NEW YORK — Red Sox principal owner John Henry had not seen his team clinch a postseason series in New York in 14 years. He has now seen two champagne celebrations at Yankee Stadium in roughly two weeks, one for the division and one for the right to play for the American League pennant, both at the Yankees’ expense. But he didn’t take the opportunity during Tuesday’s champagne celebration to poke the Yanks any further.
"Its a tremendous series, I mean this is the best series perhaps in sports, certainly in baseball,” Henry said. “So it’s a great way to start.
“This is just such a great rivalry. They’re going to have a great team again next year, so I look forward to another 19 games next year and hopefully you know we’ll see ‘em in the playoffs again.”
Henry praised manager Alex Cora as “bold since Day One,” and even before, dating to the winter. He praised Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and the staff for both men. Repeatedly, he noted the late-season acquisitions Dombrowski made, and credited the players above all.
He also noted what everyone else felt.
“It was too close for comfort,” Dombrowski said of Game 4’s ninth inning. “That was a heck of a play on that last throw. … [Steve] Pearce made some great plays.”
Boston Red Sox
On the impending match-up with the Astros, Henry said he couldn’t think of anything more fun, and that it would be a great seven-game series.
“These are arguably the three strongest teams in baseball and were all year and it’s going to be an exciting series, I can’t wait,” Henry said.
Henry, who has plenty of media experience with Fenway Sports Group’s ownership of NESN and his purchase of the Boston Globe, also took a jab at some of the coverage of his team.
“It felt like the media thought at 1-1 that we were down 0-2,” Henry said when asked about the Red Sox being potentially underestimated. “That’s what I was reading, that that was the feeling. I think media, first day of spring training, was pretty negative, even though we won the division two years in a row. We just needed to be a little more aggressive in our approach, because these guys are so talented. [The players needed] somebody to say go get ‘em, and they want and they went and got ‘em this year, all year long.”