Pawtucket Crowned Champions

The sleepy Colonial town of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has something to celebrate. It's beloved Polythene are the world champions.

The Polythene defeated the heavily favored Kansas City Shuffle 7-2 last night to win the best of 7 series 4-2 and capture their first World Championship.

"What a feeling," said third baseman Louis Sanders. "To be stuck in the minors for three years, get traded in the offseason and finally get a chance to play is a lifelong dream. But to win a World Championship, this is something I'll never forget."

The 24 year old was one of four players involved in a KC-Pawtucket trade in the offseason. He had spoken out against Kansas City several times, and how they wouldn't promote him when he believed he was ready. Now the 5th place finisher on the NL Rookie of the Year ballot has a World Series ring, and the series winning home run to boot.

"There's no love lost between these two teams. Sure, their general managers may have a respectable working relationship with no hard feelings towards each other, but to the players this is personal. The players realize this series was about staking a claim as the greatest team in the world. Unfortunately, we lost, but we'll be back next year, and I'm not so sure Pawtucket can say the same thing [in the highly competitive National League]," Kansas City pitcher Rob Aldridge, formerly of Pawtucket, said.

Two time Cy Young winner Christopher Ramirez was named Series MVP, as he threw 2 complete game victories against the most potent offense in the league. As a whole, the Polythene pitching staff won the battle of best pitchers vs best bats, holding the vaunted KC offense to a mere 16 runs in 6 games.

"For now, we celebrate. But in a few days, it'll be all business again. Kansas City still has one more championship than us, a distinction we plan on putting an end to next season," Ramirez said.