Top 10 things about Red Sox Elimination Day

Life gets harder as you get older. The pace of things just never seems to let up, there's more responsibilities at work, the kids make bigger messes and need more of your time, and if you're lucky, the spouse continues to want you around. I don't know about you, but it seems to be that as soon as you celebrate one holiday, it's time for the next one, and what with the buying of presents and the hanging of decorations, it's easy to give short shrift to events that used to make you keen with happiness.

Such is the story this year with one of my favorite days on the baseball calendar, Red Sox Elimination Day.

This year, RSED was a perfect fall Sunday. The weekend was just terrific, and we got the house cleaned for visitors and hosted people on both days. Progress was made on a number of home projects, we had family movie team, and my mom came over and made Copper River salmon, which is just about the best thing in the world, really.

So I'm celebrating a day late, but with the sense of contentment that all is right with God in his heaven and Man in his world.

(Also, ever since I had that custom RED SOX ELIMINATION DAY electronic display mounted to the roof, celebrating is just a matter of flicking a switch. It's such a time saver.)

10) Knowing that Donnie Moore is looking up from his pit of eternal torment and feelings one small moment of relief is almost Christian, really

9) Remembering that, even though the team brought him in to throw out the first pitch for Game Three, Dave Henderson won his ring as a member of an A's team that routinely punched the Sox in the mouth in the playoffs

8) Watching Boston Fan scuttle from devastating loss to devastating loss, since the football team was giving it up to the new Greatest Winner in NFL History, Kyle Orton

7) Appreciating the added groin abuse provided by the Yankees advancing to the next round on the same day

6) Dreaming of today, when the ranks of Boston Fan shrink by approximately 80%, since the fanbase has become the same kind of Championships Or We Walk spoiled as the other metro markets that they used to claim moral superiority over

5) Going back over the Twitter feed of various Sox fans, which allows for calibrating, to the exact minute, when their Papelboner left, never to return

4) Dwelling on the happy fact that the 2009 Red Sox won as many playoff games as the A's, Orioles and Nationals

3) Appreciating the fact that we're just nine years away from a century of seasons without Red Sox championships that were not achieved without the use of banned chemicals

2) Hoping that Clay Buchholz's failure to nail down the win at home, despite having a lead, bodes well for the next generation of Red Sox Fail

1) The growing evidence that Red Sox Elimination Day will happen earlier every year, along with Patriots and Celtics Elimination day