Will Red Sox-Yankees ever be the same?

The Tax Man

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Lisa Carney makes her sosh.com debut with an article about The Rivalry? What says you main board, will the rivalry ever again be as intense as it was for the first decade of the 2000s?
 
 
Right up until October 27, 2004, at approximately 11:15 P.M., the world around Red Sox fans wondered aloud, “What’s gonna happen to these poor slobs if their team ever does pull it off?”
I deeply sensed many were concerned for my soul and psyche. I, however, remained oblivious to the hand wringing and settled on the pat answer, “I don’t know, but please, please, please just give us a chance to find out.”
Of course, we now know winning the 2004 World Series was catharsis on steroids (poor word choice?) but even in light of the collective amens hurled skyward, the tilt of the earth’s axis was never really in any danger.
 

grimshaw

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I don't believe so.  The pinnacle was 2003-2004 and once the Sox won, the rivalry was really doused with water.
 
Something akin to deflate gate, accusations of cheating, trash talking amongst front offices/managers, brawls etc. are just a few ways I can think of that the intensity could ever step up a notch, but still fall well short.
 
If the Cubs have some more epic fails at the hands of the Cardinals over the next few years, I could see that rivalry being the biggest in baseball - though without any real hatred between the organizations.  Sox/Yankees really dwarfed everything.  I don't think anything will ever come close in baseball.
 
I miss George Steinbreinner.
 

brs3

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It'll never be as one sided as it was(HOORAY), but I have zero doubt that the Red Sox / Yankee rivalry is long from dead, and will be great again some day. Over the past 6 seasons, the teams haven't really been on equal footing as far as talent and ability. They haven't even been in the playoffs at the same time since 2009. Even then, the Sox were 8 back of the AL East lead, and were swept out of the division series. 2007 was the last time the teams were really close to a race, when the Yanks came up 2 games back of the Sox. Then they won just 1 game in the division series. 2007 is a long time to go without real head to head comparisons to mean something. But, dead forever? No. 
 
edit: I read the article, and think it's less that there are no reasons to call Gardner names(or any Yankee), and more that we aren't seeing a lot of back and forth battles between the clubs. Especially in the standings. The last epic game between the two clubs was arguably the 19th inning affair near the beginning of the season.
 

cornwalls@6

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I dunno, it raged in the 70's. Seemed to be pretty muted for much of the 80's and 90's, and of course re-kindled in a big way really from '99 through '07, I think. Both of them getting really good again at the same time is the biggest key. Some out-sized personalities either in ownership or the dugout would certainly add fuel. The desperate element of the 86 year drought is(thankfully) gone from it. But if a few things align, I could see it getting intense again. I know my blood still boils a bit just at the sight of the pinstripes.       
 

martybarrettoverdrive

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When you have two franchises that consistently have among the highest payrolls in baseball coupled with some of the most loyal and rabid fanbases, the rivalry will still be redhot at times.
 
But I agree that there may be more ebb and flow than we saw a decade ago.
 
Part of it might be the relative parity between the two regarding division, AL and World Series wins in recent years. It could be that the relative novelty of seeing a star or fan favorite for one team head to the other has waned. Or perhaps how fans perceive the players more broadly has changed.
 
Maybe it's simply my getting older, but I don't view the players as "mine" so much anymore. They are exceptionally well-payed athletes that are very good at their jobs. But like with any other professions, their employers change. I'm in journalism in D.C. and there is so much incestuous movement between a relatively small group of publications it's never a surprise anymore when I see one well-known writer move to this or that fierce competitor.
 
There are always exceptions. I don't think anyone on either club could imagine, say, Ortiz or Jeter or Pedroia or ARod going to the other team. But I agree with LIsa that Ellsbury changing hands didn't bother me at all. They overpaid for him and that was that. 
 
 That said, if the Yankees are as good and stacked next year and the Red Sox rebound into a contender, the rivalry will again heat up to the point of nauseating levels on the once-again regular Fox and ESPN broadcasts.
 

LeoCarrillo

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From a fan perspective, the bullying (at least in intent) chants of "19-18" and "Bill-y Buck-ner" that existed until October 2004 fomented an actual hatred for Yankee fans, especially the uglies in the Upper Tier. It was like catching shit at the bus stop. Then we vanquished the bully forever. Not only that. The bully shoved us to the ground three times and when everyone assumed we were done as always, we rose and beat that bully over the head with our Welcome Back Kotter lunchbox four straight times and knocked him unconscious. 
 
