There is no Curse of the Bambino, Boston Fans. That should be more obvious than ever in the wake of the news flashing across the back pages of the tabloids: The Yankees are thinking about trading for Alex Rodriguez. Saturday, it was reportedly a done deal.

This is why the Yankees keep winning and winning and winning some more. They don't rely on a curse to win, they make the moves they need to win.

A few weeks ago, they developed a hole in their lineup with their third baseman, Aaron Boone, busted up his leg. They couldn’t find a decent third baseman on the market, so they did what only the most successful franchise in the history of sports would even think about.

They called Texas and asked whether the Rangers’ shortstop, a fellow who answers to A-Rod, might want to move over to third base next to Derek Jeter. When Newsday reported that the deal was consummated on Saturday, it came after the Yankees offered some trinkets in return — Alfonso Soriano, a talented second baseman with the discipline of 20 six-year-olds at a birthday party, and a couple of minor league prospects. And, of course, they’d take over most of A-Rod’s Brobdingnagian salary, though Newsday did report A-Rod would defer some of his contract.

What makes this news so deliciously depressing to Boston fans is that, if Red Sox executives had the same determination to win as their Yankee counterparts, we wouldn’t be talking about this deal. A-Rod wouldn’t be available, because he’d be a member of the Sox, ready to lead Boston to the World Series.

The deal was done, and all that Boston had to do was swallow hard, open its wallet, and pay Rodriguez his salary. But at that crucial moment, Boston management came down with a case of testicular atrophy.

With dominance of the American League and the world championship the team has been chasing since 1918 on the line, Boston owner John Henry decided A-Rod would cost too much.

It didn’t seem to matter at the time. The Yankees weren’t in the equation and the worst outcome seemed to be that Boston would still have a pretty terrific team and A-Rod would remain in Texas.

But it matters now. A-Rod in Texas doesn’t hurt Boston. A-Rod in the Bronx could be yet another in an endless series of crushing blows. And Babe Ruth has nothing to do with it. It’s Boston’s lack of will that would be to blame if this goes through.

Boston says it wants to win. George Steinbrenner not only says it, he does whatever he thinks is necessary to get the job done. That starts with throwing his money around as if he’s printing it in a back room.

Steinbrenner makes more money than any other team, gives more back to the league in luxury taxes and revenue sharing, and, if his budget has a bottom line, it’s located somewhere beyond the moon.

This deal is classic Steinbrenner, classic Yankees. It would snatch baseball’s prized bauble from under Boston’s nose. With one stroke of the pen, it would move the Yankees from second place behind Boston in the pre-season polls to first.

That doesn’t mean A-Rod would deliver another title to New York, which hasn’t hoisted a flag since 2000, a mere blink of the eye to most teams and three eternities to the Yankees. He will make them an incredible offensive machine, and, if he plays third base, he’ll shore up the left side of the infield.

The pinstripes have spent the winter building the best bullpen they’ve had in years, and they’ve acquired some more pitching. But they’ve lost Andy Pettitte and David Wells and Roger Clemens. Their starting rotation is a question mark, the biggest of them being Kevin Brown, acquired from the Dodgers.

It shouldn’t matter during the regular season. With the bullpen they have, the Yankees need only six innings from their starters. If the starters give up 4-5 runs a game, the offense will score 5-6. The victories will pile up and Boston and everyone else in the league will spend the six months of the season composing new curses for Steinbrenner’s heroes.

The playoffs could be a problem, though. The Yankees got out-pitched last year, and great pitching will shut down great hitting in a series. It could happen again.

But the Yankees will be glad to cross that bridge when they come to it. If, by mid-season, they see that they need pitching, they’ll buy that, too. It’s what they do and what they’ve always done.

It’s why they are the Yankees, the most famous franchise in American sports, the team that is at once the most loved and most hated in the business. When bold moves are called for, they don’t back down. And if it blows up in their faces, they make another move, bolder than the last.

Landing A-Rod is the boldest move of all, the sort of move that the Red Sox had no stomach for. That’s why Boston is what it is. It’s why the Yankees just keep winning.

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