01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 24, 2004

BOSTON --

Objectivity be damned.

I want the Red Sox to win the World Series.

I know, I know, I'm not supposed to say that.

I'm supposed to be an objective observer. As a columnist, I'm supposed to be opinionated, but also unbiased.

I don't root for one team over another, although fans often seem to think I should, and sometimes get very upset when I don't.

It's not supposed to matter to me who wins. And, frankly, it very seldom does. Especially after nearly 30 years as a sportswriter.

Watch that many games over that many years and what you're hoping for, in any sport, is to see great players make great plays. What you're rooting for is to see a memorable game, the kind of performances you'll never forget, scenes that will stick forever in your mind, as vivid when they're recalled years later as they were when you first saw them.

You hope to see things such as David Ortiz's game-winning homer in Game 4, followed by his game-winning single in Game 5 -- both extra dramatic because they came in extra innings.

If you're lucky, you see things such as Curt Schilling, taking the mound with his sutured, bloody ankle, and holding the Yankees to just one run through seven innings in Game 6. Like Johnny Damon, who was batting .105 through the first six games, belting a grand slam in the second inning of Game 7 in New York, then following it up, two innings later, with a two-run blast.

Those are the heroics that put the Red Sox, who looked as if they were about to be ignominiously swept in four straight by the Yankees, into the World Series for the first time in 18 years by virtue of the greatest comeback in postseason baseball history.

This time, dammit, I want them to win.

I was a high schooler in 1967, the "Impossible Dream" season, when Carl Yastrzemski carried the Red Sox to their first pennant since 1946 by winning the Triple Crown, almost single-handedly beating the Minnesota Twins in the final two games of the season at Fenway Park.

I remember rooting hard for the Red Sox in Game 7, but Jim Lonborg, pitching on just two days rest, was no match for the overpowering Bob Gibson, who, throwing to his loquacious catcher, Tim McCarver, gave up just three hits through nine innings as St. Louis won, 7-2.

I was serving in the Navy, aboard an aircraft carrier at sea, and so missed watching the incredible Sixth 6 of the 1975 World Series, and then the bitterly disappointing Game 7.

You know how you always remember where you are when you hear tragic news?

I was getting out of a taxi in front of a hotel in Amherst, N.Y., when the ball went through Bill Buckner's legs.

I'd gone to Buffalo to cover a Patriots game against the Bills and had been following Game 6 of the World Series against the Mets on a circuitous journey from Providence.

I'd seen the start of the game in T.F. Green Airport, before leaving for LaGuardia. During a brief layover in New York, I fed quarters into a pay television -- yes, that was what you had to do, back in the "old days" -- in order to keep tabs on what was going on at Shea Stadium.

The pilot on the flight to Buffalo gave periodic updates on the game along the way, and I was in a watering hole at the airport in time to see the Sox score twice in the top of the 10th to take a 5-3 lead.

Perfect, I thought. If I jump right into a cab, I'll be at the hotel just in time to celebrate the Red Sox winning their first World Series in my lifetime, their first since 1918.

No need to go over the painful details yet again.

Suffice it to say, having been one strike away from victory, it's been 18 years since the Sox last made it to the World Series.

While it seems, given the present ownership and front office, it won't be another 18-year wait until the next one, who knows? These are, after all, the Red Sox.

The point is, the Sox came into this World Series riding much higher than the top of the Green Monster after their remarkable comeback against the Yankees.

I don't hesitate to say that I thought they were all done after that 19-8 embarrassment at Fenway last Saturday night that put them down, 3-0, to the 26-time World Series champions.

But the Sox came back, and so they were back at Fenway last night for Game 1 of the 2004 World Series, against St. Louis, another old rival.

For Boston, the Cardinals are the National League version of the Yankees. St. Louis has won the World Series nine times, twice against Boston, beating the Sox in seven games in '46, and then again in seven games in '67.

Where the Yankees have frustrated Boston over the years with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Bucky Dent, Aaron Boone, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, the Cards knocked off the Sox twice in the World Series with Enos Slaughter and Julian Javier, with Gibson and Harry "The Cat" Brecheen.

The Yankees have been Boston's nemesis countless times. Both times the Cards have faced the Sox in the Series, they've beaten them. Four times since 1918, the Red Sox have gotten to the seventh game of the World Series and lost.

They finally beat the Yankees. Now it's time they beat the Cardinals.

This time, dammit, I want the Red Sox to win it all.