Lifes Rich Pageant. SoSHer "5belongstoGeorge" notes one thing that October 20's game did: "I now have bragging rights forever. Forever. It is like a perpetual blank check of "@#%$ you loser" I can cash at the Bank of the MFY Fan. Forever. I don't need to even say anything because we both know it is there. Forever."

After Saturday's rout, I believed that the task of winning four straight games was possible, though certainly not likely. However, just because something has never happened before is no reason why it might not happen in the future. I just didn't want to get swept. And once Game 4 began, we became so focused on each pitch, each batter, each inning, each game -- "just win one game" we said each morning -- that we have yet to step back and see this historic series for what it truly is.

I have heard Game 7 referred to as the greatest Red Sox win of all time and the worst Yankee loss of all time. And the crazy thing is -- THEY MIGHT BE RIGHT! That is amazing. The historical and psychological impact of what happened last week will ripple outwards for years, probably decades.

Now, I want to win the World Series so badly. But even if that doesn't happen, this 2004 team has already done something that no other team in the history of baseball has done. And for that reason, and for who they did it against, the life of every Red Sox fan has been changed forever.

I cannot forget 1978/Dent, 1999 and 2003 and the dozens and dozens of cuts and barbs along the way. I will remember those for the rest of my life. Older fans remember many others (I was only 11 in 1975). But the sting of being reminded of those heartbreaks has been nullified. ... Because now we have a response -- "bragging rights forever."

Them: "1918." Us: "2004."

Them: "Bucky Dent." Us: "Damon, Schilling, Ortiz, Lowe, Foulke, Bellhorn, etc., etc."

Them: "Aaron Boone." Us: "You choked away the pennant 3 outs from a sweep."

Them: "Boston Massacre." Us: "You're not seriously using that phrase anymore are you?"

After a dismissal loss at Yankee Stadium in the future, we will leave the park with our heads held high, impervious to catcalls and insults. Why? Because any loss the Yankees give the Red Sox -- from now until the end of time -- will never be as bad as the beatdown we put on those clowns in the 2004 ALCS. And like 5belongstoGeorge says, they know it too.

RSN will get a large measure of perspective on all of this when the Red Sox play at Yankee Stadium for the first time next season. What a glorious game that will be. How will it feel to walk into that park in April 2005? Maybe like we own the fucking place?

SoSHer "Carmen Fanzone" was there for Game 7: "Just LOVED watching spoiled Yankee fans streaming for the exits in the eighth, leaving the place to thousands of cheering Red Sox fans in the ninth. On our way down to the 3rd-base line -- running through the concourse slapping high fives with Sox fans as if we owned the place, with the fickle regular tenants having abandoned the whole house."

He also points out, as a few other posters did also, that there were "four or five very classy Yankee fans shaking hands and congratulating Sox fans -- one after another by the dozens -- as they left."