WELL. I WAS GOING TO WRITE SOMETHING CHIDING NEW ENGLANDERS FOR THEIR RED SOX MANIA: Which seems ridiculous when they have the friggin' Patriots, owners of almost every important NFL winning streak as of today (except the undefeated season one, but I think what they've done is actually more impressive, given the parityliciousness of the contemporary NFL. And they could still pull that one off.) But then the Red Sox pulled it off, doing it in the extremely difficult beating-Mariano-Rivera-in-the-playoffs way. Now to win they have to win three in a row and a game seven in the Bronx. Hey, good luck, but if the baseball gods really are favoring the Sox this year like everybody thought they were, they (the gods) certainly have a highly developed sense of drama. Being gods, that is to be expected.

The thing that I was going to write about was how sick we are hearing about the Sox and the Patirots are right there and blah blah blah. Then I was going to add something about how if the Celtics couldn't remove the myopic focus on the Sox during the Celtics' heyday, nothing ever could. And something about how I was souring on them anyway, through no fault of their own; more through of being sick of the constant Sox-Yankees talk during this time of year. But they looked so happy out there when Ortiz jumped into the crowd at home plate, celebrating one measly victory and being up against the wall in the worst possible way, that I am back on the Sox bandwagon. It would take a monumental victory for them to win at this point, but the Pistons beat the Lakers. Anything's possible.

One random football note: it must be great to be a successful NFL coach and wear the official NFL gear coaches' shirts and not have to worry about one's developing manboobs in the least. It takes a Bill Belichick to really pull off gynecomastia, I guess.