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The Surprising Connection Between AHS: Murder House And The Boston Red Sox

Like every incarnation of FX anthology series "American Horror Story" Season 1 – also called "Murder House" – is packed with references from outside the show, whether it nods to true crime, supernatural arcana, or even apocalyptic lore. "Murder House" not only incorporated Elizabeth Short and the Black Dahlia murder case into the narrative but the story also paid homage to "Amityville Horror Story," "The Shining," and "Dark Shadows" – a gothic soap opera co-creator Ryan Murphy named as a key influence on the show (per Vulture).

Naturally then the dead teenage jocks and cheerleaders who appear in the "Halloween" two-parter are a bleak allusion to the Columbine shootings – like the Black Dahlia becoming a character, it's another moment for real-life horror to collide with ghosts and demonic babies.

They also have a lighter connection however to a certain beloved – if sometimes infuriating – New England baseball team, even if you wouldn't expect it amid the dark camp of the season's plot. Here's more about the reference to the Boston Red Sox you'd never guess would wind up in "American Horror Story: Murder House."

These characters are named after former Red Sox players

The ghostly school shooting victims of "Halloween" are given the last names respectively of Boggs, Greenwell, Stapleton, Stanley, and Gedman, but none of these surnames were out of the blue: each name is that of a former member of the 1986 Boston Red Sox lineup.

The reference makes sense anyway given the "jock" status of the ghosts when they were still alive, but it also may be a direct allusion to the background of "American Horror Story" writer and co-creator Brad Falchuk. Boston.com pointed out that Falchuk is a native of Boston suburb Newton and even attended Beaver Country Day School.

But Falchuk's relationship with the Sox doesn't end there. His brother Evan Falchuk wrote an article for Better Health in 2010 about the siblings' decades-long love for the team, culminating in Brad getting to throw the first pitch for the Sox one game at Fenway. Now, who could ask for more as a Red Sox fan?