I had resolved not to watch any more baseball this season, and for a while, my resolution held. But with the Red Sox, the stupid red-legged, navy-capped New England Master of Clutch clawing their way back ( a feat I grudgingly had to tip my cap to), I knew that I'd have to watch last night's game. I saw the BoSox threaten the Rays bullpen time and time again, and each time, instead of breaking through as they did against my Angels, Tampa Bay came through with the stop. And with David Price playing the role of the rookie phenom that K-Rod played to such perfection in the 2002 postseason, my night ended watching those in red nad navy trudging down the hallway to spend a long fall and winter wondering how they could come bac, play so hard, all for naught, and watching the boys in blue and white dogpile like I've never seen before.

The Phillies and the Rays are both clubs that have played hard and won against all odds at times this season, and both franchises (and one city) are starved for championships to bring them back to legitimacy. The Rays are looking like a dynasty in the making, even if they don't win the championship this year, and may soon be hated as much as the Red Sox and Yankees are by non-fans of those clubs, but for now, all I can say to Halo scion Joe Maddon is thank you.Thanks, Joe, for managing to hammer that final nail into the Red Sox coffin.

It wasn't intentional, merely a by-product of your success, but thanks for avenging the Angels, who couldn't avenge their own past and continaully choked away games in the ALDS. The Angels, who secured home-field advantage by winning a franchise-best 100 games before losing both home games and stumbling to a mistake-filled end, who left runners on bases without so much as a "bon voyage" while watching strikes slide past them and swinging like amateurs at big curves.

The Angels couldn't do it, not this year anyway, but at least SOMEONE could.

This baseball fan, heart-broken not so long ago, can finally rest and enjoy the off-season, free from reading the sports pages every night, until next spring. The Red Sox are dead. Long live the Rays.

For now, at least.