Are the Red Sox overexposed? Short answer: I don't care. Long answer: I'm having too much fun to notice the dirty looks coming from Royals fans.

I mean, it's not like I'm that guy, right?

Sure, I typed this review at work, going in three hours early to watch the Red Sox annual 11 a.m. Patriots Day game. Yes, I go to Spring Training and followed the Sox to Tampa in 2003 and go again next week, and even to Texas this summer, but in terms of a fan I'm normal. For a Red Sox rooter, at least. Few fans of other teams can understand the passion. Cubs fans can, for example. In other sports, Raiders fans know, as do Canadian hockey fans. But this is normal for a Red Sox supporter.

Now, Jimmy Fallon�s character in Fever Pitch, he is that guy. But in case you're worried, I assure you the flick isn't a two hour Saturday Night Live skit with Fallon and Drew Barrymore saying how the Sox are �wicked awesome� or they �pahck'd their cah in Hahvad yahd.� Not only that, there�s not one Ben Affleck cameo, and for that we thank the Farrelly brothers who directed the movie.

	Don't be silly. It says right here that Big Papi's OPS was a lot higher than Sheffield's in '04. Duh!

In this unorthodox love triangle, the Red Sox play their championship season, Fallon is an 8th grade math teacher and Drew Barrymore is a go-getter hard-nosed businesswoman. His apartment looks like a Red Sox gift shop, she works out harder at the gym than Suzanne Somers. He crosses himself and hand-kisses a picture of Tony Conigliaro, she works on a laptop from his seats at the game. The Red Sox win.

You know what I liked most about this particular romantic comedy that revolves around the title season? Or is it the other way around? Doesn't matter.

Anyway, the Farrellys didn't make it so that Fallon had to view his passion as abnormal or shameful. Of which I say, *phew!* What a relief. I can wear my Sox cap at weddings without feeling silly!

Fever Pitch isn't some existential look at life seen through the prism of baseball, a la Field of Dreams, nor is it When Harry Met Sally. The movie doesn't break any new ground in relationships or humor, but it is enjoyable. The gals talk about talking, the guys talk baseball. There's a breakup, there's an understanding. Fever Pitch is a quixotic tale of the Red Sox and Red Sox fans, and some chick gums up the works. It's a simple formula.

At first, to Drew he's perfect and normal, right? Oops. �There's a reason he's 30 and still single,� her friends tell her, and eventually it becomes the Red sox. That got me to thinking. Do people say the same about me? My 29th year is half over, after all, and I'm very single.

I can say with certainty that unlike Fallon, given the chance to go to Paris for the weekend instead of attending a couple of games, let's go to France. It's not like I take a week off before the season with the hopes of following the Sox in the Series. ... um ... never mind.

If I were smarter and less socially awkward, I might have considered the Saturday matinee a decent opportunity to at least make eye contact with one of the women who came alone to the movie, thinking, �hey, they could be Sox fans and thus overlook my faults!� I did not pursue this course of action, and can only dream of my own Drew.

Before the season, the Braves held a fan fest at Turner Field to show off the new $10 million video board and let fans tour the museum and kids run the bases and the like. There were several two- and threesomes of women there, and I realized, �these women are here without guys to see a baseball field without an actual game being played in it.� In other words, my type. Naturally I didn't approach any even for conversation because I'm Sir Jeffy McWussenstein.

I am looking for a Red Sox-loving girlfriend to wear my pink Sox T-shirt (already purchased) and cheer Johnny Damon, even if she is just checking out his butt. Which is indeed nice. I've heard, I mean. I just won�t do anything about it.

After all the celebrating in the fall, kissing all over the trophy, watching the DVDs over and over through the winter, opening World Series-related gifts, following the home opener and rings ceremony like a kid waiting up for Santa, this movie feels like a culmination of the high spirits from the glorious 2004 season. Here�s to a Fever Pitch 2 after 2005!

Now, if you don�t mind, I could really go for a Fenway Frank right about now.