Ladies and Gentlemen, the Babe has left the building. And sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy, who has been dining out on "The Curse of the Bambino" for years, is going to need a new meal ticket.

The Red Sox won the world series, after a decades-long championship drought, brought on largely by stubborn and ignorant front-office people alienating good players, and perpetually trading away great young talent in search of a quick fix. A lot of people are wondering what Boston will be like without a team like that. My first reaction to hearing this line of thought was that these people must not be following the Bruins or Celtics. But there was a guy on the radio, well, yesterday morning by now, who was already talking about "post-curse depression". The team, at least, is going to be perceived very differently.

Now to sign Varitek...