It's been almost 20 years since the Red Sox-Yankees' most heated battle reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit. The Red Sox and Yankees still play in the same division, and games between the two teams remain a staple of summer entertainment, like this weekend's four-game series at Yankee Stadium.
They've met in the playoffs since those epic showdowns in 2003 and 2004, and while they've tried to bring out the old-fashioned mutual disdain (remember Aaron Judge whistling “New York, New York” as he left Fenway Park after Game 2 of the AL Series?), even that wasn't the same as it used to be. Not quite the same, not quite the same.
No. The 2003-04 Red Sox-Yankees era set a standard never before reached, with all the Fisk-Munson malice, the great memories of the 1978 championship run, the lyrical recollections of the summer of 1949 and the unease some Red Sox fans felt whenever “Frazee”'s name was uttered.
The 2003-04 teams were the Frazier and Ali of baseball and deserved to be called so because each scored a knockout. Boston and New York have a great history in baseball but it can never be called a rivalry because for over 80 years only one team has won. The Yankees-Sox rivalry was more like a hammer and nails rivalry.
It was quite a feud.
That was a great “debate.”
However, a true rivalry between the two teams didn't emerge until 2003 and 2004. With schedules still heavily weighted toward divisional matchups, the Yankees and Red Sox met 38 times over those two seasons, with the Red Sox winning 20 and the Yankees winning 18. Both years also saw the teams meet in the American League Championship Series, which ended in complete games with the Yankees winning 7 and the Red Sox winning 7.
“I'm a sports fan,” manager Aaron Boone said Thursday afternoon, hours before the first-place Yankees began an intriguing series against the wild-card-chasing Red Sox. “There are moments in sports where you remember where you've been, and it's great to hear from people who have intimate, memorable stories about it, from all walks of life, over the years.”
Boone, of course, was specifically referring to the everlasting moment. he Created, he He slammed a knuckleball off the late Tim Wakefield for a home run to give the Yankees a 6-5 victory in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series.
“What I want to know is, what are these guys doing in their dreams?” an exultant Boone said as his teammates showered him with champagne and saluted him on the night of Oct. 16, 2003.
Boone said he doesn't often go into detail about his greatest swing as a baseball player, “only when people ask about it or when I talk about it or there's a story about it. The good thing about the years has been meeting different people.”
What was unique, almost unprecedented about that Red Sox-Yankees episode was that it was easy to believe we witnessed a supremely unique experience that October. Nothing could top it. What could top the drama of the Yankees rallying from a 4-1 deficit with five outs to go against one of the two or three best pitchers of his generation, Pedro Martinez?
Red Sox fans, like kids do today, said, “Hold on to the beer,” and they pulled off the greatest comeback (or collapse, depending on whether it was based in New England or New York) in the history of professional sports. And as impossible as it may have seemed when it happened, we said at the time: ” course And that's what happened.”
It happened: After Game 7 in 2004, Yankees officials, frustrated that Red Sox fans wouldn't leave the stadium, approached George Steinbrenner, and Steinbrenner, who hated the Red Sox more than anyone alive, shook his head.
“Let them stay as long as they want,” he said. “They deserve it.”
Yes, it's not the same anymore. It's still good for a Yankees fan to see the Red Sox beat and vice versa, but just not as good as it used to be… essential Just like the old days. Maybe one day it will be like that. It's worth rooting for. It really is.
