BOSTON (AP) – For the Boston Red Sox, it was never about ending an 85-year World Series drought or removing any silly curse that might afflict their team.

They want more.

“We have tremendous ownership. We have a great fan base. We have a great nucleus. We have a lot of resources,” third baseman Bill Mueller said Wednesday night after the Red Sox won their first World Series title since 1918. “Maybe we can contend for this every single year.”

The Red Sox completed their four-game World Series sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, giving Boston its first title since Babe Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees. A victory parade was scheduled for Saturday.

The Red Sox have 14 players eligible for free agency on their roster, including Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe. It is unlikely that the Red Sox can keep all of them, but work has already begun on trying to build the team that will try to repeat as world champions.

“I hope we make good, rational business decisions,” Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said in the clubhouse during the team’s victory celebration. “But we do recognize that we do have an obligation” not to dismantle a winning team.

Owner John Henry said the team is in good shape because it didn’t overpay players to build the 2004 team. Just because the Red Sox won this year doesn’t change the outlook for 2005, he said.

“We have a philosophy where we don’t go for it in any particular year,” Henry said in St. Louis. “From the time we bought the team, people have speculated that we were going to blow up the team. We’re going to have a very competitive team next year. We’re going to do everything we can to win next year.”

General manager Theo Epstein took over the Red Sox two years ago at the age of 28 – the youngest general manager in major league history. A native of Brookline who grew up just blocks away from Fenway Park, he said he would take a few days off before turning to the free agent market, but the groundwork has already begun.

For now, he advised Red Sox fans to just cherish it.

“This is such an emotional lift for people in New England and all over the world,” he said. “I hope they enjoy it. I hope they do something good with it. I hope they go vote Tuesday and make the world a better place.”

For almost nine decades, the goal of the franchise and its fans has been to end the third-longest drought in baseball. Now that they’ve done it, some wonder whether rooting for the Red Sox will ever be the same.

“They’re going to have to change their entire world view,” said former New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe, now with the Buffalo Bills. “Death, taxes and the Curse of the Bambino. All of a sudden that’s gone. They’re going to have to find something new to complain about.

“I’m happy for them. They’re good sports fans,” he said. “It’s first and foremost a baseball town. It was that way when I was there. And I talked to guys out there recently. And the Patriots doing what they’re doing, winning however many games in a row, and they’re like on Page 6.”

Former Red Sox pitcher Jim Lonborg played in the 1967 World Series, when Boston lost to the Cardinals in seven games. He doesn’t think success will ruin the mystique that has grown around the team.

“Sure, some of that will disappear,” he said. “People will think, “We’ve stuck with this team a long time, and we finally got rewarded.’ I don’t think it will take away from their love for the team or the different characters over the years.”

The New York tabloids, so used to mocking the Boston franchise’s futility, weren’t about to let it rest. The Daily News said the curse had merely taken the year off, proclaiming on its back page, “See you in 2090!”

It’s been 88 years since the Red Sox repeated as World Series champions, in 1915-16. Next season, they’ll try to erase that drought as well.

That’s plenty of time for Yankee fans to get their 1916 signs ready.

Red Sox give Mueller another year

BOSTON (AP) – The Boston Red Sox exercised their option Friday on third baseman Bill Mueller, a former batting champion who had the season-saving single against the New York Yankees in the AL championship series.

Mueller will earn $2.5 million next season from the team which could have paid him a $500,000 buyout. Pitchers Terry Adams and Pedro Astacio declared for free agency on Friday, leaving the Red Sox with up to 14 other players eligible for free agency, including Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe.

“We have tremendous ownership. We have a great fan base. We have a great nucleus. We have a lot of resources,” Mueller said in St. Louis on Wednesday night after the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to complete their World Series sweep. “Maybe we can contend for this every single year.”

Mueller signed with the Red Sox before last season and batted an AL-leading .326 in 2003. He is a career .292 hitter with 72 home runs and 416 RBIs in nine seasons with the Giants, Cubs and Red Sox.