Let us pray ... or something

It's time to go to church ... time to light votive candles ... time to get seriously spiritual. The Red Sox are in the playoffs.

Those of us who are Red Sox fans -- who are citizens in good standing of Red Sox Nation -- get especially religious at this time of year . We invoke the name of the Almighty in an effort to get the higher power infused in our bats and our fielding and our pitching. It doesn't help that our first round opponents are known as the Angels.

Granted, there are times when we invoke the name of the Almighty in ways that aren't so holy, but that's what this team does to us. We do this because we've been here before in the playoffs and it hasn't been pretty

I saw on television what happened with Bucky Freakin' Dent in 1978 American League division race playoff game and it wasn't pretty. I saw what happened with Billy Buckner in the 1986 World Series and it wasn't pretty. I saw what happened with Aaron Freakin' Boone in the 2003 American League championship series. Not pretty is an understatement ... it was ugly, ugly, ugly.

We yelled at the television -- screamed I tell you -- at Grady Little to take out Pedro Martinez as Petey began to implode on the mound at Yankee Stadium in the 2003 American League Championship Series. I'm still hoarse from that one.

Sure, we accept and are thankful for the World Series championships in 2004 and 2007. They were life fulfilling and life affirming dreams for many people. The 2004 World Series supposedly broke an 86-year-old curse originally brought on by the Sox sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919.

But the true Red Sox fan, while he or she may no longer live with The Curse, lives with a sense of The Dread. We can be Catholic or Jewish, Methodist or Muslim, Baptist or Buddhist, agnostic or atheist, we all share the Red Sox religion of Dread in the true Calvinist tradition that only through suffering can we find salvation.

Newer citizens of Red Sox Nation, those who took their oath of citizenship after the championship in 2004, expect the team to win in the post-season. They see winning in the post season as part of the natural course of events: the sun will rise, the Red Sox will win. Hey, they said, they did it in 2004 and again in 2007 ... no sweat.

Older Red Sox Nation citizens, however, expect the team to lose. We hope for the best, pray for the best, are willing to sell our internal organs in hopes of the best, but we expect the worst. That's our conditioning. That's how Dent and Buckner and Boone and Little and many others taught us to be.

We are consumed with The Dread that injury to key players might be this year's Achilles heel:

Josh Beckett -- oblique

J.D. Drew -- back spasms

Mike Lowell -- hip flexor

Dice-K (pictured above) -- the fact that he throws too many balls

I know, I know. Technically, throwing balls instead of strikes isn't an injury, but that's how deep The Dread can run in the veins of those of us who worry too much.

Am I feeling less of The Dread as a result of Wednesday night's first game 4-1 win against the Anaheim Angels?

No, it's a long October.

All together now: "Our Father, who art in heaven ..."