Boston, MA - It's been a week since the Boston Red Sox were crowned champions of Major League Baseball in 2018 and I still find myself mulling over this team's place in history.

It's definitely the best team in Red Sox history and one of the best in baseball history. Not one team in Sox history won as many games as this one did. Not the turn of the century championship-laden upstarts helmed by Babe Ruth and Cy Young. Not the Ted Williams led teams of the 1940s. Not the Impossible Dream team in 1967. Not the World Series runners-up in 1975 or 1986. Not any of the World Series teams in the new millennium. This is a unique beast.

The 2004 team was a bunch of Idiots who reversed the curse. They're revered in Boston forever, as evidenced by Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, and Jason Varitek being on duck boats in 2018. Varitek and Ortiz were, of course, a part of the dominant 2007 championship team that the 2018 team somehow ended up being more dominant than. And Ortiz was part of the team of destiny in 2013 that won it all while being Boston Strong.

But this Red Sox team has a different identity.

They are Alex Cora, managing a historic franchise to a historic finish in his first year as a manager and rebounding from Puerto Rico's natural devastation.

They are Nathan Eovaldi, putting everything on the line to pitch ninety-seven times in relief in the longest game in World Series history.

They are Brock Holt, coming back from an abysmal season with vertigo and leading the charge of chemistry in the clubhouse.

They are Steve Pearce, being traded to the team for nothing and rising up to become the MVP of the World Series.

They are David Price, exercising the post-season demons to pitch two clinching games in one post-season against Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw.

They are Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel. They are Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley, Jr., and Andrew Benintendi. They are J.D. Martinez. They are Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez and Eduardo Nunez and Xander Bogaerts and Mitch Moreland and Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez and so much more.

They are a team that won 119 games in 2018. They gave another illustrious championship to Boston. They are a team I will always love. They gave me one of the best baseball seasons of my life.

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox: 2018 World Series Champions.