Goodbye, 2008 Boston Red Sox

Tonight it was do or die, and the Boston Red Sox died rather than did. When you set yourself up to play with no margin of error, you have to be at the top of your game. The Red Sox allowed the Rays to romp all over them in Games 3 and 4, so they had to take Games 5, 6, and 7 to advance. Games 5 and 6 fell into place, but they finally came up short in Game 7.

I didn't get a chance to see the entire game. I was helping at the box office for the Women's Performance Art Festival, and I had to wait until the show was far enough under way to leave my post. I was following the game on my Blackberry, but I didn't actually go across the street from the Prop Thtr to watch the game until the sixth inning, when the score was still 2-1. Unfortunately, not even the army of Irish fiddles we walked into at Chief O'Neill's Pub could help fend off the Rays after the Red Sox had let the situation get too far out of control.

Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays, who exorcised their satanic influences and went all the way to the top of the American League. They'll face the Phillies starting on Wednesday. For all your victory cigar needs, check out Tampa's finest smoke emporium, El Sol Cigars in Ybor City. Be sure to tell the proprietor that Doug sent you.