Letters

A Long Time Coming

Your cover (Nov. 8) showing goofy grins on the faces of Johnny Damon , David Ortiz , Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling certainly brought a smile to my face. After all those years when Tom Yawkey refused to integrate his team and, as a result, had one bad season after another, I'll happily take a long-haired Jesus look-alike, a blond guy with a bleeding foot and a few Dominicans any day of the week. Let us remember the 2004 baseball season as the year that a bunch of idiots, as diverse as the occupants of a New York subway car, came together and gave us one of the best rides of our lives.

John D. Kevari, San Bernardino , Calif.

For 86 years those of us in Red Sox Nation have subsisted on "Wait till next year." Finally, 2004 is next year! Let us enjoy it for a while. Why is Tom Verducci immediately writing about issues we have to deal with for next year (Now Comes the Hard Part, Nov. 8)? Long live the 2004 gang!

Jack Walsh, Chesapeake , Va.

Thinking about free-agent signings is too much reality for me. I just fulfilled a long-awaited sports fantasy.

Jim Gilhooly, Nashua, N.H.

As a member of Red Sox Nation , I would like to thank the 2004 Boston Red Sox for taking me on a roller-coaster ride that simply cannot be replicated, and for proving that dreams can in fact come true. Congratulations, you bunch of idiots, it's your time to shine.

John Asimakopoulos, Dracut, Mass.

Wow! At long last the Red Sox have won the World Series! Now all they have to do is put together about 20 more world championships, and they can lay claim to being the second-greatest team in the history of baseball--right behind you-know-who.