SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) – After 86YRS, the 04BOSOX finally won the World Series, meaning the dreaded Curse of the Bambino has, at long last, been REVRSD.

If it still hasn’t sunk in for Yankees fans, just take a closer look at the New York state license plate on the car that might have passed you on the road today.

As they would say in Boston, ITZOVA.

Boston Red Sox fans across the Empire State have let their true colors show since their team swept the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 in late October. The Sox clinched their first World Series crown since 1918.

In the first month after the team’s historic Oct. 27 victory, 99 vehicle owners in New York registered new vanity plates bearing a message about their beloved Sox, according to a list compiled by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Nine others got a standard plate with the Red Sox team logo.

There’s a FENWAY (a tribute to the team’s ancient ball park in Boston), a BYENYY (rubbing it in the faces of Yankees fans, no doubt) and CHMP04 (isn’t that one obvious?)

There’s also kudos to individual players: MANEE (slugger Manny Ramirez), JASVK (catcher and team leader Jason Varitek) and PAPI34 (clutch home run hitter David Ortiz).

Don’t be fooled into thinking the state is awash in Red Sox red.

At last count, there were slightly more than 10,000 license plates devoted to the clean-cut Yankees, compared with just 356 for that scrappy, long-haired team from New England.

Schenectady County Public Defender Mark Caruso, a native of Waltham, Mass., and lifelong Sox fan, saw a vanity plate a couple years ago at the mall honoring pitching ace Pedro Martinez.

“I saw that and said if they ever win, I’ll get one,” Caruso, 37, said.

Sure enough, after the Sox won the Series – Game 4 happened to fall on Caruso’s birthday – he paid $68 for a plate with a Red Sox logo that reads REVRSD.

In Red Sox lore, the team had been cursed ever since it traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees after winning its last World Series in 1918. Reversing the Curse became the dream of legions of fans.

Friday is the last day drivers in New York can get new “picture plates” with an out-of-state baseball team’s logo because the licensing agreement with Major League Baseball is expiring, according to DMV spokesman Joe Picchi. (To order, go to www.nydmv.state.ny.us, visit a local DMV office or call 518-402-4838). Personalized New York state license plates will continue to be available at a cost of $50, plus registration fees.

Denise Baker of Schenectady got BYBABE on her 1995 Jeep Wrangler. It’s the latest salvo in her intense but friendly rivalry with her neighbor, Charlie Hebert, who loves the Yankees.

“I just wanted to get em so I could get him good,” the 50-year-old Baker said.

Randy Tyx, a metal industry sales representative who lives in a suburb of Buffalo, suffered for years as a fan of the Red Sox, football’s Buffalo Bills and hockey’s Buffalo Sabres – teams that have crushed their fans’ hearts year after year.

“I was oh-for-my-life until this,” said Tyx, 48. “I have three boys who are Red Sox fans, too. Every year I would apologize to them.”

His oldest, 22-year-old Jason, is a weather forecaster for the Marine Corps stationed at Camp Fallujah in Iraq. During the World Series, Jason woke up at 3 a.m. to watch the games on TV and would e-mail his father every night to chat about what happened.

Tyx drives a company car, so the vanity license plate he chose ended up on his wife’s 2003 Chevy Cavalier, which just happens to be painted in “Red Sox red.”

After toying with a few names on the DMV Web site they came up with ITZOVA, a play on a true Bostonian’s pronunciation of “It’s over.”

“We get a lot of compliments on it,” said Tyx, who is thinking about making his first-ever drive to Boston in the car to see his team play at Fenway Park.

That is, if he can score tickets for next season.

AP-ES-12-30-04 1202EST