Not the Sox themselves — and congrats to the team and its fans, by the way — but Charles P. Pierce on Slate.com, who sours an otherwise  serviceable season overview by taking the obligatory slap at the Yankees at the end:

Ultimately, though, it’s the talent nurtured and developed by the organization that belies the latest trope — that the Red Sox have suddenly become the Yankees. Leaving aside the fact that they are not owned by a crazy person, if they were the Yankees, they’d have peddled Lester or Delcarmen or Papelbon years ago for some superannuated right-handed slugger who’d help them win five games in September or knock the Mets off the back pages of the tabloids. The Red Sox heart is now a homegrown one.

Is it an immutable law of New England sports coverage that no Red Sox victory may be correctly enjoyed without casting it as a Yankee loss or shortcoming? Because Lord knows I understand defending a championship baseball team against the accusations from its detractors that it “bought” its place in the sun; I think this is Pierce’s main complaint, and I can sympathize with the feeling that, sour as the grapes may get, they’re beside the point.

But if the so-called “latest trope” is that the Red Sox have a lot of money, and spend it, well, that’s true. And if it’s that the Red Sox frequently spend it less than wisely on players who don’t turn out to be worth the investment, well, that’s also true; Pierce acknowledges this in the case of J.D. Drew, and I know sabermetricians aren’t supposed to care about clubhouse dynamics, but 1) Bill James devotes his entire Historical Abstract entry on Dick Allen to what Allen cost his teams by being a jackass, and 2) J.D. Drew had a reputation not for jackassery but for not hustling. So that was not the smartest purchase, and not the most unpredictable, either.

What Pierce doesn’t acknowledge? Dice-K. Fans more in the know than me, who watched him all season, can feel free to correct me on the fine points — but the guy sure didn’t look worth $51 million just to talk to from down here in Gotham. …I think that was the figure; again, corrections welcome. Here’s what you probably can’t correct me on: that money was to keep Matsusaka away from the Yankees. I mean, come on. Babe Ruth himself isn’t worth that kind of scratch unless the front office wants to cockblock Cashman — and since when is “Japan” considered “homegrown”?

You want to differentiate the Sox from the Yankees, fine, but conveniently leaving out the biggest transaction of Boston’s year, the one which makes them EXACTLY like the Yankees, doesn’t strengthen your argument. It makes it look like not much of an argument at all, actually.

The Yankee roster is way too old; this is true. The Clemens deal didn’t have a good payoff; this is also true. But the team isn’t the ’90s Marlins. There’s still homegrown, or at least longstanding, talent among the veterans (Jeter, Rivera). Also: Cabrera and Cano. Also also: Trading for expensive veteran talent often succeeds. This is why teams continue to do it. A-Rod = expensive veteran talent. Best position player in baseball, possibly ever. Without him, the ’07 Bombers finish under .500. Pettitte = expensive veteran talent. Proven quantity who put in good time this season. Without him, the ’07 Bombers have zero consistently effective starting pitching through June.

Randy Johnson = expensive veteran talent. Didn’t get the job done, was dismissed. Gary Sheffield = expensive veteran talent. Got traded; got hurt; shot his mouth off some more. (I missed that dude’s bat, don’t get me wrong, but when he left the Yankees I thought it was a smart call by the front office.)

Who else is expensive veteran talent? Hmm, let me think for a moment…oh, yes. Curt Schilling.

Baseball teams make trades in order to try to win championships. This is how the game works. It is not by definition savvy business when Boston does it, but at the same time a cynically loathsome sullying of baseball’s pure nature when New York does it, because the game is a business. Furthermore, referring to the capriciousness of “King George” re: personnel decisions is almost 20 years out of date; please have a basic understanding of team operations before you turn up your nose at their workings.

And finally: the Sox had their feet on the Yanks’ necks before the All-Star break; the Yankees drew within, what, a game and a half, two games at the end there? Threatened for the division, pretty credibly? Yeah. And remind me who won the season series? “Not Boston.” Yeah, I know.

All y’all Sox fans are rolling your eyes right now that I brought that up, because it’s sort of hard to believe either of those things; it is for Yankee fans too, because Boston was the better team all year. They had superior starting pitching, they had Papelbon, they had consistent offense early when ours didn’t wake up for two months (except for A-Rod), and they whipped Colorado’s butt red. They’re champions of the world, and deservedly. So I have to wonder why, as fucking usual, it’s not about beating the Indians, or the Rockies, but about being made of finer moral stuff than the Yankees, which is not only horseshit but also not germane in the first place. Just enjoy winning, for God’s sake, because I can tell you, when the Yankees won that string of rings back in the day, nobody gave two shits what that meant in comparison to Boston.

And if A-Rod goes to Beantown — and that’s an essay for another time, that situation — I had better not hear one more goddamn word about the big bad rich Evil Empire coming out of the Boston press, O’Shaughnessy, ever again.

I respect the Red Sox. I like watching most of the players. I could really do without the smug hypocrisy on the part of certain partisan sportswriters. Bill Simmons.

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