Prague Journal

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Well, it looks like the big news of the day is the Red Sox pennant win over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. For those non-baseball fans who have been hiding in a closet for the last month, the Red Sox drove in four home runs to win 10-3 in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, and they will play host to the Houston Astros or the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway Park on Saturday. The National League Championship Series is tied, three games apiece, with Game 7 tomorrow. The Red Sox win is particularly noteworthy not just because they are the first team in baseball history to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games, but because this is the first pennant win for the Red Sox since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920. (They sold Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 and a $300,000 loan because Boston's owner Harry Frazee needed the cash to invest in a new play on Broadway. The name of the play was “No No, Nanette.”) The Boston Red Sox had won four World Series in the eight years Babe Ruth played on the team, but has not won a title for the last 86 years. This year’s match was in some sense a re-match from last year when the Yankees beat the Red Sox in Game 7. For the Yankees, whose $180 million payroll is the highest ever for a baseball team, it was a devastating failure. For those who cheer the underdog, it was a great victory.
Yankees’ manager Joe Torre is well known not just in the baseball world, but also among those who read self-help management books. He wrote Joe Torre's Ground Rules for Winners after the Yankees won their second World Series in 1998 after going decades without even reaching the post-season prior to 1996. Torre’s first rule, or key, is “Know Your Team Players.” Torre contends that effective leaders know the professional skills and abilities of their team's members. Torre’s decisions to use pitchers Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez are cited as reasons for the Yankees’ loss in Game 7. Torre also devotes three chapters to Dealing with Tough Bosses. This may come in handy now, since, according to the New York Times, owner George Steinbrenner will probably order a reconstruction of the team, and is even considering replacing Torre as manager, a turn of events that must be regarded as unlikely given his exorbitant salary contract and high public profile.
Like the Yankees, the candidates for the US presidency have poured money into their game plan. The Republicans, with an alleged $108 million in the bank at the beginning of October, lead the democrats’ $79 million, but both sides have launched fierce ad campaigns in these final weeks before the election. The presidential (and vice-presidential) debates have drawn a lot of press here and throughout Europe as well. If only the Europeans could vote! Obviously, we’re hoping for a Red Sox-type win for Kerry in November. We expect our absentee ballot in the mail this week.

posted by JWinn @ 8:00 PM