Contrite White House Spurns Health Law’s Critics

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Obama Defends Health Care Law: In Boston, President Obama vowed he would not let Republicans try to turn the health exchange website's problems into ammunition with the aim of overturning the health care law.

BOSTON — The White House on Wednesday blended expressions of contrition for the troubled rollout of its health care law with an aggressive rejection of Republican criticism of it, as the administration sought a political strategy to blunt the fallout from weeks of technical failures and negative coverage.

While Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, apologized profusely during a politically charged hearing on Capitol Hill, President Obama traveled to Massachusetts to argue forcefully that the Affordable Care Act will eventually be just as successful as the similar plan pioneered by Mitt Romney, his onetime rival and a former governor of the state.

Speaking in the historic Faneuil Hall, where Mr. Romney signed the Massachusetts plan into law, the president also took "full responsibility" for the malfunctioning health care website and promised to fix it. But he pledged to "grind it out" over the weeks and months ahead to ensure the law's success and prove its Republican critics wrong.

"We are going to see this through," Mr. Obama vowed, pounding his fist on the podium as the audience roared with approval.

The dual messages from Mr. Obama and Ms. Sebelius over the course of the day reflect a recognition by officials inside the White House that while apologies are in order, the administration cannot let Republicans expand concerns about the HealthCare.gov website into a broader indictment of the law.

Senior advisers to the president said they understood that the bungled rollout of the insurance marketplace has given Republicans another opportunity to litigate the political case against the health care law. But they said they viewed the weeks ahead as a period of inevitable improvement that will vindicate their position.

"The weight of that momentum will have a positive impact," one senior administration official said, requesting anonymity to talk about White House strategy planning. "Really it's about blocking and tackling and getting that work done."

With Republicans showing no sign of backing off, the challenge for Mr. Obama and Democrats in the months to come will be to deflect political attacks that unfairly demonize the health care law while acknowledging its shortcomings. Achieving that nuance could prove tricky for an administration whose top health official, Ms. Sebelius, on Wednesday called the rollout of the online insurance marketplace a "debacle."

Ms. Sebelius told lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that she was as surprised as anyone when the website collapsed on Oct. 1 under pressure from millions of users and was crippled by technical problems in subsequent days. While she was aware of the risks in a big information technology project, she said, "no one indicated that this could possibly go this wrong."

Ms. Sebelius told the committee: "Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible."

The shift in strategy from the White House comes as new challenges emerge for the law. The problem-plagued website crashed again just before Ms. Sebelius began testifying in front of a skeptical congressional panel. And officials acknowledged that the federal insurance marketplace for small businesses, which had already been delayed a month from Oct. 1, would not open until the end of November.

In three and a half grueling hours of testimony, Ms. Sebelius gamely defended the troubled rollout of the law and apologized for what had gone wrong. But nothing she said could overcome the stark message displayed on a large video screen showing a page from HealthCare.gov: "The system is down at the moment. We are experiencing technical difficulties and hope to have them resolved soon. Please try again later."

Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Michigan, said the administration had not properly tested the security of the insurance website, which receives financial information on consumers seeking subsidies to help pay their premiums.

Mr. Rogers read from a government memo that said security controls for the federal exchange had not been fully tested as of Sept. 27. This creates a potentially "high risk" for the exchange, said the memo, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The memo said that security controls would be "completely tested within the next six months."

Michael D. Shear reported from Boston, and Robert Pear from Washington.

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Game 6: Red Sox 6, Cardinals 1: Red Sox Rout Cardinals to Win Series

BOSTON — The Fenway Park crowd was eager all night, standing, yelling, cheering. All that pent-up energy exploded as Shane Victorino crushed a Michael Wacha fastball high off the Green Monster, scoring three runs. Victorino pounded his chest and yelled as he advanced to third base. It seemed over then. The Red Sox had the lead.

For the first time since 1918, Boston would celebrate a World Series-clinching victory by the home team at this historic park. The Red Sox jumped out in front early against the St. Louis Cardinals and rolled to a 6-1 win, taking the Series, four games to two.

David Ortiz, now a three-time World Series champion, was named the most valuable player.

Victorino started the party with a two-out, bases-loaded double in the third inning. Wacha, the brilliant Cardinals rookie, finally seemed mortal. He had allowed just three runs in his previous 29 innings this postseason. He was pulled midway through the fourth and walked off the mound clearly distraught.

He was eventually charged with six runs.

Each time the Red Sox rallied, in the third and the fourth innings, Ortiz had been intentionally walked only to come around to score.

John Lackey pitched six and two-thirds strong innings. He worked around nine hits, allowing one run and striking out five batters. The crowd gave him an ovation as he walked off the mound with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh. Lackey tipped his hat. Then Junichi Tazawa finished the inning.

The Boston fans spent the rest of the night counting down outs until another championship, their team's third in 10 years.

Top 9th, 11:25 P.M. Uehara Closes the Door

It wasn't a save situation, but Koji Uehara came on to pitch the ninth for the Sox. He got Jay and Descalso to fly out to Gomes in left for the first two outs. The fans were on their feet, chanting, "Koji, Koji." Uehara struck out Carpenter to end the game and enable the Sox to win a World Series in Boston for the first time in 95 years.

— Jim Luttrell

Top 7th, 10:41 P.M. Cardinals Break Through

After a single and a double, the Cardinals broke Lackey's shutout on Beltran's single. Farrell came out ready make a move, it seemed, but after Lackey told him, "This is my game," he said something into his glove and persuaded Farrell to leave him in the game. A walk to Holliday loaded the bases, and Farrell wasn't about to be Grady Little. Tazawa entered and recorded the third out.

I really wish John Lackey wore a see-through glove.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) 31 Oct 13

— Jim Luttrell

Bottom 6th, 10:26 P.M. Cardinals Finally Figure Out Ortiz

That was Ortiz's first strikeout in this World Series. It came as the crowd chanted, "M.V.P.! M.V.P.!" Barring an epic collapse by Boston, he's your M.V.P. in a landslide, no?

His statistics over six games: .688 batting average, two homers, six R.B.I., seven walks and seven runs scored. Mr. October 2.0.

Cardinals watching too many @whitesox instructional videos during that flight delay Tuesday.

— rickbozich (@rickbozich) 31 Oct 13

Top 5th, 9:56 P.M. Do Sox Remember 1986 and Getting Ahead of Themselves?

The Red Sox need 12 outs to clinch the World Series. Everyone here seems antsy. So in the meantime, here's an arbitrary list of Game 6 heroes in order of "clutchness": Shane Victorino, David Ortiz, John Lackey, Stephen Drew, Mike Napoli, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jonny Gomes, everyone else.

Also, you know victory is close when the the Red Sox feel comfortable enough to send an email to the news media with this subject line: Rules and Regulations in the Event of a Red Sox Game 6 Clinch.

Bottom 4th, 9:35 P.M. Sox Chase Wacha and Lead, 6-0

Molina has some words for Wacha before the rookie walks off the mound. His night is done. He went three and two-thirds innings, allowing five hits, four walks (including two intentional walks to Ortiz), and six runs.

His terrific postseason ends on a sour note, but surely Molina reassured him the Cardinals would not have made it this far without him.

9:27 P.M. Slumping Drew Goes Deep, Making It 4-0

Stephen Drew had not homered in his previous 51 at-bats this postseason. He had hit 13 homers all season. But he takes Wacha deep there.

Top 4th, 9:20 P.M. Cardinals Turned Back Again

Another opportunity lost for the Cardinals. Pedroia makes a rare error, misplaying a Molina grounder at second base (after having just won a Gold Glove), and the Cardinals have two on, one out, and can't score.

Lackey is through four scoreless innings, with 57 pitches.

Each time the Cards have had two on, Matt Adams and David Freese, the 2011 World Series most valuable player, have made outs.

Bottom 3rd, 9:09 P.M. Victorino Gives Red Sox a 3-0 Lead

That was maybe the only way the Red Sox could load the bases against Wacha: Ellsbury singles, Ortiz is intentionally walked, Gomes is hit by a pitch. Shane Victorino then doubles high off the Green Monster. All three score. And what a slide by Gomes, getting under the tag of Molina.

Victorino may be the hero for the second time this postseason in a Game 6. Remember, he hit that grand slam in the A.L.C.S. against Detroit.

That double by Victorino, a switch-hitter? He was batting right-handed against a dominant righty in Wacha. Find out why here.

8:51 P.M. Flight Delay Gave Cards Quality Time

If the Cardinals lose tonight, much will be made of how they were delayed leaving St. Louis on Tuesday because of mechanical problems with their plane. It was said they were stuck on the runway for about seven hours.

Mike Matheny said the players "hung out with their families. They hung out with each other. There was a lot of fooling around going on. Guys were making the best of a situation they knew we didn't have any control over.

