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The tradition grows

Posted by Tony Massarotti, Globe Staff  September 24, 2008 08:52 AM
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In a quiet corner of the clubhouse, through the clouds of cigar smoke and the celebratory drizzle, the oldest member of these Red Sox stood alongside one of the newest. Tim Wakefield is going to his eighth postseason in Boston, Mark Kotsay his first. Between them are dozens of players who now serve as links on a perpetually growing chain.

David Ortiz douses himself with champagne.
(Jim Davis / Globe Staff)
This is how things work these days at Fenway Park, where the names continue to change but the story remains the same. Out goes Manny Ramirez, in comes Jason Bay. The team rarely skips a beat. The Boston clubhouse has only grown more like the basement of a fraternity house, complete with beer-stained flooring and a feeder system from the freshmen to the seniors. The older men move on. The younger men grow. The occasional transfer student seamlessly falls into line.

The train keeps a-rollin'.

"They do a nice job here," Kotsay said recently while standing near the batting cage before a game. "They have a couple of superstars and they go out and surround them with baseball players."

And so the Red Sox are back in the playoffs again, Tuesday's victory over the Cleveland Indians guaranteeing the Sox of a fifth October trip in the last six years. No other team in baseball can claim a more successful run. And as much as this has been about the organization Sox officials have built, as much as it has been about their ownership, president, general manager, and manager, it also has been about the players connected by a uniform they put above all else.

Five years ago at this time, after the Sox clinched a playoff spot, second baseman Todd Walker was among those players who left the ballpark, in uniform, to celebrate in a nearby bar. Last night, Dustin Pedroia was the one vowing to run the city streets. ("We're going streaking," he said.)

Right down to the strikeouts, Jed Lowrie looks more and more like Mark Bellhorn. Bay came here the way that both Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz did, by virtue of a potentially cataclysmic trade that might have shaken a lesser team to the core.

But not the Red Sox. Not anymore. The pursuit of excellence supersedes all else. About a year ago, during one of the many celebrations the Sox had in the final weeks of a championship season, Curt Schilling spoke of how the Sox once were seen as "fractured," a team defined by the most damning slogan of all-time: 25 players, 25 cabs. But now the older players embrace the young. The new acquisitions are seen as reinforcements rather than threats. Paul Byrd joins the team in August and virtually no time passes at all before Jason Varitek goes out to play catch with him in a public park during an off day in Canada.

The reason?

Because that is Byrd's routine and because Varitek respects it.

And because they both want to win.

Before anyone interprets this all as some sort of commentary on the importance of team chemistry, stop. That would be badly missing the point. The bottom line is that the Red Sox are winners now, and winning breeds harmony. In a successful enterprise, even the smallest contributions are celebrated; a successfully executed bunt means as much as a three-run homer. The Red Sox have older players and younger ones, but there is absolutely no class system within the brick walls at fabled Fenway Park.

They all strive to do their parts.

"You look out on that field at the end, there are a lot of young guys," manager Terry Francona said last night when asked about the importance of experience as the Sox enter the postseason. "[Jacoby] Ellsbury, Lowrie -- a pretty young group of guys out there. It's a good mix. I think we all feel good about that."

For what it's worth, the 92d and heretofore decisive victory of this Red Sox season required some assembly. Francona used six pitchers, including three righthanders, two lefties, and a knuckleballer. Eight of the nine Sox starters had hits. Five scored runs. Three had at least one RBI. Dueling MVP candidates Kevin Youkilis (a two-run homer) and Pedroia (a two-run double) had positively huge hits, and newcomer Bay broke a 4-4 tie with an RBI single that landed him both at first base and, ultimately, in his very first October.

Following the clinching victory, Bay was among those players standing in the middle of a clubhouse scene that has become, at once, both unique and familiar. Byrd stood no more than 15 feet away. While Jonathan (Ox? ) Papelbon doused clubhouse attendant Edward (Pookie) Jackson with a 5-gallon jug of spring water, players took turns spraying one another with cans of beer pulled from a seemingly endless succession of cardboard suitcases (better known as 30-packs) of Budweiser and Bud Light.

Last winter, after winning a second world title in four seasons, the Red Sox made astonishingly few roster changes to a team that annually undergoes as much winter reconstruction as its home. As it turned out, the renovations didn't come until summer this year. And yet, for all of the changes the Sox have made over recent seasons, including this one, Fenway Park remains a necessary stop on the road to the World Series.

Polish the fixtures.

Steam the carpets.

Next month, there are visitors coming.

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Tony's Top 5

Best offseason moves in recent Red Sox history

5
Signing Johnny Damon From 2002-05, Damon averaged 149 games, 16 home runs, 115 runs and 25 steals. His OPS was .803. Rock solid.
4
Trading for Curt Schilling The piece that put the Red Sox over the top in 2004. Most guys go to New York to win titles. Schilling came here.
3
Signing David Ortiz In 10 years, he's hit more homers than anybody but Albert Pujols, Adam Dunn or Alex Rodriguez. Jackpot.
2
Signing Manny Ramirez Find another $100 million free agent contract that lived up to this one. Anywhere. He was worth it.
1
Trading for Pedro Martinez Since he came in November 1997, only the Braves and Yankees have won more games.
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Updated: Nov 9, 01:02 PM

About Mazz

Tony Massarotti is a Globe sportswriter and has been writing about sports in Boston for the last 19 years. A lifelong Bostonian, Massarotti graduated from Waltham High School and Tufts University. He was voted the Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by his peers in 2000 and 2008 and has been a finalist for the award on several other occasions. This blog won a 2008 EPpy award for "Best Sports Blog".

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