Relief at Last for Red Sox Fans

Oct. 21, 2004 -- -- I didn't sleep last night. Not many Red Sox fans did. There was too much to think about. Too much to cheer. Too much to savor.

Yes, it was an impressive sports feat that should be noted in the annals of history. No baseball team has ever come back from three games down to win a seven-game series. It was an incredible comeback. But this doesn't even begin to describe the transcendent nature of what has happened over four magical, mythical nights this October.

This is cosmic, biological, existential. The universe is a different place than it was last Saturday night. Last Saturday, we lived in a world where the Red Sox never beat the Yankees. Never. The Yankees always embarrassed the Red Sox. Always.

Imagine getting beaten up by the school bully every day for a year … no wait make that 86 years. This was as certain as certain can be. Now it is over. The bully is on the ground. Never will never mean never again.

Every Red Sox fan should find another to hug today. Every male should grow a beard in honor of Johnny Damon. Every medical school should offer a class on how to stitch a flapping tendon. Every poet should write a verse about Curt Schilling's ankle and his dripping, blood-red Sox.

Let's talk about the Yankees for a second. How are we supposed to feel about them and their fans now? Empathy? Concern? Perhaps there is some merit to being a gracious winner. But perhaps there is also some merit to cherishing the pout on Derek Jeter's face, the glum look from Alex Rodriguez. Who says you have to give the bully a hand up when he is bleeding on the ground?

Plus, most Red Sox fans are still dealing with this lingering fear ... couldn't there still be some way for the Yankees to win? An unlikely triumph in Game 8?

No. Not this time.

Yes, there is still the World Series, and to lose that now would be a new kind of torture. But when it comes to the Yankees, and their loathsome, evil death-grip on our hopes and dreams, it is over.