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It worked for Babe Ruth, so maybe Gov. Bill Richardson is hoping a switch in baseball allegiance can improve his fortunes.

Richardson, who went to college in Boston and pitched a season in the storied Cape Cod summer league, has long described himself as a Red Sox fan.

But in a recent question and answer session with the Associated Press, the two-term New Mexico governor and second-tier Democratic presidential candidate gave a surprising answer when asked for his other-than-politics dream job.

Center field, he said. New York Yankees.

That's a little like describing yourself as a Lobos fan for your whole life, then saying you always wanted to be head coach of the Aggies football team.

Sort of like that - times 100.

Richardson's staff said his desire to play for the Yankees doesn't reflect a change in loyalties. The governor remains a Red Sox fan, spokesman Pahl Shipley said, but it's his childhood idolization of a Yankees center fielder that prompted his answer to the AP.

"The governor used to idolize Mickey Mantle, so he always felt like his dream job would be to play center field for the Yankees," Shipley said.

That explanation doesn't wash with Rep. Heather Wilson. Now an Albuquerque Republican, Wilson is originally from New Hampshire and a Red Sox fan.

"Baseball is not a trivial pastime for Boston fans," Wilson said. "A lifelong Red Sox fan dreams of being in the Yankee dugout? It is impossible. Gotta be a slip of the tongue.

"What the governor meant to say is that he dreams of being Carlton Fisk or Carl Yastrzemski, bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, Sox down by two, and he belts one over the Yankee center fielder's head at Fenway and the crowd goes wild. They'd be talking about that one in south Boston for years."