DEAR YANKEES: PLEASE GO AWAY!!!!

We all went to the funeral in late May. We buried you, said a few words, none of them nice, and walked away slowly. You were gone. The media had convinced us that even though it was only late May, we could forget all about you, and have a happy, peaceful season in our own Red Sox Nation. Some of us knew better, mind you, we obviously remember Bucky Dent to this day, but our baseball "experts" told us it's OK this time, you were really gone, and not coming back for a long, long time. Even the Red Sox naysayers agreed. No miracle comebacks, no September collapse by our team, and life would be good in our neck of the woods for months.

The All Star break arrived, and we had a double digit lead still, and life was truly good. The math guys broke out their calculators, and reassured us that our trip to the cemetery was not a fluke. There was no way, even for the mighty Yankees, to catch us this year. Put it in cruise control boys, and have a great rest of the summer! Make sure you leave your calendar open for mid to late September though, we had to watch our Sox clinch their first A.L. East division title in about 500 years.

The beginning of September arrived, and the "experts" still weren't concerned. I personally got a little nervous, I think because just like Labor Day, nerves are part of September too. As each day went by, the wheels on the bandwagon go more and more shaky. Some of our media "experts" started back tracking on their own words. I guess they really weren't at the funeral, and they never said to count the Yankees out. I could have sworn I saw sports anchors and reporters at that affair, but I must have been delusional.

So here we are, will less than two weeks left in the regular season. The magic number is 9, which I can live with, but now the same "experts" keep talking about another magic number, to make it to the playoffs. What? The playoffs? We already knew that our team was going to the playoffs. Didn't they clinch that in August sometime? Oh yeah, now I remember, this is really how September is supposed to feel. Not sleeping well at night, reliving the blown game from the night before, and the worry, thank God we can still have the worry. Good thing I bought the Tums when they were on sale last month. You can never be to careful as a Red Sox fan.

So here we are. You keep finding ways to win, by two touchdowns every night, and we keep inventing ways to lose. How does this turn out? I know the Yankees have a couple of old guys, but Bucky can't still be playing, can he? Nope, he is gone. That Boone guy is gone too. Even though the Yankees have this new kid who wears his hat pulled down so low you can't see him, we'll still take our chances. Our dream season will end with the Sox in first place, but the Yankees looking right over our shoulder. That's not the media saying that, they all jumped ship last week, but just a member of our Nation.

As much as it pains me to say this, believe me, hats off to the New York Yankees. You made our September what is supposed to be. And as baseball fans, we know we'll see you in October. Halloween and the Yankees, yep, that's how October is meant to be. Thanks for not causing all of our mental well being any harm. All is well, the two best teams in baseball are slugging it out to the very last days. If you are not going to go away, then I guess we'll see you all in Game 7. Life is back to normal, after all.