Actually, I've been thinking of asking for playoff credentials from the Red Sox. Space is very tight there, so I doubt I'd get them.

Cancel each other?? 1+1=2
Boston's doomed.

Come on! DON'T TALK ABOUT IT! If you mention it, think it, hope it, it won't happen, and the Evil Empire will win again. I've been afraid to even put my Sox flag back up that I took down a week ago for the hurricane. What if I put it up and they start to lose?

I hate this team.

Actually, it shouldn't be too surprising that the Yankees would be sliding as drastically as they've been. According to the Pythagorean Standings, which determine the number of wins and losses that a team should have based on runs scored and runs allowed, the Yankees have been the most "overrated" team: they've won ten more games than they were projected to at this moment of the season. You might say that they're finally balancing out, and the Red Sox -- which have won one fewer game than they've been projected to, and which have a better Pythagorean record than the Yankees -- are catching up. Indeed, the Pythagorean says that the Red Sox should be nine games ahead of the Yankees, so who knows? We could see Boston continue their good play.

There's been some talk in Boston about resurrecting the "Cowboy Up" rallying cry from last year. Most fans aren't biting. However, Sox fans are starting to sign their emails with the cryptic "8791".

I'll buy a Fenway Frank for the first person to figure out what that means.

'8791' is 1978 in reverse. 1978 is the year the Yanks closed a big lead on the Sox. They ended the season tied, leading to the Bucky Dent game.

I worry about some Iowa Baseball Confederacy idea (by Kinsella, who wrote Shoeless Joe from which Field of Dreams was drawn) if there are offsetting curses, such as the Red Sox meeting the Cubs in the WS. Thousands of innings, 40 days and 40 nights of baseball...

The Sox find a new way to kill us every year. There's an old Boston story about an old Irishman who comes into a pub and sees the Hub Team on the TV. "They killed our fathers and our grandfathers, and now the S.O.B.'s are comin' after us!"

Dan,
Your post goes up, Sox lose 7 to 1. Coincidence?

Please, please, please--go back to outsourcing.

Remember, kids, that the Yankees have now acquired the A-Rod curse. (Team acquires A-Rod. Team loses. Loses. Loses some more.)

And, it's now the next century. Think the Bambino curse is now null and void.

Sorry if I have violated some baseball rules here.

Nice job, tvan. Now, let's see if the Sox can do it before this blog jinxes the whole deal...

The 20th Century was the Yankee Century, but this is the 21st. The Yankees have not won a World Seried this century (as long as you don't count 2000 as being the 21st century, which I think is technically correct). The Yankees are in deep trouble They have a poor defensive team that relies heavily on home runs and an abysmal pitching staff. As George has gotten older and more desparate for another title, they have depleted their farm system to the point they can't make significant trades. No matter how many free agents you buy, you can't stay on top without some help from the farm system.

I'm not particularly a Red Sox fan (go Braves), but it's time for the Sox to end the curse. The ideal would be Red Sox beat the Yankees in the ALCS, play the Cubs in the World Series and win in the bottom of the ninth in game seven. Cubs fans would be happy because they made the Series. What a day that would be for baseball! Of course, hell would freeze over so there might be some reason for concern.

I was at Game 6 last year at Yankee Stadium. You know which game six I mean, the one where our mantra, even as the Sox took the lead (and lost the lead, and took the lead) was. "it doesn't matter, they're going to loose anyway."

And I was right, it just didn't happen until game 7 when Grady *Bleeping* Little didn't force Pedro out of the game. (I note that one of the posters above neglected to insert Bucky Dent's similar nickname).

Grrrr.

Remember, the Sox ALWAYS loose. And if they don't, they will. And if you don't realize that, then you are the reason they lost.

And this is coming from an New York City raise BoSox fan. Yankees suck.

see? see? you talkied about it, and they lost!!!!!!! see?????

It's not insane if it is true!!!!!

It's the curse of the YES network.

Steinbrenner left his assigned cosmic station, overstepped his bounds by creating his own sports network (before you say it, NESN is New England, not Red Sox, and they're now Fox anyway). He got too full of himself. The day he started fighting with Jim Dolan over airing YES on Cablevision, I realized that they would never win a WS while the YES network exists.

The Sox won't win the series this year, either. The Cardinals are too good. I just want them to humiliate the Yankees, and I'll be happy with a successful season.

I think there's a simple reason why the Red Sox are going to pull down the Yanks from behind and win the division:

False hope.

Think: finally slaying the Yankees in the regular season, and coming from behind to do it, is the only way to top last season for giving Sox fans false hope of finally winning it all.

Then they lose to the Wild Card Yankees in the ALCS.

You heard it here first.

I fear that this may be an indication of the end times. The Sox win, Bush wins, principled conservatism and liberalism both die a thousand deaths, Iran and Israel mark the occasion by fighting a nuclear war, and we live the Book of Revelations . . . . oh, wait -- that's the Cubs winning the World Series.