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Clinching Sights and Sounds

--The strains of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" played over the loudspeaker around 11:40, about 50 minutes after the celebration had begun in the center of the diamond. Utility infielder Alex Cora was in the booth upstairs, making sure the song was played and directing the crowd in the audience participation part of the song, which plays in the bottom of the eighth at every home game.

-- Jonathan Papelbon, wearing a red Red Sox T-shirt and black spandex shorts, looked as if he were auditioning for "River Dance" as he kicked off his shoes and hot-footed it around the infield until he was stopped by general manager Theo Epstein, who no doubt didn't want his ace closer spraining an ankle with the postseason less than a week away.
Papelbon embraced Epstein. There was a lot of hugging going on as the teammates exchanged congratulations while Cora continued to make sure each pitcher's theme song was blared over the loud speaker.

--Jason Varitek dressed and left the ballpark before the Orioles rallied to beat the Yanks and hand the Red Sox their first division title since 1995. So did Kevin Youkilis. But with the title in the bag, both players returned to Fenway and partook in the festivities.

--Finally, at around 11:50, roughly an hour after they had been crowned champions, the red Sox began leaving the field. Still about 1,000 fans were left in the stands, most of them surrounding the Boston dugout on the first-base line, though some were in the first and second rows of the third-base stands.

-- STEVEN KRASNER

Posted by Steven Krasner  at 11:41 PM | Permalink

Comments

Jayne | September 29, 2007 1:21 PM link