Normally, most of us would be embarrassed to admit that we've got it. But when it comes to the New York Yankees, well, residents of the North Shore are shamelessly embracing both the word and the malicious satisfaction that goes with it.

It all stems from the humiliating collapse of the beloved Boston Red Sox during the regular baseball season, followed by the even more humiliating collapse of the hated Yankees during the playoffs.

With a lineup that reminded some of Ruth, Gehrig and Murderers' Row, the Yankees managed to lose three straight games to the Detroit Tigers, a mini version of their disastrous defeat at the hands of the Red Sox in 2004. Yanks manager Joe Torre announced only yesterday he will retain his job - over the objections of millions of angry New Yorkers.

Around here, no one is hiding their feelings.

"I did take pleasure in that," said Mary Widberg of Peabody. "I have a good friend who's a Yankees fan. And it made me smile. He's not going to gloat anymore."

"It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fellows," said Bob Brown, while puffing on a big cigar in downtown Danvers.

Pal Jeff Leclair gestured cheerfully with his own cigar. "You know, the Yankees haven't won a championship in the new millennium. And how many have we won? Oh, yeah, that's right. One."

Charlie Blatti of Salisbury, cutting hair at Zollo's Barber Stylist in Danvers, has been hearing from the customers. "The majority of the fans here are delighted - very much delighted in the Yankees' loss."

He counts himself happy, as well - not only for Red Sox fans, but for baseball.

"Too many All-Stars," Blatti said of the Yankees. "And to see them go down is good for the sport. It's good to see that money doesn't buy the pennant. ... Johnny Damon (the popular center fielder who left the Sox for more money in New York), whenever he did something good for the Yankees, he would have this silly smile on. Now I don't have to look at that anymore."

Bob Devarenne admitted that he rooted for the Yankees back in the '50s and '60s, "when they had Mantle and Maris and Whitey Ford." In those days, there wasn't much point rooting for the cellar-dwelling Sox - although it was always worthwhile to watch Ted Williams hit.

Confessing that he just doesn't hate the Yankees, Devarenne added, "But whether you're a Red Sox fan or not, you can still root against the Yankees."

"We're rooting for two teams," said Susan O'Connell of Danvers. "The Red Sox. And anybody playing the Yankees."

"Good," she said of the pinstripers' weekend catastrophe. "I'm happy."

"Nothing is better than seeing the Yankees lose," agreed her friend Karen Hagan.

Fans don't feel this way about other teams. Hagan recalled going to Busch Stadium and the third game of the World Series in 2004, being treated to a ticket by a relative who lives in St. Louis. She watched Pedro Martinez beat the home team, and the disappointed Cardinal fans around her simply seemed pleased by her happiness.

They're not like those New York fans, she observed. "If the Red Sox don't win, I would want St. Louis to win."

And if she gets her wish, they'll have to first beat the Mets - the Mets of New York.