I know some of you folks out there don’t like him, but he did incredible reporting that season.

Today he raises the specter of 1978, a prospect that strikes terror in the hearts of Red Sox fans.

“The mood is suicidal,” a fan from Maine said in an e-mail message yesterday. “The Yanks are going to win the division.”

…A Boston lawyer said he listened to Red Sox games and asked: “Why am I doing this? This is a waste of time. I know the Sox will blow it at the end and the Yanks will win. And every night lately that premonition comes true.”

He added, “There truly is a foreboding sense that this is the arrival of the inevitable collapse and that they are gagging like they did in ’78.”

Me, I still find it hard to believe that the Red Sox could lose the division—not with their pitching. (Although what’s happened to the bullpen?) And, of course, even if the Yankees and Sox tied, there would be no one-game playoff. And even if the Red Sox were the wild card, wild cards can win World Series too.

No, what gives a Yankee fan the greatest pleasure is hearing the tone of desperation and futility in the voices of Sox fans—almost as if (please God, please God) 2004 never happened.

A small aside: These are fun days for Yankee fans, as not only are the Red Sox suddenly losing, but the Mets (ugh) are folding in a dramatic and exciting and wonderful way. I feel bad for Willie Randolph, but still…it’s lots of fun to watch the Mets choke.