Not long ago, we crushed Boston at Fenway. What happened? "The fault, dear Boonie, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings..."

Well, dear Caesar, how's this for 1,000 cuts... 

Boston is marching inexorably toward another ring - its fifth in this century - cementing the Redsocks' status as baseball's premier franchise. 

Let that sink in, folks:

Boston... baseball's premier franchise. 

This month, if they take their fifth world championship, they will likely open a gap that cannot be bridged in our lifetimes. All this crap about 27 world championships? That will die with our generation. Our grandchildren will only know a world where the Redsocks own the Yankees.   

Make no mistake: We have fallen under a dark curse - one born of nepotism, led by a billionaire who covets nickels because they're bigger than dimes. 

For us, the result is a crushing sense of hopelessness and despair. 

Four weeks ago, we swept Boston in their own park and seemed poised to win the critical home field advantage in the wild card. Then everything fell apart. 

I believe it was fated all year. Why do I say this?

1. Weakness up the middle. Look at the difference? Boston shows quality from catcher to CF. The great Yankee teams of the 90's had Jorge, Jeter, Cano, Bernie. Look at what the Yankees sent out. Yikes. 

2. Without a LH slugger - not one - the Yankees were always a misfit in their own stadium. In spring training, they brought in Jay Bruce. At the trade deadline, it was Joey Gallo. Desperation seldom works.  

3. All season, the Yankees viewed Gerrit Cole as their insurance in a wild card game. Thus, they made the wild card a preposterous target. Cole faltered after the league cracked down on stick-um, and fell apart after a hamstring pull. Meanwhile, Nathan Eovaldi - the one that got away - became Boston's ace. 

4. We spent the year waiting on Corey Kluber and Luis Severino. Aside from a scattered moment, they never arrived. Meanwhile, Chris Sale returned to become a decent starter. 

5. Their manager, Alex Cora, seems a magician. Ours functioned as a front office lackey. The Yankees can never hold an Aaron Boone Bobblehead Night: It would be too painfully realistic. 

6. Somehow, the magnetic juju poles flipped in 2004, and we never recovered. The Yankees never took revenge upon Curt Schilling, Big Papi, Pedro, Jason Varitek, et al. Their comical attempts to co-opt Jacoby Ellsbury, Johnny Damon, Kevin Youkilis, et al, backfired. Now it's Devers, Xander and JD Martinez. What are we gonna do? Sign them at age 40?

7. Boston helped usher in a new era of advanced analytics, and the copycat Yankees - though pouring mountains of money into it - have always come up short.

8. The Yankees wrongfully seemed to think 2020 mattered. They actually thought Luke Voit was a home run champion, and that DJ LeMahieu would really hit .364. The Redsocks rightfully saw 2020 as an outlier.   

Looking back, wasn't 2021 always doomed for us? From the beginning, Tampa, Boston and Toronto crushed us. In the end, it required a ridiculous infusion of players - at the expense of our farm system - just to secure the final wild card slot. (And the Yankees now claim they really didn't give up anything - wink wink - because they're smarter than the teams that gave us Gallo and Andrew Heaney. Sure they are...) 

So here we are, drowning in our own hubris. No, dear Brutus, the fault is not in our stars, not at all. It is so much worse.