From the Washington Post
Boston once again hotly contested
by Shirley Povich
An epic struggle is under way in the Hub of the Universe these days. It's not a battle between patriots and redcoats, but between two equal and opposite factions in the world of the American game. On the one side, the Red Sox: a team with a wealthy, aristocratic owner and a heritage of championshps that, while lately a bit threadbare, has a rich fabric dating back to the days before the Great War. On the other side, the Braves: a consummate have-not team since the beginning of this century.
The faithful of both sides are about equally balanced in number, and are distributed about evenly throughout every Middlesex village and farm. The struggle, it is true, will determine the year's world champion of baseball--that is true. What is not so evident is the implications of this series.
Of all of the cities in the major leagues these days, five have teams in each league. Of those five, three--New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia--genuinely warrant dual representation. They are, according to Uncle Sam's Census Bureau, the largest three cities at last count. One of the five, St. Louis, clearly is not of the same ilk: it can't--or perhaps better, won't--support both the Browns and the Cardinals. This writer would be greatly surprised if, in ten years' time, the Browns were still in St. Louis instead of Los Angeles, Milwaukee, or Baltimore--three cities that have been rumored destinations for the Browns (for the record, my bet is on Los Angeles).
Then there is Boston. The Hub typically doesn't have enough chops to support two teams, but it can certainly support more than one, given the overflow crowds in both the Fens and the Wigwam in the best of times. It is this humble scribe's considered opinion, though, that ultimately, one of the two teams will wind up deciding to decamp for parts now unknown. And this Series will have a lot to say about which team gets the lion's share of Beantown fans, and about which of the two move...