It’s not quite Michael Dukakis on a tank, but John Kerry does look out of place in his flat-billed baseball cap. In the run-up to election day, the senator has seized on the victory of the New York Times-owned Red Sox as a symbol of his campaign. “I’ve been rooting for this day since I was a kid,” Mr. Kerry said Wednesday night. “This Red Sox team came back against all odds and showed America what heart is. In 2004, the Red Sox are America’s team.”

They may be America’s team, but they’re certainly not Mr. Kerry’s. Every time the senator mentions the Red Sox, it’s embarrassingly clear he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Who is Mr. Kerry’s favorite ballplayer? “Manny Ortez,” the senator has said, though no such person actually plays for the Red Sox. Mr. Kerry seems to have confused Red Sox first baseman David Ortiz with Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez. “My favorite Red Sox player of all time,” Mr. Kerry told a sports radio show a few years back, “is the Walking Man, Eddie Yost.” Only Yost never played for the Red Sox, although he did coach third base for the team.

On Sunday, Mr. Kerry enthused over the Red Sox victory in game one of the World Series. “The Sox did fabulous,” Mr. Kerry told reporters. “The Red Sox won 10-9.”The final score, however, was 11-9. A spokesman for Mr. Kerry, David Wade, told the Scotsman newspaper that the candidate had a late flight to Florida and he heard the score before the game ended. But the score never was 10-9; the Sox won on a two-run homer, so they went directly to 11 runs from nine. That night, during game two, Mr. Kerry arrived at a campaign event in New Hampshire and cheered,”7-1 Red Sox!” But the score was 6-1, and the Sox went on to win 6-2.

On the night of President Bush’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Mr. Kerry thought he’d take a swipe at his rival while building up his baseball credentials. “I’ll tell you what happened tonight that will be remembered,” declared the senator. “The Boston Red Sox moved to within 2.5 games of the New York Yankees.” As it happens, the Red Sox were 3.5 games behind.

You would think Mr. Kerry actually watched the games, given the emotional investment he claims to have in his team. “I was 30 yards away from Billy Buckner in that famous Shea Stadium game in ’86,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview with ESPN.com, referring to the infamous error that lost game six of the World Series for Boston that year. “So I’ve been there in the heartbreaks.” Mr. Kerry has also made this claim on the stump. “I was about 30 yards away from Billy Buckner when that ball wiggled away,” he told a crowd of supporters in Lebanon, N.H. “I had cracked a bottle of Champagne, was jumping up and down prematurely. Nobody should celebrate prematurely. This race is really open.”

It’s only slightly odd to think of Mr. Kerry bouncing on the bleachers with his uncorked Dom Perignon – perhaps beckoning the hot dog vendor to bring him a baguette and foie gras. But it didn’t happen. Mr. Kerry wasn’t even there. On the night of game six, Mr. Kerry was at a banquet in South Boston sponsored by the Massachusetts Latino Democratic Committee. An anti-Kerry group of sports enthusiasts, Football Fans for Truth, unearthed a 1986 Boston Globe article establishing that Mr. Kerry attended the banquet, fittingly enough, with Governor Dukakis.

For all this, it’s not surprising that the Red Sox, and their fans, aren’t buying the senator’s act. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, appearing yesterday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” urged viewers to vote for Mr. Bush. Mr. Schilling will be campaigning with the president in New Hampshire today.

Mr. Kerry may be from Massachusetts, but it’s Mr. Bush who is the real baseball fan. Voters don’t need to be convinced that the president knows the stats and the players. He’s owned a baseball team, and he sponsors tee ball on the White House lawn. The Kerry campaign may think a Boston win in the World Series helps their candidate. But what it’s really disclosed is that Mr. Bush shares America’s pastime while Mr. Kerry condescends to it.

Some might argue that this means Mr. Bush better understands the country. “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game,” the cultural historian Jacques Barzun has written. However that may be, at least he knows his own mind.