Maybe it’s maturity raising its gray and wrinkled head. No.That couldn’t be it. Maybe it’s just fatigue and old age settling into the bones.

God, I hope not.

Why, then, does the 3-1 loss to the Rays (formerly Devil Rays) hurt so little? As Billy Shakespeare would ask, where is thy sting? There is little, if any, mourning.

When I awoke the morning after the Game 7 loss, I was strangely philosophical. This, from a person who was inconsolably furious after all those losses to the Yankees … a man who lived “the curse of the Bambino” when the Red Sox didn’t win the World Series from 1918 (when they traded Babe Ruth) until 2004.

I wasn’t around for all of those fallow years, but it sure felt like it when Mookie Wilson, Bucky (censored) Dent, and even Aaron Boone ruined our seasons. They are all baseball ghosts now.

It is a different world now. The Red Sox won in 2004, then in 2007, sweeping both World Series contests against the poor St. Louis Cardinals, then the Colorado Rockies. The curse is long, long gone.

The Red Sox are so good that the younger generation takes winning now as its birthright. It cannot even recall the torturous days of Pumpsie Green, Eddie Bressoud, Dick “Stonefingers” Stuart and Don “Bootsie” Buddin.

We can now laugh at the pitiful Yankee fans, reminding them that the Bronx Bombers have not even won in this century. We almost feel sorry for them.

Almost.

You can’t hate the Devil Rays, try as you might. Sure, you know Carl Crawford, but can you imagine booing Akinori Iwamura, Evan (not Eva) Longoria, “Big Game” James Shields, Willy Aybar and Ben Zobrist. Who are these guys?

You could never hate them like Yankee villains of old such as Thurman Munson, Mickey Rivers, A-Rod, Jorge Posada and Bucky Dent. Those are some names you can sink your teeth into. Literally.

Now that the World Series has started without the Red Sox, we must pick a team to “root” for, because it is the American way.

Do we root for the Rays because they beat the Red Sox or do we root for the Philadelphia Phillies because they didn’t?

It will be hard to root for the Phillies because they are even more anonymous than the Rays. You know Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, one might presume. But Eric Bruntlett, Pedro Feliz, So Taguchi and Shane Victorino? Who are these guys?

With savagely reduced interest, we will watch most of the series games, but certainly not lose any sleep to witness the final out.

I think I will root for the Rays since they have a player who is almost Eva Longoria.

We Red Sox fans are eerily secure now, detached and cool about the future. It is a strange feeling after decades of baseball psychosis.

We will suffer through the damned Maine winter, or at least part of it, until spring training starts around March 1 in (warm) Fort Myers, Fla. When the first pitch is thrown, I will be sitting in the Florida sun, just behind third base, with my spanking new press guide.

And I will celebrate my good fortune.

Wait until next year.

Send complaints and compliments to Emmet Meara at emmetmeara@msn.com.