The rivalry has never been hotter. One gets the feeling that somehow this summer's national political conventions -- which will be hosted in Boston (Democrats) then New York (Republicans) -- could evolve into a referendum on the respective baseball teams.
The Red Sox have finished second to the Yankees in each of the last six seasons, a major league record. Given what happened in October, and the simmering hot stove that burned through our bone-cold winter, it can be argued that this four-game weekend bakeoff might be the most hyped April series in baseball history. Nothing is insignificant when the Red Sox
and Yankees meet in 2004. Take Curt Schilling, for example. When the veteran ace righthander agreed to a contract with the Red Sox in November, he announced, "I guess I hate the Yankees now." He arrived in Florida in mid-February with tonight's date already circled on his calendar. He said, "If Red Sox fans weren't passionate and [ticked] off and angry and bitter and hated the Yankees, they wouldn't be who they are."
Alas, Schilling won't pitch against the Yankees until tomorrow afternoon. Tim Wakefield -- the man who threw the fatal pitch to Aaron Boone in the 11th inning of Game 7 -- gets the ball tonight. Javier Vazquez will start for the Yankees.
In an unusual twist, Fox Sports, the national network of Major League Baseball, will broadcast tonight's game, more than a month ahead of its standard schedule. It will be Fox's first prime-time, regular-season telecast since September 1998, when Cardinal Mark McGwire was chasing Roger Maris's record of 61 home runs in a season. When Fox announced its decision to televise tonight's game, baseball commissioner Bud Selig characterized the event as "an extension of the postseason brought into April."
