While Red Sox players started to empty their lockers, Red Sox General Manager and Executive Vice President Dan Duquette thanked Sox fans for their support during the 1999 season and started looking towards next season.

"Today is a good day to celebrate the accomplishments of the 1999 team," said Duquette. "This year's team was a little better than last year's team. The fans really identified with the young players on the team, and we appreciate all of their support. The team won 98 ball games, brought excitement the City of Boston, won the American League Division Series, and brought the American League Championship Series to Boston."

"Unfortunately, we didn't play as well during the ALCS as we did during the regular season against the Yankees. We didn't make the fundamental plays, which is why we're not the team celebrating today," Duquette continued. "We'd like to be the celebrating team today, but we still have a little more work to do. So we now turn towards 2000."

Now that the dust has cleared, five Sox players can lay claim to batting over .300 in the American League Championship Series. In fact, three players were at or above the lofty .400 barometer.

Second baseman Jose Offerman batted .458 with 11 hits in 24 at-bats. The switch-hitting Offerman went 3 for 5 from the right side of the plate and hit .421 from the left-side. Nomar Garciaparra landed right on the .400 mark with eight hits in 20 at-bats and in limited plate appearances, Damon Buford also batted .400. Strong perfomances at the plate were also recorded by Troy O'Leary who hit .350 and John Valentin who finished at .348.

Boston players were defeated, but still defiant last night after losing the American League Championship Series to New York.

"This was a special team," said shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. "We believed we could go all the way. We were definitely good enough to win this, but we didn't play good enough to win."

"We had our opportunities, and we didn't capitalize. Am I going to go back and regret anything? No need to do that. Are you kidding me? There's nothing for us to hang our heads about. Disappointed? Of course. Any year we don't win the World Series, I'm disappointed. But I'm not going to hang my head," continued Garciaparra.

"It takes a special group of guys to be written off in the beginning to stick together as a unit day in and day out. Even in the postseason, we were written off from the beginning," catcher Jason Varitek said.

"No way will I say they were the better team," stressed reliever Derek Lowe. "If every game was 10-0, maybe, but that wasn't the case."

"I wouldn't say the Yankees are a better team," Garciaparra agreed. "But I would say they played better than us in this series."

"We were a never-say-die kind of team," said John Valentin, one of the top Sox performers in the postseason. "That's kind of good. But you can't make mistakes in the playoffs against this type of team."

"This is a special club for me," said Red Sox manager Jimy Williams after the Game 5 loss.

"I think the city of Boston and the people of New England really like this team. They never dropped their heads and quit, even tonight. We had a shot in the eighth inning. They gave their all as baseball players. They became a unit. They were blue-collar kidswhot left all between the lines."

Everyone knew that the Fenway faithful could cheer -- but who knew they could come up with such creative chants during the postseason?

Jimy Williams had this explanation. "They've got all these colleges in town. They've got all these educated people out there," he explained. "That doesn't surprise me. All these Harvard grads in town."

Only three of the Red Sox players on the active roster in the playoffs can become free agents after the World Series: lefthander Kent Mercker, lefthander Rheal Cormier, and righty Pat Rapp. While the Red Sox have contract options on both Cormier and Rapp, Mercker has the option of filing for free agency.