The Red Sox have spent most of June playing teams from west of the Mississippi- Oakland, Arizona, Colorado, San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle- and more or less have gone about the business of sleepwalking into the postseason as AL East Champions. Seattle pulls off a three game sweep and the Sox's lead in the division drops from 10 games to 9- yawn.

But the most startling news from the Sox's recent dalliance with western teams is the discovery by opposing fans and media that Red Sox fans are...assholes.

Some of the West Coast's sharpest knives are on the case-

• Red Sox fans suck.  Badly...I think to myself, where did these people come from?  Surely half of Massachusetts couldn't have moved to San Francisco.  And, how do so many always end up at my beloved Oakland Colisium for A's vs Red Sox games?  And why are they so obnoxious?  And why do they all look the same? (Dollar Wednesdays)
• Contrary to popular belief, the Red Sox fans were quite cordial this past weekend. If by cordial you mean, absolute fucktards, albeit with an apologetic tone after shitting on our town. And to the guy that was from Clairmont, donning his freshly unwrapped McBastard Town jersey, eat shit pal. I couldn't care less if you ignored the Padres growing up for the Red Jerx, there's no excuse for your existence in this town. Quietly pack up your shit and get out. You are useless here. Eat mule balls and put it on youtube. (Super Chargers)
• I don't understand Red Sox fans — the Red Sox Nation, if you will. Red Sox fans think they're God's gift to baseball. Some would say Yankees fans are the same way, and maybe they used to be. But not anymore...They believe it's their right, their privilege, to always be in the pennant race. They've won, what, one World Series? Yet they believe they're the greatest...The Red Sox Nation has taken over as most obnoxious in baseball. The holier-than-thou attitude really bothers me. (Inside Bay Area)

No shit, Sherlock's.

One of the funniest aftereffects of the Red Sox winning the World Series has to watching other baseball fans slowly come to the realization that real Red Sox fans are nothing like Jimmy Fallon's castrated, hopelessly optimistic, love my Sawx to the day I die, good-natured Ben Wrightman from Fever Pitch.

And yeah, some of the assholes in question are no doubt the bandwagon fans that Boston.com's Eric Wilbur is determined to hunt down and exterminate.

But regardless of what color hat they're wearing and despite what the fans and reporters on the West Coast may think, Red Sox fans have always been sorta assholes. It didn't matter that the team hadn't won a World Series since 1918. It didn't matter that the Yankees were the Yankees of yore and actually managed to finish above .500. It didn't matter that every aspect of the organization- ownership, management, facilities, players, etc.- were all second rate. Sox fans were still assholes because that's kinda the way we/they are naturally.

We just embraced our natural ability and went with it. A World Series title didn't suddenly turn Red Sox fans into assholes. It just made us World Champion assholes.