Wednesday, March 30, 2005

SCREW THE RED SOX AND YANKEES....Part Deux

                   
                                             

Much to my dismay, the whole baseball world is centered around the Red Sox and Yankees. Turn on ESPNews...and you get those gripping highlights of their Grapefruit League game. Turn it over to ESPN...and you’ll have Peter Gammons force feeding both teams to you. I even listened to my favorite sports radio show, SPORTS BLOGGERS LIVE, and the "Steroid Free Baseball Preview" pretty much only spoke of the Yankees and Red Sox.

My sources have told me that MLB is on the verge of a major expansion that would turn the 2-team league to a 30 team league. Of course, only a few of these new teams will be allowed to spend any money....most will act as farm systems for New York and Boston.

Oh, it is a great rivalry. And the fact that these two teams have met in the last two ALCS and put up outstanding series is the reason for most of this recent love. But the Dodgers-Giants is a nice rivalry too....and they’ve had some memorable moments as well. I mean, I’ll take "the shot heard ‘round the world [Bobby Thompson] over Bucky Freakin’ Dent. Remember in 1993 when the Giants won 103 games....yet were eliminated by the Dodgers by a score of 12-1 on the final day....leaving San Fran a mere game behind the Braves?? That was two years after the Giants won the last two games of the season over the Dodgers to put them just behind Atlanta.

What’s the difference?? Well, the Dodgers and Giants screw each other over regularly. Both have had their days in the sun. In the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry....New York owned Boston. They'd still be owning Boston if they didn't have the mother of all meltdowns in last year's ALCS.  To the non-fans....the bandwagon guys choose the Yankees.....and the underdog lover chooses the Red Sox. However, the Red Sox have nowwon a World Series and finally laid to rest the dumbest story in all of sports [the Curse of the Bambino]....so they now become like every other team.

Actually....they?ve become the Yankees. The other teams scrimp and save to field a pretty good ball team. The Red Sox are like the Yankees in the fact that they have an open checkbook to do what they want. As much as they hate the Yankees....to the 28 other clubs they might as well have pinstripes. 

                                       

Normally, I?m not one to put up a "media bias". But, when ESPN is involved....there is noticeably some there. ESPN headquarters is in Bristol, Connecticut...which is about dead smack between Boston and New York. Notice that whenever a New England or New York team wins anything....it is the greatest victory of all mankind!! The New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup.....it is the greatest feat of all time!!! You would think that was the only Cup Mark Messier ever won [he won 5 with Edmonton]. Will they celebrate a Cubs World Series [heck just even getting there!] with the furor that they?ve done for Boston?? Not to say that ESPN isn?t all over Duke or the Lakers. They are. But they also tend to spend more time talking about other teams in those leagues than they do about any other baseball teams. If you stay up late enough....you can get some Mariners or Dodgers takes on the 2am Baseball Tonight.

Peter Gammons...the network's baseball Dick Vitale....is a Boston guy and has love for two teams.  The Boston Red Sox and whomever Pedro Martinez is pitching for. 

By the way....Opening Day is Sunday night...and ESPN has set aside a Yankees-Red Sox game to ring in the new year. All by itself.

It reminds me of the 2004 Presidential election. While the big media minds of New York, Washington and Los Angeles chirp in on what is best....everyone in the middle was solidified in their belief. Basically, middle America was slept on. While the ALCS was really great....the NLCS undercard of St. Louis-Houstonwasn?t too shabby either.

When interleague play comes around...we get treated to the Mets-Yankees Subway Series. Oh, it is nice....but I?ll take the White Sox-Cubs over them. The Dodgers-Angels, Athletics-Giants, Indians-Reds, Astros-Rangers and soon Nationals-Orioles all have that same regional feel and drama. Of course, only the NY series gets the major pub.

Again, this isn?t to slight these two franchises or their fans. They are great franchises....great fans....and great teams. And they should get discussed. But the Cardinals are good. So are the Marlins. And the Angels. If Bonds gets back soon then the Giants will be formidable. The Twins are pretty good. Heck, the Braves are there every year and they don?t get this kind of love.

I've lived in two cities pretty much my entire life.  Charlotte and Cincinnati.  Charlotte could care less about baseball.  It is basketball country and will always be.  Cincinnati, however, loves their baseball.  They take as much pride in their team as anyone.  There will be the 86th Findlay Market parade before Opening Day which is held in Cincinnati every year [any other team get to enjoy that?]. 

