NEW YORK -- And so a new generation of New Englanders has learned the risk of rooting for the Red Sox.
They will tease you for months. They will tell you they are different from their forebears. They will claim that what happened before has nothing to do with them. They will make you believe this really is the year.
But in the end, they will fall and sometimes they will do it in excruciating fashion. The weight of the Boston uniform is always too heavy.
Meet the new Red Sox. Same as the old Red Sox. In perhaps the most painful game in franchise history -- no small statement given the Sox' penchant for macabre moments -- the Sox last night lost the American League pennant to their century-old nemesis, the New York Yankees.
Aaron Boone's 11th-inning, first-pitch, walkoff homer off Tim Wakefield at 12:16 this morning gave the Yankees a 6-5, Game 7 victory over the Sox, putting New York in the World Series against Florida, beginning tomorrow night. Naturally, Boone is the grandson of Ray Boone, a (retired) longtime scout with the Red Sox.
Cover your eyes, Sox fans -- it gets worse. Boston led, 4-0 in the fifth and 5-2 in the eighth. Like their Cub cousins earlier this week, the Sox were five outs away with a three-run lead. Champagne was chilling.
But before you could say Calvin Schiraldi, Pedro Martinez coughed up four straight hits, three runs, and the American League pennant. Maybe this was revenge for the night Pedro said, "Wake up the Bambino. Bring him back and I'll drill him."
Fittingly, Martinez was KO'd by a bloop two-run double to center by Jorge Posada. That's the same Posada who engaged in an angry exchange with Martinez during Game 3 after Pedro hit Karim Garcia. Pedro claimed he was telling Posada that he would remember everything that was said. Now Posada has given the Boston ace a new memory. A recurring nightmare.
It won't take days, weeks, or months to find the Game 7 goat. Say hello to Sox manager Grady Little, who joins Denny Galehouse, Johnny Pesky, Bill Buckner, Mike Torrez, John McNamara, the aforementioned Schiraldi, and Bob Stanley in the Sox collection of dartboard ornaments.
Little left Martinez in the game long after it was clear the fragile ace was done.
It was surprising to see Pedro start the eighth. With one out, he surrendered a long double to Derek Jeter, then a hard single by Bernie Williams.
Grady went to the mound. Relievers were ready. Nothing.
Hideki Matsui cracked a hard double to right. Still no hook from the manager. Martinez was left to face Posada, who more than evened the score in their personal war with the bloop double to center. That tied the game and finally Little came out to get Martinez.
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