Yankees Fans

His players had already absorbed enough punishment, so in the ninth inning of the Orioles' 9-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox yesterday before 46,559 at Camden Yards, interim manager Sam Perlozzo decided to heap more abuse on himself. As the Red Sox were putting the finishing touches on a humbling three-game sweep, leaving the Orioles with an eight-game losing streak that matched a season high, Perlozzo peered up at the Boston-partisan crowd that was standing and applauding in anticipation of the game's final out. "I said to myself, `Take a look at this.

At some point tonight, a verbal tug of war between baseball fans will echo throughout Oriole Park. It won't be unique, nor will it be particularly clever, but it will perfectly illustrate the obvious reality: When baseball's 800-pound gorilla, the New York Yankees, come to town, home-field advantage ain't what it used to be. "Let's go, Yank-ees!" "Yank-ees suck!" It would be one thing if the Yankees' fans were simply a loud, vocal minority, and if their cheers and taunts were constantly drowned out by an enthusiastic, sometimes angry response from thousands of Orioles fans.

Major League Baseball and the Boston Red Sox are investigating the altercation between a fan and New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield in the eighth inning of the Red Sox's 8-5 win over the Yankees at Fenway Park on Thursday night. Sheffield was fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple down the right-field line when a fan reached over the wall and apparently hit the outfielder in the face. Sheffield pushed the fan before throwing the ball back to the infield. He then confronted the fan before a security guard got between them.

Oh, you hate them. You hate their swagger. You hate what they wear, those Yankees caps and pinstriped Yankees jerseys and satin Yankees jackets that look like something from a bad bowling league. You hate the way they talk, which is megaphone-loud and New Yawk-y, and then they get a few beers in them and it sounds like Amphetamine Night at Yankee Stadium, everyone yapping about "Derek" and "Bernie" and "da Yanks, da mos' wunnerful team in da woild." But most of all, you hate their arrogance, their sense of entitlement, how they expect to win every year and when they don't, it's treated like a statistical anomaly, a blip in the natural order of life, a puzzler that even has God scratching his head.

RANDY JOHNSON to the Yankees; Shawn Green to the Diamondbacks: If the commissioner of baseball OKs this trade, 2004 will wrap up the same way it began: Rendering catalogs of sports gear - and loyalties of sports fans - worthless. Why, just last week, all those Pedro Martinez/Red Sox jerseys that should have been hot Christmas items landed in the discount bin. The Yankees were onto something a long time ago. Nameless jerseys are the only way to go - now more than ever. What a year. It all started with A-Rod.

NEW YORK - The end of another all-or-nothing season is at hand for the New York Yankees. It could be over tonight, if Florida Marlins ace Josh Beckett can crank up one more big game on short rest. Or it could end tomorrow night, with a climactic Game 7 at sold-out Yankee Stadium and, perhaps, another world championship for the most expensive baseball team ever fielded. The Yankees can only hope to push the 99th World Series to the limit and take advantage of their superior pitching depth.

NEW YORK - Of all the New York players who had to navigate through snarled traffic to reach Yankee Stadium yesterday, only one of them arrived late. He must have seen the Game 7 lineup. Jason Giambi, who was tardy for pre-game stretching because of a water main break that closed the George Washington Bridge, was lowered from third to seventh against Boston Red Sox starter Pedro Martinez because of a slump that intensified during the American League Championship Series. "It's just something a little bit different," manager Joe Torre said.

They've taken Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, and now Yankees fans appear on the verge of claiming the little patch of green yard by the Inner Harbor known as Camden Yards. Thousands of the spiritual kin of DiMaggio, Mantle and Torre streamed into the ballpark on Opening Day yesterday, intent on making the Yankees feel right at home. And why not? Ruth may not have built Baltimore's stadium, but center field was his neighborhood as a child. They came in pairs, in small groups and even accompanied by Orioles fans.

I DON'T know how it is with you, but for me the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and all is right with the world. The Yankees lost the World Series. Hallelujah, baby! Oh, I know the city of New York has been through a lot. My heart goes out to the people there. And I know the Yankees have a lot of good guys on their team; to hear the New York media tell it, it's a roster of altar boys who call their moms every night. Doesn't matter. I'm so sick of the Yankees I could scream. So when that soft, dying quail of a hit off the bat of Luis Gonzalez dropped into the outfield in Game 7 and the Arizona Diamondbacks officially became world champions, we Yankee-haters leaped from our sofas, brushed the pretzel crumbs from our shirts and screamed: "YESSS!

Preston has unfair bias against Ravens' Billick It's time for The Sun to get rid of columnist Mike Preston. He obviously has a problem with Brian Billick, and it obviously affects what he writes about the Ravens. Does he realize that the Ravens won the Super Bowl? Does he realize that they would not have done so without Brian Billick? Maybe Billick needs to start following Preston around and unfairly criticizing everything he does. Come on, Sun editors, do the right thing: Dump Preston!