Wow, What a Series!

The Cincinnati Reds are my team, but in the American League, I have always been partial to the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Royals.

I was probably in the minority when I looked on a Red Sox-Yankees American League championship series with something less than enthusiasm. I'm not into thuggery on the baseball field and I felt for certain that fights would break out between these two bitter rivals. Fights may momentarily create interest, but not for long. (Just look at hockey. The NHL struggles to gain an audience in the US. But the Olympic version of the sport gets big ratings. One reason: In the Olympics, they play hockey; in the NHL, they fight and sometimes play hockey.)

But except for a bush-league plunking of Yankee Alex Rodriguez by pitcher Pedro Martinez, a perennial villain, this has been an exciting, history-shattering series with no brawling. (Many will no doubt agree with ESPN radio sports center host Dan Davis, a lifelong Red Sox fan, that no franchise should offer Martinez a contract at the end of this season, when he becomes a free agent.)

Boston has done what no major league team has ever done in post-season play: forced a game seven after having fallen behind three games to none!

The scrappiness and skill of the Red Sox couldn't have been better exemplified than it was Tuesday night by Boston hurler Curt Schilling. The blood from an ankle injury clearly visible on his sock, in obvious pain, the future Hall of Famer pitched seven incredible innings, giving up just one run, a solo homer by Yankee Bernie Williams.

Of course, should the Red Sox win, the so-called "curse" will not be lifted. To exorcise that alleged demonic thwarting of Boston's baseball dreams will require that the Sox not only vanquish the Yankees, but win the World Series. The Red Sox haven't won the championship of baseball since 1918, when they did so largely on the arm of a young pitcher named Babe Ruth. After that season, with Boston's owner in need of cash to finance a Broadway production, the Bambino's contract was sold to the Yankees. They turned him into an outfielder who became the "Sultan of Swat" and an integral part of making the Yankees the storied franchise that it is. The Red Sox, by contrast, have been consigned to a sort of baseball purgatory, always a bridesmaid but never a bride. That reversal of fortunes is thought to be the Curse of the Bambino against his former franchise.

I'm hoping that the Red Sox will get their chance to win the World Series this year.