"How that affects us? I don't think it really does. We've been resilient, but you take what comes, and we adjust and get ready for the next day."

Bottom 2nd, 8:47 P.M. Wacha Works Out of Trouble

In a similar bottom half of the second, score that under "missed opportunities that could come back to haunt the Red Sox": two runners on, no outs, and Xander Bogaerts, Stephen Drew and David Ross go down in order.

Top 2nd, 8:39 P.M. Lackey Works Out of Trouble

Score that under "missed opportunities that could come back to haunt the Cardinals": two runners on, no outs, and Matt Adams, David Freese and Jon Jay go down in order.

Top 2nd, 8:30 P.M. Hobbled Craig Continues to Rake

Allen Craig this series: 5 for 13, after singling off the Green Monster. He had two big ninth-inning hits in Games 3 and 4. Having not played since Sept. 4 before this series, he's done all that could be expected of him.

Bottom 1st, 8:25 P.M. Wacha Is Good … and Wise

Wacha was careful there with Ortiz, walking him on nine pitches. Other than that, and Pedroia's near home run, Wacha was Wacha. He struck out Ellsbury and Napoli. He's at 18 pitches. If he can get through six innings relatively unscathed, the Cardinals will have to be pleased.

Fenway would have exploded if Pedroia's ball had stayed fair there. Reminiscent of Carlton Fisk. Pedroia missed a homer by only a few feet. Maybe he should've waved harder.

8:06 P.M. The Scene Outside Fenway

About two hours before the first pitch, Yawkey Way was flooded with people. A four-man brass band played. Some man was walking around on stilts. People had red B's painted on their faces. A magician did card tricks. Vendors stood on crates, selling World Series pennants and programs. There was beer, and plenty of it.

I didn't see it, but it was said that Steve Horgan — the police officer who threw his arms into the air as David Ortiz's grand slam cleared the wall and Torii Hunter flipped over it in Game 2 of the A.L.C.S. — posed for pictures with fans.

Lines were outrageous outside several bars up and down Lansdowne Street. Tickets to the game were pricey. Accoridng to TiqIQ, which collects data on tickets for resale, the average price for a ticket on the secondary market was $1,979, making it the most expensive baseball ticket the company had tracked.

8:02 P.M. A Different Dropkick Murphys

Earlier in the Series, I talked about how Huey Lewis and the News performed one of my favorite versions of the national anthem. Well, the Dropkick Murphys didn't match that four-part harmony, but it was fun to see one of my favorite bands NOT be irreverent for once. And it's not often that the anthem singers get to do a second song, but the fans at Fenway were on their feet and singing along to "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" as the band was accompanied by Irish step dancers. Smart move by the Sox to get the crowd revved up, as if it needed more incentive.

If you weren't fortunate enough to be at Fenway to see the band, here's the song you missed.

— Jim Luttrell

6:33 P.M. Starting Lineups and Forecast

It's supposed to be a clear and chilly night at Fenway, with the temperature dipping into the 40s.

Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino are back in the Red Sox' lineup. Victorino missed the last two games with back tightness. Manager John Farrell will stick with David Ross over Jarrod Saltalamacchia at catcher. For the Cardinals, Allen Craig, who has a bothersome left foot, will be the designated hitter.

1) Matt Carpenter, 2B
; 2) Carlos Beltran, RF
; 3) Matt Holliday, LF
; 4) Allen Craig, DH; 5) Yadier Molina, C
; 6) Matt Adams, 1B; 7) David Freese, 3B
; 8) Jon Jay, CF
; 9) Daniel Descalso, SS; Pitching: Michael Wacha, RHP

1) Jacoby Ellsbury, CF

; 2) Dustin Pedroia, 2B; 3) David Ortiz, DH; 4) Mike Napoli, 1B
; 5) Jonny Gomes, LF
; 6) Shane Victorino, RF; 7) Xander Bogaerts, 3B; 8) Stephen Drew, SS
; 9) David Ross, C; Pitching: John Lackey, RHP

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World Series Game 6: Red Sox 6, Cardinals 1: Red Sox Rout Cardinals to Win World Series

BOSTON — For much of the 20th century, the Boston Red Sox were a symbol of frustration and pain for an entire region. As popular as they were in their corner of the nation, either they were good enough to lose in agonizing fashion on baseball's grandest stage, or they were just plain bad.

But that all changed in 2004 when the Red Sox ended an 86-year championship drought, and now their fortunes have changed so dramatically that winning titles has become commonplace.

The latest victory came Wednesday night, when the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1, in Game 6 of the World Series to take the series, four games to two. They earned the third jewel in their championship crown over the last 10 years, and their eighth over all.

In addition, for the first time since 1918, Boston was able to celebrate the victory at home, winning in front of an announced crowd of 38,447 at Fenway Park and many thousands more who crammed the city streets and bars to proclaim those formerly scarce words that are now often repeated: The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.

Even after the team's horrendous late-season collapse in 2011 and a last-place finish in 2012, Red Sox fans have become so accustomed to winning that, once their scruffy team had won Game 5, Game 6 had an air of inevitability.

By the time Boston had taken a 6-0 lead in the fourth inning, the cool air at Fenway Park vibrated in anticipation of the party that would soon follow.

David Ortiz, whose contributions to the Red Sox' last three championships cannot be overstated, was named the most valuable player of the series. He hit two home runs, knocked in six runs, scored seven more, batted .688 and had a staggering .760 on-base percentage.

The Cardinals finally wised up in Game 6, walking him four times, three times intentionally: it was the only way to prevent him from doing damage.

Two Red Sox hitters with little success in the first five games came through instead.

Shane Victorino drove in four runs, with a bases-clearing double in the third inning and a run-scoring single in the fourth, an inning that began with a home run by Stephen Drew against Michael Wacha. Drew had batted .080 this postseason entering the game.

Wacha, a 22-year-old rookie, had been unbeaten in the postseason and had not even allowed a hit with runners in scoring position. But he was charged with six runs in only three and two-thirds innings Wednesday. Red Sox starter John Lackey scrapped and battled his way through six and two-thirds inning to earn the win.

The victory was the second in a World Series clincher of Lackey's career. He also won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series, for the Anaheim Angels.

Lackey looked beatable as the Cardinals hit several balls hard in the first two innings. But the Red Sox had fielders in place to catch most of them, and Lackey grew stingier until the seventh.

The Cardinals, trailing by 6-0, scored a run in that inning and then had runners at first and third with two outs. With Matt Holliday coming to the plate, Red Sox Manager John Farrell emerged from the dugout. As he strolled to the mound, though, Lackey gave him a stern look and appeared to say, "This is my guy," as well as a few words obscured behind his glove.

Farrell left him in, but Lackey walked Holliday, so Junichi Tazawa was summoned from the bullpen. Tazawa got Allen Craig to ground to first, eliciting a roar from the fans.

Victorino, who had missed the previous two games because of back spasms, gave the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead with his double, pounding his chest just as he did in the Red Sox' pennant-clinching game against the Detroit Tigers, when he hit a decisive grand slam.

From there, the Red Sox were simply too good for St. Louis once again.

In 2004, the Red Sox swept the Cardinals, winning Game 4 in St. Louis, and in 2007, they swept the Colorado Rockies, taking the final game in Denver. The Red Sox had lost in excruciating fashion in their four previous World Series appearances, in 1946 and 1967 to the Cardinals, in 1975 to the Cincinnati Reds and in 1986 to the Mets, each time in seven games.

For decades it seemed as if 1918 would remain their last title, especially with the mighty Yankees putting up road blocks in their league and division.

But along came Ortiz, who helped erase the Red Sox' jinx against the Yankees in 2004 and carry Boston over a barrier it had been unable to cross for 86 years.

What made this year's title even more notable was that the Red Sox completed a worst-to-first transformation, rebounding from a last-place finish in the American League East in 2012, shedding a negative reputation and replacing it with scruffy beards to signify team unity.

The team brought in Farrell to replace Bobby Valentine and several new players, including Victorino, Drew, Mike Napoli, Jonny Gomes and closer Koji Uehara, to change the toxic culture of the clubhouse.

Second baseman Dustin Pedroia said the Red Sox bonded in spring training and then were motivated after the Boston Marathon bombings to use baseball to help the city heal.

"Because of what happened to this city," he said, "we wanted to do something special and make everybody happy and proud."

The Red Sox' roster also featured four key players from the 2007 team: Ortiz; Jon Lester, who went 2-0 in this Series; Jacoby Ellsbury; and Pedroia, who said that despite the misery of 2012, and even the collapse of 2011, he still felt this team had the potential to win again.

"Yeah, my expectations of our team didn't change from last spring training to this one," he said before Wednesday's game. "Your goal playing for the Red Sox every year is to try to be at this point and win the World Series. Next year we're going to come in, and our goal is to win the World Series, and that's never going to change here."

