Eternal Image Inc (fka ETNLQ)

[al44]

More from Boston:

http://bostonist.com/2008/12/01/even_death_cant_stop_sox_fans.php

You might have trouble getting tickets at Fenway, like most of us do. But it's comforting to know that when all those and myriad other troubles have gone away, you can still proclaim your allegiance to the boys even as you while away the centuries.

The Globe today introduces us to Eternal Image, a Michigan company that's correctly deduced that people don't want to spend the hereafter in a boring old coffin when they can cheerfully decay surrounded by the logo of their favorite team.

So we now have the option of Red Sox-themed caskets and urns. The steel casket, of which the first was just delivered to a Rockland funeral home, has a Sox logo on the outside, logo-festooned interior lining, and (we hope) the voice of Joe Castiglione beamed inside for all of eternity. Think of it as a never-ending rain delay.

The caskets carry a suggested retail price of $4,499, so it is not their most modestly-priced receptacle. But if the Sox fan in has already spent their earthly existence saturated with caps, shirts, pennants, books, etc., etc., why not take the last step, and let St. Peter know to strike up "Sweet Caroline" when they get to the gates? They will soon be available for all 30 MLB teams, so you can suggest one to your Yankee-fan coworkers (who have spent the last few years coming to grips with mortality anyway), or make arrangements to be buried in a Seattle Mariner setup if there's a good inside joke behind it. But the company fully expects the Sox one to be among their biggest sellers, and they're ready to, in the words of an MLB spokesman, "take care of the long-term fan".

(And, no, it doesn't come in pink. Yet.)

Picture from EternalImage.com