The sun also rises

THERE was a time - an era that lasted the length of a generous lifespan - when Red Sox fans would have fallen into inconsolable mourning after losing a chance to go to the World Series by inches and nanoseconds. But in this new century, devotees of the Fenway franchise resemble Russia's nouveau riche oligarchs more than the perpetually cheated wretched of the earth.

Those post-Soviet oligarchs who lost a few billion bucks in the recent bursting of global bubbles still have billions more from the scores they made in the Putin era - a period that coincided with two - count 'em, two - world championships won by the Bosox. Similarly, the emotional wealth accumulated in 2004 and 2007 by patriots of Red Sox nation has been enough to tide us over - even after injuries to key players like Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, and David Ortiz left the locals at a disadvantage against the Tampa Bay Rays, and even though close losses in games two and seven of that series could easily have gone the other way.

So we New Englanders can afford to be magnanimous. We have our memories of October glory, and they are fresh; they are not shrouded in the mists of time that separate living generations from folks who were around in 1918, before Babe Ruth absconded to the Bronx, leaving behind what the self-pitying and the superstitious have called the Curse of the Bambino.

With only the tiniest tremor of regret, Sox fans may now salute the youth and brio of the Tampa team. One need only imagine the ecstasy of the hometown partisans if Tampa's 23-year-old rookie reliever, David Price, had done for the Sox what he did to them Sunday night.

In baseball as in the real world, yesterday's victors must learn to yield graciously to the stars of tomorrow.