WELL SHIT
Congratulations to the Red Sox and their fans, I am sure they are fucking enjoying this. I hope things 'work out' for you guys in the Series. Yeah. Right.
As for the Yankees, let's cut through all the 'it was a good season' bullshit and get serious (finally!). I lay the responsibility for this debacle at the feet of THE BOSS George Steinbrenner, this shit goes all the way to the top (like you know what).
Growing up in NJ the '80s, I basically figured out what baseball was and fell in love with the Yanks just in time to passionately follow the last pathetic years of the Yankees decade-long degeneration, as George Steinbrenner heedlessly ran what had been a championship team in the late '70s into the ground, gradually transforming it into a team full of second-rate hasbeens and no young talent (I have fond memories of writing a Yankees baseball zine when I was like 10 and putting some really serious thought into figuring out whether Greg Cadaret, Randy Velarde, or Mel Hall was the Yankees' MVP).
In 1990, everything changed. In an act of God (or 'the baseball Gods' if you are polytheistic about stuff like that), Steinbrenner was stupid and vindictive enough to get busted paying a convicted gambler money to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, earning him a suspension for a couple years during which the Yankees - finally free to develop young talent and otherwise rebuild like a rational organization - debuted, drafted and nurtured the homegrown foundation that would power their amazing, superstarless late-'90s dynasty. Bernie Williams. Andy Pettitte. Derek Jeter. James Joseph "The King" Leyritz (did you see how pimp he looked at the game?? STILL THE KING!). Jorge Posada. Mariano Rivera. Shane Fucking Spencer (remember how amazing he was in 1998??). Without a doubt, later, savvy free agent acquisitions and trades for players like Paul O'Neill, Jimmy Key, Davids Cone and Wells, and of course Luis "Inexplicably Crucial" Sojo played a major role in their successes, but at the core of the team was the heart, soul, and character - chemistry - of group of players that had all come of age, with each other, under Joe Torre, Don Zimmer, and Mel Stottlemyer (along with classy veteran leaders like Cone and Joe Girardi).
Steinbrenner, I'm sure, is convinced that he is the one that returned the team to greatness in the '90s, that the players (or Torre, or poor Brian Cashman) have failed him once again. The fact is, his destructive ownership style has been gradually grinding the great 1990's Yankee dynasty down just as surely as he destroyed the '70s Yankees, and I wouldn't be hugely surprised if in 2010 they're nearly as bad as they were in 1990, when they were the worst team in baseball. Like an alcoholic who can't even feel the buzz anymore, I'm sure he'll continue on ever-larger off-season free agent binges, trying to recapture that old magic... I almost want Joe Torre to quit, for his own good - he's a great manager and a good man that doesn't deserve the hell that's coming. Steinbrenner had 17 managers in his first 17 years as owner of the Yankees, and if and when Torre goes - which will probably be the official End, depending on what Jeter's up to - I expect the team to revert fully to 'Bronx Zoo' type.
The 2004 Yankees were a mish-mash of superstar mercenaries brought in to shore up a vanishing and aging core, a team consisting mostly of players who are in all likelihood 'just passing through,' a group of players that never grew to know or believe in each other, never gelled enough, to pull themselves together once Boston started winning. I mean, all of this is obviously pretty fucking subjective/speculative, but I just never got the feeling that these guys had the guts or the love to make that old Yankee magic happen. Our only chance of avoiding a continued, inexorable and painful decay is that the Sox win the World Series, causing Steinbrenner to explode. As they demonstrated this series, the Sox - unlike the Yankees - have the guts and the love for the job.
Still, on a more basic emotional and chemical level, I really fucking hope they lose, and as much as I hate Clemens I would love to see him be the one to beat them. I will never root so hard against a team as I will root against the Sox winning the Series, sorry to be a dick about it, but you understand, right?
UPDATE: Reaction roundup over at Winds of Change.