BOSTON (AP) — To Boston fans, he ruled a real-life “Evil Empire,” buying championships with his unlimited resources, luring the best players and taunting the Red Sox when he scored yet another big-money free agent.

Generations of Boston fans have been raised to despise New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. His death Tuesday had them thinking about his legacy, with some acknowledging the good, others remembering the bad while trying not to speak ill of the deceased.

“Well, I want to be respectful, but I wasn’t a big fan of his,” said Brandon England, 36, as he stood on Yawkey Way, outside Fenway Park. “How could I be? I was a Red Sox fan.”

Asked if Steinbrenner contributed anything good to one of sports’ best rivalries, 67-year-old Bob Coolidge of Wolfeboro, N.H., paused outside Fenway’s brick walls to contemplate the concept, muttering, “That’s interesting.”

“I almost want to say no,” Coolidge finally said. “Because he’s responsible for the exorbitant salaries in baseball.”

To Susan Funke, Steinbrenner was too complex to be just a villain. She noted his generosity with the Jimmy Fund cancer charity, the Red Sox’s official charity since 1953.

“A complicated man, complicated,” said Funke, 54, a research analyst from Concord. “But he knew his business. … He made it interesting. Let’s face it.”

Steinbrenner’s brashness and willingness to spend freely made him a target of mockery in Boston when his big bucks went bust. But when the Yankees won, frustrated Boston fans dismissed the titles as products of Steinbrenner’s massive wallet. Some still don’t like his style, even after the Red Sox won titles in 2004 and 2007 with help from some big-money signings of their own.

England, of Tewksbury, said he blames Steinbrenner’s free spending for creating an imbalance in baseball that enables only wealthy, big-market teams — including the Red Sox — to contend for titles.

“I don’t like where baseball has gone down, and I feel like it all started with George Steinbrenner,” he said.

Steinbrenner and Red Sox officials weren’t shy about taking shots at one another. In 1999, Steinbrenner blamed Boston manager Jimy Williams for inciting Fenway fans when they pelted the field with debris during a playoff game after key calls went against the Red Sox. Williams responded, “When Georgie Porgie speaks, I don’t listen,”

After the Yankees signed Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras in 2002, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino called the Yankees the “Evil Empire” and said the team’s tentacles extended even into Latin America. Steinbrenner labeled the comments “B.S.” and called Lucchino “baseball’s foremost chameleon of all time.”

When the Yankees landed slugger Alex Rodriguez, whom the Red Sox also pursued in 2004 after six straight second-place finishes in the AL East to the Yankees, Red Sox owner John Henry suggested baseball needed a salary cap. Steinbrenner called the comment “sour grapes,” said Henry resembled the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz and added, “Unlike the Yankees, (Henry) chose not to go the extra distance for his fans in Boston.”

Things cooled after Boston’s title in 2004. By that time, Steinbrenner had been a regular Jimmy Fund contributor. Suzanne Fountain, director of the Jimmy Fund, said Steinbrenner donated during a radio telethon in each of the last nine years, usually calling in himself to announce the pledge.

On Tuesday, Lucchino said Steinbrenner was “one of the most important people in the history of the game” and Henry, a former minority owner of the Yankees, called him “both partner and friend.”

“Hopefully, some day we will see him honored in baseball’s Hall of Fame as one of the great figures in the history of sports,” Henry said.

John Stevens, a Red Sox fan from Baltimore, in town for a game later in the week, said though he never shared baseball allegiances with Steinbrenner, they did share something.

“The guy wanted to win, you know, the guy had a passion,” Stevens said. “So you had to respect that.”

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