Attention Yankees! "It ain't over til it's over!"

This article is not about the 2007 World Series, but I thought this was, by far, the best place to put it. The 2004 American League Championship Series, featuring the Red Sox Nation versus the Evil Empire was such a historical event, I had to write about it. Without that victorious run to glory, who knows what would have happened in 2007. Now for the story.

The Yankees decision to have the great Yogi Berra on the receiving end of the ceremonial first pitch before the start of the 2004 ALCS Game 7 was no afterthought. As any self-respecting baseball buff already knows, this rivalry conjures up more than its share of past heroes, villains, scapegoats, demons, ghosts, and curses. One way to have superstition on your side is to bring in one of the men who contributed significantly to the Yankee dynasty of the past, hoping that some of that magic will find its way to the current crop of stars who are burdened with extending that dynasty. What the Yankees really needed to do, however, was to remember one of Yogi's most quoted lines: "It ain't over til it's over." Never in baseball's history was that statement more true than when the Yankees had a three games to zero advantage against the Boston Red Sox.

At that point in time, I am willing to bet that every member of the Yankee organization thought that this championship was safely in the bag. After all, how could the Red Sox possibly win four games in a row, with the last two to be played in the House That Ruth Built? Surely the Yanks would get at least one win somewhere along the way, and though they might never admit it, more than a few Boston fans felt the same way. When the Sox were one inning away from defeat in Game 4, it was certainly beginning to look like "dj vu all over again." But when the Sox gallantly rallied to win in extra innings, it was beginning to look like "the future ain't what it used to be."

For those of us who have suffered with the Red Sox for more years than we care to admit, one thing we have learned the hard way is that a baseball game is never over until the final out. For the Yankee players and fans, which have been blessed with an avalanche of championships during their storied history, this is a lesson that is very hard to swallow. They are not used to losing and they certainly never expected to lose this time halfway through the series. For that reason alone, it was perhaps supremely fitting that the biggest

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