For those who don’t know, the Pop Culture Gangster is a bit of a Red Sox fan, which means I might regret this, but here I go…   

The Red Sox just beat the New York Mets for the second game in a row, making it 11 straight wins, the most since 1995 when they won 10 in a row.  We’re almost at the All-Star break and the team is on fire.

So are the Mets actually…  which leads us to the way-too-early to be talking like this possibility of the Red Sox playing the Mets in the World Series.  20 years after they played each other in the 1986 World Series, ending in what was the most heartbreaking loss in Red Sox history.  1986 was one of the biggest clouds hanging – looming – over Red Sox nation for years, and Sox fans are a fairly superstitious bunch. 

We beat the Yankees and St. Louis in 2004, which definitely lightened the cross we all bear as Red Sox fans.  The Yankees are obviously a hated rival, but St. Louis has a history with the Sox as well – they beat us in two other World Series bids, in 1948 and 1967. 

Still, Red Sox fans still have a few ghosts of years past that haunt us.

What say the Red Sox beat the Mets in the World Series, 20 years after they played each other last.  The Sox win because Pedro Martinez – who left the Red Sox to play for the Mets – bungles a simple fielding play, a la Bill Buckner. The Red Sox win the Series and the opening pitch at Fenway of the 2007 series is thrown by none other Bill Buckner himself, who can consider the demons exercised.

Now we just gotta beat Cincinnati and order will be restored to the universe.