01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 17, 2004

BOSTON -- Johnny Damon may look like a prophet, but his words have proven false.

It is not, as he said, the Red Sox who are a bunch of idiots.

What they are is a bunch of chokes.

The idiots are all those fools who truly believed this would be the year the perennially disappointing Sox -- who haven't won a World Series since 1918, nor even a pennant since 1986 -- would finally beat the 26-time, world-champion Yankees, who now are on the brink of playing for a 27th title.

Only a bunch of idiots would continue to put their faith in this chronically overpaid and underachieving aggregation of ill-kempt characters, this wild-and-crazy bunch of hirsute fun lovers who gleefully pop open champagne bottles to celebrate finishing second for the seventh straight season.

Sure, they're loose. They're also losers.

The Red Sox embarrassed themselves last night, giving up more runs than any team in any game in the history of the American League Championship Series.

And remember how, heading into the series, everybody said it was the Yankees who had pitching problems?

Boston hurlers looked as if they were throwing batting practice last night, allowing the Bronx Bombers to put crooked numbers on the ancient scoreboard at the base of the revered Wall in four of the first five innings.

Three in the first off Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo, whose pitching was as ugly as his hairstyle.

Three more in the third, in which Arroyo failed to retire a batter.

Then it was a demoralizing five in the fourth, when Red Sox manager Terry "Fran-coma" inexplicably opted for Curtis "the Mechanic" Leskanic out of the bullpen instead of Tim Wakefield, even though the score was tied, 6-6, thanks to Boston batters twice bringing the Sox from behind.

Leskanic has earned his nickname by continually throwing a monkey wrench into whatever plans his team may have for victory.

The Red Sox scored four runs in the second off the hot-headed, but hardly hot-handed, Kevin Brown, then added two more in the third, raising two questions: Would Brown again break a hand by punching a wall in the clubhouse? And, if he did, would New York manager Joe Torre care?

The rout grew to ridiculous -- and humiliating -- proportions in the fifth, when the Yankees increased their lead to 13-6.

At which point the Sox had as much chance of coming back as Nelson de la Rosa has of winning a slam-dunk contest.

It got worse in the seventh, when the Yanks added four more, giving them 11 unanswered runs since the scored had been tied in the third, and a 17-6 lead.

The irony is that it was Boston's presumed pitching prominence that led the oddsmakers to establish the Red Sox as favorites in the series.

Yes, favorites.

And not just the series.

The Yankees, despite beating the Sox yet again for the division title, have been underdogs in every game so far.

But they're the ones who have come on top every time.

They beat a hobbled Curt Schilling in Game 1. Jon Lieber outpitched Pedro Martinez in Game 2.

Clearly, the Sox were a team in trouble after dropping those first two at Yankee Stadium, especially having sent Schilling and Martinez to the mound.

But, surely, they would swing their bats, and thus the momentum, at Fenway.

What the Red Sox didn't count on was that the Yankees would batter their supposedly superior pitching.

It's all but over now, with Derek Lowe slated to start Game 4 tonight.

Nothing remains for the remaining Fenway faithful but to sit in the shade of one of Martinez's mango trees and ponder whether Prima Donna Petey has pitched his final game for the Sox.

How could it have gone so wrong, so fast? After sweeping Anaheim, the Sox were confident they finally would topple the Evil Empire.

Amen, said the true believers.

What a bunch of idiots.