Sox Fans Celebrate in CO

The Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 to sweep the World Series for the second time in four seasons.

Both in 2004 and this year, the Red Sox clinched the series on the road. But as WBUR's Curt Nickisch reports in Denver, there was no shortage of Red Sox fans taking part in the celebration.

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CURT NICKISCH: Even before the game last night, the result was a foregone conclusion to many Sox fans at Coors Field. At least the ones carrying brooms.

BOB LOUIS: Sweep! Ha! One ticket for one broom, you can bust it up any way you want.

NICKISCH: Red Sox fan Bob Louis was trying to get a ticket to the game. The Denver resident has been a Boston fan ever since he lived in Rhode Island for one year when he was nine years old. That was 1967. Now, forty years later, the World Series came to him. Along with a lot of other Red Sox fans from around the country. Louis had a high five for any Boston fan who wanted it.

LOUIS: I love Boston fans. And you know what, it is a nation because any Boston fan can walk up to any Boston fan and do this!, and do this! and say yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I'm a Rocky fan, but by God it's baseball!

LOUIS: It is baseball and it's the Red Sox! Ha ha ha!

NICKISCH: If there was any doubt to the turnout, all you had to do was listen to the crowd inside. Even during God Bless America. At this stadium, singers pause after the line "from the mountains," for the crowd to cheer.

SOUND OF GOD BLESS AMERICA SINGING

NICKISCH: This weekend, Boston fans echoed, at the words "to the oceans white with foam." And during the game, any time a roar went up from the crowd, you'd have to check to see what had just happened to know for sure who was cheering.

SOUND OF CROWD CHEERING

NICKISCH: In that case, those were Boston fans. If they were showing up their Colorado counterparts, the players could well have been doing the same on the field. Once again, strong pitching from the Red Sox kept Colorado's bats from getting any rhythm. Colorado stranded runners on base six straight innings. Meanwhile Red Sox hitters notched runs here and there, including a home run from third baseman Mike Lowell, who was later named World Series MVP.

SOUND OF CROWD CHEERING "LET'S GO ROCKIES"

NICKISCH: Colorado rallied to come within one run, but as soon as closer Jonathan Papelbon took the mound, everyone pretty much knew how it was going to end. The bottom of the last inning: a ground out, a line out, a strikeout. Sweep complete. The Red Sox are World Champions, again.

SOUND OF ELATED FANS

NICKISCH: Boston fans crammed into the sections behind the Red Sox dugout, as players spilled onto the field to celebrate. Soon, cigar smoke drifted through the cool mountain air.

TERRY FRANCONA: I'll bite it off, thanks. Cause this one's like cardboard!

NICKISCH: In 2004, club manager Terry Francona led this team to its first World Series title in 86 years. This year he won it in dominant fashion — earning the division title with the best record in baseball, winning the American League Championship, and sweeping the National League Champion Colorado Rockies. It's a marked difference to the wild card run three years ago, but Francona says don't even compare.

FRANCONA: It doesn't matter. What's important to us is now. That's what's matters to us.

SOUND OF SPRAYING CHAMPAGNE

NICKISCH: Inside the Red Sox clubhouse, not cigar smoke, but the sweet smell of champagne. Veteran pitcher Mike Timlin says it's wonderful to be creating a new string of Boston Red Sox World Championships.

MIKE TIMLIN: You know, this organization's been storied, it's been unbelievable. I'm blessed just to be part of the organization with the history that it has. You know and now we're making a little bit of history.

NICKISCH: This morning, Red Sox fans are waking up to their second World Series title in only four years. And they're waking up to the realization, that after nearly a century of chasing ghosts, the Boston Red Sox have so far become the team to chase in this one.

For WBUR, I'm Curt Nickisch.