It’s simply not as much fun to be a New York Yankees fan as it used to be.

Things changed forever, of course, on that fateful night in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox wiped out that 0-3 deficit and beat the Yankees in the ALCS. The Red Sox winning the World Series made it even worse.

The most fun I ever had as a baseball fan was taking my son, who was then 9, to Fenway Park for a Yankees-Red Sox game. Sitting down the right-field line, I taught him the meaning of “1918,’ and each time the Sox fans got started he proudly stood on his chair and shut them up with a “1918″ chant.

Those days are, of course, long gone.

It is now Red Sox fans who are kicking the Yankees. And there is nothing Yankee fans can do about it except sit silently, take it and hope our day will come again. And soon.

The Red Sox have a title more recently than the Yankees, and might be on their way to another one. They have the AL East championship. Right now, Sox fans have all the ammo.

Murray Chass of the New York Times put it this way in a recent column.

The Red Sox are American League East champions. The New York Yankees are not.

The Red Sox are alive in the postseason. The Yankees are not.

The Red Sox have a chance to win the World Series. The Yankees do not.

All hail the Red Sox. They may not win the World Series — C. C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona may not let them. But in the context of backyard bragging rights, the Red Sox are champs, the Yankees chumps.

All Yankee fans can do right now is root like crazy for the Indians. The thought of Red Sox Nation having two World Championships to taunt Yankee fans with turns my stomach.