One of the preconceived notions I had about the breaking of the Olde Towne Team’s 86-year title drought was that it would finally placate the yahoo segment of Red Sox Nation.

In the week that has passed, however, it has become painfully clear that they are only more emboldened.

They’re still chanting “Yankees Suck”. They’re still wasting their remedial stenography skills on obscene signs about Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez, or both. They’re still obsessed with the Evil Empire.

I thought we’d be over this, if not forever, then at least for one year. But we’re not even two months removed from the World Series and it’s back, even bigger than ever.

It would have been one thing if the Sox had finally captured the elusive world championship but had to go through Anaheim and Minnesota to do it. The Yankee inferiority complex would have still been in full effect.

The Red Sox turned the tables on the Yankees, however, and made them the butt of the jokes after choking away a 3-0 ALCS lead. Yankee fans are supposed to be on the defensive now (and spare me the 26-rings-to-1 since 1919 crap, you sons of Dan Pasqua. Quick, tell me, who played third base for the Yankees in 1956?).

But little has changed, as I began to realize when Boston fans and media started with the bellyaching this past week over the Yankees’ imminent acquisition of Randy Johnson. Now, forget that Sox fans have had since at least last July’s trading deadline to get accustomed to the possibility of the Big Unit in pinstripes. People are either crying that Theo should have done everything in his power to stop the deal from going through or complaining about New York’s payroll swelling to well over $200 million.

Pay attention the next time you run into a Red Sox fan. What’s the first thing they’ll bring up? Will it be the signings of Edgar Renteria and Matt Clement, or the Randy Johnson trade? I’ll take 9-to-4 odds on it being the latter instead of the former.

What do I base those odds on? Well, Friday I was at the rally in Portland, and having too much time to kill before the idiots arrived with the trophy, I counted the number of chants I heard in the crowd and divided into two categories – pro-Sox and anti-Yankee.

The Yankees won, 9 to 4, which is the about the same count you’d get for the chants at a mid-May game at Fenway, against Seattle. At least the fans at Fenway usually have someone wearing a Yankee cap in the crowd to set them off. I didn’t see any interlocking NY’s within 10 miles of Monument Square Friday.

Sox fans couldn’t just revel in the moment, the arrival of the World Series trophy in their own great state. They couldn’t just appreciate the fact that they were about to enjoy something generations of their fellow fans never got to enjoy in their lifetime.

It always has to come back to the Yankees.

These are the people Rick Pitino once called “the fellowship of the miserable.” And now they have a theme song.

Have you heard this “Merry Frickin’ Christmas” song? If you haven’t, call your favorite DJ and thank him. It’s the self-proclaimed “World Champion Red Sox Anthem” and it was apparently written by a six-year-old. Here’s a sample lyric –

“Derek Jeter’s lost his mind Trippin’ on a broom stick, better luck next time”

Joe Torre, he’s a weirdo

Gave me a picture of himself in a speedo”

Wow. Watch out, Irving Berlin.

It was a big hit at the rally, though.

Speaking as a fellow Red Sox fan, this is long past embarrassing folks. Look, I understand why we need to keep an eye on what’s burning in the hot stove down in New York. Goodness knows, Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay aren’t going to keep things interesting. And, hey, few things will give me more pleasure next summer than to see David Wells go 4-0 with a 2.20 ERA against his old team.

Nothing’s wrong with some playful gloating around your Yankee fan friends, either. Randomly shouting “Giambi!” or doing a quick pantomime of A-Rod’s dinner-table slap on Bronson Arroyo during Game 6 should suffice.

Just please follow the lead of our own Theo Epstein, who handled a question about the Johnson acquisition perfectly Friday.

“We don’t concern ourselves with what the Yankees do,” Epstein said at the press conference introducing Edgar Renteria. “We don’t come up with moves to respond to what they do. We assume they’re going to win 100 games a year and we assume we have to win 95-100 games a year. Every offseason it seems they acquire the best pitcher and best positional player or available hitter. We’ll just focus on ourselves.”

Yes, please, Sox fans. You’re world champs. Act like you’ve been there before, even if you haven’t.