For 86 years, that goal was unattainable. Now it is almost routine.

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Cavaliers 98, Nets 94: Rebuilt Nets Still Need Fine-Tuning

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

The Nets' Brook Lopez was stopped by the Cavaliers' Tristan Thompson (13) and Anderson Varejao in the third quarter. Lopez finished with 21 points.

CLEVELAND — Kevin Garnett lacked the precise word to describe the prodigious anxiety and eagerness he and his teammates felt walking onto the court here Wednesday night, so he contorted his face into an exaggerated snarl and let out a comical growl.

It was a light moment from Garnett, the Nets' intense new forward, and he allowed himself a quick laugh, even as he rued his team's season-opening 98-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"But it felt like that," he said. "Everybody wanted it right here, right now, and that's not the process."

The process, he said, will be gradual. It will require work and unity. And, he added, "We've all got to be patient with that process."

After an exciting gestation period, the curtain has been raised on the Nets' ambitious experiment. It became clear during the rocky first game that good or bad, it has the potential to be fascinating.

The Nets' ownership this summer engineered a roster overhaul that rocketed their payroll to $101 million and their luxury-tax bill to $82 million. It was money spent with a purpose.

"Hopefully the finished product will be us hoisting up the trophy," said Jason Terry, who was traded alongside Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Boston Celtics. "We know it's a long haul."

On Wednesday, there were flashes of the traits that could propel the team to greatness, but just as many glimpses of the roadblocks that could hamper them. The Nets have expressed hope that they can become a freewheeling team on both ends of the court. But because of assorted injuries and rest schedules, Wednesday night was the first time the Nets' five starters played a competitive game together.

At several points, it showed. The offense, as a whole, lacked rhythm. There were superfluous passes and ones that just missed their mark.

"We looked good at times, but then we looked a little out of sync at times — maybe being a little bit too unselfish at times when we could have just made plays," said Joe Johnson, who scored 13 points and was 3 of 10 from the field.

The defense was wobbly, too. The Cavaliers' fleet guards ran intricate patterns around Nets defenders, who seemed hesitant and half a step slow. Multiple players after the game repeated the same concept: There are 24 seconds on an N.B.A. shot clock, and the Nets on Wednesday seemed only to defend the first 22.

The Nets were outrebounded, 48-37, and they allowed 16 offensive rebounds in all.

"We gave up last-second shots, and we gave up offensive rebounds in key possessions," said Pierce, who scored the Nets first 6 points and finished with 17. "To be a championship team, we're going to have to clean those things up."

But they were doomed when the Cavaliers made the most of a second chance at the end of the game. Brook Lopez (21 points) finished an alley-oop layup to tie the game at 91-91 with 1 minute 4 seconds remaining, and Kyrie Irving of the Cavaliers missed a 3-pointer on the next possession. But Earl Clark pulled down the offensive board, letting Irving get the ball back, complete a winding dribbling sequence, and pass to Anderson Varejao, who hit a 14-foot jumper to put the Cavaliers ahead.

The Nets came down the court having drawn up a play to get Johnson the last shot. But when he saw a double team, he passed to Pierce, who attempted an 18-foot step-back shot but missed, essentially sinking the Nets' comeback.

"I think every shot I shoot is good," Pierce said.

Further hampering them, the Nets were not at full strength. Deron Williams, who is recovering from a sprained right ankle, was limited to 22 minutes, which meant he was unavailable for the fourth quarter.

And Jason Kidd, who is entering his first season as the Nets' coach, had to watch the game from the team hotel as he began serving a two-game suspension issued after his guilty plea last July to a drunken-driving charge.

Joe Prunty, an assistant coach, was designated as the coach shortly before the game.

That would not be a big deal, the Nets insisted, considering the basketball intelligence they put into uniform each night. Intuition, more than set plays or a coach's instruction, would guide them on the court, they said.

But as Wednesday's disjointed effort showed, that alone will not be enough, and the growing process will need to continue.

REBOUNDS

Andrei Kirilenko was inactive as he continued to recover from back spasms that forced him to miss the Nets' last five preseason games. He said he hoped to play Friday night. ...Andrew Bynum received a huge ovation when he checked into the game in the first quarter. Bynum, 26, last appeared in a game in May 2012, when he was with the Los Angeles Lakers. He missed the entire 2012-2013 season with the Philadelphia 76ers because of knee problems. Bynum, who joined the Cavaliers on a two-year contract, scored 3 points in eight minutes.

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On Baseball: Boston Leaves Worries Behind and Learns to Be Happy

Rhona Wise/European Pressphoto Agency

The Red Sox celebrated after Michael Wacha, right, gave up a three-run double to Shane Victorino. Wacha, who had been 4-0 in the postseason, allowed six runs in three and two-thirds innings.

BOSTON — They don't even worry about the Red Sox here anymore. Why would they? At Fenway Park, the fans sing:

Every little thing gonna be all right.

It is more than the at-bat anthem for Shane Victorino, the sprightly right fielder who drove in four runs in Game 6 of the World Series on Wednesday as the Red Sox won their third championship in 10 seasons. After decades of well-founded fatalism, it is now a way of life.

The Red Sox dumped the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1, to win their first title at home in 95 years. After championships on the road in 2004 and 2007, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. The Red Sox have the farm system, the finances and the fan base to be the envy of the majors for years to come.

"People call this the cathedral of baseball, and I absolutely, 100 percent agree — this place is a special place to play," Victorino said. "It's been great. It's been fun. We all understand the magnitude of tonight's game, the fact that we haven't won a championship in Fenway since 1918."

Victorino spoke before the game in a red brick interview room off the clubhouse, his headphones on the table in front of him. Written across was the slogan "Boston Strong," the city's rallying cry after the bombings at the Boston Marathon in April.

In his on-field interview with Fox television after Game 6 of the American League Championship Series, when he knocked out Detroit with a grand slam, Victorino repeated that phrase, reflexively but with passion: Boston strong. Boston strong.

Twelve of the 25 players on the World Series roster had never played for the Red Sox before this season. Yet they took to their new surroundings, some as a condition of employment.

The Red Sox, with a chance to reshape their roster after a bailout trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers last August, signed seven free agents last off-season, mostly for their talent and affordability. But they had seen the corrosive effect that miserable players could have on the clubhouse, and as they revamped a last-place team, they made sure the imports really wanted to be here.

"We knew we would be tested, and there would be skepticism, rightfully so, along the way," General Manager Ben Cherington said. "So we felt like if we had a core, kind of a critical mass of guys in the clubhouse who really wanted to be there for the right reasons, they would embrace everything that came along with being in Boston.

"You can either see playing in New York or Boston as an opportunity or a burden," Cherington added. "The more guys who see it as an opportunity, the more likely they are to get through the adversity or whatever happens during a season. So it wasn't so much a character question as, 'Is he a good guy?' It was more: 'What's his motivation? Does he want to be here?' "

Their will to stay in Boston will be tested this winter, with Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mike Napoli and Jarrod Saltalamacchia all facing free agency. Teams change every season, and the bearded brigade might even shave this winter.

They grew the beards as a form of team bonding. They know they look ridiculous.

"Some Detroit fan was getting on me and I started laughing, and he's like, 'I can't believe you're laughing,' " catcher David Ross said after the A.L.C.S. "I love fans, you know? It's cool. As long as you're not angry and being vulgar or obscene, it's fun to come to the yard and make fun of my beard. I know it looks terrible. You're not telling me anything I don't know."

Ross stayed in the lineup for Game 6, instead of Saltalamacchia, because his double off Adam Wainwright had brought in the go-ahead run on Monday. Saltalamacchia went hitless in the World Series, but he had the winning hit in Game 2 of the A.L.C.S., a ninth-inning single to left for Boston's first win against the Tigers.

Before Wednesday, the combined World Series average of all Red Sox not named David Ortiz was .151, with Ortiz the outlier at .733. But almost all have had big moments in October, despite setting a postseason record for strikeouts by an offense.

Napoli homered for the only run in Game 3 in Detroit, and he homered again in a one-run victory in Game 5. Xander Bogaerts, 21, won the starting job at third base in the middle of the A.L.C.S., becoming the youngest Red Sox player in a postseason lineup since Babe Ruth. Bogaerts entered Wednesday's game with the team's best postseason average, after Ortiz's.

Jonny Gomes had one hit through the first five World Series games, and it was a three-run, go-ahead homer in Game 4. Dustin Pedroia doubled to start the tiebreaking rally in Game 5. Ellsbury singled to start a three-run outburst in the third inning of Game 6, then doubled in the three-run fourth.

The Red Sox faced a gantlet of ace starters in the postseason, and beat them all: Matt Moore and David Price of Tampa Bay; Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez and Max Scherzer of Detroit; Adam Wainwright (twice) and Michael Wacha of St. Louis.

