"Hey now, you're an all-star, get your game on, go play"

Smash Mouth, "All Star"

You knew it would end up like this, the Cubs and Red Sox losing in their respective Game 7 of the League Championship Series. To get so far into the playoffs and to come up heartbreakingly short.

The world is safe from annihilation for at least another year - neither the Red Sox nor the Cubs will win the 2003 World Series. The Red Sox completed the Big Choke Perfecta of 2003 by giving up a 5-0 lead in the 8th inning Game 7 of the ALCS in tonight's game - shades of the Cubs who gave up 8 runs in the 8th inning of Game 6 of the NLCS two days ago. Both series went 7 games (the first time in MLB history that's happened), making the teams' crushing defeat all the more devastating to their fans.

Somehow the people of Chicago and Boston have the guts to say "Wait til next year." It should come easy to them, they share a combined (now) 180 years of World Series futility.