Red Sox Win!

It looks like ESPN Major League Baseball, in predicting that the Boston Red Sox would win the 2004 World Series for our feature story, was correct in the result, if not the manner, of the win. While ESPN picked the Sox in seven games (and EA's MVP Baseball 2004 had the Cardinals taking the championship in seven), the real-life Red Sox dominated the red birds from St. Louis in four straight games to take their first World Series championship in 86 years.

Frankly I was expecting more of a fight from St. Louis, a team who's bats had proved so formidable throughout the regular season. But when your team's star player, Albert Pujols, doesn't drive in a single run in four games, and the combined bats of Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen end up 1-for-30 in the series, you are going to lose. Plain and simple.

Looking ahead to next year's crop of baseball titles, I'm already prepared for substantial player rating increases for the likes of Keith Foulke, Johnny Damon, and David Ortiz. The question is, will Edmonds, Rolen, and Pujols see similar decreases?

Wow, spring training can't get here soon enough...