Hey my fellow Red Sox fans... guess who is the Evil Empire now?

I am rooting hard for the Red Sox... and I expect all of my fellow Red Sox fans to cheer hard as well.

But make no mistake about it. With the Yankees gone, the Red Sox are the bad guys in this playoff.

Our team is the big bad bully that people want to see get crushed.

We can't play the "We just want to see a World Series before we die" card anymore.
We can't play the "lovable loser" card.

And we REALLY can't play the "We don't buy titles like the Yankees do" card.

The Indians, Rockies and Diamondbacks all have payrolls in the bottom third amongst teams. They are filled with rookies, young players and some hungry veterans playing for their first titles.

Only one team left has a $100 million + payroll with big priced free agents and loaded with stars who already have rings.

Guess which team?
Yup... we've become the team to root against. We're playing the role of "The Yankees."

Let's face it. It's what we've always wanted. We've WANTED to be the team you expect to win, not the team that people talk about curses and 8 decades of losing.

Why not embrace it? As a Celtic fan growing up in the 1980s, Larry/McHale/Parrish and company were hated across the country. Wasn't that fun rooting for the big bad Celtics?

Hey you Patriot fans! People hate the Pats... especially after the whole Belicheck video scandal. Do you care? Doesn't that feel good to be rooting for the bad guy? Especially when the bad guy is kicking everyone's butt?

Well, I know we have generations of playing the underdog... and I got some sweet HBO appearances because of those years of futility.

But those days are over... we're the type of team we rooted against.

And MAN is it fun.

We're the Empire!
Now let's get this Death Star going and blow up Alderaan!