Not beating that.
 

Lefty on the Mound

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It was the 2004 ALCS that threw a bucket of cold water on the red hot intensity of the rivalry, not the World Series win. After coming back from being down no games to three and sweeping the Yankees, all Sox fans were given the ultimate gift: a way to forever silence obnoxious, vocal, taunting Yankees fans. All we have to do is give them the "choke" sign. <br />
<br />
They know what it means and it works every time.
 

Leather

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It will come back, in a different form, for the next generation of fans.
 
You can't have two premier franchises playing in the same division and not have them come to loggerheads every decade or so.  When that happens again in earnest, the media will fan the "historic rivalry" flames, older fans will remember 2003-2006*, and the border war will re-ignite, because it's fun when it does.
 
*2004 might have been the pinnacle of the rivalry, but people forget that things were very heated for a few years after that, as well.   In 2005, the Yankees and Sox tied for the division lead, with the Yankees winning out based on their season series record, and then Damon leaving for NY.  In 2006, you had the "[New] Boston Massacre" when the Yanks buried the Red Sox, who were 3.5 behind in the standings, by sweeping a 4 game series at Fenway.  Things didn't really cool down until 2007 (for obvious reasons) and 2008, when the Yanks came in 3rd for the first time in, like, forever.   That era of the rivalry really ended then.   2004 might have been Gettysburg, but there were a lot of battles left to be fought among those Jeter/Mo/Ortiz/Manny teams.
 

JesusQuintana

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I hope the rivalry does rekindle, and I'm sure it will to some degree, but I agree with the several that cite the 2004 ALCS as really serving to stifle the rivalry.  Not only was that comeback unmatched in the history of professional sports, but it came on the heels of the 2003 ALCS heartbreak.  Those two years put together were such an emotional roller-coaster that they would be difficult to top.  
 

rlsb

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Compare three decades of the twentieth century at random and determine whether the rivalry intensity is the same in each of those three decades.  The moon waxes and wanes and so does this rivalry.
 

bosockboy

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2003-2004 were like Ali-Frazier title fights, nothing can ever match the intensity. Amazing we haven't met in the postseason since.
 

grimshaw

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Also - aside from A-Rod who has to be the most hated Yankee in history, neither team has anyone who is easy to detest anymore.
Those teams had, at different points, Clemens, Sheffield, Giambi, Kevin Brown, David Wells etc.  Jeter was disliked for the fanboy-ism and for being a media darling.  When they had Randy Johnson, we hated them for getting every last all-star.  Hell, even the announcers were dislikeable and shoved down our throats.
 
Now - everyone's so  . . vanilla.  I mean, Teixeira eats oats, but horses gotta eat.
 

jscola85

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I don't think anything will match the early 2000's.  Both teams were consistent playoff contenders, legitimately did not like each other on and off the field, the ownership groups reviled each other, and the two teams had a financial might that basically nobody else in the sport could match.  It's now a much more even financial playing field - hell, they're both being outspent regularly by the Dodgers.  On top of that, the animosity seems to have dissipated a bit - there's no instigators like Pedro or Schilling or Karim Garcia or even younger ARod - and the two teams have not often intersected with truly competitive teams in the same year.
 
At some point, there will be some more bad blood and perhaps it will also come at a time that both teams are contenders, but I don't see it ever reaching the same heights as 03-04.
 

millionthcustomer

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I think there will always be a heated rivalry between the Sox and Yanks.  The rivalry is (in my opinion) borne more out of a historical rivalry between the two cities; one that crosses over into football and basketball, as well.  Sports-wise, since NY/BOS teams are almost always paired up in the same division for all of the big four sports, the city rivalry will keep on truckin' for the foreseeable future. If the Phillies and Eagles were an American League/AFC teams, respectively, there'd be a greater Boston/Philly rivalry, for instance.
 
Sox/Yanks is just the deepest and longest-running rivalry. 
 

