Old England vs. New England

As a sports fan, I'm clearly living in the wrong England. In the past 2 weeks we've seen the England soccer team lose in Russia and are now in serious danger of not qualifying for the Euro championships next summer. We saw a not very good England rugby team get very lucky and make it to the World Cup final and lose to South Africa. And then the English rookie driver in Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton, had the season championship wrapped up with 2 races left to go, only to lose it on the last race of the season and lose by 1 point (yet strangely, the English didn't really care and still thought he did really well).

In the meantime, on the other side of the pond in New England, we have:

- The New England Patriots, who play American football, have run their record to 8 wins and 0 losses and are averaging over 40 points a game. They are already the team of the decade, having won 3 Super Bowl championships since 2001.

- Boston College football who are the only real top division college team in New England are ranked as the second best college football team in the country. They are also 8-0.

- The University of Massachusetts football team, who are 7-1, their only loss coming at Boston College. They play in the second tier of college football and are ranked 4th in the country at that level.

- Karen's and my alma mater, Yale, is 7-0 in football. They also play in the second tier and are ranked 13th in the country at that level.

- Although I have to admit that I don't really follow soccer in the U.S., for completeness sake I should point out that the New England Revolution who play in Major League Soccer took home the U.S. Open trophy in early October.

- The Boston Celtics, who are the best team in NBA history but have been not very good for about 20 years, finally have a great team again and are favorites this year to win the Eastern Conference.

Hmmm, I think I'm forgetting one more team. Which one is it? Oh yeah, of course it's everyone's beloved Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox finally broke the Yankees' 9 year reign at the top of the American League East division. Then they swept the Angels 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs. Then a dramatic 7 game win against Cleveland. And then tonight, they complete the sweep of the Colorado Rockies in the World Series for their second championship in 4 years.

After waiting 86 years from 1918 until 2004, Red Sox Nation now has two championships in 4 years with two 4-0 sweeps.

I have to say I'm very excited by the sweep, as the World Series games are shown between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. over here, so now I don't have to stay up for Games 5, 6 and 7. Time to go and get some sleep!