Jon Lester and John Lackey started nine of Boston's 16 postseason games, winning seven. Lackey, once reviled as a free-agent flop, rebuilt his arm and his physique, worked a crucial inning of relief in Game 4, and then started and won the clincher.

When Lackey faltered in the seventh, Junichi Tazawa got a groundout to leave the bases loaded. Brandon Workman followed, and Koji Uehara — Boston's third option as closer this season — completed a magical season, for himself and his team.

"Playing in front of these fans every single night, it doesn't get any better," Victorino had said, a few hours earlier. "I'm excited to see what happens. And as I said, we've still got a long, tough task ahead of us."

The task lasted only nine innings, and it was not really tough. The Red Sox left no doubt, in Game 6 or in the larger scope of the sport. They belong on top, again. Every little thing is all right.

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Spying Known at Top Levels, Officials Say

By AP

James Clapper's Testimony in 2 Minutes: Top intelligence officials defended their operations before a House committee on Tuesday as they faced growing criticism and calls for a congressional review of the nation's surveillance efforts.

WASHINGTON — The nation's top spymaster said on Tuesday that the White House had long been aware in general terms of the National Security Agency's overseas eavesdropping, stoutly defending the agency's intelligence-gathering methods and suggesting possible divisions within the Obama administration.

The official, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, testified before the House Intelligence Committee that the N.S.A. had kept senior officials in the National Security Council informed of surveillance it was conducting in foreign countries. He did not specifically say whether President Obama was told of these spying efforts, but he appeared to challenge assertions in recent days that the White House had been in the dark about some of the agency's practices.

Mr. Clapper and the agency's director, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, vigorously rejected suggestions that the agency was a rogue institution, trawling for information on ordinary citizens and leaders of America's closest allies, without the knowledge of its Washington overseers.

Their testimony came amid mounting questions about how the N.S.A. collects information overseas, with Republicans and Democrats calling for a congressional review, lawmakers introducing a bill that would curb its activities and Mr. Obama poised to impose his own constraints, particularly on monitoring the leaders of friendly nations. At the same time, current and former American intelligence officials say there is a growing sense of anger with the White House for what they see as attempts to pin the blame for the controversy squarely on them.

General Alexander said news media reports that the N.S.A. had vacuumed up tens of millions of telephone calls in France, Italy and Spain were "completely false." That data, he said, is at least partly collected by the intelligence services of those countries and provided to the N.S.A.

Still, both he and Mr. Clapper said that spying on foreign leaders — even those of allies — was a basic tenet of intelligence tradecraft and had gone on for decades. European countries, Mr. Clapper said, routinely seek to listen in on the conversations of American leaders.

"Some of this reminds me of the classic movie 'Casablanca' — 'My God, there's gambling going on here,' " Mr. Clapper said, twisting the line from the movie uttered by a corrupt French official who feigns outrage at the very activity in which he avidly partakes.

Asked whether the White House knows about the N.S.A.'s intelligence-gathering, including on foreign leaders, Mr. Clapper said, "They can and do." But, he added, "I have to say that that does not extend down to the level of detail. We're talking about a huge enterprise here, with thousands and thousands of individual requirements."

The White House has faced criticism for the N.S.A.'s surveillance practices since the first revelations by a former agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, in June. But in recent weeks it has struggled to quell a new diplomatic storm over reports that the agency monitored the cellphone of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany for more than a decade. White House officials said that the president did not know of that surveillance, but that he has told Ms. Merkel that the United States is not monitoring her phone now and would not in the future.

On Wednesday, a delegation of senior German officials is scheduled to meet at the White House with Mr. Clapper, the president's national security adviser, Susan E. Rice; his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, Lisa Monaco; and other officials.

Several current and former American officials said that presidents and their senior national security advisers have long known about which foreign leaders the United States spied on.

"It would be unusual for the White House senior staff not to know the exact source and method of collection," said Michael Allen, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration and a former staff director for the House Intelligence Committee. "That information helps a policy maker assess the reliability of the intelligence."

Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting.

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Public Housing Residents Relying on Agency Still Recovering From Storm

A year after the storm, the food line is one of many reminders of the persistent vulnerability of New York City's public housing and the hundreds of thousands of people who live in the projects.

There are the unrepaired leaks and the recurring mold in apartments, and in the ground-floor units that remain empty and uninhabitable. There is the unreliable heat from portable boilers, and the sinkholes that keep some playgrounds closed.

And there is the ocean, a block away for some residents, and the terror the Atlantic now inspires along a waterfront lined with public housing.

"I don't sleep good at night since then because I think my apartment is going to be flooded again," said Irma Pagan, 68, a resident of 47 years at O'Dwyer Gardens, a project across the street from the Coney Island boardwalk.

Ms. Pagan said that when she returned to her first-floor apartment two days after evacuating for the hurricane, "I came in here and I fainted on the floor — I never expected the destruction."

Now, she said, "I don't want to see the water; sometimes I don't even want to talk about what happened."

For many people living in public housing, the hardships unleashed by Hurricane Sandy left them perilously reliant on the New York City Housing Authority, even as the agency found it was unprepared for the storm and for the flooded boiler rooms and wrecked electrical systems that marked the aftermath. The city's largest landlord and the country's biggest local housing agency, Nycha, as it known, was inundated, and a year later it is still recovering.

Dozens of older and frail residents were trapped on high floors for weeks without power or medication. Portable generators and other emergency equipment were not readily available to replace lost light and heat. And the Housing Authority did not know where to find many of its most vulnerable tenants among the scores who failed to evacuate.

Coney Island — with nine public housing developments, high numbers of poor and infirm people, and an unobstructed view of the Atlantic — was hit hard. At O'Dwyer, a housing project with six high-rises and more than 1,000 residents, the power was not restored for over two weeks. Heat and hot water took even longer.

Complaints from public housing tenants against what they consider an unresponsive city bureaucracy are not new, but old maintenance problems have grown worse, and even the most resilient residents speak of a heightened sense of neglect — all at a time the Housing Authority is counting on their involvement to better prepare for the next disaster.

Housing officials are asking residents who are infirm or disabled to provide their medical information so the agency can share it with other city agencies to coordinate search rescue efforts; at least 900 have signed up so far, officials said. Residents are also being asked to volunteer as floor captains who would knock on doors and distribute food during an emergency and to prepare bags with cash and other essentials to be ready for evacuations.

But some tenant leaders say it is an uphill battle when so many are still coping with storm damage. At a recent preparedness meeting called by housing officials at O'Dwyer Gardens, fewer than 20 tenants showed up.

"Maybe because things are not done, they lost faith," Ilma Joyner, president of the O'Dwyer Resident Association, said. "Before Sandy people's faith was low, and a year later it's worse because people feel they're not being taken care of."

Housing officials said their buildings did better than many private buildings and that their biggest challenge was the large number of residents who did not heed evacuation orders.

Over the last year, officials say they have taken steps to better prepare for those who "shelter in place," such as tracking apartments with residents with medical and mobility issues, and forging partnerships to coordinate with the community groups that were first to reach stranded residents.

Officials said they were also working on long-term protections like raising or waterproofing heating and electrical equipment in the affected developments. But most of this is in the planning stages and awaiting money from insurance carriers and federal agencies.

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State of the Art: Lighter and Faster, It’s iPad Air

Carl Court/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The new iPad Mini, left, and the iPad Air. The Air will have plenty of competition when it goes on sale on Friday morning.

The iPad Air is noticeably lighter than its predecessors.

If you are the least bit interested in the new tablet computer from Apple, you probably already know that. The company's engineers shaved just short of a third off the weight of the earlier version; the 9.7-inch Air weighs only a pound.

What you may not know is this: Those 6.4 ounces make all the difference when, as you recline while reading or watching a movie, you conk out and the iPad falls forward to bonk you on the nose. The Air won't hurt you the way the old iPad did.

The weight reduction and a 20 percent slimmer profile provide other benefits, too. My messenger bag strap didn't dig into my shoulder as deeply when my iPad was in it. My hand didn't cramp up while grasping the iPad Air for an hour while watching movies or playing games.

But is Nose Bonking Reduction enough to justify buying a new iPad if you already own one of the 170 million iPads that have been sold over the last three and a half years? And if you have never bought a tablet computer, is this the one that persuades you to fling your laptop aside like crutches at a faith healing and embrace a new era?

When the iPad Air goes on sale on Friday morning around the globe, it will face its toughest competition yet — from Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1, Microsoft's Surface 2 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HDX. Google has a new Nexus tablet in the wings.

The iPad Air will also compete against its little brother, the iPad Mini. Later in November, Apple will begin selling a new version of that tablet, which comes with a high-resolution 7.9-inch Retina screen and the same faster processor found in both the Air and the new line of iPhones.

