The Red Sox are facing the Yankees tonight for the first time in this 2006 season and of course there is the usual hype. (See the Herald's tribute on the left. Please note unfriendly photo of Mrs. Damon.) But tonight's game has nothing to really do with baseball itself, but what the spectators will do when Johnny “I’m an Idiot” Damon steps to the plate for the first time as a Yankee. Since joining the “Evil Empire”, Damon has gone from the fan favorite to the least liked Yankees player in Bostonians' eyes (well, A-Rod ranks pretty high up there to, doesn’t he?) The Globe’s Dan Shaunessy sums it up best in his column today:

Now he returns to Boston, and Sox fans view him as a greedy traitor. Damon went from Jesus to Judas with one stroke of his pen on a Yankees contract. It's absurd, of course, but that is the nature of the Nation.

So Bostonist has to ask ourselves, do we boo Damon for choosing more money and pinstripes or do we applaude him for his years here at Fenway and helping us win the World Series? We’re torn over what we would do if we were at Fenway tonight, so instead we’ll watch it at home to see the drama unfold at 7:05p.m.

And in other Sox news, catcher Doug Mirabelli is heading back to Fenway while current catcher Josh Bard is going to San Diego. Wakefield is scheduled to pitch tonight, so the Sox are hoping that Mirabelli lands at Logan in time for the game. Talk about getting down to the wire, boys.

On a website-related note, the Sox are already listing Mirabelli as a catcher on their online active roster. The San Diego Padres have Bard listed on theirs too, but it looks like they haven't photoshopped a Padres uniform on him just yet.