The Red Sox swept aside 85 years of failure with a clean sweep of the Cardinals, scoring a 3-0 victory Wednesday to win their first World Series since 1918.
For a team known historically more for the one thing it hasn't done than the many things it has, and for a team known recently to make even the simplest things hard, the Red Sox won with surprising, and stunning, ease, completing the 18th sweep in Series history.
And then they started a celebration that will stretch across family ties, across state lines, across generations, and may cross into next week.
"It's a feeling I can't describe," reliever Alan Embree said. "The Curse is dead, and we're the team that did it."
This is a victory for the ages, and for all ages. A victory that reversed the "curse" of selling Babe Ruth. A victory that makes amends for all the heartbreak and near misses.
"There was so much suffering and misery associated with the city," pitcher Curt Schilling said, "and we put together 25 guys who didn't give a (hoot)."
It was a victory for the times they didn't get a chance to be in the World Series because of Bucky "Bleepin' " Dent and Aaron "Bleepin' " Boone.
And for the times they did.
For 1946, when the Sox held a 3-2 Series lead over the Cardinals but lost Game 6 and then Game 7 when shortstop Johnny Pesky held the ball as Enos Slaughter raced home.
For 1967, when the Impossible Dream Sox came back from a 3-1 Series deficit to tie the Cardinals, then lost Game 7 at home after being shut down by Bob Gibson.
For 1975, when the Sox won Game 6 on Carlton Fisk's unforgettable 12th-inning home run against the Reds, then lost Game 7 when the Reds scored the winning run in the ninth.
For 1986, when the Sox were up 3-2 against the Mets and Bob Stanley's wild pitch led to Mookie Wilson's ground ball which led to Bill Buckner's error which led to Ray Knight scoring, and the Mets winning again in Game 7.
For every year when the fans - the "Calvinistic, fatalistic" fans, as GM Theo Epstein referred to them - hoped against hope it was the year, this is the year.
"They can die happy, because they got to see the Red Sox win a World Series," Embree said.
It was also a victory for this team.
Having turned around their season with a July blockbuster trade and winning the wild card, having swept the Angels in the first round, having made history by coming back from 3-0 to beat the Yankees in the ALCS, the Sox made the World Series look easy.
"We can't reverse what was a long time ago," manager Terry Francona said. "I'm sure there are a lot of people in New England that are dancing in the streets right now. For that I'm thrilled. I can't wait to go back and join them. As far as the other stuff, this is the team. This was our team, this year; you can't do anything else about any other year."
The players celebrated in the clubhouse and on the field for more than 90 minutes after the game. Thousands of Red Sox fans alternated chants for their favorite players with an occasional verse of "Yankees s---."
For the fourth straight game, the Red Sox scored in the first, this time on a homer on the fourth pitch by Johnny Damon.
And for the fourth straight game, they added to their lead.
A one-out third-inning rally started with a single and a double but had a chance to stall when World Series MVP Manny Ramirez was thrown out trying to score on a grounder to first.
But the Red Sox have been tremendous with two outs, scoring 10 of their first 21 runs with two down, and they added two more. After Bill Mueller walked, Trot Nixon lashed a double off the centerfield wall to make it 3-0.
It is only the third time in Series history a team that didn't trail during any inning of any game, the Sox joining the 1963 Dodgers (over the Yankees) and the 1989 A's (over San Francisco).
Starter Derek Lowe added a likely final chapter to his Red Sox career, pitching seven dazzling shutout innings and picking up an unprecedented third clinching win of the postseason.
"He went out and competed," Francona said. "Our guys love him so much and for him to be out there was really, really neat."
Lowe rebounded from a late-season slump to win back his job with two impressive outings in the AL Championship Series. And the Sox figured he was something of a good-luck charm, as he picked up the win in the division series clincher against Anaheim and the ALCS clincher against New York.
For all the Red Sox, it was special.
"I told my wife before the season started, "Hey baby, this is the year,' " Ramirez said. "And we did it, man. We're the champs."