So how does the Air stack up? Compared with the Mini, the question really boils down to size. If all you want to do on a tablet is read books or watch movies, the smaller screen is excellent, and you can save $100 (the cheapest model of the Air costs $500. The new Mini costs $400). But I use the iPad for work, reading documents and occasionally even editing or writing on it. I also use it as a second screen (actually it's a fourth, but we won't get into that) on my desk for research on the web. The extra real estate provided by a larger screen matters at the office.

If you decide you need the bigger screen, you will find a lot of benefit in the iPad Air. In addition to being light and slim, it loads apps and web pages quickly — faster than the old iPad, because Apple tailored software to mesh with the custom A7 processor and vice versa.

It easily runs for 10 hours on a charge, just as Apple promises — despite the battery's smaller size and the increased demands put on it. In my test of pretty heavy use, it downloaded and played three hourlong episodes of "Game of Thrones" and a few hours of music. I scrolled through Twitter and Flipboard, played games and perused the web. That's almost a typical day for me and my iPad. It will get you through a normal day and then some with no worries.

The iPad Air also sports two antennas to pull in Wi-Fi signals faster than the old one did. Called MIMO for multiple-input and multiple-output, these antennas make a noticeable difference when your fast Wi-Fi signal is weakest, like in a back bedroom or the basement. (You'll have to have a recent MIMO compatible router to see the magic, though.)

But do you need to plunk down $500 or more for an Air if you already have an earlier version of the iPad? Notice I used the word "need." Even though I love shiny new objects, I really can't tell you to replace your old iPad; the improvements on the new one are incremental, not revolutionary.

If you've never had a tablet, though, the answer is different. A tablet, especially this iPad, is a delight to use and will bring you more hours of enjoyment than any other electronic device I know of.

Apple sells the devices in two colors — black and white. The company, though, calls them Space Gray and Silver because that's the color on the back of the tablet. (What can I say? It's a quirky company.) It also sells covers in six colors for $40 and cases, also in six colors, for $80. You can assume stores will soon be stuffed full of covers and cases of various materials and designs from many vendors to fit the new specs of this version.

Damon Darlin, the international business editor, is a guest columnist for State of the Art.

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Black Shoppers at Barneys and Macy’s Say They Were Profiled by Security

A new security management team instituted a more aggressive loss prevention strategy. Security personnel said they were encouraged to "take chances" in stopping suspicious customers, even if it meant intercepting innocent people. Bad grabs, they said they were told, were part of the business.

The number of contacts with the Police Department, made when security workers suspected a person had been shoplifting or engaging in credit card fraud, soon jumped drastically.

But along with the increase in cases, complaints began to surface from black shoppers who said they were victims of racial profiling in the store, on Madison Avenue. At least one shopper has filed a lawsuit against Barneys, and another plans to.

The lawsuits, which came to light last week and landed on the front page of The Daily News, attracted national attention for their allegations of race- and class-based discrimination. The suits raised criticism not only of Barneys, but of celebrity figures, like Jay-Z, who has a partnership with the store. They have also led to an inquiry by the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, and on Tuesday there was an unlikely meeting of the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Barneys chief executive, Mark Lee.

Across town, at the flagship Macy's store at Herald Square, at least two black shoppers, one of them the actor Robert Brown, of the HBO series "Treme," have said they were similarly stopped this year by the police after, they said, store security workers deemed their purchases suspicious. Mr. Schneiderman's inquiry also includes Macy's.

None of those who have come forward to say they were detained by the police were charged with any crime.

The accusations were particularly troublesome for Macy's, which, in 2005, reached an agreement with the state attorney general's office to amend its security practices after investigators found black and Hispanic shoppers were disproportionately stopped on suspicion of shoplifting. That agreement ended in 2008. This year, said an official familiar with the current investigation who was not permitted to comment publicly on its details, the state attorney general has received close to a dozen complaints from shoppers who said they had been profiled by security officers at Macy's.

In the case of Barneys, the official said, the state attorney general is investigating allegations of similar treatment in cases besides the two shoppers pursuing litigation.

"It has come to our office's attention that there are problems with what is now called 'shop and frisk' with some major stores in New York," Mr. Schneiderman said at a news conference in Buffalo on Tuesday.

Mr. Schneiderman said the investigation would look at the policies in the stores as well as the relationship between store security officers and the New York Police Department. Both Macy's and Barneys have denied involvement in the episodes of detention of shoppers that have come to light.

"In both of these instances, no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these purchases," Mr. Lee said on Tuesday, after emerging from his meeting with Mr. Sharpton in Harlem. "No one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our internal security, and no one from Barneys reached out to external authorities."

The Police Department disputed that account. In both cases, "N.Y.P.D. officers were conducting unrelated investigations and took action based on information brought to their attention by Barneys employees while in the security room," said John J. McCarthy, the department's chief spokesman.

At the center of the dispute at Barneys are two young black shoppers: Trayon Christian, 19, who has filed suit against the store and the city in State Supreme Court; and Kayla Phillips, 21, who filed a notice of intent to sue.

In his suit, Mr. Christian said the trouble occurred on April 29 after he bought a Salvatore Ferragamo belt with his Chase debit card. Several blocks away on Fifth Avenue, he said, he was stopped by plainclothes police officers.

The officers questioned his ability to pay for the belt, valued at about $350, and said the debit card must have been a fake, according to the suit. Mr. Christian was handcuffed and taken to the 19th Precinct station house where he was held, according to the suit, for about two hours before being freed.

Ms. Phillips described being "stopped, frisked, searched and detained" by the police at the store after a purchase at Barneys of a handbag valued at over $2,000.

Both stops, as well as two more related to shoppers at Macy's, were being investigated by the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau, Mr. McCarthy said.

The security changes Barneys put into effect were detailed by Raymel Cardona, a former assistant manager for loss prevention at the store, and a former plainclothes security guard, Aaron Argueta, 36. Both men were fired from Barneys, and intend to challenge their dismissals with federal employment authorities, said their lawyer, J. Patrick DeLince.

Aspects of their accounts were supported by Nafeesa Baptiste, a former sales associate of five years, who said she had increasingly found herself and her black customers — some of them well-known musicians and actors — followed by plainclothes security guards "from floor to floor."

She added that security agents frequently sought copies of receipts, in one case after a substantial cash transaction. "Because I had mostly men of color, it happened often to me," said Ms. Baptiste, 35.

She quit Barneys last month and has reported workplace harassment to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Representatives of Barneys strongly disputed the accounts of the former workers. Charlotte Blechman, the executive vice president for communications, described the two men as "disgruntled former employees," and singled out Mr. Argueta for installing a "bed and workout barbell in a company closet and sleeping on the job in the store multiple times." Mr. Cardona, his supervisor, was also "fired for cause," she said.

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Senators Warn Obama Before Iraq Leader’s Visit

Nabil Al-Jurani/Associated Press

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq is to meet with President Obama Friday.

Mr. Maliki, who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Obama on Friday, has signaled that he wants the United States to provide sophisticated weapons, including Apache attack helicopters, so that the Iraqi government can fight Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups.

The letter, signed by ranking Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers, sought to put Mr. Maliki on notice that continued American support for Iraq would depend heavily on his willingness to share power with his nation's Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

Mr. Maliki, a Shiite politician who became prime minister in 2006 with the support of the American ambassador to Baghdad, has often been accused of being sectarian and authoritarian. Those tendencies, the senators wrote, made Iraq more fertile ground for insurgents who have been mounting attacks with increasing frequency.

"This failure of governance is driving many Sunni Iraqis into the arms of Al Qaeda in Iraq and fueling the rise of violence," the letter said.

Earlier on Tuesday, two of the senators spoke angrily in separate interviews about Mr. Maliki's failure to unify the competing factions in Iraq. "He's got a lot of work to do in terms of pulling together diverse elements of his country," said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee. "He's not done a particularly good job of it."

Mr. Levin also criticized Mr. Maliki for acquiescing in, if not facilitating, Iran's efforts to supply weapons to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using flights through Iraqi airspace. "They've allowed overflights, Iranian planes, to supply Syria," Mr. Levin said.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, which is to meet with Mr. Maliki on Wednesday, was even more critical of the Iraqi leader. "What he's done is create a situation where the population is more accepting of what Al Qaeda is doing there because of his lack of inclusiveness," Mr. Corker said.

The other senators who signed the letter were John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans who have long taken a strong interest in Iraq; Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the Senator Foreign Relations Committee; and James M. Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who is the ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee.

In expressing alarm over the rising number of bombings and the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the senators also appeared to chide Mr. Obama for not being more outspoken about developments there.

The letter emphasized that Mr. Maliki's visit was an opportunity for Mr. Obama to "re-engage with the American people about the continuing strategic importance of Iraq."

