When I was a kid (9 or 10 years old), I spent a couple of my hard earned bucks on the Lincoln / Kennedy penny. It came in a special little case and had a tiny little JFK head carved or stamped into the back facing Lincoln. It came with a scroll that detailed the numerous coincidences between the 2 presidents and their assasinations (both names had 7 letters! and so on).
This column reminds me of that.
Edit: forgot link
What a waste of space. All this was, was a marketing tool to get the fans psyched about a series that at some point in history had a sense of drama to it, but IMHO, today, 2011 has very little cache. It's kind of like two rival athletes from high school who competed against each other but one guy was just a hair bigger, faster and stronger. That tiny edge got the one player a D1 scholarship while the other guy went to a D2 school. 4 years later the players meet again but in that time, because of the better training and facilities the D1 guy got, the players are no longer competitive.
That to me is the Cubs-Sox of 2011. In 2003 this series had juice. Today, the Cubs suck and if they were in the AL they would be a perennial cellar dweller and probably is no better than Cleveland, if that. I think this article begs the question as to whether interleague play has served its purpose and if it should just go away. For example, the Tigers were in Boston this week, They played 2 games at Fenway. Those are the only 2 games the Tigers will play at Fenway all year. Yes the Sox play the Yankees 19 times but they also play the Jays and Orioles 19 times and only play the Angels 6 times...and play NL teams no one really cares about 3 times. IDK but when I was a kid it was always cool to stay up late in the summer to listen to Sox games from the coast a few times a year. Now, they go out west once year. I. know things change and you have to roll with the punches, but baseball is all about history and tradition, more so than any sport, and it seems they have shit canned most of its tradition for a quick buck.
I leave with this thought. If they are going to have interleague play, then they should have visitors rules in the home team parks. In other words, when the Cubs play the Sox at Fenway, there is no DH. The Sox are the home team so they get the last at bat. It would reallly show the fans NL baseball in an American League park . Likewise when the Sox play at Wrigley, there is a DH. I think that might make Interleague play a bit more interesting. I have always advocated this. I don't understand why MLB never considered it. I would also employ that in the World Series and the All Star Game. AL parks, no DH, NL parks get the DH.