Of course, if Boston or New York comes to the Nati....everyone will run to get tickets.  But when the Reds show up and "The Stadium" or Fenway....it might as well be the Royals.  The talk around town is how the Reds opened up their pockets this year....and got their payroll to a whopping $50M by signing Eric Milton.  The Reds, no kidding, traded Denny Neagle to the Yankees for Drew Henson a few years ago.  Henson didn't want to be part of the Reds....so they sent him back for minor leaguer Wily Mo Pena [which is turning into a nice deal for Cincy].  Since then, they've traded Gabe White and Aaron Freakin Boone to New York in other deals.  Oh, and you can thank the Reds for Paul O'Neill as well.

Heck, they've even traded Christy Mathewson to the New York GIANTS back in 1900.

So...I may elect to skip watching the season....since we all know that Boston and New York will fight to the death in October to see who gets to clobber the Marlins, Cards, Braves, Giants, or other.

At least that's what they are saying.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

red sox rule yankees suck

Anonymous said...

lol, i think the red sox are very lucky to even get talked about in the same sentence as the yankees. the yankees are the worlds best team and business...PERIOD!!!! i cant believe all the red sox fans braggin so much, theyve won one world series. so now its 26-1 in the world champs department.. ADVANTAGE YANKEES!!!! WOW THATS A CLOSE ONE. ENJOY YOUR YEAR IN THE SPOTLITE REDSOX FANS.......SOON TO BE YANKEES NATION AGAIN LOL

Anonymous said...

Actually to be fair, the Red Sox won like 5 World Series before 1918 so it's more like 26-6. Still nothing to brag about Boston, you might not even make it to the postseason this year.

By the time the World Series Rings are given out April 11th at Fenway, the Red Sox will already be at least two games behind the Yanks in the AL East.

LET'S GO YANKEES!

(The rest of baseball does NOT matter, although watching the Mets might be fun this year)

Anonymous said...

How come you yankee fans never mention THE BIGGEST CHOKE IN HISTORY. Come you had us, just couldn't close the deal, huh?

Anonymous said...

I think the Red Sox/Yankee Rivalry is the best in all of sports. The rivalry is nearly a century old. I am a little biased because I am a Red Sox fan and I grew up in Boston. What do you expect from ESPN when they are based in Connecticut. Of course they are going to mainly talk about Boston and NY teams especially when they are hot. The Red Sox and Yankees have finished 1-2 for 7yrs in a row. It is the hottest rivalry right now. Can anyone name a better rivalry? Yes, Peter Gammons is a Boston guy...SO what. Even if he was from Montana, he would still be talking about the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry because that is what the job demands of him. If they both stunk then I am sure they would find something else to talk about.

For all those Yankee fans predicting a Red Sox meltdown early, Get your heads out of your butts and smell some fresh air.

Anonymous said...

Let's not fault Gammons for showing some love for his team.  Anyone remember how one-sided Fox' coverage of the ALCS was with Joe "I'm a Yankee tampon" Buck and Tim "I'm too drunk to read the roster" McCarver.  At least Gammons will talk about other teams from time to time.  I swore I saw a Steinbrenner check on the Fox sportscasters desk in the booth!!  

Anonymous said...

RED SUX fans enjoy it Now
because you will NEVER NEVER see another WORLD SERIES WIN
LOL

Anonymous said...

Wow, the Yankees choking against Boston in the ALCS last year was REALLY ugly.

Anonymous said...

"Let's not fault Gammons for showing some love for his team.  Anyone remember how one-sided Fox' coverage of the ALCS was with Joe "I'm a Yankee tampon" Buck and Tim "I'm too drunk to read the roster" McCarver.  At least Gammons will talk about other teams from time to time.  I swore I saw a Steinbrenner check on the Fox sportscasters desk in the booth!!"

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They did do a better job of holding in their Cardinals love in the World Series.  Remember, Buck does the Cards games and McCarver was a Card.

Anonymous said...

I think the Dodgers-Giants rivalry stopped being a great one when the Padres emerged as a formidable rival to the Dodgers in the mid to late 1990's.  The addition of interleague play probably helped diminish the Dodger-Giant rivalry even further.  As a result of interleague play, the Angels emerged as an even fiercer rival.  I don't know much about the Oakland-SF rivalry in interleague play, but it wouldn't surprise me if that helped lessen the importance of the Dodgers being a rival to SF.  The reason I say this is the more rivals a team seems to have, the less important the rivalries will seem.  

I've seen plenty of Dodger-Giant games and Dodger-Angel games.  Despite it's lack of history (which the players probably don't even care about), I'd say the latter is a fiercer rivalry than the former.  Even before the Angels won a title and changed their name to Los Angeles, I saw more effort exhibited from the Dodgers in the rivarly than they showed against any other team, and that includes the Giants.  For the last time in case anybody missed it, the other LA team (Angels) is the Dodgers biggest rival.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to disagree with the Boston curse being the dumbest story in all of sports before it was laid to rest.  I would go with the Cubs silly curse as being even dumber.  

