Stop, thief!

Despite being busy doing other things, my brain had registered the whole "end of the season" concept, but it wasn't until I sat down and watched last night's game that it really hit home - 160 games played, only two left to play. While I was looking elsewhere some bugger apparaently ran off with the 2006 baseball season. As of tomorrow evening, it's over. Shit.

Sure, there'll be other games played throughout the month of October, but not involving the home nine, and so although I'll no doubt watch some of them, my heart won't really be in it.

I think this is one of the real downsides of baseball. I used to get depressed when I followed my local soccer team over 40 games and nine months, but baseball is worse - more games to get you hooked on the team, and more downtime between seasons. Baseball is so present for six, seven, even eight months of the year that when it goes away, it leaves this big, gaping hole. We find ways to fill up the hole (regular folks call it "having a life"), but there's always an eye on the start of Spring Training and another 162-game marathon.

So all that's left for me this weekend - outside of hoping that Papi hits another couple out of the ballpark - is to savour the final two games in the company of Don and Jerry, take a last look at our stellar infield and raise my cap to those we may no longer see in a Red Sox uniform. Come Monday morning, Tito and Theo and the Red Sox staff will be back in the office looking forward to 2007, and we'll be looking back on a season that might have been.

Oh well, never mind, we'll get 'em next year...