Currently, the Red Sox are a trend, but it’s not to commiserate their epic collapse. Instead, the trend, recalls a great moment in Eric Cartman’s history, by celebrating the tear-shedding from the countless many that make up the Red Sox fanbase. I have to wonder what the “show up to work” rate is in the city of Boston today. It’s not hard to imagine over half the city calling in to work on the morning after the Sox’ failure.

To make matters worse, the Red Sox didn’t give away their Wild Card spot easily. No, they waited until the 9th inning to finish their choking, which only adds to the misery. Holding on that long, only to give it all away at the end? That can’t feel good.

Whatever the case, it’s advisable that Red Sox fans do not turn to Twitter for moral support, because they won’t find it there. In fact, the reaction is downright brutal, but then again, it’s apparently hard to feel sorry for a fanbase that is perceived as arrogant, whether the moniker is deserved or not. With that, let’s enjoy the Twitter reaction, as many respondents are clearly enjoying the collapse for all its worth.

The first sums up the mood of the room quite well:

And from there, the hate flows freely:

In case you don’t get the reference, Tom Terrific got his hair cut yesterday. Like the previous tweet, many of these reactions are pretty creative, adding even more value to the trend:

Ouch.

Remember those New Era commercials that pitted Alec Baldwin against John Krasinski? Folks on Twitter sure didn’t forget:

Even Boston fans got in on the fun as well:

Is this a case of the Red Sox losing the numbers game, or is it the revenge of Bill Buckner?

And then, there’s this. Not really sure what to add here, but one hopes this account is done in jest:

Considering the rest of the content on the linked account, it’s not a joke. Some people really feel that way. Bonus: they can vote, too. Do with that information what you will. Aside from the occasional self-serving tweet, most of the reaction is reveling in the failure. Even BuzzFeed got in on the fun as did CNBC’s Darren Rovell, who posted an image of this nifty t-shirt:

Darren Rovell on WhoSay

Is it wrong to revel in the failure of others? Apparently not, especially if it’s Red Sox nation we’re talking about.

Naturally, the two hats featured on New Era’s Facebook page are from the Yankees and the Red Sox — east coast bias for the win — and considering that the Yankees are the most popular logo in New Era’s inventory, that comes with little surprise.

With their latest promotion, New Era invites their Facebook fans to vote for their favorite team, the Yankees or the Sox. To help fans decide — as if such a rivalry needs help adding fuel to the fire — New Era has solicited the help of Baldwin for the Yankees and Krasinski for the Red Sox. There’s even a video of the two trash-talking each other, giving a little bit of sizzle to the “Rivals Are Forever” promotion:

Fans can select which team they support — in this case, it’s Team Baldwin or Team Krasinski — currently, the Red Sox are leading but this weekend’s Yankees/Sox series may change that.

Of the promotion, New Era’s CEO, Christopher Koch, offered these thoughts: “We’ve created a campaign that celebrates the most talked about aspect of Major League Baseball – the rivalry, and we’ve taken one of baseball’s most recognizable rivalries and used it as a catalyst to inspire fans everywhere.”

While the concept of a company asking traffic to visit another company’s site in order to promote products is still a little crazy, clearly, the idea is go where the traffic is. Of course, considering the popularity of New Era caps, they would still be found even if they didn’t have a Facebook profile, bringing the question of why use Zuckerberg’s creation when NewEraCap.com works just fine.

 James Follo – CFO New York Times

What’s that list of properties include?  The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, About.com, and (surprise!) a stake in the Boston Red Sox, for starters.  "We are not married to any one asset, other than the New York Times newspaper," admitted CFO James Follo, according to Reuters.

Newspapers of every size are having a tough time, of course, so an asset sale could help keep the New York Times Company profitable (and/or afloat).  Follo did continue, however, "We’re not going to do a deal until the valuation is right."

CEO Janet Robinson also appeared less than enthusiastic about the prospect of any transactions.  She even pointed out that now isn’t a great time to unload assets; money doesn’t flow too freely in our current economy.

We’ll see what happens, then.  But, even if raising cash wasn’t a concern, we believe the New York Times Company would make a lot of people happy by separating itself from the Boston Red Sox.