More money than God

The New York Yankees have more money than God. This is for sure. The Yankees, it seems, have little God in them, yet they love to think money wins championships.

They’re right. Sometimes money wins championships. But it doesn’t all the time.

Papi Ortiz is right to point to the sky and thank God when he hits a homerun. Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez are right to thank the Lord for good plays on the field. Curt Schilling and Trot Nixon are right to share their faith with the fans. And the pundits are right: Johnny Damon does kind of look like Jesus.

Money has a way of winning championships, but not this time. No, this time, God helped to win the World Series for the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Red Sox Nation rising

Two teams. Two histories. One series. Seven games.

Nations rise and fall. A Red Sox Nation has risen from the ashes of an Evil Empire’s fall.

It wasn’t easy, and it couldn’t have happened any other way. Fate hurled the two most storied franchises in baseball into an October showdown that had to happen. A battle of epic proportions consumed two titans. For what seemed like an eternity, every twist and turn imaginable made for the best baseball ever and left two armies spent.

The script seemed familar. The tale had been told on countless occasions, but poetic justice, destiny, and the inevitable convened and decided the story would end differently this time. The demons retreated. The Yankees faltered. Red Sox Nation slew the dragon, and the baseball gods smiled. It was good.

Myth draws on reality. Millennia from now, we will draw inspiration from the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the Davids who stared down their Goliath, the New York Yankees, to shepherd a new era's debut and shatter the old.

Who's your Papi?

People talk trash. You hear it all the time. The best do it. The worst do it. Michael Jordan did it. John Rocker did it. There's nothing wrong with it. It just happens.

Sports teams and fans talk trash whether they've earned the right to do so. Their trash talk carries more weight if the trash talkers also walk the trash. The New York Yankees and their fans love to talk trash. They can. Why? They walk the trash. New York fans have watched their Yankees win the American League Pennant 39 times and the World Series 26 times. Wouldn't you talk trash?

It hurts to hear trash talk when it targets you, but you can do something. You can walk the trash. The 2004 Boston Red Sox, ladies and gentleman, have walked the trash like no other team in baseball history and now ask the Yankees, "Who's your Papi?"

Godzilla, meet King Kong

Sure. The Yankees have their Godzilla. Hideki Matsui plays some mean baseball, the kind you only see in Japanese monster movies.

But Godzilla once fought King Kong and lost. I saw it in another movie.

The Red Sox' King Kong, Papi Ortiz, has handed Godzilla his ass twice in one day.

Foulke you, Yankees.