Snodgrass'Muff

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grimshaw said:
Also - aside from A-Rod who has to be the most hated Yankee in history, neither team has anyone who is easy to detest anymore.
Those teams had, at different points, Clemens, Sheffield, Giambi, Kevin Brown, David Wells etc.  Jeter was disliked for the fanboy-ism and for being a media darling.  When they had Randy Johnson, we hated them for getting every last all-star.  Hell, even the announcers were dislikeable and shoved down our throats.
 
Now - everyone's so  . . vanilla.  I mean, Teixeira eats oats, but horses gotta eat.
 
Most Yankees fans I know still hate David Ortiz with a fiery passion. Not saying it's logical, but the big man is not popular here.
 

WenZink

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The rivalry will never be the same, because the Yankees will never be the same.  Revenue sharing, the CBT and the influx of regional cable TV has made just about every MLB competitive.  No longer can the NY Yankees outspend every other team.  (Hell, they can't even keep up with the Dodgers.)  The Yankees will never be Goliath again.
 
When I was a kid, before 1967, taking 3 out of 4 from the Yankees in a June series, made the summer, even if the Sox subsequently sunk to the bottom of the second division and the Yankees went on to win another pennant.  (The only time it looked like the Yankees were finished were the years after the introduction of the Amateur Draft and before Free Agency -- the Yankee's monstrous financial advantage had been taken away.)
 
The Yankees are "just" another big market team.  They'll win a championship more than 1 out of 30, but they'll never dominate across decades.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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The other part of this is the rivalry cooling at least for a while is how done-to-death it was for several years from about 2003 onwards. Games were always being hyped on ESPN and Fox, even in April. With the teams playing each other 18 times a year plus sometimes playoff games, there was just too much overblown hyperventilating from the media to sustain real passion. I know non-Red Sox/Yankee fans hated it and I got tired of it too.

Now that the teams haven't been on the same cycle competitiveness-wise for a few years, the hype has calmed down enough that when they're both good at once, it will get intense again.
 

glennhoffmania

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Snodgrass'Muff said:
 
Most Yankees fans I know still hate David Ortiz with a fiery passion. Not saying it's logical, but the big man is not popular here.
 
Yup.  I hear many comments about how he was doing, and still does, PEDs.  2004 may have changed the content of the chants and taunts but they didn't go away.  What I've noticed, and granted it's a small sample size, is that it used to feel more intense on the Boston side but now it seems to be more intense on the NY side.  Obviously living in NY doesn't help.
 

nolasoxfan

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bosockboy said:
2003-2004 were like Ali-Frazier title fights, nothing can ever match the intensity. Amazing we haven't met in the postseason since.
Speaking of fights, advance to minute 1:37 if you want to see intensity.  The Sox-Yankees rivalry of the mid to late 1970s was every bit as intense as 2003-2004.  Heck, I can remember fights in the bleachers when Yankees fans came to Boston.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkU2TH7-eLw


 
 

Leather

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I mean, people were asking this same question about the Celtics/Lakers rivalry prior to 2008.  
 
Maybe 2008-2010 wasn't as good as 1983-1987, but it was pretty decent.
 

drbretto

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2003/2004 was a perfect storm 100 years in the making. It's over. Done. This story is complete and it won't ever be topped. If the rivalry was a series of movies, this was the last one that makes the theaters. Sure, they'll beef again. Some day, both teams will be consistently competitive and getting in each others way, but it'll never be like it was. It'll be a straight-to-video sequel. They'll try to make it out to be the same but it'll never be anything more than what we've got with the Rays or the O's when they're competitive. 
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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It'll be back. 
 
When I was a kid and first started getting into baseball in the mid-80s, I used to wonder what the hubbub of the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was all about. Mattingly didn't seem like a bad guy. Winfield was cool. Who was I going to hate? Butch Wynegar? Andy Hawkins? But then the mid 90s came around and it was Jeter this, Pauly O'Neil that and Dumbo behind the plate and that fat ass David Wells on the hill and Clemens. GOD, did I hate Clemens, what an asshole that guy was. And his dipshit partner Andy Pettitte, the creepy undertaker's (NOT THAT UNDERTAKER) kid. And ARod. Holy cow -- that's a villain from central casting. And Sheffield. And that porn freak Matsui. 
 
