Time to watch the Sox and Yanks battle again...and the other guys.

Opening day is almost here and I'm excited about Red Sox vs. Yankees....and I guess I'll watch the other guys from time to time.

It's great to be a long time Red Sox Fan. Born and raised in it, always been a Sox fan always will be a Sox fan and I get to be part of a historic rivalry that is always fuming year after year. Sure I cringe when Bill Buckner's name is brought up and I take my lumps about trading away the Babe. But those times make the good times that much better.

I love Yankees fans who puff out their chests about how many rings they have. I get to smile really big and talk about how there has only been one team to choke away a 3-0 lead in a playoff series and that was the Yankees. And who did they do it to, that's right the Boston Red Sox 2004. Our victory that year was so sweet. I wept like a little girl when we won game 7. But here is my point.....who did the Red Sox play in 2004 to win their first ring in 86 years? Here's a better point, WHO CARES!!!

Red Sox vs. Yankees is what everyone talks about that year. Up 3 games, the Yankees look like they are going to sweep the Red Sox again. Nobody has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Every Boston fan is ready to hang themselves from the closest yardarm they can find. Everyone walking around saying here we go again, we can't catch a break, mother-fing Red Soxs. Every year I believe and this ALWAYS happens, we get close and we get knocked back on our loser ass. Let's just burn the stadium to the ground. Fire everyone. AHHHHHHHH.........

But wait, game 4 gets played. And even though we all thought we knew the inevitable, we still had to watch because maybe, just maybe they can pull it out. We were trailing going into the 9th...Rivera was coming in to pitch the last inning. We were done, that's it, get the lighter fluid out, I'm going Milton on the stadium. But wait, Millar gets walked, Roberts pinch runs and steals 2nd. That's ballzy Francona. Mueller hits a single and Roberts scores to tie it.

You know what I was thinking, come on Sox fans you were thinking it too, these guys are going to lose it in extra innings. I'm going to have to suffer through another God knows how many hours of this only to see them lose in the 15th inning and even if they do win it's only 1 game. No ones ever come back from being down 3-0. Apparently Big Papy didn't get the memo because Ortiz ends up winning it with a dinger in the 12th. And my pain, turned once again to hope.

I didn't like it. Freaking hope. I'd been dupped so many times before, but God Bless me, I believed and I started running my mouth. That's right Yankees fans I started calling my shot. "We are going to do it", I'd say, "we are going to make history. Jetter sucks, Rivera's been broken, A-Rod's is a joke and Torre"...well Torre....alright Joe Torre's a stud and I can't even belittle him in a Blog. Does that guy ever not take a team to the playoffs. But I digress and in the end the Yankees as a whole are evil and they were going down and I was shouting it from the roof tops.

Then just before game 5, I thought for sure I was going to be ruined for my over confidence. No one has ever come back from being down 3-0. I was like Gollum from Lord of the Rings arguing between my pessimistic side and my optimistic side.

Next game,game 5, same freaking thing. Extra innings, Ortiz singles in the 14th inning to score the game winner. 14 innings of agonizing twisted insanity. The pacing, the struggle, the yelling, the glory, we won again....but wait, no one has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit.

Next game, game 6, Kurt, "I have the biggest set of balls on the planet," Schilling pitches the game with a dislocated ankle tendon, blood soaking through his sock. 7 innings, 1 run and we go on to win that game and force a game 7 which had never been done.

Next game, game 7, it wasn't even a contest. The Yankees had been broken, beaten, and left wanting. We won 10-3 and I didn't even feel comfortable with that lead. I kept screaming at my TV, it isn't enough, keep scoring you fools. NO ONE HAS EVER COME BACK FROM A 3-0 DEFICIT. Final pitch was thrown and the Red Sox found redemption after decades of disappointment.

I am a proud man and I cried and screamed and giggled like a little girl when they won. It honestly was one of the greatest moments of my life. And if you are a Padres fan, you will never know how that felt. If you are Marlins fan (do the Marlins have any fans), you will never know how that felt. And if you are a Red Sox fan who wasn't a fan before the turn of the century, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW THAT FELT!!! Sorry, but it's true.

In baseball, there is the Yankees and the Red Sox.......and then there are other guys who play too. Don't believe me that everyone else is just 2nd best. Sunday starts the regular season. There is 1 game and 1 game only on Sunday. Guess who's playing in that game? Red Sox and the Yankees. Everyone elses season starts on Monday. But who cares, Red Sox and Yankees don't play again until Tuesday.

Oh yeah, Red Sox went on to beat the Cardinals in 2004. St. Louis got swept, never won 1 game. They were a foot note stuck at the end of the period on this sentence. "Yankees choke away 3 game lead to lose the ALDS to the Boston Red Sox."