Well, that all ended the other day as they beat St Louis by 4 games to nil in the best-of-seven "World Series" final. Not only did they win, but they became only the 4th team in 100 World Series to win without ever trailing, and the first team ever to win 8 games in a row (they'd come back from 3-0 down to win the semi-final 4-3 against the New York Yankees).

And they did it with guts. Pitcher Curt Schilling won the second game against St Louis playing with a dislocated tendon in his ankle that had been stitched onto the bone only that morning. He stood on the pitcher's mound with blood seeping through his sock.

What's it got to with us? Well, naturally, they're going to make a film about it. But the thing is, they already have. And it's called "Fever Pitch".

As we reported back in 2003, in an April 1st story that many of you didn't believe wasn't a wind-up, the Americans have been making their own version of Fever Pitch, directed by the Farrelly brothers (Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, etc), starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, and featuring the Boston Red Sox in the role taken by Arsenal FC in the original book and film.

And the weird thing, as Nick Nornby explained, was that they were changing it from a film centred on the team's against-the-odds win, to one based on an against-the-odds loss. They were taking an upbeat happy-ending European film, and re-making it as a miserable American one.

Incidentally, some Arsenal fans seemed to think that the whole development was somehow sacriligious. My take on it is that we Arsenal fans tend to think of the story as somehow belonging to us but of course it doesn't. Well, in a sense the story of May 26th 1989 does belong to us. But Fever Pitch is more than that (but also in a very real sense, it is also considerabty less than that). It's a love story based around a famous sporting event, and if they want to re-work that to be about something other than Arsenal then that's their business. Better that they re-make it about a real American event than, for example, re-work the original story into a fictitious American setting featuring an NFL team called the Arsenal winning the superbowl in the last minute against the LA Poolers in the latter's home stadium the AnfieldDome, or something like that. And at the end of the day, interest in this re-make will inevitably lead some previously ignorant foreign sports fans to investigate the original, and a whole new group of people will be introduced to the Arsenal and to the magic of St Michael's Day.

Anyway, I digress.

I'd heard that the film was finished and due out soon, and was wondering how it would fit in with the this week's turnaround in the fortunes of the Red Sox. Did the film dwell on the Red Sox's status as perpetual losers? If so, would their World Championsip success undermine the film, would it turn the new Fever Pitch into an anachronism before it had even been released?

Well, not as it turns out. Because according to CNN, they're re-making the re-make, and giving it a Hollywood happy ending.

Co-director Peter Farrelly says, "We had gone into the movie anticipating that the Red Sox would not win the World Championship, and it would be another dismal ending for them, but love would conquer all. But what happened because of this turn of events, we now have the double whammy of a happy love story and a championship team at the same time." (ring any bells?) Apparently, the writers have been busy ever since game 4 of the Yankees series, when the Red Sox started the comeback from 3-0 down and went on the unprecedented 8-match record unbeaten run (hmm, that rings a bell too, only eight though). And they even sent a skeleton crew, with some of the actors, to shoot some scenes at the final game against St Louis.

My favourite quote, though, comes from one of the film's producers, Nancy Juvonen, "Had we made this ending up, it would have been considered too trite." Try telling that to Arsenal fans, Nancy! We know that miracles do happen.