Now there is a third time..... I am amazed but not surprised to see Boston Red Sox defeat Yankees four straight and then demolish St Louis Cardinals in four straight games as well. A classic year has been completed by a team for ages. It’s easy to say they did not give up. It is easy to say they had right mixture of players. It is also easy to say how well they meshed as a team. Because they flourished at right time makes Red Sox of 2004 one of best teams, of all time. Maybe they are and maybe they are not. There is no denying it was one of greatest comebacks in baseball history. Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, and Curt Schilling all came through - big time.

I am tired of writing about Red Sox. Let's go Yankees. Wait till next year. Sound familiar?

Well everyone by now had heard about new kid with fast - ball and all crazy pitches he had, but no one had put a batter in front of me. Well I went to mound a rookie and a virgin as for pitching to a batter, and wouldn’t you know it batter hid catcher and made him look small. So there I was 8 years old and on stage. The catcher just kept saying go - ahead pitch it like you’ve been doing. I took ball beat my glove as I had always seen Whitey Ford do and swung my arms up over my head like Bob Turley and reared back and then forward gripping ball as it slid out of my hands and it headed for home plate with batter standing there ready to hit. The only thing was ball did everything I wanted it to do except hit catcher’s glove, no instead it hit batter and ouch! I know it must of hurt. Well now everyone was just saying and trying to calm me down, It’s Ok just simmer down and do it again. No problem! Here we go again and same thing happened. Now I have two men on bases and my creditability as a pitcher is waning fast. Oh well Rome wasn’t built in one day so I tried again. Low and behold I was awful. I hit third batter. Well that was end of that career but it taught me a valuable lesson. Stick to what you know not what you think you know. See I was a third baseman not a pitcher but I wanted to play so much I at least tried and no one can fault someone for trying except maybe three kids I hit that day.

This story was written by Saul Applebaum ( The Contenda )