Growing up in Connecticut, no man’s land in the Red Sox-Yankees divide, meant that you had to be a fan of one or the other. It was always a pretty clear choice for me though, the Yankees were the evil empire that bought their World Championships and the Red Sox were the perennial underdog, so I always fell in line with the Red Sox fans. But lately it seems like the Red Sox are becoming just as much of an evil empire, especially in light of their Yankee-esque Matsuzaka signing. Bill Simmons/The Sports Guy (a Red Sox fan) really hammers home my feelings on the shift that has occurred in Boston in the past couple of years:

Back in the day, I liked being the underdog to the Yanks — they were the ones that broke the bank, we were the ones that played by the rules, and even though we were spending crazy amounts of money, it never really felt that way. Then the Manny contract changed that perception, followed by Schilling (everyone forgets this now, but Boston was one of only two teams that could afford him) and all the ridiculous contracts that followed over the next 3-4 years. Now we’re conditionally spending $51.1 million just to bid on a Japanese player. We’re no different than the Yankees anymore. We’ve become what we always despised and resented. It’s a little disconcerting.