While fans of the Philadelphia Phillies, winners of the 2008 World Series, are still warming up from watching the clincher in near-freezing temperatures Wednesday night, Boston Red Sox fans are already warming up to the idea that their team is the early favorite to win next season’s Fall Classic, the club’s second in three seasons and third in six years. The Boston Globe has reported that MLB betting is already underway a day before the parade down Broad Street in downtown Philadelphia and Las Vegas oddsmakers have given the Sox 3-to-1 odds of capturing the crown in 2009. This year’s champion is listed at 6-to-1, while the Tampa Bay Rays, who faced 200-to-1 before the 2008 season, have 10-to-1 odds.

Meanwhile, the team with the longest shot at winning it all next season is the Washington Nationals, who face 300-to-1 odds behind the Pittsburgh Pirates (200-to-1) and four teams listed at 100-to-1, including one of Boston’s rivals in the American League East, Baltimore Orioles. Speaking of rivals, the New York Yankees face 6-to-1 odds going into the winter meetings, where they are expected to make an impact on the free agent or trade market after missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993. Boston’s other divisional opponent, the Toronto Blue Jays, are 20-to-1 odds.

Like today’s volatile stock market, the sports betting market is subject to fluctuations, and Boston’s chances in the eyes of bookmakers will depend on moves made by the club this off-season. At present, two of Boston’s biggest questions are whether they will re-sign catcher Jason Varitek, who is consider among the best in terms of calling a game but who is also coming off his worst season at the plate in 12 seasons with the Red Sox, and if they will make any noise in the trade or free agents market; among those being eyed this season by several clubs include first baseman Mark Teixeira and pitchers Jake Peavy and A.J. Burnett. The Red Sox must also consider whether to part ways with shortstop Julio Lugo, who has struggled in his two seasons with Boston, in favor of another Red Sox farm product, Jed Lowrie.

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Jason Varitek, Jed Lowrie, Julio Lugo

22 October 1883 - On this day one hundred twenty-five years ago, former Boston Red Sox player-manager William Francis Carrigan, better known as Bill Carrigan or “Rough” Carrigan, is born in Lewiston, ME. Carrigan spent ten years in professional baseball as a catcher for Boston between 1906 and 1916; in that span, he caught three no-hitters and played for three world championship teams, two of which he managed. He is the only manager in franchise history to lead Boston teams to back-to-back world championships and the only manager other than current skipper Terry Francona to win more than one World Series at the helm of the Red Sox.

Carrigan started his career as a platoon catcher for Boston in July of 1906 and caught a career-high 110 games in 1910. Never an offensive threat, he collected just over 500 hits and batted only .257 in his career. Midway through the 1913 season, he was asked to replace Jack Stahl as manager of the then-defending world champion Red Sox after it was turned down by Fielder Jones, who had guided the 1906 Chicago White Sox to a World Series title; like his predecessor, Carrigan assumed his position as player-manager. After a second-place finish in his first full season at the helm in 1914, he guided the team to a 101-50 record and the American League pennant before leading his team to a 4-1 World Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The following season, his team finished 91-63 and won its second straight World Series title over the Brooklyn Robins. Following that season, he retired from baseball, returned to his hometown of Lewiston, and began a second career in the banking business. In 538 games, he had compiled a 322-216 record as manager for a .599 winning percentage.

Ten years later, the Red Sox convinced Carrigan to manage the club once again, but fortunes had changed dramatically at that point for the once-proud club; the franchise had not enjoyed a winning season since its last championship in 1918 and the celebrated skipper could do nothing to reverse its fortunes given the lack of talent at his disposal. Three straight seasons that averaged 95 losses convinced Carrigan to permanently retire from baseball after the 1929 season, and he returned to Lewiston to spend the rest of his life, passing away in 1969 at the age of 85. In 2004, the Red Sox posthumously honored the former manager with induction into the team’s Hall of Fame.

Tags: Bill Carrigan, Boston Red Sox, Jack Stahl, Terry Francona, World Series

Facing the possibility of heading back to Anaheim for a deciding fifth game, Boston Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie delivered the final blow to the Los Angeles Angels with a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2, walk-off victory and an American League Division Series win for Boston over Los Angeles for the third time in five seasons. In the series, the Red Sox had won the first two in Anaheim by scores of 4-1 and 7-5 to extend their post-season winning streak over the Angels to a MLB-record 11 games, dating back to Game Five of the 1986 ALCS, while also setting a new team record of nine consecutive post-season wins dating back to Game Five of the 2007 American League Championship Series. But Boston could not pull off a series sweep as Los Angeles staved off elimination in Game 3 with a 12-inning, 5-4 win at Fenway Park Sunday night; the win not only ended the Red Sox’s extensive post-season dominance of the Angels, it gave the American League West Division winners, who had won eight-of-nine regular season meetings over the Sox, hope that they might become the fifth team to win a five-game division series after losing the first two contests.

It was not meant to be, however, as the Red Sox now head to the ALCS for the fourth time in six years to face the Tampa Bay Rays, who bested the Sox 10-8 during the regular season in which they won eight-of-nine at home in Tropicana Field against its division rival. The Red Sox will look to advance to the World Series for the third time in five seasons under manager Terry Francona while the Rays, having won their first-ever playoff series over the Chicago White Sox in four games, look to continue their unbelievable run towards a championship after going the first ten years of their existence without having even posted a winning regular season record. In 2008, the Rays became the first team since 1997 other than the Red Sox or the New York Yankees to win the American League East division, posting 97 wins under manager Joe Madden. The Red Sox, meanwhile, finished two games behind the Rays and advanced to the playoffs as the wild card.

Tags: ALCS, ALDS, Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, Jed Lowrie, Los Angeles Angels, Tampa Bay Rays, Terry Francona, World Series