Man, there were a lot of great jackasses on the Yankees. And that's not including double-agents Jim Leyritz or Mendoza or guys who weren't here long like Kevin Brown or Randy Johnson. 
 
Yes, the rivalry will be back. When the Red Sox are good again and the Yankees are good again. 
 

grimshaw

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Snodgrass'Muff said:
 
Most Yankees fans I know still hate David Ortiz with a fiery passion. Not saying it's logical, but the big man is not popular here.
I forgot to mention Papi on the Sox side.  Not sure who else was hated besides Pedro and maybe Ramirez.
 

reggiecleveland

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2004 left an undeniable mark on Yankee fans. If the Internet was around in 1980s can you imagine a a Yankee fan losing his shit if a Sox board ridiculed Dave Winfield. I mean in that Era, a Yankee fan would not join a Sox group then be thin skinned and pissy about even perceived slights to the Yanks. Actually you know even today that is pretty fucking weird.
 

Leather

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drbretto said:
2003/2004 was a perfect storm 100 years in the making. It's over. Done. This story is complete and it won't ever be topped. If the rivalry was a series of movies, this was the last one that makes the theaters. Sure, they'll beef again. Some day, both teams will be consistently competitive and getting in each others way, but it'll never be like it was. It'll be a straight-to-video sequel. They'll try to make it out to be the same but it'll never be anything more than what we've got with the Rays or the O's when they're competitive. 
 
This view is incredibly myopic.   It won't ever be as good for you, but for kids that are under the age of 16 right now, the next chapter in the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry will be their first, and just as we ate that shit up in 1999-2003, even before things turned epic, they will regard their chapter in the long history of Sox/Yanks as special to them.
 
The rivalry goes beyond "We never won" and certainly "we never beat the Yankees in the post-season", because they only started playing each other in the postseason fairly recently.    It will always be different than the O's or Rays because the history will always be there.   The Yankees will never be "just another team" just as the Canadiens will never be "just another team" when the Bruins face them in the playoffs.
 

troparra

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The rivalry will be back in full force. Who knows what events will surround the resurgence, but you can be sure something will happen to drive a media narrative that will either anger or humiliate one fan base.   
For example, I never thought I could hate the Colts more than when Manning played there. But shit happens. 
 

timlinin8th

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For me it wasn't 2004 that doused the rivalry... I still hated the Yankees with a white-hot passion in 2005. For me, the unbalanced schedule has been bad for the rivalry - its now been almost 14 full seasons of 19+ games a season at this point, and that has been the primary reason it has turned from must-see TV into "meh who cares". I've seen the Sox play the Yankees ~ 200 times in the last decade. You can't get up that much for a team you see 1/9th of the season.

I know the reasoning behind it was that if you're competing with your division, you should play the division, but as a spectator, I'm sick of the AL East. To play any of the other AL East teams in the playoffs now, I'd lack interest due to overexposure.
 

chrisfont9

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John Marzano Olympic Hero said:
It'll be back. 
 
When I was a kid and first started getting into baseball in the mid-80s, I used to wonder what the hubbub of the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was all about. Mattingly didn't seem like a bad guy. Winfield was cool. Who was I going to hate? Butch Wynegar? Andy Hawkins? But then the mid 90s came around and it was Jeter this, Pauly O'Neil that and Dumbo behind the plate and that fat ass David Wells on the hill and Clemens. GOD, did I hate Clemens, what an asshole that guy was. And his dipshit partner Andy Pettitte, the creepy undertaker's (NOT THAT UNDERTAKER) kid. And ARod. Holy cow -- that's a villain from central casting. And Sheffield. And that porn freak Matsui. 
 
Man, there were a lot of great jackasses on the Yankees. And that's not including double-agents Jim Leyritz or Mendoza or guys who weren't here long like Kevin Brown or Randy Johnson. 
 
Yes, the rivalry will be back. When the Red Sox are good again and the Yankees are good again. 
Aren't you forgetting someone? Someone at the very top? Kind of the Donald Trump of baseball?
 
The rivalry will have more good times, and really, if people have a reason to care, then it can be as good as ever. But it's hard to imagine what that would be that could compete with the drought, the Yankees' role in that drought, and the unending lineup of hateable people involved.
 

tims4wins

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From a Red Sox perspective, I think it is partly a symptom of Sox fans just generally not being as into baseball / the Sox as they were 10 years ago. We still care, we're still smart, loyal fans, but we don't care quite as much. Winning 3 titles from 04-13 was part of that. I know I personally just don't care as much and I am sure that there are a ton of folks on here the same way.
 
