This column originally ran in The Standard-Times on Dec. 22, 2005.

By Nick Tavares

If there are any Boston Red Sox fans left in Massachusetts right now, they had better be spitting mad.

I don't know if the Sox brass takes time to read letters -- they obviously were too busy to listen to Johnny Damon or Scott Boras over the past few days -- but in case they do, maybe it's worth writing them a letter telling them that the team has not operated in a manner conducive to winning.

They've shuffled their feet in the front offices, made strides towards real estate purchases, pressed DVDs reminding you that they won the World Series 14 months ago and printed a new batch of Red Sox Nation cards. All the while, they let the best leadoff hitter in baseball go to New York without ever giving them a fight.

Don't fool yourself -- the Red Sox don't care about you. If they did, they would have tried. Damon didn't leave a small-market team to take some big shot's dough. He didn't jump from Kansas City to Los Angeles. He left a team that has sold out every single game since the middle of 2003. He left a team that is practically swimming in cash with a fan base so rabid and loyal that they would've given their right arm if it meant keeping Damon out of pinstripes.

And as awful as it feels that another franchise player is going to become another faceless cog in the soulless New York machine, the fact that the Red Sox allowed it to happen is far more disgusting.

You can't help but applaud New York for being opportunists on this one.

"It was a very tough decision, but New York came after me aggressively and that's what sealed the deal," Damon told WBZ Channel 4 on Tuesday shortly after agreeing on a 4-year, $52 million deal. "They showed that they really wanted me, and I tried with Boston for them to try and step up, but unfortunately they didn't and now I'm headed to New York."

Now, what makes this really absurd is that many Red Sox fans will inevitably boo Damon. There's no question about it. He will be booed like no other. He will be skewered like a pig on a rotisserie when the Yankees come to town.

Why? Because he jumped ship. True, he left for more money. True, the four-year deal that the Red Sox offered is more than any of us will likely see in our lifetimes, and Damon should respect the fact that hard-working folks make up the majority of the Sox' fan base and ticket buyers.

But if taking more money elsewhere makes him a bad guy, would he somehow be a better guy for making the same money here? If so, how is it different? He's still making millions playing a kid's game.

If you're a Sox fan and you were planning on cheering him on in Boston in 2006, don't boo him. He didn't make this choice. Boston made it for him.

Instead, boo Lucchino. Boo John Henry. Boo their new tag-team general managers.

And, to take it a step further, pretend you, too, are a Boston executive this February when tickets go on sale for the season.

Take that money you might've spent and stick it in your pocket. Don't give these people your money anymore. They're obviously not willing to spend it on franchise players, players who grind it out day after day with reckless abandon in an effort to win, players who do nothing but get on base, dive after fly balls and win baseball games.

Maybe, if they wake up to an empty park in the middle of July, they'll get the idea.

Nick Tavares is a columnist for The Standard-Times. E-mail him at ntavares@s-t.com

This story appeared on Page B1 of The Standard-Times on December 22, 2005.