The last American troops left Iraq at the end of 2011 under an agreement signed by President George W. Bush and Mr. Maliki. The United States and Iraq have signed an agreement calling for cooperation on security and economic issues. But critics say that such cooperation has never fully developed.

In their letter, the senators urged the president to step up American efforts to help Iraq's security force to fight terrorist groups, especially through the increased sharing of intelligence.

The senators stopped short of saying that such support should be withheld if Mr. Maliki did not adopt a more inclusive approach in governing. But they warned that the degree of American support for security assistance and arms sales would be influenced by Mr. Maliki's "governance strategy."

A major concern of many lawmakers is that American weapons supplied to the Iraqi government might be used by Mr. Maliki to crack down on his political opponents.

Mr. Maliki is leading a large delegation to Washington and is also scheduled to meet with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other senior officials.

In his remarks in Baghdad before flying to Washington, Mr. Maliki made clear that his priority was to secure support for sale of American arms and other forms of security assistance. "We will discuss security and intelligence in addition to arms needed by the military to fight terrorism," he said.

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Ike Skelton, Former Congressman, Dies at 81

Harry Hamburg/Associated Press

Former Democratic Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, shown in November 2010, shortly after he lost his seat.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Former Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton, who built a reputation as a military expert and social conservative during 34 years representing western and central Missouri in the U.S. House, died Monday in Virginia. He was 81.

Skelton died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., surrounded by his wife, his sons and their families as well as longtime colleague Russell Orban, who confirmed the death. The cause was not immediately released, but Orban said Skelton entered the hospital a week earlier with a bad cough.

A former prosecutor in his native Lexington, Mo., Skelton joined the national Kansas City-based law firm of Husch Blackwell following his 2010 defeat in Missouri's 4th Congressional District by Republican Vicky Hartzler, a state lawmaker who had strong tea party backing.

Skelton worked for the firm in both Kansas City and Washington, D.C., and maintained homes in Lexington and the Washington suburb of McLean, Va.

Skelton won the first of 17 congressional terms in 1976 and was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee at the time of his loss to Hartzler.

An astute military historian, Skelton helped build up Missouri's two military installations. As Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster was losing its cache of long-range nuclear missiles, Skelton secured its future in the late 1980s by getting the Defense Department to place the new B-2 bomber there.

After redistricting made Skelton the representative for Missouri's Fort Leonard Wood in 1983, the number of troops undergoing training there more than quadrupled and the post's mission expanded from the Army to all branches of military service.

"No member of the Congress was more dedicated to America's defense and those who defend us than Ike Skelton," said U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican who served with Skelton in the U.S. House. "He loved our country and its history and will be remembered for his contributions to both."

Born Dec. 20, 1931, Skelton met President Harry Truman as a teenager and had a lifelong interest in politics. He was elected Lafayette County prosecutor in 1956 and later practiced law with his father, but returned to elective office in 1970 when he won a six-year term in the Missouri Senate.

An endorsement from Truman's widow, Bess, helped him win his first race for the U.S. House.

"Missouri lost a giant tonight," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. "Ike Skelton represented the very best of Missouri, and fought tirelessly for the state he loved. Those of us lucky enough to call him a friend know that he lived the Missouri values of compromise and common sense. And in his half-century of service, he showed how Missouri could be a leader in contributing to the safety and security of our nation."

Until his loss to Hartzler, Skelton's closest call in a re-election bid had been a 10 percentage point victory in 1982, when redistricting changed his territory. He was a low-key campaigner but so dominant a political figure that late in his career, his campaign signs sometimes consisted only of the word "IKE" against a green background.

"He was beloved and respected by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Ike was a devoted advocate for our men and women in uniform," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "To many in Congress and across Missouri, Ike was a mentor and a friend, and he will be missed."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said, "Congressman Skelton's quiet confidence and unwavering conviction is a tribute to his roots and a testament to the political courage that defines the best traditions of leadership."

Among his civic activities, Skelton was a presidential appointee to the American Battle Monuments Commission, which is in charge of U.S. military resting places overseas, and the World War I Centennial Commission, which is planning next year's activities marking the 100th anniversary of the start of that war.

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Ellis Island Welcoming Visitors Once Again, but Repairs Continue

"It feels wonderful to be able to welcome visitors again," said David Luchsinger, superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, which includes Ellis Island. "It's overwhelming."

Mr. Luchsinger said he was determined to reopen the Ellis Island Immigration Museum before the anniversary of the hurricane, even though the site has not fully recovered. And he chose Monday, in part, because it was the 127th birthday of the Statue of Liberty.

By midday, hundreds of visitors, many of them international tourists, had disembarked from ferries to gaze at the Great Hall on the second floor of the main immigration building. The island was where 12 million immigrants arrived for processing between 1892 and 1954, when the federal venture closed for good. (It reopened as a historic site in 1990.)

Stephane Leroy of Paris was there with his son Simeon, 12. Mr. Leroy, 41, had visited Ellis Island 20 years ago and wanted to share it with his wife and son, but worried that it might not reopen in time for their vacation to New York City.

"We are flying back to France tomorrow morning, so we just made it," Mr. Leroy said.

The brick-and-limestone French Renaissance Revival building that serves as the centerpiece of Ellis Island was spared major structural damage during the hurricane. But the storm surge sent eight feet of water pouring into the basement, destroying the site's electrical, computing, phone, heat, water and sewage systems. Concerned about humidity levels and temperatures, officials moved two-thirds of the museum's collection into storage.

Permanent fixes are still being worked on. The goal, Mr. Luchsinger said, is to make all future systems resilient "in case, God forbid, another Sandy comes rolling through." By next May, a new electrical system should be placed out of harm's way on the second floor of the incinerator building, while a new heating and air-conditioning system able to withstand flooding will be installed in the basement.

Until that new heating system is in place, Ellis Island is using the building's radiators, which had sat silent and cold for years. Temporarily reviving the steam heat allowed the National Park Service, which runs the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, to reopen the site. Liberty Island reopened on July 4.

Mr. Luchsinger could have opened Ellis Island this summer, except for the absence of air-conditioning. During the next few months, he said, the million artifacts will be brought back from Maryland and placed in dozens of galleries, still closed, on either side of the Great Hall. On Monday, one gallery labeled "Peak Immigration Years" displayed a sign that read: "Area Closed. Do Not Enter."

Right before Hurricane Sandy hit, Ellis Island had opened a new permanent exhibition, called "Journeys: The Peopling of America 1550-1890." That exhibit is now back, and another installment, capturing the post-Ellis Island immigrant experience, will open next fall.

Jean Hart, of Newport Beach, Calif., was there for opening day with her son Andrew, a former New Yorker also from California. Ms. Hart's paternal grandparents, who were from Eastern Europe, had come through Ellis Island upon arriving in New York, and she was hoping to find some record of their brief visit.

"I had no idea what Ellis Island looked like," she said, taking in the 28,000 tiles that make up the vaulted ceiling. "It's really something."

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Red Sox 3, Cardinals 1: Lester and Ortiz Lead Red Sox to Game 5 Win

No controversy, no ill-timed mistakes. Game 5 brought the World Series back to pure baseball.

Boston's 3-1 win belonged to Jon Lester, who emphatically answered those conspiracy theorists questioning the validity of his Game 1 performance by focusing on a substance seen inside his glove.

His glove was clean on Monday, and his pitching line was nearly spotless as well: seven and two-thirds innings, four hits, one run, seven strikeouts to send the Red Sox back to Fenway Park with a 3-2 Series lead.

David Ross, Lester's personal catcher, delivered the go-ahead R.B.I. single in the seventh, after David Ortiz, who finished 3 for 4, put Boston on the board with a run-scoring double in the first. Jacoby Ellsbury added an R.B.I. as well.

The Cardinals could manage only Matt Holliday's home run, and saw their ace, Adam Wainwright, lose for the second time in the Series.

The Red Sox storm back to Fenway Park with back-to-back wins and a chance to clinch the Series at home for the first time since 1918.

Bottom 9th, 11:03 P.M. Red Sox Wrap Up Game 5

No chaos in the ninth? No errors or obstructions or pick-offs? How bizarre. But Boston's terrific closer Koji Uehara shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning to seal the 3-1 win. The game again finished with Carlos Beltran unable to swing the bat in the last inning.

Bottom 8th, 10:48 P.M. Lester Gets Help from Uehara

Lester finishes after seven and two-thirds innings, allowing four hits and one run. Closer Koji Uehara strikes out pinch-hitter Matt Adams on three pitches to end the inning with a runner on second.

In a curious move, Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny opted not to pinch hit for the struggling shortstop Pete Kozma with a runner on second base. Lester got Kozma to fly out to left field for the second out.

This is a joke, right? Kozma is batting with a man on second in the 8th inning, down by two?

— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) 29 Oct 13

In case you were wondering, Carlos Beltran is due up fourth in the bottom of the ninth inning for the Cardinals. If this 3-1 score holds, he could get another chance for a big hit (without the pickoff this time, perhaps).

Top 7th, 10:14 P.M. Red Sox Take 3-1 Lead

After inexplicably walking Stephen Drew (who is 4 for 49) in the series, Wainwright gives up an R.B.I. double to the No. 8 hitter, David Ross. An Ellsbury single then brings Drew around for a 3-1 lead. But centerfielder Shane Robinson guns down Ross at the plate to end the inning.

So, 3-1 is where we stand. And another significant play is made at home plate.

Significant, too, was Boston Manager John Farrell's decision not to pinch hit for Jon Lester there, at less than 70 pitches. Though he made an out at the plate, Lester has pitched phenomenally.

10:11 P.M. Not the Only Game in Town

It's haltime here at the Edward Jones Dome, where the Seahawks are beatng the Rams, 7-3. Game 5 of the World Series is being shown on the large screens in each end zone. Throughout the game here, people have gathered around TVs in the concourses to watch the Series. People in the stands have been checking their smartphones and listening on radios.

The stadium showed Matt Holliday rounding the bases here after home run helped the Cardinals tie the score, and it made for a funny moment. The Seahawks' offense was still huddling and the crowd let out this huge cheer that I'm sure surprised a few players.

— Tim Rohan

Top 6th, 9:47 P.M. Ortiz Is Not Unbeatable

The Cardinals (finally) pitch carefully to David Ortiz, and Ortiz (finally) makes an out with a fly ball to center. He had reached in nine consecutive plate appearances, tying Cincinnati's Billy Hatcher's mark set in 1990.

It was the first time Big Papi had been retired since the second inning of Game 3. That was Saturday.

David Ortiz has 46% of the Red Sox total bases in this Series.

— David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) 29 Oct 13

Bottom 4th, 9:18 P.M. Holliday Helps Cardinals Pull Even

Matt Holliday ties the game, 1-1, in the fourth on an inside cutter that he blasted beyond the wall in center.

Then the next batter, Carlos Beltran, nearly gives St. Louis a lead, but his deep fly is caught at the warning track in left by Jonny Gomes.

9:08 P.M. PItch and Field, but No Hit

Counting postseason, Lester is 0 for 34 in his career. Tim Lincecum said in Aug. he remembered Lester as a good-hitting 1B in high school

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) 29 Oct 13

Bottom 3rd, 9:07 P.M. Cardinals Threaten, Lester Responds

Cardinals put a runner into scoring position, but Lester gets out of the inning with a strikeout of Matt Carpenter that looked jussssstttt a bit outside. Carpenter spun around, eyes agape, in disgust. But that ended the inning.

Bottom 2nd, 8:48 P.M. Lester Clean on the Scoreboard and in His Glove

Lester allows his first hit (to Beltran) in the second, and so far his stuff looks just as good as in Game 1. But there has been no sign of the odd green substance that was in his glove in his first start, which cause a minor online stir the day after.

Top 1st, 8:21 P.M. Red Sox Jump On Top

After an R.B.I. double in the first, Ortiz is 9 for 12 this World Series and has reached base in eight consecutive plate appearances, one shy of a Series record. That is mindbogglingly good.

Adam Wainwright would up striking out the side, but no matter. 1-0 , Red Sox.

If only David Ortiz were hot…

— trey wingo (@wingoz) 29 Oct 13

8:01 P.M. Starting Lineups

Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Ortiz 1B
Gomes LF
Nava RF
Bogaerts 3B
Drew SS
Ross C
Lester SP

Carpenter 2B
Robinson CF
Holliday LF
Beltran RF
Molina C
Craig 1B
Freese 3B
Kozma SS
Wainwright SP

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Ike Skelton, Former Congressman From Missouri, Dies at 81

Ike Skelton, a Democratic congressman who was ousted in the Republican sweep of 2010 after serving his Missouri district for more than 30 years, died on Monday in Arlington, Va. He was 81.

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Representative Ike Skelton in 2006. He lost his seat in 2010.

His death was confirmed by the law firm Husch Blackwell, where Mr. Skelton was a partner. He died at Virginia Hospital Center after a brief illness, according to a statement from his family.

Mr. Skelton, who was first elected to the House in 1976, was known as an expert on national defense and served as the chairman of House Armed Services Committee from 2007 until leaving office.

He was re-elected time and time again in a deeply conservative district that stretches from the Kansas City suburbs to the Ozarks, and he had a long record of supporting two local military institutions: Fort Leonard Wood and Whiteman Air Force Base, which he secured as the base for the nation's fleet of B-2 bombers.

"He led an exemplary life of honor, courage and public service," Maurice Watson, the chairman of Husch Blackwell, said Monday in a statement. "His commitment to our country, the state of Missouri and the men and women who serve our nation in the armed services was unsurpassed."

Mr. Skelton was a social conservative who supported gun rights, opposed abortion rights and voted against President Obama's health care law. Before his defeat, he had not received less than 60 percent of the vote since 1982.

But that record was not enough to overcome the national tide of Republicans elected to the House in 2010. Representative Vicky Hartzler, the Republican who beat Mr. Skelton and still holds the seat, received support from many Tea Party members and tied him to Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, then the House speaker.

Mr. Skelton was born in Lexington, Mo., and won his first election in 1956 to become the prosecuting attorney in Lafayette County. He served in the Missouri State Senate before entering Congress.

After leaving the House, he became a partner at Husch Blackwell, working in its Missouri and Washington offices. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Martin, and three sons.

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World Series Game 5: Red Sox 3, Cardinals 1: One Win Away and Headed for Home

John G. Mabanglo/European Pressphoto Agency

Red Sox starter Jon Lester tossing the ball to first to record an out. He allowed one run and four hits in seven and two-thirds innings, striking out seven.

ST. LOUIS — There were no bizarre endings involving obstruction or pickoffs, this time, no balks or hidden-ball tricks, either, to end the game in some confusing and stunning fashion.

Game 5 of the 2013 World Series on Monday ended as hundreds before it have, with a routine out, but that was sweet enough for the Boston Red Sox, who beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1, and are now one win from their eighth World Series championship.

Jon Lester pitched a magnificent game for the second time in the Series, earning his second win by holding the Cardinals to a home run by Matt Holliday over seven and two-thirds innings, and David Ortiz continued his remarkable run of success at the plate. Ortiz collected three more hits, including a run-scoring double, as his Series batting average rose to .733.

He also extended his streak of reaching safely to nine plate appearances, tying Billy Hatcher, who did it with the Cincinnati Reds in the 1990 World Series. With two home runs in the series, his slugging percentage plus his on-base percentage is an almost absurd 2.017.

"I was born for this," Ortiz said.

The Red Sox survived the three games in the National League ballpark without the use of the designated hitter, and now have two chances to close out the Series at Fenway Park and secure their third World Series title in nine years.

"I just told Jonny Gomes in the clubhouse," Lester said, "we show up Feb. 1, play 162, were at 180 total, now. It comes down to one game.

"Pretty special time."

Wednesday's game in Boston will be the first World Series Game 6 at Fenway Park since 1975, when Bernie Carbo's three-run pinch-hit homer set the stage for Carlton Fisk's game-ending blast in the 12th inning.

This series, with its 11 combined errors and mistakes at the plate and on the basepaths, is not shaping up nearly as neatly, but at least there were no glaring mistakes or errors in Game 5.

Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals starter, struck out 10 batters and pitched far better than he did in Game 1.

But he gave up two runs in the seventh inning after a big gaffe. After allowing a one-out single to Xander Bogaerts, Wainwright walked Stephen Drew, the weak-hitting Red Sox shortstop who came into the at-bat 1 for 14 in the Series and 4 for 49 to that point during this postseason.

"More than anything, walking Drew there, that really hurt," Wainwright said.

Drew said he was starting to see the ball better and was able to lay off some tough pitches.

"Bogie getting on right there and myself, it changed the game," Drew said.

David Ross immediately made Wainwright pay by lashing a ground-rule double into the left-field corner to drive in Bogaerts and break a 1-1 tie. One out later, Jacoby Ellsbury looped a base hit to center to bring home Drew, and even though Ross was thrown out at the plate, the Red Sox led, 3-1.

Boston opened the scoring with a run in the first when Dustin Pedroia and Ortiz hit back-to-back doubles as Boston snatched a 1-0 lead. Ortiz, who rallied his team with an impromptu dugout meeting in Game 4 on Sunday, now has six runs batted in over five games.

"That's why we call him Cooperstown," Ross said, "because he does Hall of Fame stuff."

Ortiz finally made an out in the sixth, but only when center fielder Shane Robinson caught a line drive that Ortiz scalded.

