So many games, so many chances back and forth, so many "if only"s.

On the other side:

- Pedroia's almost home run in game 6
- Gomes's almost home run in game 6
- Iglesia's amazing catch in game 5

and so forth.

That graphic about Fielder being unable to drive in an RBI in his last 72 (73) post-season at bats was brutal.

The Tigers have a great team. Amazing starting pitching (but they seemed to have some help from the umpires in the first 2 games. ;-) It looks like they need some help in the bull-pen, but otherwise they're very tough.

Ortiz often has a very slow start to the season - he doesn't seem to do well in the cold. He was stone cold except for a couple of at bats. Other players on the team seem to have the same issue (almost nobody was hitting on the Sox for a long time in the series). But the trend seems to continue to be make the season longer and longer (even if the number of regular games isn't changing). Too many people get injured during the year. Making the season run from the end of April to the end of August, and having the playoffs and world series in September would probably make more sense (have more double-headers in the summer if you want to keep the same # of games - have 2nd-stringers play more during the year).

Of course, if this coaching/managing stuff were easy, the Sox wouldn't go from last to first in the span of a year. ;-)

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.