BOSTON (AP) -- Locals questioned their guts because they were on a baseball field instead of a battlefield. Fans soured on them after their demands for more money held up a World Series game. And when the 1918 Boston Red Sox finally won the title, the feat was greeted with little more than mild enthusiasm.
The 1918 World Series was the last time the Red Sox brought championship glory to the city, but there were few echoes then of the cathartic joy that greeted Boston's 2004 title.
Back then, World War I was consuming the country's attention. The Red Sox weren't the only game in town, competing for fan loyalty with the National League's Boston Braves, as well as a legion of local minor league and amateur teams.
Pedro Martinez paraded the trophy down the left-field line, hoisting it high over his head with both hands. Thousands of Boston fans roared. Seeing was believing, but they still couldn't believe their eyes.
The Red Sox -- yes, the Boston Red Sox -- were World Series champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it.
Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat, the Red Sox didn't just beat the St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, they swept them for their first crown since 1918.
Pedro Martinez paraded the trophy down the left-field line, hoisting it high over his head with both hands. Thousands of Boston fans roared. Seeing was believing, but they still couldn't believe their eyes. 
