Our eyes were diverted last time the Red Sox and Yankees met. The Bruins were gearing up for Game 3 in Raleigh, N.C., and the Celtics were practicing on the parquet, thinking about rebounding from a Game 1 loss to the upstart Orlando Magic.
Those series both wound up going to seven games, but our winter teams were summarily drummed out of the playoffs within a span of four days - both bowing in stunning fashion at the big barn on Causeway Street.
So now it's just baseball, and the Red Sox and Yankees have our undivided attention at Fenway Park.
Typically, there is little to choose between these American League titans as they prepare to renew hostilities on Yawkey Way. The Yankees are 75-75 (including postseason) against the Red Sox since the start of the 2002 season (hello, John Henry) and come to town with a one-game lead over Boston in the vaunted AL East.
Here in the toy department, we live for hyperbole, and popular opinion holds that this series is more important to the Yanks than the Red Sox. Sure, it's only early June and there are 105 games left in the season (including three more Boston-NY series), but every citizen of Red Sox Nation knows that the Sons of Tito have beaten the Yanks five times in five tries this year, and that means the Yanks need a win to get the proverbial monkey off the backs of Alex Rodriguez and friends.
A little history of the games this year:
Things got off to a rockin' start on the night of April 24 when Jason Bay hit a tying two-run homer off Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth to send things into extra innings. Kevin Youkilis won it with a walkoff homer in the 11th and the tone was set.
The next day, the Yankees bolted to a 6-0 lead but imploded under the weight of their bullpen and were routed, 16-11. Then came Sunday night baseball and Jacoby Ellsbury stealing home while Andy Pettitte slept.
The Sox went to New York a week later and we all got a good look at the hole where David Ortiz's jersey was buried in the new Yankee Stadium. The Sox won their first game in the new yard, a rain-delayed 6-4 victory that was clinched when Jonathan Papelbon completed a five-out save at 1:10 a.m. Then it was Josh Beckett beating Joba Chamberlain, 7-3, with Bay hitting his third homer in five games against the Bombers.
"All of these games could have gone the other way," said Dustin Pedroia as the Sox packed for home. "And we know they're playing without A-Rod now."
