The big squeeze
You tried to get into those shorts lately?
The ones over there, laying atop the pile of laundry you haven’t bothered to sift through since last fall. Think they still fit?
We understand it’s been a long winter. You had a few too many at the end of a celebratory October. You couldn’t get enough of those peanut butter cookies that kept coming in as the calendar turned. We won’t remind you about the time you attempted to eat yourself out of a deep depression muttering, “David Tyree” even as you slept.
No, they’re definitely not going to fit.
Yet, there you are, trying to force your wider thighs into a pair of shorts that you, in all honesty, felt tightening around your waist the last time you wore them in October. Now there are at least two inches between button and hole. You’re standing there, looking ridiculous and indignantly telling me that the shorts fit, even as I notice the faint hint of the cuff straining to keep itself stitched intact against your bulging leg.
It’s OK to succumb to that fact. Really, it is.
Lots of things don’t seem as big as they used to. Take yesterday in Tampa, where the Red Sox and Yankees met for the first and only time this spring, trying to fit back into their historic rivalry, opened wide earlier this month by Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner and his weekly addresses on how things should be in this great country we call, “Yankeeland.” The Red Sox lost, 8-4, in what was yet another mind-numbing spring training game.
And yet, if you bought into the hype, this was still YANKEES-RED SOX, or in other words, a reason to sucker fans into paying $150 for a meaningless contest.
Steinbrenner’s seemingly daily putdowns of the Red Sox, their closer, and now, everyone with a payroll structure beneath that of the behemoths of the game, have prompted some to proclaim the rivalry at its healthiest, despite Boston’s recent dominance when it comes to World Series titles, 2-0 over the past seven seasons. The Red Sox responded to Hank’s missives by signing him up for their fan club, and utilizing his words as motivation for a new Red Sox Nation campaign commercial, which is about as embarrassing as the proud Yankee patriarch could have hoped for.
Yet, for all the bluster coming out of the mouths of the owners (and Jonathan Papelbon), the “rivalry” had yet to be tested on the field as of yet.
Then Julian Tavarez lets one get away, Andy Pettitte comes a little up and in on David Ortiz, and suddenly everything is seemingly reborn. I guess.
“You could say this was just another typical meaningless spring training game, except whenever and wherever the Yankees and Red Sox get together, there is always meaning,” writes the New York Daily News’ Bill Madden, who could have had this lede ready two days in advance, seeing as no matter what happens, we’ll make some sort of big deal out of a New York-Boston contest. Even in Tampa on St. Patrick’s Day.
“It felt more like your typical, meaningful game in September with the attention that comes with it,” writes the Providence Journal’s Joe McDonald, apparently with no intended hyperbole.
“Don't Tell Fans This Game Doesn't Count,” shouts the headline in today’s Tampa Tribune. Even though it, you know, doesn’t count.
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a long way from 2004, when this rivalry hit its apex. Between the Jason Varitek-Alex Rodriguez dustup and the remarkable ALCS comeback, the storied antagonism between the two teams was at an all-time high. It wasn’t fueled in the front offices (although the offseason A-Rod chase might have initiated things), but on the field, where a certain distaste between the teams festered. Since then, it’s stayed afloat, with moments like Johnny Damon’s jumping ship at the forefront. But it’s never been as good. It’s difficult to imagine how it possibly can be.
And that’s fine. Some things are better remembered than attempted to recreate. But when it comes to the bottom line, promoting this rivalry just for a monetary benefit, it all seems equivalent to being hammered on the head with the reminder that “Frank TV” is coming to TBS. No matter how much you try to force it, it’s just not going to fit unless the proper ingredients are in place.
With these two particular rosters, it’s far too early to determine that.
“For the players and coaches on both sides — those who understand full well that sometimes an exhibition game is just an exhibition game — talking about the rivalry Monday at Legends Field felt like a bothersome chore,” writes the Hartford Courant’s Jeff Goldberg. “Despite the recent best efforts of Hank Steinbrenner, there were far simpler things for both teams to concern themselves with than the fate of the universe.”
Go figure.
The players often do right by the nature of it all, espousing the company line about the fierce competitiveness of the rivalry, but one has to wonder if it’s leaning more toward hibernation for the time being. Yes, as long as there are fans, ESPN, boisterous owners, and anyone else who wants to promote the myth, the rivalry will be healthy. Anyone else who feels it doesn’t live up to its billing will inevitably be swayed when he or she becomes enthralled by any one of the handful of tight contests these two teams will play this season.
