Last night at 10:05 pm EDT the Red Sox extricated sport's heftiest mongoose when a harmless fly ball off the bat of Andres Galarraga settled comfortably and permanently into the Mitt of Carl Everett and the record books. The impact of that collision of ball and glove can be measured only in megatons, and should be pictured as a temporal atomic explosion whose rings of destruction raced back through history to obliterate unimaginable numbers of Bambino related ghosts. The Sox have done it, and now Boston can let loose with the most anticipated celebration in the history of American sports.

Do not expect many frowns in the office today, except from those poor, poor Yankee fans whose plans to simply purchase another banner with Georgie Porgie's money fell a little short. Finally the balls bounced our way, the umpires remembered their nightly contact lense cleaning, and we made the big stops and timely hits that make the difference. And of course, as always, there was Pedro.

What a season to remember. It certainly was not the walk in the park that Sports Illustrated predicted back in April, but then again, what half way sane Sox fan expected it to be? I am sure that everyone still remembers that horrible June swoon the Sox struggled through, but now that I look back on that stretch, it might have been the key to the season. No, I am not crazy. I do remember the awful free fall, losing series after series to bad opponents, but I can also now look back with the benefit of hindsight and see that the roots of our playoff run can be found nowhere else but in that chaotic stretch. You still don't believe me? Well then keep reading.

I will begin with the two most obvious positives from the month of June. The first is the fact that no team moved away from us. We gave both the Blue Jays and Yankees every opportunity to bury us early, and they refused. As soon as we got back on the right track, the Blue Jays stopped hitting and the Yanks continued to shoot themselves in the foot with bad pitching and defense. The second obvious positive was that we had been through a worse case scenario of injuries and hitting slumps, and nobody panicked. Jimy kept on playing the guys he knew would come around, and did an amazing job of patching up for our injuries. Players absolutely love playing for a guy who sticks with them, and that did more to bring this team together than anything else. Although this conquering of their most chaotic time is an obvious positive, most of the others I will discuss stem from this aspect as well, but might not be so obvious.

We all know that we really won this thing with our play in September during that 28-day stretch of 31 games. We played 162 regular season games this year, but those were the ones that made all the difference. The Sox played every team that mattered to them day after day, and kept winning whether during day games after long nights of travel, or ridiculous strings of double headers. And what made all those wins possible? The endurance and depth that our roster acquired during that June swoon, of course.

During that unfortunate month Jimy was forced to use many players from Pawtucket who you would like to believe would not have seen any major league action until rosters expanded. But, we needed the help early, and so they gained valuable experience that was no doubt helpful to their play when we were forced to use them again during all of those double headers. Tim Young pitched very well in both of his starts in September, which were huge victories at the time. Also, the complete meltdown of our starters allowed Hipolito Pichardo to get his groove back as well. You can never have too many good long relievers.

Likewise many of our young positional players came through when we needed them towards the end of the season. None more so than Morgan "The Belleville Basher Part II" Burkhart (who says sequels never live up to the original). I am one of the few people who can honestly claim to have been watching this guy for years, not because of any baseball prowess on my part, but just by the accidental fact that I went to college for four years in Richmond, IN. where Burkhart was playing for the Richmond Roosters. So I knew that this guy could hit, but I would be lying if I told you that I had expected anything like this out of him. And we would never have known what he could give us if it had not been for that rash of injuries.

And finally, the number one thing that we benefited from in June was that Pedro got so much rest. Yes, it definitely hurt not to have a stopper like him in the rotation when we were crashing down in the standings, but as it turned out, Tim Wakefield filled in more than admirably, which was good to know come the double-header days. It was no doubt a tough decision for Jimy to put him on the DL and not allow him to pitch in the All Star game. I am pretty sure, however, that the nice shiny ring that Pedro will be presented with sometime early next season is an even better apology than the hallmark card that he had originally picked out for the occasion. Pedro won 16 games in the second half, and won each of his playoff starts. He wasn't dominating, he was lights-out-forget-about-it-sit-down-and-don't-bother-swinging-good! And he owes it all to a little forced summer vacation.

So we won, the curse is over, and a new day has dawned on the Boston Red Sox. I had a great time this year covering the team, and I knew from day one that we were going all the way. Now I must say good-bye as I leave for my next assignment, covering the Chicago Cubs for the 2001 season. And let me tell you, with a little luck

This is the year!!!