The Red Sox odyssey has been, well, an odyssey. So many many fruitless years. Those pesky Yankees who just wouldn’t stop winning World Series titles.

The exodus of beloved players like Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon to the hated Evil Empire in the Bronx. Losing the chance at Alex Rodriguez to who? That’s right the Evil Empire. Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. “Who’s Your Daddy?” Pedro Martinez rolling an elderly Don Zimmer to the ground during a brawl at Yankee Stadium. Much salve spread onto old wounds with the Red Sox’s unreal 2004 comeback from 0-3 down in the ALCS to snatch the pennant away from the mighty Yanks

No less fascinating in 2007. Their perennial rivals in New York started out dismally only to record the best record in the majors after the All-Star break and make the Sox work til the very last weekend to clinch the division. But it’s not all about Yankees v Red Sox. Now it’s Celebrate-gate and those Yankee-killing Cleveland Indians taking center stage. They’ve basically painted a fake tunnel to the World Series on the side of a mountain and watched the Sox crash right into it.

'Maybe he [Ramirez] was celebrating the team’s accomplishment of making history by hitting three home runs in a row'

After skating through the Division Series and Game One of the ALCS, the mighty Boston offence has been stifled. So who can really blame Manny Ramirez for celebrating the apparent return of the team’s hitting power? So he hung around the vicinity of home plate for six seconds after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning? As he would say, “so what?”

Maybe he was celebrating the team’s accomplishment of making history by hitting three home runs in a row. Maybe he was celebrating the team’s still living fighting spirit after suddenly being down seven runs. Heck, maybe he was celebrating the confirmation that he himself still had it. After all, if Manny hadn’t lifted his arms in imitation of his reaction after much bigger homers, we might be talking about how the Cleveland Indians are on the verge of taking down two of the most hallowed teams in Major League Baseball in a row: the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. That’s a feat about as unlikely as a woman tennis player beating Venus and Serena Williams back to back.

But what about this celebration of what the media et al has called a “meaningless” home run?. First of all, any blast that makes history is hardly meaningless. And hey, who’s to say what would have happened that fateful Sunday in Queens not too long ago if the Mets had hit three homers in a row in the bottom of the first inning after going down seven runs in the top of the inning? Attitude and spirit win as many games as raw talent do. Do you mean to tell me that Manny didn’t fully believe that his team could score another four runs in four innings? You better believe that he did. You think the Indians weren’t suddenly sweating? You bet they were.