I write for a website called the “Boston Red Sox Fan Site” and so it is with a considerable degree of shame and embarrassment that I sit here and confess that, for the past few years, I haven’t been much of a Sox fan. I’ve retained my Sox memorabilia and paraphernalia, I’ve watched the games here and there, I’ve carried the company card (not literally, of course–anyone who purchases a “Red Sox Nation” card to validate his or her fandom should be bashed over the head with a wiffle bat). But my heart and my soul, the heart and soul I used to pour into every pitch of every inning, were off taking an extended, seventh-inning stretch.

What a difference a trade makes.

I was more into last night’s 2-1 victory over the Oakland A’s than I was into any of the Sox’ World Series games this past October. All of a sudden the Sox spunk was back. The hustle, the grit, the team dynamic; the intangibles that, I always used to fancy, separated us from the heart-less Yankees; all this came as the result of exchanging Manny Ramirez for Jason Bay.

The Sox are no longer a collection of talented ballplayers held hostage under the prima-donna swagger of a millionaire gun-for-hire. By replacing Manny with his natural antithesis, (Bay, an unassuming, team-first ballplayer), the Sox restored their dignity and dropped the traveling circus routine. They became a team again. And a baseball team is what I’ve been waiting and hoping to root for.