Either way, we'll take either team down. Berman brought this up on the game tonight--the whole thing about whether Sox fans would feel better about beating the yanks in the ALCS and losing the WS than beating someone else in the ALCS and winning the WS. I've talked about this before, but here's one thing I don't think I mentioned:

As you know, before 1994, there was no chance of the Sox playing the yanks in a post-season series. It was whoever had the better season record that moved on to the playoffs. You could never have both teams in post-season play at the same time for the first ninety-odd years of these franchises. (Even the one time the two finished tied for the best record, the one-game playoff was still considered a regular season game. That was definitely a case of a head-to-head, "whoever wins is better" type scenario, but again, it only came up once, and it was only one game.) It's not like we've lost to the yanks in a seven-game series thirty-five times and won zero or something.

So to say that we'd be disappointed if we beat the Twins, moved on to the WS, and beat the Cards, I think, would be ridiculous. Left wondering, maybe. But in that case, could they really say shit to us, after we won the World Series, while they proved that they weren't even good enough to make it far enough to have a chance to play us? No. Isn't what this whole curse crap is about? Us not winning it all?

The "curse" isn't: Babe Ruth's ghost was pissed that the Sox sold him to the yanks, so he made baseball wait decades and decades, but then finally come up with a system where the two teams could play a seven game series to decide the American League, and in the very few times that it actually happened, he made the yanks win, but if the Sox got further than the yanks, even to the point of winning it all, without beating the yanks in said series, then the curse would still be on, and yankee fans could continue to make fun of Sox fans, even though their team won the World Series, while the yankees watched on what people would call "television."

The one thing that does make it kind of weird, is that if we do beat the Twins, and win the WS, the fact that we were the Wild Card, finishing with a worse record than the yanks, could make those yankee fans think that they're allowed to say, "We had the best record, and you didn't beat us head-to-head." Which is why I've never liked the wild card. But anyway, if they ever said that, I'd just say it was their own damn fault, and there's nothing the Sox could have done about it. (Be we know that in that case, we could also just boast about how we would have kicked their butts anyway.)

In the meantime, I'm still rooting for the Twins, because it would just be impossible for me to sit there and be like, "Come on A-Rod.....little bingle." "Here we go, Cairo..." You know what I mean? But if the yanks win, I will be more than happy to see the Sox beat up on their horrid pitching. And whoever wins will be a lot more tired than we are.

That situation is similar to today's Sox game. I had tix to game 4, but in order for me to see that game, the Sox would have had to lose. And like that other situation, there was just no way I could start rooting for the other team. It's just weird, though. A less loyal fan in my unique situation might have rooted for his or her hated rival and against his or her own team. But as you know, I'm not that kind of fan.

More tomorrow on the high school style coverage by ESPN in this series. Now I must get some rest, as all this week, around playoff games, I've been moving all my worldly--alright, townly--possessions to another nearby town. These Sox definitely raised my spirits, though. Thank you, my favorite idiots!!!!!!! Ortiiiiiiiiiizzzzzz!!!! ALCS, everybody!!!!!!!!