Fans of the Rays and Rangers have no idea what they're in for. The angst level of a Game 163 hovers somewhere in the DEFCON 5 area. Every Red Sox fan old enough to remember the Blizzard of '78 remembers that year's Game 163 and the infamous
Mr. Bucky F. Dent. Back then, I recall hovering around a black and white TV at my new workplace in Cambridge and agonizing with the rest of the office over every pitch. When the fatal blow was struck, a quiet horror hung in the air. Many left to resume work, but a few hearty souls stayed until
Yaz (who had homered earlier) popped out to third to put the final nail in the 1978 season with a 5-4 loss. Decades earlier, the 1948 Red Sox lost
another tie-breaker—this time to the Indians. But the Sox were out of that game early—eventually losing 8-3. Ironically, had Boston won, they would have faced the cross-town Braves in the 1948 World Series. Tonight, lots of fans in either Tampa or Dallas will be too numb to know what hit them.