But it seems more difficult for rivalries to exist in baseball these days, the complete opposite of what the league aimed for with the advent of the unbalanced schedule. The Yankees, Rays, Orioles, Blue Jays, and Red Sox are in each others’ cities so often that they might as well start looking at leases. By the time Game 15 comes around, you’re tired of hearing about this great rivalry, how special it is to watch these teams go up against each other, even as one has an 11-game season series advantage on the other or you have the sudden recollection that so many games against the Yankees means just as many you’re forced to watch against the Orioles. There’s a reason why Michigan-Ohio State and Duke-North Carolina remain at the forefront of our rivalry admission: They meet but once to a few times each year.
The Red Sox and Yankees will meet 19 times this season, baseball looking to suck every dime out of its most prevalent hardball passion. Enter Hank Steinbrenner, and it already seems like the two teams – as he hinted might happen some day – are doing business together, with the Red Sox reacting by using his words to sell more memberships.
This is what the rivalry has become four years later, more corporate, less athletic.
Today the Yankees will play an exhibition at Virginia Tech, site of last spring’s mass murder. New York donated $1 million to the school last year in the wake of the tragedy, the only team in Major League Baseball to do so.
One of those students killed that day was Ross Alameddine, a sophomore and a Red Sox fan from Saugus. Ed Weathers, an English professor – and Yankee fan – at Virginia Tech had Alameddine as one of his students, and he writes today in The Collegian: “Today, as my Yankees honor Virginia Tech, I plan to spend a few hours remembering a Red Sox fan.”
Hokies baseball coach Pete Hughes, former skipper of Boston College, and a Brockton native said of the scrimmage, “It's going to be hard to root against the Yankees ever again.”
People will find a way, of course, and one day the Sox-Yankees rivalry may be back to what it once was. But the force-feeding has to stop, otherwise the backlash becomes a manufactured by-product of TV dollars and inflated ticket prices, with little-to-no on-field semblance of hostility. It becomes a myth, a once-great tale now nothing more than a shell of itself.
It’s not just hard to hate the Yankees today. It’s sort of hard to hate them at all these days.
But the rivalry is a money-maker, so you can surely expect more square pegs in round holes. But know that there was nothing special about yesterday, no matter what somebody wants to try and compel you to believe.
Come summertime that will likely change based on these teams’ histories. Plenty of time to work out, plenty of time to let feeling settle in before proclaiming the greatness of an afternoon.
Maybe you can even wear your shorts to the game.
How come it seems like the "in" thing to do now is to complain about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry being boring, or that they play too many times, or that it isn't what it used to be, or that it's overdone? Hasn't Wilbur been trying to play this game for a couple of years now?
First the Red Sox have to many likable guys (no Barry Bonds, Randy Johnsons, Milton Bradley or Jeff Kents on the roster that you can hate) to really dislike them and the prowess they've displayed over the past few seasons cannot help but be admired.
Second even we here in NY know that Hank Steinbrenner is a blow hard idiot. He's one of those guys who thinks that he's hit a triple even though he was born on third base.
And in summation I offer "Lets GO Mets!
To hate another team or their players because they best your favorite team is to say the least somewhat childish ------- something which I myself have done. Why can't we just enjoy the game for the game's sake and admire the players abilities?Winning of course is always nice, but sometimes I believe more is learned in defeat or adversity. The problem of course is money rules most peoples opinions about all things.
wait til september! the hatred will grow like a festering zit that needs to be popped!!! hopefully it will make a mess all over hanky pankyt and his old man!!
This article is extremely long winded and fairly pointless.
Well say what you want, but every time thy play each other I am as nervous as a cat on a roof. dry mouth and a nervous stomach about what the Yankees have done to our Sox MAKES ME HATE THEM!
I certainly agree that ESPN has something to do with artificially inflating this rivalry but please don't give your Globe colleagues a free pass. It's pretty much a rite of spring for Dan Shaugnessy to pen an article that berates fans for caring about the Yankees while simultaneously stating how big of a deal it is for a series in April.
What does it take to be the same rivalry, a. major fight? Then the media will complain that there is no room in baseball for fighting. Wait till the regular season when the games count, things will change back to the old days. And you may even see some fights like the days of Charlton Fisk, a real Red Sox player.
