A little more news from Boston:

Last week, an NPR sports show produced at one of the local stations broadcast a skit about a Cubs vs. Red Sox World Series, which featured an interview with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, chowing down on hot dogs in the Fenway Park bleachers during game seven while waiting for their cue.

Well, the Sox aren't in the World Series yet, but as you know if you watched Saturday's playoff game with the Yankees, things are starting to get weird here already. The cover of Saturday's Boston Herald -- a classless cartoon of ace Pedro Martinez hog-tying Yankee pitcher (and former Sox ace) Roger Clemens -- didn't seem to presage anything good, and regrettably, it didn't. The game began with a subpar outing from Martinez marred by an apparent beanball, and ended with a grounds crew member scuffling with a Yankee relief pitcher in the bullpen in the ninth. And then there was the bench-clearing nonsense in the middle, starting when Manny Ramirez became incensed at a Roger Clemens pitch which was well out of the strike zone... high, and reaching its climax when Yankee bench coach Don Zimmer apparently charged at Martinez, and quickly demonstrated to the satisfaction of all concerned that he is no longer in fighting trim. But you wouldn't know about the fan I heard calling in to sports talk radio after the game, in tears and sounding on the verge of a nervous breakdown because, he said, they weren't doing enough sacrifice bunts -- or about the bulletin that Zimmer is in a hospital overnight for observation.

The game four pitching matchup does not appear to favor the Red Sox -- but the game one pitching matchup didn't either, and the Sox won. So, the Red Sox could certainly come away with a win to even the series. Stranger things have happened. The way this series is going, stranger things will.