on was the "Charlie River". He is currently shipping his boat back to his home is Southwest Alabama.

Jake Peavy in front of his newly purchased "Charlie River" duck boat.

Qualifying Offers

Heading into the offseason the Red Sox had several free agents from this years roster but they decided to only extend qualifying offers to three players. The three players who received offers from the Red Sox were Mike Napoli, Stephen Drew and Jacoby Ellsbury. A qualifying offer means the player has the ability to sign a a one year contract worth $14.1 million. All three of the players who received offers from the Red Sox declined the offer and opted to become free agents. The player that is most likely to sign a long term deal with the Red Sox is Mike Napoli. He has already expressed interest in returning. Remember, last season Napoli signed a three year deal but it was changed to a one year deal due to health concerns. In regard to Stephen Drew, there is a 50/50 chance he returns to the Red Sox. He has stated that he would like to remain in Boston, but there are a lot of other teams who are vying for his services. Jacoby Ellsbury is the least likely to return next season for two main reasons. The first reason being that the Red Sox are reluctant to commit to a long term contract of six years or more. This is because of the disaster that the contract of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez caused the organization. The other reason is the Seattle Mariners are willing to pay that much money. The Mariners are an attractive team for Ellsbury because of the money and because he is from the Pacific Northwest.

World Series Champions

On Wednesday, the Red Sox defeated the Cardinals in game six and became World Series Champs! Shane Victorino, who sat out the last two games with back soreness returned to the lineup and got the scoring started for the Red Sox. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning, Shane Victorino smacked a line drive into the left center gap. Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz and Jonny Gomes all came around to score to give the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead. The rest of the scoring came in the fourth inning. Surprisingly, Stephan Drew homered into the Red Sox bullpen. Stephan Drew was easily the Red Sox worst player this postseason as he was hitting .080 entering last nights game. After Drew's homer, Mike Napoli had a bloop hit into center field to score Jacoby Ellsbury. Then Shane Victorino singled to left which allowed David Ortiz to score. Aside from the offense, John Lackey pitch great. Lackey only allowed one run over seven innings pitched. After Junichi Tazawa and Brandon Workman pitched in relief, Koji Uehara did what he always does. Uehara struck out Matt Carpenter to clinch the third World Series title for the Red Sox in the last decade. 

Manager John Farrell with the World Series trophy.

Offensive Explosion

The Red Sox bats came to play Wednesday night in game 1 of the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals ace, Adam Wainwright, was on the mound. But that did not matter to the Red Sox. The scoring began in the first inning after St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma dropped a double play ball allowing the Red Sox to have the base loaded with one out for the red hot Mike Napoli. Napoli crushed a ball into the left center gap, allowing all three runs to score. In the bottom of the second inning, David Ortiz crush a grand slam over the right field fence to only have it hauled in by Carlos Beltran. Beltran reached over the fence to rob Ortiz of his second grand slam of the postseason. Ortiz would later make up for it by hitting his 16th career postseason homerun. He has now hit the most postseason homeruns in MLB history. Aside from the 8 runs the Red Sox scored, Jon Lester was dominant on the mound. Lester allowed no runs over 7.2 innings pitched. Lester looked like a true ace in game 1.


Here is a link to a video of Carlos Beltran robbing David Ortiz of a grand slam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llvL6b09LsM

The Sox Are Going To The World Series

For the first time since 2007, the Red Sox are back in the World Series! They were able to reach the World Series with the help of a grand slam off the bat of Shane Victorino in the bottom of the 7th inning of game 6 of the ALCS. Victorino's grand slam proved to be game winning. Victorino crushed an 0-2 curveball from Jose Veras. There was no looking back after that. Craig Breslow pitched the 8th inning, allowing no runs or hits. Then ALCS MVP, Koji Uehara came in to pitch the 9th inning. Just like every other night, Uehara was dominant. Koji Uehara got the save and sent the Boston Red Sox to the World Series. Just like 2004, the Red Sox will be facing the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2004, the Red Sox were able to sweep the Cardinals to capture the title. Hopefully the Red Sox will be able to pull through again. Even Las Vegas is setting the Red Sox as the favorites to win the World Series.

Video of Shane Victorino's grand slam: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mhb0V09wbVo

Mike Napoli's Superstition

Mike Napoli was off to a terrible start at the beginning of the ALCS. Napoli was benched for game 2 because of his failure to produce. He was finally reinserted back into the lineup for game 3 of the ALCS in Detroit on Tuesday night. Throughout the series, Napoli has rolled his pants up high, letting his bright red sox show. He continued with this trend to start game 3. After Napoli struck out his first two at-bats of game 3, he decided to change it up and pull his pants down. In his first at-bat with his pants rolled down, Napoli launched a solo homerun over the left field fence. This one run proved to be the difference in the game and captured the win for the Red Sox. Baseball players are known for their superstitions, and that was on display in game 3 with Mike Napoli. Now, the Red Sox are up 2-1 against Detroit. Jake Peavy will toe the rubber Wednesday night again Doug Fister. If Peavy can seal the victory for the Red Sox, they will have a commanding 3-1 heading back to Boston.

After starting the series 0-6, Mike Napoli decided to pull his pants down. In his first at-bat with his pants down, he hit a clutch homerun.