Seeing red

Well, now it's official: Clemens loses another Game Seven and we have an all-red World Series, as Red Sox Nation battles Red Bird Nation for baseball supremacy. They've met twice before on the Big Stage, in '46 and '67, with heartbreak for the Sock Puppets both times.

What really disturbs me about this, besides the obvious, is red. I find it somewhat disturbing to look at stadiums in which everyone is wearing red. And believe me, the fans of these two teams will be wearing the team colors. A stadium full of red shirts makes me think of fascist rallies, and I shudder. Yankeee navy blue doesn't have that same effect on me (and the Metropolitans' blue and orange just makes me laugh), but perhaps I'm biased.

Speaking of Yankee blues, sounding strangely like the Miserable Failure, Manager Joe Torre has no regrets, admits no mistakes.

Torre, who has been dubbed Teflon Torre because of his postseason success and immense popularity, insisted he would have changed nothing about how he managed the last seven games of the season. Not one bullpen decision, lineup decision, rotation decision or strategic decision.

Although Torre barely slept after the Red Sox pummeled the Yankees, 10-3, in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium, it was not because he was restless from replaying any critical moments in his mind. Torre sat at a barren interview room at Yankee Stadium yesterday and said he had not rehashed the series. He started reviewing it only when he was asked specific questions.

Joe Torre is the best manager the Yankees have had for decades. I have rarely second-guessed, but there were moments earlier this week when he seemed to be on auto-pilot. I can't second-guess him on his use of Rivera in games four and five, as Jay Jaffe does, relentlessly. But sticking with Sierra over Lofton, despite knowing that Sierra spent three nights licking his lips looking at the Monster, then proceeding to strike out time after time was a poor decision. So too was not making pinch hitting changes late in the games for guys like Clark and Cairo; using Olerude instead of Sierra to pinch hit in game seven; and, especially, using Vazquez the way he did in the second inning of game seven.

Anyway, should be an interesting winter in Yankee land.

The Red Sox, with home-field and slightly better pitching, should win the Serious. The construction of the Cards is remarkably similar to the Yanks'. If the Sox can't do it this year then hearbreak and failure really are their destiny.