After the 2004 World Series, I began to find articles and blog posts and such about how the Red Sox may become the new "Evil Empire." This was a reference to Larry Luccino's term he used to name the Yankees. Since then, the world outside of Red Sox Nation has had to replace taunts like "1918" and "Curse of the Bambino" and many have decided to recycle Larry's jab and say that the Sox are taking over as the bad guys. This years mind blowingly dominant run from April through October, cluminating in the the second WS title in 4 years, these sentiments are getting more mileage than ever. I would like to submit, however, that it is all Yankee subterfuge, a way for the Yankees to finally get off of every decent fan's radar as the Sith Lords.

The first argument that comes up is that the Sox throw money around like the Yankees. In truth, the Sox had the second highest payroll in 2007. Second to the Yankees, of course. The Red Sox had a total payroll of $143,026,214, which puts them behind the Yankees by $46,612,831. That difference between number one and number two in the salary game is the same as the difference between number two and number nine, the Detroit Tigers. In between you have (low to high) the Cubs, Mariners, Dodgers, White Sox, Angels, and Mets. For my money (pardon the pun) that places the Red Sox closer to seven other franchise that it places them in the same category as the Yankees.

Another difference between the Sox and an evil empire is, as the Yankee fans love to remind us, about 19 World Series Championships. When you win two 90 years, only a moron calls you the bad guy.

In the end, though, that main thing that keeps this comparison, well, no comparison at all, is the front office. The Red Sox don't fire managers, then rehire them, then fire them again, etcetera, ad naseum. The Red Sox front office doesn't make announcements during the playoffs that their manager will be let go if the team gets eliminated. The Red Sox would not consider firing a manager who'd been with the team 12 years and delivered 12 post-season appearances and four World Series titles, especially after bring his team back from 14 games out in June to the post season that year.

This year, the Red Sox had Dustin Pedroia, rookie ofthe year, and a stellar debut from Jacoby Ellsbury, both of whom came from the farm system as young talent. The Yankees took a page from that book this year with guys like Joba the Hutt, but as far as the evil empire goes, who has the reputation for hire guns? A-Rod, Sheffield, Abreau, Clemens, all add logs to that fire.

No, in the end, the whole concept of the Red Sox as the dark character in the play is just not credible as long as the Yankees are still fielding teams. And there's one more piece of evidence...the rest of the league's fans don't hate the Red Sox. Well, probably the fans in Colorado, but even they hate the Yankees, too.

Labels: baseball, Red Sox, salaries, Yankers

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 11/14/2007 09:58:00 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.