10 years ago, it all seemed so IMPORTANT. We just had to beat those MFY. Every series was epic, and important, and must watch TV. Quite frankly, I got tired out. I watched just about every inning of every Sox game from 03-05. After going through that roller coaster, I just got tired of putting so much into it. I still followed the team after that, still watched plenty of games, but realized that I couldn't watch 3+ hours of baseball 162 games a year + the playoffs. Maybe I am in the minority on that though.
 
And from the MFY fan perspective, once the Sox won once, and then twice, they didn't have nearly as much shit to throw in our faces. Both sides started caring less. While there will certainly always be a hatred present, I am not sure it will ever ramp back up to those 03-05 levels.
 

Marbleheader

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I'm with Timlin, I hate the unbalanced schedule. We see the Yankees so much, it's not hate anymore , it's fatigue. Same with the Rays, Os and Jays. I find I watch fewer division games with each passing season and haven't bought tickets to a division game in a decade.
 

LeoCarrillo

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If this is the apex of the rivalry ...
 

 
... I'm not sure anything in the future even comes close.
 
A 72-year-old bench coach and former manager of the Sox charges a future Hall of Fame pitcher who wheels him to the ground.
 
I hope it heats up from right now, though.
 

shoebox91

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Two of the highest profile teams.
Two of the highest payrolls each year.
Two of the most rabid fanbases in sports.
Give us a couple of years of both teams being loaded and very good at the same time and you'll have your rivalry back.
In the past 7-8 years I've actually hated the Rays more than the Yankees. The Rays acted so cocky for the past few years and they've NEVER WON. At least the Yankees could hold up the "most championships argument" when they were arrogant in recent years. 
 

Pilgrim

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I'm glad I experienced 03/04 and also glad nothing will be like that again. I imagine those Yankee series are the closest experience one could have to being bipolar.
 

smastroyin

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I think we grew up during the peak, though.  Our parents lived through the late 70's which was the first real peak of hatred and gave it to us.  In 86 and then again 88 Yankee fans liked to taunt about the Sox starting strong and finishing poorly, but the Sox pulled it out and then the Yankees stunk for a few years.  I don't think any Red Sox fans cared about what the Yankees were doing again until they signed Boggs, which led into the strike and re-alignment, and then it really amped up, right around the time most of our interest was peaking anyway (having some disposable income to go to games, etc.) and of course the constant competition for FA's and then finally culminating in 2004 but not ending.  I know a lot of people think 2004 was the end but I do feel the hatred stayed until that second World Series win, particularly with the stretch run of 2005 and the Yankees basically ending the Sox season in 2006 with that 5 game sweep.  2007 was a World Series win that had nothing to do with the Yankees, other than holding off a late charge where Yankee fans got uppity for about a week when the Sox lost 5 of 6 in mid-September.  
 

snowmanny

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LeoCarrillo said:
From a fan perspective, the bullying (at least in intent) chants of "19-18" and "Bill-y Buck-ner" that existed until October 2004 fomented an actual hatred for Yankee fans, especially the uglies in the Upper Tier. It was like catching shit at the bus stop. Then we vanquished the bully forever. Not only that. The bully shoved us to the ground three times and when everyone assumed we were done as always, we rose and beat that bully over the head with our Welcome Back Kotter lunchbox four straight times and knocked him unconscious. 
 
Not beating that.
Yeah.  Yankee fans are generally a bit better now that they have less to say. I remember a Fenway security officer telling me they would throw out as many as 80 fans from the bleachers during early 2000s RS/NYY games. It was like that in the 70's too.  I hate the Yankees largely because I had to endure mountains of crap from their fans in my hometown ballpark. (Plus they were always so vile).  I certainly never "loved to hate" the Yankees or their fans.  I'd have been happy to send them to another division.  But anyway, those same fans don't like to hear about 2004 and how many games Mariano blew so it's much easier to be around them and there seem to be a few more reasonable Yankee fans around now than were present for the first forty years of my life. So, it won't be the way it was, thankfully. But I still root for them to go 0-162.
 

