Mark Bellhorn

It took the Boston Red Sox eighteen years, but the club has notched another World Series victory by beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-9. Mark Bellhorn's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning was the difference. The Red Sox won the highest scoring opener in World Series history despite making four errors.

Bellhorn's homer hit the right-field foul pole at Boston's Fenway Park and scored Jason Varitek, who had reached on an error by Cardinals shortstop Edgar Renteria.

David Ortiz homered and drove in four runs for Boston, while Manny Ramirez had three hits and two RBIs. Ortiz has 19 RBIs this postseason, tying a Major League Baseball record held by Scott Spezio and Sandy Alomar.

Game 2 is tomorrow night in Boston. Matt Morris will pitch for the Cardinals, while Curt Schilling starts for the Red Sox.

Just as he did during his stellar Game 6 performance against the Yankees, Schilling will be pitching the game with three stitches in his right ankle to hold his injured tendon in place.

After Schilling's dismal Game 1 performance, the Red Sox training staff thought of various ways to keep the tendon in place. Special high-top shoes didn't work, and they hit upon the idea of sewing skin in Schilling's leg to the tissue underneath, creating a wall that would keep the tendon in place. (Some might say that this was "Yankee" ingenuity -- pardon the pun.)

Curt Schilling

To make sure that the procedure would work, the training staff found a citizen of the Red Sox Nation who actually volunteered his body to the cause.

With the team's future increasingly dependent on Curt Schilling's right leg, doctors decided to try an apparently unprecedented procedure to keep a tendon from slipping around in his ankle. But first, they wanted to test it out.

So they used a cadaver.

Perhaps this was what was necessary to "reverse the curse."

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful and "taking one for the team" living.

-Tim