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Karma helped the Red Sox win the ALCS? Um, OK.

ALCS - Detroit Tigers v Boston Red Sox - Game Six

BOSTON, MA - OCTOBER 19: Shane Victorino #18 of the Boston Red Sox celebrates after hitting a grand slam home run against Jose Veras #31 of the Detroit Tigers in the seventh inning during Game Six of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park on October 19, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

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Mitch Albom has made a boatload of money telling stories in recent years. Way more than he’s made writing and analyzing about sports. So while sports is his day job, it’s not at all surprising that he’s big on inserting dramatic narrative into things. For example, from his column yesterday, talking about why the Red Sox beat the Tigers in the ALCS:

The Tigers were simply beaten by a faster, more defensive, more opportunistic team with a finer bullpen and — and this is important — better karma. You didn’t realize until you got to Fenway and saw the B Strong carved into the outfield grass and hanging on the Green Monster wall, how much the Boston Marathon bombings six months ago gave unity and purpose to this team and city, kind of like the New Orleans Saints and Hurricane Katrina or the New York Yankees and 9/11.

This week a lot of reporters who don’t spend a lot of time covering baseball will ask the Red Sox about the Marathon Bombing and their beards and all manner of other things that make for better stories than they do baseball analysis. And it’ll be fine because the World Series draws reporters to the game who don’t normally cover baseball so, for them, that angle is new and fresh.

Not sure what Albom’s excuse is. Not sure how, in this day and age, a reporter is able to get away with claiming that “karma” and some external “unity and purpose” had an “important” bearing on the outcome of a sporting event. But good for Mitch all the same.