Manny Ramirez is the World Series MVP.

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P.S. And your wife is cute!

From the Associated Press:

The Boston Red Sox — yes, the Boston Red Sox! — are World Series champions at long, long last. No more curse and no doubt about it.

Ridiculed and reviled through decades of defeat, the Red Sox didn’t just beat the St. Louis Cardinals, owners of the best record in baseball, they swept them for their first crown since 1918.

From the New York Times:

This was for the believers. For Ted Williams and Yaz and all the others who spent a career beneath a boulder that kept rolling down a hill. This was an exorcism of 86 years of anguish.

On Wednesday night, Babe Ruth gave up. From Bangor to Brattleboro, Nashua to Nantucket, Waterbury to Woonsocket, the fans of New England can finally say it: the Boston Red Sox are the world champions. Nothing will ever be quite the same.

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Moments after the game ended, my mom reported by phone that there was audible yelling in the streets of Newington, Connecticut. Here in South Bend, Indiana, there was a bit of celebratory car-horn honking moments ago.

I can only imagine what it’s like in Boston.

UPDATE: Here’s a live webcam view of what it’s like:

ANOTHER UPDATE: And here’s a photo:

The Red Sox won the World Series, under a red Red Sox moon, at 11:46 PM — four minutes before totality ended.

Here’s what the moon looks like now:

From the Boston Globe homepage:

Heh.

Sign being held up by two fans in the crowd: “WE FORGIVE BILL BUCKNER.”

BOTTOM OF THE NINTH!

The Red Sox are three outs away from REVERSING THE CURSE and WINNING THE WORLD SERIES!!!

And Foulke is in there. Foulke you, Cardinals!

P.S. Lunar eclipse totality ends at 10:45 PM EST… will the Red Sox win under the Red Moon?

Red Sox fan with sign in the crowd: “IS THIS HEAVEN?”

Pujols up.

BASE HIT: Pujols on first. Game-tying run in the on-deck circle.

Hmm… the Yankees were three outs away from sweeping the Red Sox, too…

TWO OUTS AWAY!!! Edmonds up.

ONE OUT AWAY!!!!! Struck him out!!!

RED SOX WIN!!!! RED SOX WIN!!!! THE RED SOX ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!! THE CURSE IS OVER!!!!!!!!

Rob’s not home, so I’m back to my regular blogging duties.

Red Sox have runners on second and third with nobody out in the top of the 8th. Still 3-0 — for now.

Mid-totality in nine minutes. End of total portion of eclipse in 50 minutes.

POKEY! POKEY! Pokey’s in the game! Woohoo!

Nice play by Pujols. Bases loaded, two outs.

UPDATE: Struck him out. Inning over “Oh, get all excited… you’re still down by three!” –Brooke

FIVE OUTS AWAY! Now, one last time, let us avoid the five-outs-away curse.

STILL FIVE OUTS AWAY: Runner on first…

Er, now on second…

FOUR OUTS AWAY! The five-outs-away curse is avoided! Runner still on second, though. Let’s go, Embree!

One out away from Foulke time!

THREE OUTS AWAY FROM BREAKING THE CURSE!

I couldn’t resist photoshopping the lunar eclipse:

Bottom of the seventh. Nine outs away. GO SOX!

RED SOX UPDATES courtesy of me!

The moon appears to be completely eclipsed. The rain the good-for-nothing forecaster predicted is nowhere to be seen or heard and we have a pristine view of the moon’s wee show.

The Cardinals fans appear to be trying to cheer for Pujols, but he hasn’t done anything. Desperation or severe drunkeness has set in.

UPDATE
3-2 on Pujols, 2 outs. A pop-fly and he’s out. Huzzah!

UPDATE
Top of the 8th. Fox just showed this excellent graphic about how the last time the Red Sox won the World Series, penicillen wasn’t invented yet, the polio vaccine wasn’t invented yet and uh…yeah.

“Uh-oh,” Becky writes. “Is the curse coming as the moon’s going? Lowe looks a little fuzzy.” So he did — but thanks to a quasi-questionable strikeout call (it looked to me like he tipped it) and a timely groundout, the Red Sox survived the inning. 3-0 Boston through five.

I am going to head over to my friend and fellow Sox fan Rob’s apartment shortly, to watch the rest of the game with him. So any future updates will be mobile (unless the guestbloggers want to post any updates, hint hint).

P.S. Becky has agreed to take over the updates for me… so she’ll be keeping y’all up to date in a new post(s) above.

GO SAWX!!!

UPDATE: One last update from me: It’s a Red Sox moon!

That picture was taken here in South Bend moments ago, just as totality was starting. Mid-totality is in just over a half hour, at 10:04 PM. The Red Sox are nine outs away!

( I know it’s dumb to post Elections stuff under the Red Sox moon during the Game but the Upside is that if due to the Pagecrowding nobody Reads me, nobody will Flame me either. Hi Josh. :)
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Not to compare Brendan’s “I Had A Dream” speech with mine or anything like that but in line with his recent paean to The New York Times (a Pain if ever there was one) (nonono the NYT, not the B-man) (well - except sometimes - y’know :) — let us note that the Times’ “Making Votes Count” series has today declared long lines at polling places to be Unconstitutional.

No, really. Unequal Protecton. Bush v. Gore.

This, you’ll recall, from the very Mount Olympians who had previously decreed that because low Turnout is Terrible, everyone must be Enabled to vote, No Ballot Left Behind, no more Obstacles, Provisional Voting and Early Voting for one & all, fancy newbie Computers in lieu of outdated Paper (of course that was before they demanded Backup Paper in Addition thereto) , etc.

Excerpts (emphasized & [commentated] but NOT FORGED, I Swear!):

In Florida, which has begun early voting, elderly people have waited for as long as three hours, sometimes in the blazing sun, to cast ballots. There is every reason to believe that lines will be longer on Nov. 2. Lines that make voters wait for hours are a national disgrace…

[Absolutely. The Afghans, for example — brought democracy at the price of our, and their, blood & treasure — would never put up with such an affront. Doubtless that’s why so many of them stood in line for hours in the blazing Afghan sun (or, left & returned to vote later) at their recent election, awaiting the delivery of a grade of indelible Thumb-ink that would satisfy the sensibilities of the challenging Candidates. / Bah. - the guestblogger ]

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Damon of Nazareth strikes again! A solo home run to lead off the game… 1-0 Sox!

Go, Johnny, go!

KNOCK ON WOOD: Yet again, aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? (I think I like this one best. Heh.)

P.S. I wish I had this shirt. But hopefully, after tonight, it will be superfluous.

Runners on second and third, top of the third, one out, still 1-0 Sox.

NIXON’S THE ONE: Swinging at a 3-0 pitch, a bases-loaded double and it’s 3-0!

They just showed Sox fans celebrating at a bar in New York City. I’ve been to that bar! (I think.)

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE CARDS? Joe Buck notes that “we are about a half hour away from a lunar eclipse” (actually the eclipse is underway, but totality begins in about a half hour) after Fox starts the fifth inning by playing Bonnie Tyler singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”