Start spreading the news.......

Whew!! 162 regular season games and 4 playoff games came down to a best of what turned out to be the end of the wildest playoff series in a long time if not ever.

All you need to know about this year's Sox is that when Jackson and Damon were lying on the ground after head butting each other so hard that you could hear it on television, Nomar still bent over his unconscious teammate to grab the ball and tossed it to 2nd to get the runner out and end the inning.

And now the frequent flyer Sox grab a cup of coffee, take some No-Doz and pick up their broken center fielder to head off to New Yawk to face the very well rested Yankees ("Thanx, FOX! Playing every other day can be fun AND relaxing!!!"). Who will replace Johnny Damon on the playoff roster? Will BK Kim and his middle finger and official Yankee-branded pair of Depends be left off? Who will be the Game 1 starter? I dunno. Right now Grady would probably take suggestions.

As for the A's, not only are they snake-bit losing 9 times (NINE TIMES!!!!) in elimination games over 4 seasons, but to start whining about a misinterpreted gesture that was made by Derek Lowe (in which he apologized for) is just sad. Granted that they are really frustrated (they had the winning run 180 feet away!), but don't take away from another team's celebration, even if it's on your own field (just ask the team that beat you....the Sox were eliminated at Fenway in their last 3 playoff seasons and each time got held their heads high, gave their best to their opponent and headed to the clubhouse).

Upon the end of the exciting game, hundreds of fans back around Fenway brought the celebration to the streets including overturning a car or two. And this is just the first round! Can you imagine if they beat the Yankees let alone win the whole thing? I've said it for years, when and/or if the Sox win it all, we'll get a new ballpark because the old one will be burnt to the ground along with half the Back Bay.