Although the article says that the rivalry hit its "apex" in 2004 and hasn't been the same since, I would contend that there wasn't really a rivalry UNTIL 2004. Both teams actually have to win once in awhile to be considered a true rivalry, i.e Celtics/Lakers. In 2004 Sox/Yanks became a real rivalry when the Sox finally won. Just because the teams play a lot does not make it a rivalry. The Washington Generals are not a RIVAL of the Harlem Globetrotters just because they play them all the time!
Yankees still suck.
For those of us who do not live in the Boston area (I'm in DC), the uprooted Red Sox fans and uprooted Yankee fans feel the rivalry strongly. I think, actually, that we Sox fans now feel how the Yankees fans used to feel, and vice versa. They can't beat us, so we sit back, smugly watching them get excited that Coco has a strained groin on March 15th. Go Sox.
If the fans still think its a rivalry...isnt that what makes it a rivalry? Am I missing something here? Does Wilbur need Varitek punching out ARod again for him to get excited up there in the press box?
Couldn't agree more with EA. This rivarly needs a good bench clearing brawl this year and everyone will be reminded that the hatred still exists. There were no fireworks last year and when the Yankees failed to make the ALCS the rivalry seemed to lose some momentum. As far as what baseball really wants, they want ratings and they were never higher than when Zimmer got bounced off the ground by Pedro. Let the benches clear and the haymakers fly. I'm counting on it in 2008 !
My father was a Giants fan who may have even witnessed 'the catch' and made annual pilgrimages to chilly Candlestick with his old pals from Inwood. My maternal grandfather a die-hard Dodgers fan from Flatbush, so I have Yankee hatred on both sides of the family. Many Sox fans fail to appreciate that there are New Yorkers who hate the Yankees at least as much as they do!
And of course having the odious 'Sir Rudolph' for a fan gives me yet another reason to despise them.
The Mets always get the short end of the stick in New York sports coverage, which I suspect is do in part to pressure from The Boss. I know this is going to sound unkind but the idea of that blow hard drooling all over himself fills me with glee.
His tenure in the Bronx ushered in this sorry age of unsportsmanlike owners.
With Santana on board a repeat of '86 is as likely as anything this season, and hopefully with two subsequent series under their belt sox fans will have put buckner, shiraldi, and mookie wilson behind them, and we can have a series be enjoyed without acrimony by two fan bases united in their hatred of pinstripes!
Wilbur has been pushing for 2 years now and you know what , it's not working I still cant stand the Yanks because they are the biggest obstacle. Stop trying to kill the rivalry because it will always be there, even when things are dormant.
I have heard Rich's argument before and it is weak. The fact that the Red Sox never won a world Series for all those years had nothing to do with the Yankees, since they don't play each other in the Series. Plenty of times over the years the Sox came out ahead of the Yanks. in my lifetime alone, the Sox advanced further in '67, '75, '86, '88, '90, and several other years when neither did anything in the playoffs. Since '67 in fact, The Sox have never been as bad as the Yanks got for a couple of years at the bottom in the pre-Jeter era. Rich likely is a fan of some other, lesser rivalry across the country (Cubs/Cards? gimme a break), as others who downplay Yanks-Sox. With or without recent stupid hype, it is the best sports rivalry there has ever been
Paul Q:
It is funny, I do find a certain truce with Mets fans who share a common hatred for the Yankees. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say if the Sox and Mets were to meet this year that I would be happy for the Mets.
I mean..86 and 22 are different eras..I'm sorry to say, but two is nice, three is better..
Eric, This rivalry will not go away tomorrow. There still is money to be made, here. I refuse to mention the name of That Team from the Bronx, and will not relent. I remember 1949, 1978 and 2003 and I rub it in with fans of That Team when 2004 comes up. WE have two championships in the 21st century, and depending on how you view it, That Team has one or none! (Some say that 2000 is a 20th Century year-I won't go there.)
I agree that the rivalry peaked in 2003-2004, because it's impossible to top that level of intensity. I think the rivalry is still pretty strong and always will be. But I definitely think that 18-19 games against each other every year is too much. If the teams meet in the postseason they could play each other 26 times. That's serious overkill. Time to rebalance the schedule.
Dear Mr. Wilbur,
There is a grammar mistake in your blog. Socks don't lay atop a pile; they lie. I'm sorry to correct you, but I was offended by what you insinuated (or said outright) about my thighs.
