"We're free"

That's a quote from my roommate, and I think it sums things up nicely.

Your Tampa Bay Team Formerly Known as the Devil Rays are the American League Champions. Let that sink in real quick.

It's a tremendous story, but really, the Rays were only an agent in a historically important quest, a quest that amounted to nothing less than restoring order to the universe.

See, I showed up here in Boston in 2002, seven months after the New England Patriots won their first Super Bowl. They proceeded to win Super Bowls in 2004 and 2005. The Red Socks, of course, after 85 years of uselessness, won a World Series in 2004 and then 2007. Boston, a sports city kept afloat by the memory of 16 Celtics world championships was suddenly the toast of the world. Fans went from arrogant to entitled in the blink of an eye. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be.

But then something happened.

The New York Giants, who had more or less fallen ass-backwards into the playoffs, strung off a series of road wins against the Buccaneers, Cowboys, and Packers to face the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. To say the G-Men weren't given an ice cube's chance in hell is to grievously understate the case. The Patriots were undefeated! Record-breaking! Invincible!

We all know what happened.

And tonight, we just saw the defending champion Red Socks fall to last year's last-place team, the Rays. Now, I understand that the Rays won the division this year. And that technically, the Angels were the team to beat. But I've seen championship series where the Socks have been down 3 games to 1. Or 3 games to none. And they've come back. Like a zombie. No matter how many bullets you put in them, they're unkillable. Once the Socks came back in game 5 on Thursday, I was convinced they would win. That was the new order of the universe. The Socks fall behind, and then roar back.

Thankfully, the old order has been restored. And hopefully, we've just seen year one of the Curse of Manny. Thanks, Tampa.