I think we’re better than you

It's only February, but the Boston Herald's Rob Bradford is already trying his best to rile up Red Sox fans. He may not write the headline, "Steinbrenner's Yapping", for his story, but he is certainly making something out of nothing.

Bradford cited Hank Steinbrenner's interview with GQ magazine as a shot across the bow to Dead Sox Nation. One problem right off the bat...the interview was with Hal, not Hank. A reporter, who was admittedly a Sox fan, asked Hal about his team's chances.

“I will never concede,” the magazine’s Web site quoted Hank Steinbrenner saying of his club’s battle with its American League East rival. “They’ve got a lot of talent, and you’ve done very well the last few years, but let me put it this way: I don’t think you guys wanted to play us in the ALCS. So I will concede nothing. I think we’re better than you.”

Sox chairman Tom Werner, yeah the same guy who let Roseanne sing the National Anthem in San Diego, supposedly wouldn't take the bait, but came back with this standard Red Sox response about finances, and added a little extra.

“The Yankees are going to have significant more revenue next year so we just have to beat them with intelligence and smart decision-making,” he said. “But they are always going to be competitive because of their resources.”

Considering how much money the Red Sox have been spending in the last few years, Werner looks like a fool trying to cry semi-poverty. And of course the "intelligence and smart decision-making" was definitely a shot at the Yankees front office.

It's only February, and already the games have begun.