The Red Sox have given the Yankees something to prove — this is the week to do it
What accentuated the feud from Boston selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees on Dec. 26, 1919, through 2003 was the Red Sox not winning championships as the Yankees became the predominant team in baseball.
Once Boston rallied from 0-3 down in the 2004 ALCS to end The Curse against the Yankees and ultimately win its first championship since Ruth's last Red Sox season in 1918, the element that most fueled the intensity of The Rivalry — could the Yankees forever be Lucy pulling the football away from the Red Sox's Charlie Brown? could they forever play goal line defense against Boston to keep it out of the championship end zone (forgive two football analogies, please)? — vanished.
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The games the two teams played in the regular season in 2003-04 had the drama and intensity of a World Series, and their playoff games were like scripted epic miniseries. The teams played 52 games over those two seasons, and the Red Sox went 27-25. Each team won a seven-game ALCS against the other. It was holy war as baseball.
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Boston Globe
27 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Baseball fans would take a hit if Rob Manfred's latest idea about expansion and radical realignment becomes reality
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Say it ain't so. Advertisement 'The problem with the proposal is that it's too logical, it makes so much sense, just as it works in the NHL and the NBA,' says Jane Leavy, the preeminent baseball biographer whose Advertisement 'But baseball is different. It can't presume the way those leagues can to eliminate the perquisites of its history, and so what makes sense doesn't always work for baseball. 'It's like, 'Erase the record books, erase the collective unconscious, wipe the slate clean.' Baseball is too much trapped by its history, I understand that and I get that, but it also is indebted to its history in ways that younger sports are not.' Manfred would do it all anyway, determined as he seems to write a lasting personal legacy over what's best for the game. He's already overseen dramatic change, some of it excellent (the pitch clock), some of it OK (universal designated hitter, extra-inning ghost runner), and some of it bad (automated balls and strikes, automatic intentional walks). And he's pushed back on some truly awful ideas (such as the golden at-bat). But this latest salvo shows once again how much of his own baseball soul is missing, a willingness to use the inevitability of expansion to fundamentally alter baseball fandom and history as we've known it. 'In my mind, I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign,' Manfred said on the ESPN broadcast. 'I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN because you'd be playing out of the East, out of the West, and that 10 o'clock where we sometimes get Boston-Anaheim would be two West Coast teams. That 10 o'clock slot that's a problem for us sometimes becomes a real opportunity for our West Coast audience.' Advertisement We get it — baseball hasn't expanded since the 1998 addition of the Rays and Diamondbacks, and has two existing teams, Las Vegas (via Oakland) and the itinerant Rays awaiting new stadiums. Travel demands have indeed grown, but part of that is on baseball for adding regular-season interleague play. And let's be honest, the private chartered life of a baseball player is not the same as flying commercial. Plus, baseball could help that problem with smarter scheduling on its own, grouping cross-country road trips and emphasizing division rivalries. But Manfred would rather blow it all up, or at least bring the idea to the upcoming bargaining table with the players' union, attempting to curry favor with ideas as better for player well-being, while ignoring what it might mean to longtime fans who thrive on those rivalries, who grew up with those adversaries, who invested those emotions. 'I don't like any of that,' Hall of Famer Jim Kaat agreed. 'What's the World Series going to be like without the competition of the two leagues?' Kaat already is on record about baseball So, apparently, is the link to the past. 'You can see that incrementally they've been working toward this. I've heard about it for years,' Leavy said. 'I understand, but there's got to be a way to balance the needs of growth and modernity without erasing the game's essential self.' Advertisement Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Yankees tie club record with 9 home runs in win over Rays
Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger both hit two home runs, Aaron Judge launched his 40th of the season and the New York Yankees matched a franchise record with nine longballs Tuesday night in a 13-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Judge, Bellinger and Stanton went back-to-back-to-back in the first inning to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead four batters into the game — after the first pitch was delayed nearly two hours by rain. José Caballero connected twice for his first career multihomer game. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice also went deep for the Yankees, who won their fourth straight and looked awfully comfortable in a road game at their spring training home. New York took full advantage of the cozy dimensions before a crowd of 10,046 at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Rays are playing while Tropicana Field undergoes repairs. Bellinger finished 4 for 5 with three RBIs. Following the long rain delay, Shane Baz (8–10) gave up Judge's 429-foot shot to center field. Bellinger followed with a 381-foot drive to right, and Stanton lined a 386-footer to right-center. Baz allowed six runs and seven hits, including five homers, in three innings. He has yielded 29 earned runs in his last 28 innings (9.32 ERA) over six starts. Carlos Rodón (13-7) earned the win, allowing two runs in six innings. New York also hit nine home runs in its second game of the season, a 20-9 victory over Milwaukee on March 29 at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees became the first team in major league history to hit back-to-back-to-back homers in the first inning three times in one season (also March 29 and April 29). Judge became the fourth Yankees player with at least four 40-homer seasons, joining Babe Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (5) and Mickey Mantle (4). Judge hit 52 homers in 2017, 62 in 2022 and 58 in 2024. Rays RHP Drew Rasmussen (10-5, 2.60 ERA) starts Wednesday against Yankees rookie Cam Schlittler (1–2, 3.94).
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
Yankees become 1st MLB team to hit 9 home runs in a game twice in one season
TAMPA, Fla. — José Caballero hit two home runs in 86 games with the Tampa Bay Rays this season. The speedy utilityman matched that total in one night Tuesday as the New York Yankees put on quite a power show. 'I think it's from hanging around with these guys,' Caballero explained after helping his new team to a 13-3 victory over the Rays. In his first game back at George M. Steinbrenner Field to face his former club, Caballero connected twice for his first career multihomer game. And he was hardly alone. Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger both hit two home runs, Aaron Judge launched his 40th of the season and the Yankees equaled a franchise record with nine longballs in a game delayed nearly two hours by rain at the start. New York also hit nine homers in its second game of the year, a 20-9 victory over Milwaukee on March 29 at Yankee Stadium. That makes the 2025 Bronx Bombers the first squad in major league history to hit nine home runs in a game twice in one season. 'We have a really good offense,' Bellinger said. 'You're going to have ebbs and flows of a 162-game season. It's not always going to be pretty, but we all believe in each other and the talent is there. We're doing a good job of putting it all together. It's really fun to be a part of.' It was just the fourth time a big league team has hit nine or more homers in a game. The record is 10, set by the Toronto Blue Jays on Sept. 14, 1987. Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice also went deep for the Yankees, who won their fourth straight and looked awfully comfortable in a road game at their spring training home. New York took full advantage of the cozy dimensions before a crowd of 10,046 at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Rays are playing while Tropicana Field undergoes repairs. Judge, Bellinger and Stanton went back-to-back-to-back off Shane Baz to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead four batters into the game. With that, New York became the first MLB team to hit three consecutive homers in the first inning three times in one season (also March 29 and April 29). 'The first three were just kind of no-doubters, with Judge hitting it almost all the way up the batter's eye, and then Belly really leaning on one,' Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. 'And then Giancarlo, getting to two strikes there, just shot it the other way. In their own kind of way, three really good statement at-bats.' ___ AP MLB:
