Hindsight isn't always 20/20, but it sure beats having your head up your . . .

It's weird how not blogging in the moment can give you a better perspective. Yes, some might call it "hindsight." But seriously. . . .

I'm not mad at Francona like I was Sunday for leaving Varitek in there to hit in the seventh with runners at the corners. I'm not mad at Papi for apparently losing his mojo these last two seasons - an anomaly which I still think is more injury-related than loss-of-Manny related. They fact the Sox even took this to seven games without Lowell, Schilling, and a completely healthy Beckett was a testament to the team's character. Heck rallying from 7 runs down in Game 5 alone was testament to their character.

Yes, the better team won. We can admit that. Joe Maddon had more ammo, and the luxury of using a flame-throwing weapon such as David Price only when he needed to - say, for example, turning the lights out on the ALCS. Francona already was without last year's World Series MVP and one of the best postseason pitchers ever.

And it's easy to disparage the Rays' cowbell-ringing fans. But I look at them with envy. They have been given that rare gift of seeing a young team, almost entirely home-grown, put it together at just the right time. And damn, Game 5 aside, they never folded. The last time we had that was the Pats' first Super Bowl championship run. (The two Sox championships were the product of good deals as much, if not more so, than anything else. Same with the Boys in Green this year.)

Very few sports fans get to see that in this day and age of free agency. I hope they enjoy that.

A couple more thoughts (further proof that I've moved on):

1) Help me out here. I can't decide if Joe Maddon looks more like Spencer Tracy in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" or Elvis Costello.

2) Tampa could join Boston and LA as the only cities with three major sports championships this decade. (Bucs Super Bowl in 2003, and the forgotten Lightning Stanley Cup title in 2004). Tampa a sports power? Who knew?
(And to those, including my cohort on this site, who would include NY in that three-sport title talk, I say the Devils have been, are in and always will be the New Jersey Devils. At least Los Gigantes once played at Yankee Stadium. And the Yankees' last title came in 2000, which is debateable for the start of the decade.)

-JDE2