This Series has been characterized by its errors and mistakes, and two unusual endings. On Saturday, Game 3 ended on an obstruction call on Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks; on Sunday, Game 4 ended when Cardinals' pinch-runner Kolten Wong was picked off first base. Before this year, no World Series games had ended in either manner.

But Game 5, the last game at Busch Stadium this year, was a relatively crisp affair. Lester, with an unsolvable cutter, walked no one and struck out seven. He was in control until he was lifted for the closer Koji Uehara with two outs in the eighth.

He was so calm that when an enormous paper airplane sailed down from the stands and landed on the infield grass to the left of the dugout, he merely walked over and handed it to the bat boy. Then it was back to work. And after surrendering Holliday's home run in the fourth, he set down the next 12 batters he faced.

"He's our backbone," Ross said. "He's our horse when he's out there."

Ross also said that he already had a pit in his stomach thinking about Game 6 in Boston. Imagine how the Cardinals, who are on the brink of defeat, must feel.

"We'll be ready to win two tough games in Boston," Wainwright said.

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New Milestone Emerges: Baby’s First iPhone App

Charlotte Deutsch, who will be 2 years old next month, has a look of pure delight as she swipes the screen of her mother's old iPhone, and finds a picture of herself.

"Baby Chacha!" she crows, swiping again to encounter another treasure. "Dada!"

On the new iPhone — the one her mother actually uses — her big sister, Izzy, 4, is utterly intent on "Dora's Ballet Adventure," her tiny thumb tapping away at the stars and arrows.

The iPhones, loaded with 20 children's apps and some 1,200 photographs, are among the girls' favorite playthings. "The little one loves to go through the pictures and name who's in them, see her grandma and her nanny," said their mother, Tina Deutsch, a former nursery school teacher. "The older one loves the games, and taking pictures. She loves the clicking sound, and if it's blurry, she knows how to delete it."

As adults turn, increasingly, to mobile devices like tablets, Kindles, and iPhones, their children — even the smallest ones — are doing so as well, according to a new study, "Zero to Eight: Children's Media Use in America, 2013" by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that examines children's use of technology, and rates children's apps, games and Web sites.

The study is based on a nationally representative Internet survey of 1,463 parents with children under 8.

Over the last two years, the shift has been drastic. Among children under 2, the survey found, 38 percent had used mobile devices like iPhones, tablets, or Kindles — the same share as children 8 and under who had used such technology in a similar survey two years ago.

Tablets, in particular, have become far more common. Forty percent of families now own tablets, up from only 8 percent two years ago. And this year's survey found that 7 percent of the children had tablets of their own.

"I was blown away by the rapidity of the change," said Vicky Rideout, the author of both the new report and the 2011 version. "IPhones and tablets are game changers, because they're so easy to use. While there was some floor on how young you could go with computers and video games, a young child who can touch a picture can open an app, or swipe the screen."

Though many parents express pride and amazement that their young children are so tech-savvy, she said, what has really happened is that technology has gotten much easier to use.

Certainly, mobile devices are more convenient than traditional technology, whether for a parent's own use or for distracting a fussy child in a restaurant.

"I know if I need Zoe to be quiet for an hour, I can hand her the iPad and I won't hear from her," said Dr. Laurel Glaser, a Philadelphia physician with two daughters, Zoe, 5, and Maya, 1,

Dr. Glaser was one of the few parents interviewed who said she tried to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation that children under 2 should have no screen time.

"I'm not superstrict and sometimes we have the television on and both girls see it," she said. "But we don't have any baby apps for Maya."

Mostly, the group's recommendation is ignored. The survey found that children under 2, on average, spend an hour a day in front of screens — engaging in activities like watching television, using computers, viewing DVDs, playing with mobile apps. Children ages 2 to 4 averaged two hours a day, and those 5 to 8, two hours and 20 minutes.

There are vast numbers of apps for babies and children, available free or at low cost: educational apps to teach letters, numbers, shapes, sign language; apps featuring television characters like Dora the Explorer; game apps (Angry Birds is a favorite with all ages); and art and music apps.

Many families, like the Deutsches, have smartphones with collections of family photos and videos of their children's recent outings, haircuts or play dates.

"It used to be that a screen was a screen was a screen, and children just sat and watched," said Ms. Rideout. "But now it can be lots of different things."

The time younger children spent on mobile devices was still relatively short, the study found. On average, children under 8 spent 15 minutes a day on mobile devices, up from 5 minutes a day in 2011. Among those who used a mobile device during a typical day, the average was an hour and seven minutes, up from 43 minutes in 2011.

But as mobile devices have become more popular, the amount of time children spend with the screens of more traditional technology — television, DVDs, video games and computers — has declined by half an hour a day over the last two years.

Television still dominates, though, taking up about half of all children's screen media time.

Almost all parents of children under 8 have televisions, the survey found, and most have cable as well. Three in 10 now have Internet connectivity with their televisions, so they can stream shows to their set from Netflix or other services. And increasingly, television is time-shifted — streamed, on demand, or recorded for later use — to suit the viewers' convenience.

The study was conducted with a probability-based online panel by GfK, a research company. The data was collected May 20 to June 12 and has a sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

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Wallace Becomes Nascar’s Second Black Winner

It took 65 years for a black driver to make it to victory lane in Nascar. On Saturday, it finally happened.

Steve Helber/Associated Press

Darrell Wallace Jr. on Saturday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway after becoming the second black winner of a Nascar national series race.

Darrell Wallace Jr., 20, took the checkered flag in the Camping World Truck Series's Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia, becoming the second black driver to win a Nascar national series race since the sport's inception in 1949. But he was the first permitted to celebrate in victory lane.

When Wendell Scott won in Jacksonville, Fla., on Dec. 1, 1963, he was kept out of victory lane. Wallace's victory and tearful celebration Saturday gave Nascar, a sport with a sometimes ignominious history with regard to race, an opportunity to showcase its growing diversity.

"We congratulate Darrell Wallace Jr. on his first national series victory, one that will be remembered as a remarkable moment in our sport's history," Brian France, Nascar's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. "Darrell's success, following fellow Nascar Drive for Diversity graduate Kyle Larson's win earlier this season, is indicative of a youth and multicultural movement that bodes well for Nascar's future growth."

Nascar has worked for nearly 10 years to develop minority and female drivers in the hope they can help attract a younger and more diverse audience. Danica Patrick arrived from the IndyCar Series a few years ago. With her large following, she gave Nascar a high-profile female presence.

Wallace, along with Larson, a Japanese-American driver, came up through the Drive for Diversity program. Larson, a top dirt-track driver before arriving in Nascar, is racing full time in the Nationwide Series this season and has a Truck Series win as well. He is moving up to the premier Sprint Cup next season.

Wallace's future is not nearly as certain. A rookie in the Truck Series and only the third black driver to race a full season in a Nascar national series since Scott competed at the Cup level from 1961 to 1973, Wallace has not yet secured his ride for next season. The team owner Kyle Busch, a Cup driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, said Saturday that he was working to secure full sponsorship of his No. 54 truck for Wallace in 2014. Saturday's victory cannot hurt those prospects.

Wallace has been seen for years as the black driver most likely to break through in Nascar. But he conceded that the pressure to attract a sponsor and help diversify a sport were too much for a time. Although he has 11 top-10 finishes in 19 races, has secured one pole and has led 340 laps as a rookie, Wallace said his earlier performances suffered from the expectations he put on himself.

"I used to go out there and think I've got to do this to help better the sport — I've got to go out there and run top five and try to win a race," Wallace said in a telephone interview Sunday. "Now I just go out there and do my best, and hopefully it settles it. If not, I'll try again next week. I do believe this win did help that a lot."

Still, it is just a beginning. The integration of Nascar is far from complete; Nascar has not had a black driver race in the Cup Series since Bill Lester ran two races in 2006. Willy T. Ribbs competed in three Cup races in 1986. Before that? You have to go all the way back to Scott in the 1960s and '70s to find a black Cup driver. He remains the only Nascar driver to race a full season in the Cup-level series.

It is too soon to know if Wallace will be the second. But he took a big step toward that goal on Saturday.

Among those watching the race were Wendell Scott Jr. and Franklin Scott. They are the sons of Wendell Scott, who died in 1990 and is buried in Danville, Va., 30 miles east of Martinsville Speedway.

It has long been a part of Nascar legend that officials scored Buck Baker the winner of that Jacksonville race because they did not want Scott in victory lane kissing the white beauty queen, as was customary after races in those days. Nascar did not officially change the scoring until hours after the race. Scott never saw the winner's trophy; a replica was given to his family in a ceremony in 2010.

Scott's sons have known Wallace for years. They had been waiting for this moment, too.

"When the checkered flag dropped," Franklin Scott said Sunday at a news conference in Martinsville, "I heard a big boom from heaven, and my daddy said, 'Hell, yeah.' "

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