Passion an enduring aspect of Red Sox Nation

It was stunning this week to hear Derek Jeter say baseball’s most historically passionate fan base north of Yankee Stadium and east of those ivy-covered walls in Chicago had lost its zing.

Actually, I’m being kind. To hear Jeter tell it, those among Red Sox Nation are docile these days, especially when it comes to the Yankees, the franchise they once crowned as “The Evil Empire.”

“You guys have really — I can say this now, because I’m retired — the Boston fans have softened up since you guys have won,” said Jeter during an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”

His remark was partly about Meyers as a die-hard Red Sox fan, but mostly about the Red Sox capturing three World Series championships since they exorcised The Curse of the Bambino. First, they took the American League pennant over the Yankees in 2004, and then they swept the Cardinals during that Fall Classic.

Jeter wasn’t finished with his State of Red Sox Nation address, adding, “It pains me to say, but I’m almost … I won’t say it. I’m not happy you won — but you treat me a lot better since you have.”

Say it ain’t so, Joe.

In fact, Joe Maraia did just that after I informed him of Jeter’s Red Sox blasphemy on national television.

“I don’t get what Jeter is saying, because I’m at enough Sox games to know that we still don’t like the Yankees, and it always will be that way,” said Maraia, 52, a New Englander who has been a regular at Fenway Park since he attended the legendary 1975 World Series with his father and younger brother.

Maraia eventually bought Red Sox season tickets in 2007, and since then, this attorney with the Green Monster and Pesky’s Pole deep in his soul has studied his heroes up close and personal from his seat that is seven rows back from home plate. So he knows what he’s talking about when he says Jeter doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

“I’m telling you, the passion at Fenway has never left, and as far as Red Sox-Yankees — it …

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