SF did.

Ken, DO NOT bring reason into this argument!

I'm with you, Tom! Bitter, indeed.

I don't really follow much in sports past football, but I think ALL the money sucks.

Teams pay out gazillions of dollars for players, and then the average Joe can oftentimes not afford to attend a game...

As long as it doesn't impede my access to cash, grass or ass, incite away. And if they're hot, they can pay 'em as much as they want. Isn't that what we got HD for?

Sorry. I was laughing myself when I actually added the second sentence.

The fact that the Red Sox are now, for the last several years, a big money club like the Yankees still gives me a weird, uncomfortable feeling. BTW, how's that for a softball down the middle, Mark/Cam/everybody?! It's OK, go ahead: talk about my uncomfortable feelings. It'll be a nice change of pace from my day job.

Tom and others have heard this story, but I will share again for the newbies, with enhancements - we can call it the Platinum Edition, ha.

I grew up on the short side of the Boston-NY rivalry, as my Dad was a lifelong Yankees fan. He was born in Woodside, Queens in 1933, so he saw Dimaggio play, then the Mantle years - the whole crowd. I started playing tee ball in the summer of 1975. I was a left-handed center fielder. On TV, I saw a team with cool looking uniforms and a left-handed center fielder: The Boston Red Sox and Fred Lynn. The team did well that year, making it to the World Series. I remember listening to one of the games on AM radio on a family camping trip.

That year, and over the years, I got used to the Red Sox coming close but ultimately falling short. First, it was the Big Red Machine that won the '75 Series. Then, my Dad let me get out of school early in 1978 so we could watch the one game playoff between the Yankees and Red Sox. I was introduced rudely to Bucky F&@%in Dent. Then, in my college dorm's TV room, I watched that grounder go through Bill Buckner's legs in 1986.

When the Red Sox finally won the Series in 2004, a lot of us Red Sox fans had difficulty understanding this new role: champion. "You mean it really happened this time?" When the Red Sox won again in 2007, and at that time, the Yankees hadn't won since 2000, it was an even stranger feeling of sustained success.

So, now the baseball landscape has the Yankees and Red Sox as a sort of 1(a) and 1(b) of megateam with a megabudget. As a Sox fan, I'm excited about the infusion of new talent, but I do agree that it's not so much that "Theo is a (bleep)in' genius" - as another team's GM Tweeted this week - as it is that he has access to the biggest checkbook. So, yeah, as a casual fan, I feel a little sheepish about the process. I do empathize with the small market teams and their fans. Maybe MLB needs to adopt the kind of profit-sharing that has brought more competitiveness to the NFL.

Mark, better get me those tickets before they are a million dollars apiece.

That makes sense, JP. To tell you the truth, I used to have a soft spot in my heart for the BoSox. Partly because I enjoy rooting for the underdog (probably a byproduct of me playing on losing sports teams my entire childhood *sigh*), and I was happy to see the Red Sox finally shrug off the curse and win a World Series.

But then everything changed. Well, I guess it's because I'm bitter that they kept sweeping the Angels out of the playoffs?

I know what you mean about the small market teams. It's almost like they are a professional farm system for the big market teams. Almost like they are expected to trade away a star player at the deadline because a stronger team will benefit more.

And, yes, I'm absolutely bitter that Carl Crawford signed with them and not the Angles.

*harumph*

That's an interesting angle...

Ha ha, it's a new expansion team soon to hit the league by storm!