Sox Yanks rivalry, blah, blah, blah. Give it time, let the games mean something. If you want real excitement, watch the Celts-Rockets tonight.
You are seeing it from a Red Sox point of view. From a Yankees fan it actually feels like a rivalry once again. Before 2004 the Yankees would always win --- how is that a rivalry? Now that the Sox have actually won a few, it has turned into a rivalry. They also haven't played eachother in a playoff game in 04, those are the most important games.
Some of those games last year were so intense between the 2 teams, I was PRAYING they would meet in the ALCS. That woudl have been the best baseball anyone had seen since '04.
With new leadership under the Yankees, this team will not be afraid to retaliate at the Sox when they throw at jeter (ie pettitte throwing at big papi int he spring training game). This Rivalry will burn new fire this year and what we need most in a Sox/Yanks alcs. Those are always the BEST series in sports.
The way Hank Steinbrenner keeps talking out of both sides of his mouth--one minute picking a little media fight with Paps, the next minute insinuating some kind of joint business venture is on its way--the whole rivalry thing is starting to look more and more like professional wrestling. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun to watch the Nature Boy style, profile, and walk that aisle. I personally hope, next time, the umps get knocked unconscious so we can see Varitek pile-drive A-Rod on the fungo circle while Papi goes to work on Posada with a roll of dimes in his fist. And who's this entering the ring?! JIM RICE!! AND HE'S GOT A CHAIR! AND DEREK JETER IS DOWN!
// I would contend that there wasn't really a rivalry UNTIL 2004.//
You obviously weren't around in the 1970s.
Say what you want about the Steinbrenner's but the Yankees are nothing but class .
Donated 1 million to Va. Tech and then went out of their way to visit and play .
Sox owners stiff their coaches but what do you expect from a team that sells Jon Lester "Survivor Balls" and only donates 10% to the Jimmy Fund.
Couldn't agree more.
As another reader already wrote - and as Frank Deford noted as well in a column several years back, prior to the Sox finally winning the series after eons - "the rivalry" wasn't really one at all until the Sox finally broke the curse in 2004. What it was before was one-sided Boston hatred of the Yankees for always winning while the Sox always found a way to choke away the big games even when they had fine teams. The reality is that the true rivalries years ago for New Yorkers were between their three teams, with perhaps the most animosity for the Yankees held by fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, for all the same reasons as Sox fans hated them - they were a rich team, and they won far too much, at their team's expense.
Now, I am a lifelong Yankee fan - can't help it, I was born less than a mile from the soon-to-be defunct stadium, nearly 60 years ago. I can assure you there were no real signs of the so-called rivalry during any of the years where one or the other, or neither, team fielded a competitive team, and there were many of these. I did see it develop nicely in 1978 when the Yanks came from so far behind and stole the pennant away, and as I spent some time in Boston that year (my girlfriend was a student at Simmons, near Fenway), I could somewhat bemusedly feel the pain of Sox fans (which I don't remember being called "Red Sox Nation" in those days) even as I loved the Yanks' accomplishment.
Since 2004, of course, Sox fans have changed, and a new generation has jumped on the bandwagon due to the team's success. There is no curse, your team has won two series to none for its antagonists, and it's almost as if the very raison d'etre of long-time, diehard Sox fans has been stripped away by the long-overdue championships (and replaced by the arrogance of entitlement, not unlike some of the fans of the past of that other team). Old hatreds that persisted for generations die hard, I suppose, but the fact is the Sox have surpassed the Yankees in the past several years, and non-Northeasterners in "small market" cities despise you and your free-spending, winning, corporate ways just as much or more as the Yanks.
As for old-time Yankee fans, we haven't lost to you enough to truly hate the Sox yet, although if you keep having more success than us while we don't win another World Series for, say, 80 more years, I suppose fear and loathing will have ample time to settle in.
Mike
the rivalry is fine, wilbur. and if your tired of hearing ESPNs bullsh** about sox-yanks, put the tv on mute and tune into good ol' 850 weei. its overhyped because you and your colleagues insist on writing about it 150 times per year in the globe. watch some good baseball. hell, go out and throw a baseball. but dont waste time saying that you dont want to watch sox-yankees 19 times this summer. you want to see it, you just dont want to hear joe buck talk brown-nose the yankees 19 times on espn.
This blogger might want to review your comment before posting it.
by eric wilbur
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