King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Red Sox-Yankees: For once, you can believe the hype. Plus: Steve Lyons is actually listenable.

Oct. 12, 2004 | It's finally here, the Yankees against the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series starting Tuesday night in New York. This is the matchup everyone wanted to see, if you define everyone as "those people who wanted to see the Red Sox play the Yankees for the pennant."

Count me in that group. One could argue over this "best rivalry in baseball" stuff. Dodgers-Giants has been more consistently competitive over the last eight decades or so. One could even argue over whether Yankees-Red Sox is even a rivalry at all.

That word does imply that both sides win from time to time, and while the Red Sox have won plenty of regular-season games against New York, they really haven't competed. Since 1920, when they first became a contender, the Yankees have won 39 pennants while the Red Sox were winning four. The World Series score is 26-0, though to be fair the Red Sox did win five pennants and five World Series before 1920, when the Yankees were mostly lousy.

But whatever you want to call it, Red Sox vs. Yankees is the hottest thing baseball has going these last few years, and it's hard to imagine anything getting much hotter. There was last year's ALCS, which went to seven games before the Yankees, coming from behind yet again, won the pennant on Aaron Boone's 11th-inning home run.

Along the way, there was a brawl in which Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez threw septuagenarian Yankees coach Don Zimmer to the ground, drawing protests from the American Association for Retired Gerbils.

Then there was the offseason maneuvering to try to get Alex Rodriguez, the Red Sox appearing to have the inside track -- remember them putting Manny Ramirez on waivers? -- before the Yanks swooped in with the novel idea of moving A-Rod to third base.

That was a devastating victory for the Yankees. Not only did the Sox fail to get their man, they pissed off one of their biggest stars, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, in the process. The Yankees were facing almost the exact same situation, with star Derek Jeter holding down shortstop, but they came up with a solution.

Boston scored points and improved its chances in this series by trading for Diamondbacks ace right-hander Curt Schilling, noted Yankee killer from the 2001 World Series and the prize catch of the winter thanks to Arizona's salary dump. He immediately pronounced himself a "Yankee hater," went out and won 21 games, and will start Game 1 in the Bronx, about which he said, "I'm not sure I can think of any scenario more enjoyable than making 55,000 people from New York shut up."

This year the regular season series, which the Sox won 11-8, stoked the fire even more. The boiling point was reached on July 24 at Fenway Park, when Bronson Arroyo of Boston hit Rodriguez with a pitch, which led to a brawl. The Sox won that game 11-10 on Bill Mueller's home run off ace closer Mariano Rivera.

History will probably remember that day as the turning point for the Red Sox's season, but in reality they didn't get hot until mid-August, when they went on a 20-2 run.

Next page: How the series shapes up. Plus: Fox clichi watch. And: Bragging about predictions? Me?