They Can’t Win for Losing (or Winning)

It’s hard to figure whether New York or Boston endures the greater angst over its American League baseball team.

Today it’s Boston’s turn, as the Red Sox fade in the AL East race, and seem to have little chance of getting the wild-card berth.

“Raising the white flag over Fenway Park makes sense at this hour,” writes Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe. “Poor management, poor play, a plague of late-season injuries, and a couple of player hospitalizations involving potential life-threatening issues conspired to sink the season before the first of September.

“As a result, spoiled Sox fans (three playoff appearances in three years) this month get a taste of how the other half lives across baseball America.”

And yet: Even with the Yankees seemingly in control of the AL East, the Big Apple is edgy.

“The Yankees are going to finish first again, the way they always do,” writes New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica. “The Yankees might end up with the best record in the league in a season when they lost both [Hideki] Matsui and Gary Sheffield. They spend money well and make money well and we still don’t know how good they will be in a month, how good they really are.”

Another viewpoint: There is plenty of support for Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter to win his first MVP award.

But Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times wants voters to cast an eye on White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye.

“The hope is that people who vote for the American League MVP award are smart enough to look past Jeter’s New York-lathered image -- captain of the Yankees, prince of sporting celebrity, $20-million salary, four championship rings, any starlet he wants -- and realize the casual, unceremonious family man in Chicago is having the better baseball season, assuming baseball at all matters in this debate.”

Trivia time: Who was the last White Sox player to win the MVP award?

A treat, no trick: The Seahawks wrapped up their NFL exhibition schedule by shellacking the Raiders, 30-7. The game didn’t mean anything, but that didn’t stop Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Art Thiel from pushing the Raiders’ faces a little deeper into the turf.

“The Raiders have fallen so far they’re not worth booing,” Thiel wrote. “Playing them now is like finding an old Halloween mask that you once thought was frightening, but now looks dopey.”

Low blow: Mike Tyson just can’t stop being a punch line.

“The Aladdin Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is paying former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson to train while customers take pictures and point fingers at him,” wrote Randy Hill of foxsports.com.

“Tyson reportedly is preparing for a unification bout with Wayne Newton.”

Trivia answer: Frank Thomas, in 1994. Thomas also won the award in 1993.

And finally: Don Banks of SI.com on Saints rookie Reggie Bush: “We’ll be surprised if he’s not the most electrifying rookie in recent NFL history.”

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mike.terry@latimes.com