Admit it. You’re dreading this.

It’s O.K. You’re among friends. Go ahead and confess your fears.

Your dread has been building ever since the winter, when the Red Sox acquired Curt Schilling and the Yankees procured Alex Rodriguez. Since then, you’ve been certain these two teams were on a collision course, and you would have to face all of the ghosts again – Bucky Dent, Mike Torrez, Grady Little, Aaron Boone.

I’m filled with dread too, frankly. I’m dreading Fox rolling out the grainy black-and-white Babe Ruth footage for the eight billionth time and reminding us yet again that he played for the Red Sox and Harry Frazee and blah, blah, blah. I’m dreading Tim McCarver giving Derek Jeter’s “intangibles” a nightly tongue bath. I’m dreading Jeanne Zelasko’s hair. I’m dreading the predictable stories that will be published after this series about how the Sox won’t truly conquer “the Curse” unless they go on to win the World Series.

What I’m not dreading is a Boston defeat. Not just because I don’t think it will happen.

Really, what have we got to be so fearful of? Curt Schilling spitting the bit? The bats suddenly going silent against this Yankee pitching staff? Yankee aura and mystique? History?

Are you really going to gnaw your fingernails down to the nub over things that either won’t happen or have already happened? Is the one overriding thought in your mind right now “How are they going to blow it this time?” even before they’ve played a game?

Would anyone bracing themselves for yet another Red Sox choke please recuse themselves from this series? You’re bringing everybody else down, and if you’re going to be at Fenway for games 3-5, you’re going to bombard your team with negative vibes, and the last thing these guys need is more pressure.

It’s kind of like Bush with the terrorists – you’re either with us, or you’re against us.

Listen, we’ve all got legitimate concerns. I have a couple of them myself.

One, with their offense, the Yankees are never out of a game. Never.

Two, I still don’t trust the manager.

Unfortunately, concern No. 1 with eventually intersect with concern No. 2.

Reason No. 1 will keep me on the edge of my seat, regardless how big a lead the Red Sox open up. And it’s not because it’s the Red Sox and the Yankees and the former is always supposed to choke against the latter.

Boston will score on Mussina, Lieber, Don Gullett and whatever other retread the Yankees send to the mound. Boston starters will be protecting leads in the middle innings in most of the games. The question will be how they deal with the inevitable Yankee onslaught.

Which brings us to the second concern. Terry Francona has had some brain cramps handling his pitching staff, the Grady Little Memorial Bleed Pedro Dry incident against the Yankees a couple of weeks ago being Example A.

Francona’s going to be making a lot of trips to the mound these next two weeks. The Red Sox have the better pitching, but that doesn’t mean they’re winning every game 5-2. Tito is going to have pull the right strings from the sixth inning on in every game. He did a good job of it against Anaheim, but then I don’t recall having a lot of complaints last year about Gump’s handling of the bullpen against Oakland either.

These are all things that will be addressed on the field. That’s where the focus should be. Red Sox fans don’t need to be tilting at wind mills like a non-existent curse or red herrings like Pedro’s “The Yankees are my daddy” line.

If you go into this expecting the worse, you’re going to wake up a week from tomorrow kicking yourself, wondering why you spent more time worrying and less time enjoying the ride …

when the Red Sox win it …

in six.