. . . and oh how sweet it is to see the Red Sox lose. For a moment, it doesn’t matter what Daisuke Matsuzaka is or is not doing for the international appeal of the game. It doesn’t matter if Manny is or is not being Manny. It doesn’t matter that contrary to popular opinion, Boston-New York is just about the lamest rivalry in sports. It doesn’t matter that Red Sox Fascist State Nation is in denial over their team being just as capitalistic and evil as those big bad Yankees they’re so quick to point to as the ruiners of all that is right and holy in baseball. It doesn’t matter that no one outside of fantasy baseball leagues cares about David Ortiz and it doesn’t matter that so many are so very, very wrong in their opinion that Jason Varitek, despite his willingness to punch Alex Rodriguez in the jaw, is the Single Greatest Catcher Of All Time.

Why?

Because the mighty Red Sox and their lame brand of glamour team lost to the lowly White Sox. This feeling of beautiful, spiteful joy could (and probably will) fade by tomorrow, but it’s a nice moment all the same.

+++

Still quiet on the trade front, although with the Pirates’ move to acquire Cesar Izturis while benching Jack Wilson has ignited chatter and speculation locally about the Sox making a move to replace Juan Uribe. While it sounds promising, Wilson’s career line of .264/.306/.367 isn’t much of an improvement over Uribe’s .253/.294/.423, and his fielding percentage is only negligibly better (.977 to Uribe’s .975).

Couple this with Juan signed at $4.15 million through this year and a $5 million club option for 2008 versus Jack’s $5.25 million for 2007, $6.5 million in 2008 and $7.25 million in 2009 and the Sox would be stupid to make this type of move.

Why trade Juan Uribe for a more expensive version of Juan Uribe? I still say if you’re going to upgrade at a key position, you’ve got to go all the way.