Red Sox Magic Number - 44

Last night's Red Sox win coupled with the Yankees' loss makes the Red Sox magic number now 44. The number 44 may be significant in other baseball towns (Reggie Jackson wore 44 for the Yankees and Hank Aaron wore 44 for the Braves) but not so much for the Red Sox. Sure Jason Bay brought some luster back to 44 in his brief tenure with the Sox but not enough to erase the stink of people like Kevin Kennedy wearing the number during his stint as manager for Boston.

I think most Boston sports fans probably think of Danny Ainge when you mention the number 44. Even though Ainge was excellent with those great Celtics teams of the 80's and equally excellent in his current tenure running the team - when I think of Danny Ainge I still think of him knocking out of the NCAA tourney the best basketball team Notre Dame ever had with an end to end dash as time ran out back in 1981.