Yankees-Red Sox (continued)
AP PhotoYogi Berra and Ted Williams are just two famous characters to have played in the series.The rivals' shared history also includes the infamous 1919 trade of Babe Ruth from Boston to New York. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee received $125,000 in cash and a loan of $300,000 for Ruth, whose arrival in the Bronx coincided with the start of the Yankees' dynasty. The Red Sox, meanwhile, began living with the "Curse of the Bambino."
Coincidence or not, the rivals' fortunes headed in disparate directions after the swap, which was made in part, it has long been thought, to help Frazee produce the Broadway play "No, No, Nanette." Over the course of the next 84 seasons, the Yankees went on to win 26 championships, while the Red Sox were limited to four losing appearances in the World Series.
During that period, there was, of course, 1978, when the Red Sox truly felt cursed. Boston coughed up a 14½-game lead to the Yankees over the season's final two months. The rivals ended up playing a one-game playoff at Fenway Park to determine the East Division champion.
With the Sox holding a 2-0 seventh-inning lead, Yankees shortstop Bucky Dent smashed a two-out, three-run homer over the Green Monster that gave New York a lead it would not relinquish en route to a 5-4 win. The Yankees went on to win the World Series and New Englanders still curse Dent's name.
The rivalry has become a year-round affair, with the two teams often spending the winter months engaged in baseball's fiercest arms race.
"It's the greatest rivalry in sports," MLB commissioner Bud Selig has said.
New York holds a 1,112 to 935 advantage in the series, dating back to 1901, the start of the modern era. But for years the series felt more one-sided.
As the Yankees established a dynasty, postseason success eluded the Red Sox. And, while New Yorkers made a habit of gathering for ticker tape parades to celebrate World Series titles, generations of bedraggled Bostonians were carrying around the weight of an 86-year title drought.
Lately, however, the advantage has shifted to the Red Sox, who earned World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. The Yankees have not added to their bounty of championship banners since 2000.
You don't need to live in the Northeast to feel the fever of the conflict. Theirs is a rivalry you can find yourself absorbed in, even if you weren't steeped in it.
After beginning his big league career with the Marlins, Kotsay played with the Padres, A's and Braves before joining the Red Sox late last season. Kotsay found the game to be the same on both coasts, but intimated that the copious press corps in New York and Boston help to fuel the fanaticism in the stands. And, in turn, that can trickle down to the playing field.
"Baseball on the East Coast is covered a lot more aggressively than baseball on the West Coast," Kotsay said. "And, from a fan's standpoint, the intensity is there day in and day out. The fans want their players to perform. There's really not a lot of room for error, without being told repeatedly by the fans that you are not performing."
The same ferocity that can lead the hometown fans to turn on their heroes also can be divisive enough to come between families when we're talking about the Yankees and the Red Sox.
To that point, Jay Johnstone recently shared with ESPN SportsTravel the story of his first few days as a Yankee in 1978:
After obtaining the outfielder in a deal with the Phillies, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner put Johnstone up at The Plaza, one of Manhattan's swankiest hotels. Johnstone was so thrilled with the accommodations that he picked up the phone and called home, inviting his parents to the Big Apple to share in his good fortune.
But Johnstone's mother said she and Jay's father would be unable to join him in New York.
"Why not?" Johnstone wondered.
"Well," his mother replied, "you know your father is a lifelong Red Sox fan. He says he won't go to Yankee Stadium. But he'll see you at Fenway Park. And he'll be rooting for the Red Sox."
When control of the baseball world is at stake, a rivalry can have that kind of effect on people.
Doug Ward is a Southern California-based freelance writer.
