The Red Sox make the year's first foray against "The Evil Empire" this afternoon at 1 o'clock, when the Yankees come to Fort Myers for a spring training exhibition game. Taking the mound for the boys in pinstripes will be none other than Jose Contreras, the Cuban starting pitcher whom Sox management failed to acquire over the winter, a debacle which engendered a lot of finger pointing and name calling between the new owners at Yawkey Way (most notably Larry Lucchino) and New York owner/supervillain George Steinbrenner. Well, passions have cooled a bit since then, and there's even an article sympathetic to Contreras in today's Boston Globe, but even if Boston really didn't have a chance at signing him, as the piece and Mr. Contreras assert, it does little to change the gut feeling here in New England that Big George and his Yankee front office are out to get us. So don't take it too hard, Jose, if a few thousand sunburned, hungover pilgrims from Red Sox Nation make you feel about as welcome as a hurricane in City Of Palms Park today. Trust me, it'll be a much warmer reception than you'll get at Fenway Park in April.