Well, Game Seven is tonight. Baseball. Red Sox versus Yankees. American League Championship. Hot diggity. The good guys lost the first three, the third one a particularly gruesome 19-8 thrashing (a game that I watched most of in several Brooklyn bars full of Yankee fans. The chants of "Who's Your Daddy?" were deafening. Ugh). Just shameful. No baseball team has EVER come back three games down to win a postseason series, in fact in 20 of the 25 times it has happened the team down 3-0 has been swept. No hope. But, wait, in game four the Red Sox, facing elimination, somehow got their shit together, GOT to Mariano Rivera (the best closer in Baseball history. Ever.) and stuck around to win in extra innings, thanks to great bullpen work, speedy Dave Roberts and Big Papi - David Ortiz. Longest game in playoff history. Phew, at least it wasn't a sweep. But, of course, only TWO teams have come back to force a game six. So, no hope, really. Hope. Make that THREE teams to force game six. The Red Sox, their backs to the wall, scratched and clawed and fought their way back to win game five, also in extra innings, ALSO by rolling through Mariano Rivera, ALSO thanks to a tired but tenacious bullpen, Dave "the blur" Roberts and Ortizzle. 14 innings. Hot Damn. Make THAT the longest game in playoff history. Both the Yankee and Red Sox bullpens are shredded. But at least we knew that the Yankees wouldn't clinch their title in Boston. No team has ever tied a postseason series they once trailed, 3-0. Until NOW. That's right. Curt Schilling, his ankle *literally* bleeding from the temporary sutures in place to help keep the torn tendon from rubbing against the bone, his season presumed over after game one when he could barely pitch at all, throws 7 EXCELLENT gutsy innings of one run ball, in the cold rain and Mark Bellhorn (0 for his last 75 or something) hits a three run homerun to left (slightly controversial play: originally rules a double but was CLEARLY a homerun. The umpires reviewed the play and, satisfyingly, got it right). AND and AND! In the 8th inning there was another controversial play: Score is 4-2 in the 8th, Red Sox. Runner on first (Derek Jeter), A-rod at the plate hits a slow little dribbler between the pitcher (Bronson (yes, named after Charles Bronson) Arroyo) and first base, Arroyo gets the ball and moves to tag A-rod out on the basepath, A-rod slaps the ball and mitt off of Arroyo, the ball squirts away into right field, Jeter scores, A-rod ends up at second, 4-3, runner on second, Yankee Stadium ROCKING. BUT Red Sox manager Terry Francona argues the play, the umpiring crew REVERSES the call, citing Offensive Interference*, A-rod is out, Jeter has to come all the way back to first base (ironically, if A-rod had just been tagged out instead of being called out on O.I., Jeter would at least be at second base AND there was a potential argument to be made for DEFENSIVE interference on the first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz (a tenuous argument, but still an argument). But no.) The fans in Yankee Stadium get very mad and start throwing trash, baseballs and cellphones (?!?) onto the field. The riot police come out onto the field to attempt to maintain order, Arroyo gets the next batter out, inning over.) Click here for an animation of the play in question (I got this off the web, not sure where. At any rate it is not mine). At any rate, again, the umpires got the call correct, and AGAIN that call goes against the Yankees. So, now the Boston Red Sox have won three straight to EVEN the series, a historically unprecedented comeback. The Yankees have got to be FLABBERGASTED by this fact. They look beaten, tired and essentially like they are unsportsmanlike babies (well, you could even say "cheaters", but that might be a bit much) and LIARS (A-rod, arguing with the umps after the reversal kept mimicking a normal arm-pumping running motion, as if to say "I was just running!". Ha. Clearly false. Remember, Alex, There are MILLIONS of sets of eyes who are watching the replay RIGHT NOW and see as clear as day what you tried to do. Quit while you are ahead). Anyway, tonight, in just a few hours we go to game seven. The big one. I'll be performing the same zany pre-and during game routines, including wearing the correct hat, sitting on the proper couch, doing the hand-jive during tense moments, and a few secret ones. Both of my brothers, apparently, have their own superstitions too. Eian isn't going to watch the game on television (he watched the first three: they lost, he hasn't watched the last three: they won. Eian is a sensible man. Drew has some scheme involving wearing the same underwear. He washes them daily. He is also a sensible man.) I am not going to post a big "Wooo! We won!" or "Booo! We lost!" entry here on the Time Machine. That's a deal I have made with the baseball gods, and it is a deal that I will keep. But know this: if tonight the Red Sox win I will be marching around my apartment with my hands up in the air screaming in joy and vindication, and, heaven forbid, should it go the other way I will not. But either way, emotionally speaking, you can't win if you don't bet and when I said above that there was no hope after the first three losses I was was just being dramatic. I believed then and I believe now. I KNOW. And I'll tell you what: Bet the farm on the Red Sox. I did. This is the year. * From the MLB Umpire Manual: Section 6.1 (Offensive Interference): While contact may occur between a fielder and runner during a tag attempt, a runner is not allowed to use his hands or arms to commit an obviously malicious or unsportsmanlike act such as grabbing, tackling, intentionally slapping at the baseball, punching, kicking, flagrantly using his arms or forearms, etc. to commit an intentional act of interference unrelated to running the bases.