Sports Redux: World Turned Upside Down

We don't ask for much. Just occasional warm weather (sigh), a really good omelet now and then, and a time machine, to go back to last January and bet the ranch on the Tampa Bay Rays winning the AL Pennant and the Arizona Cardinals going to the Superbowl. We'd be very rich right now.

Stunning everybody, the Cardinals built a big lead in the NFL Championship game yesterday. Surprising nobody, they almost blew it. But Kurt Warner engineered a brilliant drive to stave off collapse, and the Cardinals - the poster child for inept sports franchises - are on their way to Tampa and the world stage. Yes, a billion people are about to learn that the Arizona Cardinals exist. And the Curse of the Pottsville Maroons is over!

They'll meet the Steelers, who broke this year's avian theme by stifling the Ravens, picking off rookie QB Joe Flacco three times, including a game-clincher by Troy Polamalu with 4:39 to go. The Steelers are going to their seventh Super Bowl; they're 5-1.

Back home, the Garden bull gang gets a workout today. The Bruins try to break their modest one-game losing streak by hosting the Blues this afternoon, then tonight the Celtics have to gear up to play the Phoenix Suns, a much tougher out than those clowns in Nets uniforms we spent the last week playing. The Celtics aren't going to rush Kendrick Perkins back, even with Shaq in town, which means Shaq may well be matched up against Brian Scalabrine for much of the game. But if the Cardinals can make it to the Super Bowl (sorry...we're still getting used to it), anything is possible.