Is it just me or is fun to hate the Yankees? It’s not because they are so successful that I hate them it’s because 70 percent of their fans can’t even tell you who plays first base, but are quick to boast when they win the World Series. If you claim to be a Yankees fan, but can’t tell me who Randy Johnson is, just stop reading my article and flip back to the front page. It disgusts me!

I am sure all you who swear up and down that you’re Yankees fans have those old Bulls jerseys in the back of your closet now.

Anyway, I’ve got bad news for all you so-called Yankees fans and the 30 percent of you who actually are fans. They’re not going to win the World Series in 2006.

Yes I heard how Alex Rodriguez promised all Yankees fans that this

was, “their year” and promised to make the Yankees world champs in 2006.

But A-Rod should have taken a look at his team’s starting pitching before blurting out all these promises for October. Randy Johnson is good, but too old to be a number one pitcher for a team with such high expectations.

Back to hating the Yankees. It’s guys like Johnny Damon that make me hate them. Damon has a lot of gall asking for money with an arm that looks like it’s about to fall off. Now he can flip it to Matsui whenever he makes a play, to get it back to the infield.

The Red Sox have the best five-man rotation in baseball after the White Sox. The loss of Damon for the Red Sox isn’t going to hurt them as bad as everyone thinks.

Coco Crisp, who is much younger then Damon, will fill center nicely. The Red Sox lose a chunk of their offense without Damon’s bat, but picking up Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett is huge for the Red Sox this year.

Now let’s talk about potential World Series candidates. Let’s talk about the boys from Flushing. The boys who represent the hard working average man, the New York Mets. If you know anything about baseball you would be crazy not to think the Mets have a chance to win it all this year. After picking up Carlos Delgado, Paul Lo Duca and Xavier Nady to join this already potent offense that includes Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Cliff Floyd and speed demon Jose Reyes the Mets have put

themselves on the map.

They also picked up the best closer in baseball in Billy Wagner. No the Mets don’t have juicers like Jason Giambi or trash talkers like Alex Rodriguez, but they do have

nine guys on the field all the time who only care about winning, which is why they will end the Braves run of 14 NL championships in a row.

If you don’t like the Mets, that’s fine but don’t talk baseball if you can’t give credit where credit is due.

The Mets are for real! Except it! Oh, and don’t hop on the Mets bandwagon.