Like so many baseball fans, I couldn't help but smile when watching the New York Yankees go down to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division Series.

If you follow baseball or live in America, you know why. But let's pretend you're from, I don't know, somewhere they don't play baseball. Greenland?

The general perception in the baseball world is that the Yankees, thanks to owner George Steinbrenner's exceedingly deep, gold-lined pockets, buy their talent. That's true, but every team does that. We hate the Yankees because they just do it better than everyone else does.

This year, the Yankees had Major League Baseball's highest total player payroll. Steinbrenner paid almost $190 million for on-field talent. That might not mean anything to you until you realize that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Florida Marlins, Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks paid less than that combined. Five teams for the price of one. Well, that is four teams and the Devil Rays.

That's a semi-decent reason to hate the Yankees. If not, they've won the World Series 26 times. Essentially, they win one out of every four World Series. Imagine how much you would hate Michigan if they won a national title every four years. The Yankees have been as good as Notre Dame fans think their team is.

Of course, to have an effective villain we need a hero. We've got one, and they play in a cramped, cozy little park with a big green wall. A wall that shrinks the field enough to make outfielder Manny Ramirez seem relatively defensive.

We heard it for decades. The poor Red Sox. They're in the same division as the Yankees' "evil empire". The curse of the Bambino. Yastrzemski. Buckner. Aaron Boone.

Then, in 2004, the Sox finally broke through, winning their first World Series in about 800 years. They came back from down three games to none to the Yankees, arguably the greatest comeback in sports history, beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the series, and Jimmy Fallon botched a movie with an obnoxious co-star.

So now what? The Sox are everyone's darlings. They dismantled baseball's version of the Persian Empire and are a symbol of hope for underdogs everywhere.

But they're not underdogs.

The 2007 MLB season is unfolding as the year of the small-market team. The Diamondbacks have the fifth lowest payroll in baseball, the Colorado Rockies have the sixth, and the Cleveland Indians the eighth. The only normal, expensive team left is the Boston Red Sox and their second highest $143 million team, and that doesn't include the $50 million they fed Japan's Seibu Lions for the right to sign pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Get where I'm going with this? Why do we harbor so much ill-will for the Yankees while the Sox get a free pass?

I don't get it. Britney's debauchery hasn't made people like Kevin Federline.
If the Sox were playing the Yankees, the country would still see it as David vs. Goliath. But honestly, once you hit nine figures, what's another $40 million? I'd watch with plenty of interest but only because Goliath vs. Goliath would be a sweet battle.

Thankfully, the Sox are staring down the tribe, an upstart Indians club that strangely resembles one from the movie Major League.

So as the each League Championship Series unfolds, I'll root for the real underdogs.
It's not hard in the National League, you've got two to choose from.

The American League Conference Series though? Sorry, Red Sox nation. The dark side is tempting, and you've crossed.

I just hope Jimmy Fallon doesn't like Cleveland.

Ryan Smith is a senior majoring in journalism and is a columnist for The Daily Collegian. His e-mail is rss5007@psu.edu.