There will be no Ultimate Battle of Good Vs. Evil this year. Evil couldn't get past the first round. Ten men left on base, a useless home run from Alex Rodriguez (bet it will be bold-formatted on the resume), and a miserable start from Chien-Ming Wang had the Yankees calling for tee times by the fifth inning.

For Yankee-haters, the fun starts now. Joe Torre has already been given the Dread Pirate Roberts treatment by Steinbrenner ("Good night, Joe, sleep tight, I'll most likely fire you in the morning") and the NY press is in full buzzard mode. A-Rod, Posada and Mariano Rivera are all free agents, so the Yankees of 2008 may look very very different than the Yankees we've come to know.

Aside: since Dave Roberts took off for second base in 2004, the Yankees are 4-12 in the postseason.

But enough about the fallen. Because the victorious Cleveland Indians now have the Red Sox in their sights, and vice versa. The Sox took 2 out of 3 from the Tribe at Fenway in May (you'll remember the emotional return of a Sox legens) and 3 out of 4 at the Jake in late July (only Fausto Carmona could get the better of them then). We know Carmona and C.C. Sabathia are as good a 1-2 punch of starters as there is anywhere. We know the Indians have relied on timely hitting and a vicious bullpen to get where they are. This could be a good, good series.

Should we worry about Jonathan Papelbon's migraines? Just a little, we think, since his attitude - "It's the playoffs, and this time of year there is no room for excuses. Nobody wants to hear 'em, and I don't want to give any" - is so awesome and so Papelbonesque.

Did you know the Bruins went 1-1 this weekend? Neither did we. Apparently, they lost in Dallas and beat Phoenix. And they're playing the No-longer-Mighty-but-defending-champion Ducks on Wednesday. We're glad we don't write for Anaheimist, with all their stupid team names.

The photo from the 2004 parade, on the Flickr account of your humble correspondent, was actually taken by Sooz, who gamely took over the camera when your humble correspondent freaked out, blacked out and lost motor control right as the parade started.