State of the Nation - Stumbling Start

May 2, 2010

Tasso, Herman

Three of a Kind

BY IAN TASSO
EDITORIAL - PHOTOS BY AP NEWS


He held his hat towards the sky as his teammates hoisted him on their shoulders, beaming at the crowd, the phrase “2003 World Champions” glowing on the scoreboard in the background.

There he sat, both fists held high in the air as the cheers poured on him from the stands. He was only a sophomore in the league, having appeared in just 50 major league games before now. But more importantly for the 23-year-old Josh Beckett, he was a World Series champion, creating history with his fingertips.


Or rather, reenacting it.


That’s because just one year earlier, Beckett himself watched as a fan of baseball – a fan of history - while a flurry of firework explosions sent John Lackey, a 24-year-old Angels’ rookie, charging towards the pitcher’s mound with both fingers pointed to the sky, his glove a long-gone afterthought as it soared through the air.


And as the deafening cheers drowned out the booming red and white pyrotechnics, Lackey himself joined more than just his teammates in a jubilant mob on the pitchers mound – he had joined Babe Adams of the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates as the only rookie in baseball history to start, and win, game 7 of a World Series.


And Beckett had seen it all.

“I knew he was from Texas, so that was kind of cool to me,” said Beckett of watching his new teammate win the final game of the 2002 World Series. “I think earlier on in life, you always dream about that situation. That was my first full year in the big leagues was the year he did that. So obviously I watched the World Series and I watched all the playoffs and everything - and it came true in 2003.”