Anonymous said...

Baseball will always center around Boston and New York.  Chicago is a pale second with St. Louis. After that it's all bushleague.  Good luck west coast.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely nothing in sports compares to Yanks/Sox rivalry!
How sweet it was last year to see Yanks commit greatest collapse in MLB history!!

Anonymous said...

Yea, the Red Sox are not going to win this year.  You lose a HOF pitcher like Pedro Martinez and replace him with Matt Clement or David Wells. Take your pick.  David Wells has constant back problems and Matt Clement is a career underachiever.  Then you have Bronson Arroyo as your 3rd starter.  Great! How many wins did he have last year? Not too many.  If it wasn't for the Red Sox great offense they would be doomed.  They would be lucky to finish third.  Now the Yankees picked up Carl Pavono and Randy Johnson.  Lets see, would you rather have Randy Johnson or David Wells?  I bet you'd pick Randy Johnson in a second.  Carl Pavono or Clement?  Pavano just came off a pretty good season with a fairly good offense.  Now add the Yankees offense.  He could win 20 games this year. Ok, so the Yankees collapsed last year.  And you know what the Red Sox are going to collapse this year.  Not just in the Playoffs, but figure 10 less wins and one less playoff series.  Barring a injury plagued season the Yankees will get to the World Series, play the Braves and win 4 games to 2.

Anonymous said...

The funny thing about the whole Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is, it is not the greatest rivalry in baseball. Maybe for the media, and maybe for the Red Sox fans, but the rest of us really don't care all too much. As a matter of fact, last year one of the NY sports stations took a poll of Yankees fans and asked them what their biggest rivalry was, and to the surprise of no one but the media, they overwhelmingly said the Mets. In my eyes, the intradivisional rivalries pare in comparison to the intracity rivalries. Do you think more people watched the Yankees-Red Sox ALCS last year, or the subway series in 2000? My guess is the subway series, and if both Chicago teams made it to the series (yeah right) that would also be a bigger deal than the Red Sox-Yankees.

Anonymous said...

lol, i think the red sox are very lucky to even get talked about in the same sentence as the yankees. the yankees are the worlds best team and business...PERIOD!!!! i cant believe all the red sox fans braggin so much, theyve won one world series. so now its 26-1 in the world champs department.. ADVANTAGE YANKEES!!!! WOW THATS A CLOSE ONE. ENJOY YOUR YEAR IN THE SPOTLITE REDSOX FANS.......SOON TO BE YANKEES NATION AGAIN LOL

shows what you know about baseball. the red sox have won 6 world series. its not like baseball started after 1919

Anonymous said...

baseballs a dick sport  ..........    is it  labor  day  yet????

Anonymous said...

I'm a NY Baseball fan and with the Big Unit, plus my man Pedro, IT CAN'T/WON'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS...Go Willie and Joe!!!

Anonymous said...

who cares about new york or boston.its all about the angels.dont forget they have the a.l. mvp vlad,and quotes by baseball tonight as having the best outfield in all of baseball,plus probably the the closer out there now and in the years to come,k-rod.it will be the angels to take the title back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

To all Yankee faithfull I would love to see your wifes wedding rings! I bet you wish you could buy her something a little better than that "promise" ring she recieved!! I could only hope you relize your woman, toy's, and players all are purchased by you lonely Yankee bums supporting that Stienbrenner project. Keep buying the "best" and lil' clubs like D-Backs,Marlins,Angels, and Red Sox will have the rings, trophy, and satisfaction of being the best!!!!!!!!!! National Leage is Baseball! American League is Red Soxs/ Yankees buying the best and getting lucky in October!! Wake up and go to Shea one day they have rookies, NO D.H, and baseball players who want to win instead of being forced to win!!!!!!!!!!  

Anonymous said...

awwwwwwwwwww...you're just sad you r not apart of it..

it was a fun article to read..and alot was very true..

of course..we know the yankees will win this year..right??

ENJOY THE SEASON..

Anonymous said...

I call it, "steroid ball", now

Anonymous said...

I also agree..Yankees fan shouldn't hold your heads too high...because facts are facts....GREATEST up set in MLB history..it may be our last ..but that made up for all of the past...Yankees could of never pulled off what the Sox did...soo.. think about that the next time you say the Yankees are the best..because they are also the worst.

Anonymous said...

Greatest collapse in MLB history was a 14 game collapse by Red Sox in 78.

Anonymous said...

JUST HOW MUCH CRACK DID YOU SMOKE BEFORE WRITING ALL THAT GARBAGE????