1st-year players help Sox gain win

Several new acquisitions contributed to Boston's historic championship.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Doug Mientkiewicz broke down and cried. He joined the Red Sox just three months ago, yet he knew what it meant to be a part of Boston's first World Series title since 1918.
Orlando Cabrera wanted so badly to be a part of the mob of players hugging along the first base line that he took a running start before throwing himself on top of the scrum. He was also acquired on July 31; a free agent, he could be gone as quickly as he came.
"You can't play in Boston and not be aware of what the tradition is, what the history is," said closer Keith Foulke, who signed with the team last winter. "I wanted to come here and be a part of history. Eight months later, we did it."
From Trot Nixon, drafted in 1993, to Mike Myers, signed Aug. 6, the Boston Red Sox celebrated their first World Series title in 86 years after beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in Game 4 on Wednesday night to clinch a World Series title nine decades in the making.
Gathered at the dugout railing, they watched Edgar Renteria bounce the last out back to the mound. Foulke made the underhand toss to Mientkiewicz and that was it.
"I was thinking, 'Get it to first, and we're champions,' " Foulke said in the clubhouse, out of breath and drenched in champagne.
He did, and they are.
With a leap, Mientkiewicz ran toward home plate. Foulke jumped into catcher Jason Varitek's arms. Manny Ramirez went to the mound to don a World Series Champion hat, while a clubhouse assistant picked up Boston's game hats for posterity.
Mientkiewicz hugged his father and mother near the pitcher's mound, tears in all of their eyes. Dave Roberts' 4-year-old son gathered dirt from the mound and grass from the infield.
Excited city
Cameras swarmed around them and flashed in the stands. One fan held up a sign that said, "Wait Till This Year."
"I bet the whole city of Boston is excited," said pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has been in Boston the longest. "They've gotten to celebrate a lot of other world championships, but never the Red Sox. Now, we are proud to say we're world champions."
For two days, it was hard to separate the Red Sox fans interloping in Cardinal Country from the locals, both of them bathed in red. But afterward, when the St. Louis fans filed out to the exits, the Bostonians congregated behind the visitors' dugout.