Fear Governs Red Sox Nation

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks". - Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene II.

The Red Sox Nation, fresh off their surrogate success and the sublime earthquakes of ecstacy victory in Patriot Land, having suffered a sharp blow to the solar plexus, now try to regroup with fantasy tales of why the Yankees getting A-Rod after they themselves failed to do so, isn't the kick to the nuts their mascochistic psyches haven't been waiting for all off season ever since Pettitte and Clemens shook off their pinstripes for their homeland of Texas.

C'mon, Red Sox Nation: you knew the other shoe was going to drop.

Moneymoneymoney. Businessbusinessbusiness.

I'm a diehard hater of the Yankees myself but as a Mets fan, I've gotten accustomed to the idea that the Yankees are always going to be the loudest, the most obnoxious, the most successful. It's no coincidence that Steinbrenner turned the franchise around. He's good with money and he's good with business and he's a big asshole. That's quite a combination.

But it's peanuts. If you think the advantage the Yankees hold over most teams because of their finances is outrageous, have a peak at Chelski, the English football club owned by Russian kadrillionaire, Roman Abramovich former governor of Chukotka. He is already spent 111 million pounds (191 million dollars) on players since buying Chelsea for 140 million quid last July. Abramovich has money on the level only Bill Gates and Russian Mafia leaders know. Steinbrenner is like a pathetic little Selig goldfish treading water in Milwaukee waiting to be gulped down in a champagne glass in comparison to the richest man in sports.

This move, this Yankee trade for the franchise of American baseball, is the knock down in a heavyweight prize fight and the Red Sox have next season to find out if they can get back up off the canvass before the ten count concludes. They've added a front end starter and a front end closer. And the strongest offensive team in Boston opted to stand pat and hope the career offensive numbers some of their renegades produced last season will reproduce themselves again as if to tease further still.

Think about this for a moment: Lofton leading off and then a mélange of fear to follow in no particular order: Jeter (think he won't have a monster season now that everyone in New York whispers, the question of the metropole, why did A-Rod have to move to third when Jeter is the weaker shortstop? ) then you've got A-Rod himself, Giambi, off a humiliating season and knee surgery with something to prove, B Williams, demoted with something to prove, Sheffield, primadonna, the poor man's Reggie Jackson, Matsui, the Japanese Matsui and then chimp ears Posada hitting 30 more homers from the number eight slot?

Had the Red Sox pulled off this trade, had they then swapped Nomah for Magglio Ordonez, well, we'd be looking at a giant card. Let's face it, getting A-Rod, for any team on the brink, is the trump card, the gotcha, the moment. Texas was never on the brink and frankly, given Seattle's illustrious history of choking second only to the Buffalo Bills in the annals of mastery of second place finishes and failing, neither were they. A-Rod, whether the Red Sox Nation wants to admit it or not, is the piece to the bigger puzzle. Think for a moment that Boston could have had A-Rod and could have rid themselves like fleas of Yankee Somnambulist Manny at the same time and for whatever reason, it didn't happen. Had Boone not played pick-up basketball, A-Rod might still be withering in Texas.

So then to paraphrase someone far better than I in the New York tabloids this weekend, Boone has screwed the Red Sox Nation twice. His last inning homer, the kidney shot that Boston thought was the worst, and then the uppercut, his injury, which led to A-Rod playing third for the Yankees.

When the Toronto Blue Jays pass the Red Sox this season for second place in the AL East, the Nation had better not blame Steinbrenner's cash and/or their own dissheveled ownership. They'd better blame Boone. And while they're at it, they might as well blame the Reds for trading him to the Yankees in the first place. Or Bob Boone for having children.

There will always be a ready out. The Patriots have saved New England and the Red Sox Nation will have to sit quietly in their seats to admire. No matter how much I hate the Yankees, I have to stand back and applaud at every blow, just like I would at a prize fight when the challenger's legs have gone wobbly and the crowd senses blood. Now they can call it the Bane of Boone.