For more than an hour after the game ended, a couple hundred fired up fans waited raucously for their comeback cowboys to up and out of the clubhouse and get on the traveling bus. As the throng grew along the back of Yawkey Way and Van Ness by the player's lot, 16 uniformed officers gathered on foot, 6 more on motorcycle who would act as escort, 12 Fenway security personnel settled in. The police barricade was pushed further back to open up the road as the crowd squeezed together even tighter. It was Oakland or bus.

Dear John Doe 10.1.03 - In yesterday's Boston Globe, and other New England newspapers (except Hartford naturally), an unidentified man who only goes by the first name "John" took out a double-truck full color ad (below) thanking everyone associated with the Boston Red Sox for a great 2003 season. "John" made only one mistake in his extensive, rambling tribute, claiming that Manny Ramirez was "the best hitter in the league." I believe that title went to Bill Mueller on Sunday, but we'll give "John" a mulligan on that one since the race was close when he had to put his ad to bed. "John" ends this exhaustive "thank you" by telling us that "if we get down a game or two... don't fret." Down a game or two?!? Man the negativity in this town sucks. So who was this mystery John? Was it would-be President John Kerry? Former ivory tower occupant John Harrington? Plaid daddy John Valentin? Pope John Paul II? We may never know the full identity of this rabid Red Sox fan. But thanks for the effort John Doe. P.S. John thanks Ramiro Mendoza for "his kindness." ...to opposing batter's I guess.

Taped last Thursday night's celebration... right over Curse of the Bambino.

Late, Late Show's Craig Kilborn did a lame Sox fan vs. Cubs fan bit. The Sox fan, "Goldie," thinks the Sox won it all in 1986. Yes, there was a gratuitous Bill Buckner mention. "I've had the pleasure, or the misfortune, of playing for both," said Padres reliever Rod Beck, who also pitched for the Giants and started his professional career with the Athletics organization. "I can tell you, if either team just gets into the World Series, there will be partying all over the place. "And if you actually win the world championship in either city, you better move there, because you'll never have to pay for anything for the rest of your life."

What to wear. I'm confused about what shirt or jacket I'm supposed to put on for the game on Saturday. Trot Nixon asks us to, in Charles Steinberg's words, "paint the town red." OK, so should I grab my St. Louis Cardinals, Anaheim Angels, or Korean soccer team jersey? I guess I can't wear my lucky "1967 American League Champions" jacket because it has blue in it (taboo with excess red gear left to sell right?). A classic Boston Dirt Dogs original t-shirt? Not dead red. I could wear the original red "The time is here... so Cowboy Up!" shirt that the team wore under their uniforms... or the one that says "don't (fool) with us." Or is it "don't just lay there and bleed?" Maybe "We don't know %#&!" Timlin's camouflage "He who is wrapped up in himself is overdressed" original team 2003 official unofficial shirt is just too ugly. And it doesn't come in red. Is "The Hunt for Red Soxtober," the email mantra, in the hunt? The Grady-Damon Puma contract shirts are red. That would work, but it's too cold for t's alone. I'll have to buy a red jacket... for $800 on redsox.com. RemDawg, Dirt Bag, Gamer, Millar Time, Reverse the Curse, and Yankee Suck shirts are not... well, red. The Wild Card Champion t-shirts are an embarrassment to mankind. And they're beige to boot. Where have the Papa Jack shirts gone to? The David Ortiz Cowboy Up cartoon ransom note style shirts (knockoff above right) are out of circulation, and not licensed (yanked off Cafe Press). But the Red Sox just signed a deal to sell the Kevin Millar version Cowboy Up! shirt (left). Kevin signed his own deal with the official Cowboy Up trademark owners, no Red Sox logos or players in it, just some rodeo cowboy with a Boston harbor backdrop... and the shirt is blue. They've got more t-shirts than World Series Champion banners in a W.B. Mason commercial.

Next year, please, get rid of the red. They're the Red Sox... not the Red Shirts. Like the new Coke (apologies to Dan Shaughnessy), the red is not working. We know what to do at Fenway without instructions thank you. Remember "Dar-ryl" and "Where is Roger?" taking over the park? Oh, right, you guys weren't here then.

Speaking of t-shirts, the Red Sox brass have finally shown the balls to step up to take out the larger of the two Yankees Suck gangs who sell outside the park. Problem is, no one wanted to pay the bill to the Boston code enforcement officers who patrol the activity on the surrounding streets. Mike Dee finally dug deep, found the invoice, and put the money where their mouth was. And now you will begin to see the Yankees Suck plague quietly slip away at Fenway (the chant was already dead).

After having no luck in the virtual panic room, I got "lucky" with redial and was fortunate enough to get two, awful, separate, grandstand seats for the ALCS Saturday game in Boston (vs. Yankees right?) for the bargain price of $186.00.

When the Red Sox win it all it will make the Patriots little football championship seem like a quiet picnic. The celebration on the field last Thursday night was mandated by major league baseball, but the players' sprint across the street to Who's on First, then to the Baseball Tavern, was not. One former Sox player we ran into thought the outside the park celebration was a bit much for a team that "hasn't won anything yet" and that some of the veteran players should have "stepped up to stop it." He went on to say that the team "should not badmouth Oakland until they beat them" and that "the pressure in the playoffs will tighten up their a--holes like never before... one mistake and everyone will tighten up."

That 70's sale: Tom Werner is looking to save a buck on everything and everything around Fenway whenever he comes to town, playing the old "do you know who I am?" card and "do we get a discount?". I'm talking $10.00 items here. Yikes. Meanwhile, if you watch a game with Larry Lucchino in the owner's box, you'll hear enough MF-bombs to make a WWII sailor blush.

You want the Yankees to go five and use a lot of resources against the Twins in the process, but you want to play the Lakers, not the Rockets, for the AL pennant. Go Yanks.

A match made for e-Bay. A friend of our sold his Springsteen at Fenway t-shirts for $90.00 a pop on the famous auction site. Another friend of ours sold these nifty Springsteen at Fenway posters from the Globe in June, free handouts, with Varitek on the back, for as much as $250.00 on e-bay. I mean, they were free in June.

The winning 4-mula: While the police were called in, literally, to break up the thousands of people surrounding Lobel's live shot on top of the 'BZ truck the night of the celebration, poor Mike Ratte of channel 56, only 500 yards away, didn't have one person watching his live report on top of the WLVI truck.