Aaron Gleeman talks about the Sox over at Hardball Times. Great para here:
It’ll be interesting to see the reaction in the baseball world if Boston can win two more games. When Arizona won the World Series in 2001 behind Randy Johnson and Schilling, the reaction from the mainstream media and the average fan was that “pitching wins championships.” When Anaheim and Florida won, the reaction from the same people was that “doing the little things wins championships.” Since I’m highly skeptical that those same people will come around to hitting being just as important as pitching and defense, I suspect a Red Sox victory will be spun as “having a pitcher with a bloody ankle wins championships” or “reversing a silly, meaningless curse wins championships,” without any mention of the actual qualities of the team that won.
I agree, there’s so much aversion to the idea that winning can be done by hitting that people reach for other explanations. Gleeman also gets in a good point that the media backlash of Schilling, and in particular his appearance on Internet message boards, is silly. I would say that perhaps the media are jealous: suddenly their privilege, direct access to the players, is no longer inviolate.
One more win. One more win at a time.