J Rose
Boston-based commentary with all the sublety of a sledgehammer

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees resumed their long-standing rivalry Thursday night in the Bronx, and for the first time in recent memory it wasn’t hyped as the Greatest (Hardball)Show on Earth.

Boston was coming off a disappointing three game drubbing at the hands of the first place Tampa Bay Rays, dropping them an unthinkable 3 1/2 games back in second place, while the Yanks had just dropped 18 runs on Texas, but only after a tongue lashing by Hank “Baby Boss” Steinbrenner following a couple of uninspired losses at the hands of the lowly Rangers left his team 7 1/2 games in back of Tampa Bay.

And so for the first time since 1997 the Sox and Yanks would be playing a series in July in which neither team occupied the top spot in the AL East. Making things even stranger was the fact that ESPN, FOX Sports and all the other media outlets were virtually ignoring what used to be the premier storyline in all of sports: Boston vs. New York.

It’s amazing what a little losing and a miraculous run by an upstart underdog will do to someone’s perspective.

For some people the series still carries plenty of weight, but apparently only to fans wearing crossed Sox apparel and interlocking ‘NY’ gear.

The rest of the sporting public, weary from a decade’s worth of 19-game regular season matchups filled with beanbrawls and 4+ hour marathons, followed by epic, see-saw seven game playoff series that dominated highlight shows through late October, were hungry for a new angle, and the rise of the Rays has given them just that.

Banished to the backburner went the best rivalry in sports, where it sits with other also-rans like Dodgers/Giants, Cubs/Cardinals and Pittsburgh/Milwaukee, and while the rest of the country is surely happy to see New York and Boston exorcised from the forefront, I must admit that I am also a little relieved by the dimmed glare of the national spotlight as well.

For decades this hate-filled fued was a regional, seasonal rumble, a la the Hatfields and McCoys. Unless you lived right in the middle of it, no one else cared much about it. Which was fine by us.

Then, after a few memorable ALCS meetings coupled with the advent of 24-hour sports networks and countless fan created blogs, suddenly our little Northeasten turf war had morphed into an international media sensation.

Now the rivalry, since dubbed The Rivalry, has come full circle, to the point where the perrennial powerhouses are duking it out for second place, and no one outside of each club’s respective Nations seems to give a crap, at least not until one of them threatens to creep up on the beloved, media darling Rays again.

And once again that’s just fine with me. Because as long as my Sox are winning and beating the snot out of the Bronx Bummers I’m as happy as Amy Winehouse in a crack den, and I don’t give a shit who else is watching.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve gotta go watch Game 3 of the series on FOX and set my DVR for the finale on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball tomorrow night.

GO SOX!

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