shoebox91

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People keep pointing to the 2007 WS win for the Sox as the end of the bitter rivalry and I find that to be true the more I think about it. At first glance one might say 2004 just because we had to beat them, the way we did, to get the first one in forever. As I sit back and think about it more though, it really was 2007 that quenched it for me.
2004 was magical. I know how that sounds, hokey. But it really was. Down 0-3 to your biggest "rival" and having just lost said third game 19-8 there was no way the Sox could win. Just another year of misery. Then, in a span of 4 days, we go on a completely crazy run of big hits, steals, and pitching performances and next thing you know we've come back and beat them. Then, seemingly in the blink of an eye, we're world champs. If that's it and nothing else follows that then it's a good story but not a lot more.
Winning in 2007 was a validation of sorts. I believe very strongly that we were the best team in baseball that year. It would have been a disappointment if we hadn't won that year. That, I believe, is the mark of a great team. The one that you watch and everyday expect them to win. It's a shock when they don't.
 

Sampo Gida

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The rivalry never matched the intensity of the 70's in terms of unbridled hatred of fans and players on both sides for each other,  but 2003/2004 was pretty close.  Those latter years were more like David vs Goliath, and Yankee fans like to pretend it was beneath them to give the Red Sox credit of rivalry status.  That changed after 2004 when they were humiliated.
 
As a huge fan of the rivalry, even to the extent of rooting for the Yankees to be good so we can see a long awaited playoff rematch of 2004, I can say it still has some legs for me.   Its certainly not as intense since we are rarely good at the same time anymore, and it will now be 12 years since our last bout in the playoffs after a stretch where it seemed like we faced off every other year.
 
Red Sox fans hate Arod and everything Yankees except maybe Jeter and Rivera, Yankees fans hate Papi and everything Red Sox (just look at the comments on RAB).  Since 2004 the Red Sox have won 1 more championship, but the Yankees have been more consistent and avoided awful seasons like we have experienced in 3 of the last 4 years.  Of course, the Yankees have spent more money on players but have restrained spending relative to the peak years leading to 2009
 
Its hard watching these regular season games on down years though.  Best we can hope for now is playing spoilers and hoping Owens perform better than Severino in this series.   Not really sure it means anything to this group of players though.  Except for Papi and Pedey who won't play (and Arod. Tex, turncoat Ellsbury and CC), there was nobody here when the rivalry was still healthy ( say 2009).
 

Orel Miraculous

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Despite still being a respectable team, the Yankees have just been so boring the past few years.  This squad of aging but competent veterans is a far cry from the internationally-hated evil empire they were 15 years ago.  That's why (andI hate to say this, because I personally love the guy) if you're looking for a date at which the rivalry will heat back up again, you might want to look at five days after the end of the 2018 World Series.
 

glasspusher

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I fell in love with the sox in the summer of 1978, growing up in NJ, and even had the pleasure of attending the continuation of a rainout game and another full one in August in NY- Rice and Lynn both homered, and the sox took them both. I will never, ever, forget the hate thrown at the sox and their fans at those games- a guy had "Fuck Boston" stitched into the back of his leather jacket- and this was from the team on top?
 
That much said, by the mid '90s the yanks had 15 years of mediocrity behind them and seemed to have lost a lot of the hateful fans. The late '90s brought those fans back in droves, it seems (I suppose it happens with every winning team).
 
Looking back, the only thing that changed things for the sox was the new owners. Now there's much more parity between the clubs, and in baseball overall, but yeah, I agree with Dr Leather, a couple of good pennant races/playoffs between the teams and a new group of fans will get a taste of the old days.
 

Murderer's Crow

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Neither of the teams have players left who have a reason to hate each other aside from Ortiz. When there is a reason for animosity again, the rivalry will come back. It's gonna require one of the teams beating the other in the playoff, a little shit talking, and some good old fashioned high heat.

If anything, the injection of money into baseball should help rivalries form because players are getting longer and bigger contracts and will stick around for long enough to hate other teams.

For now though, sox aren't even on the back burner. It's all Mets and their dumbfuck fans,
 

Buzzkill Pauley

Member
SoSH Member
Jun 30, 2006
10,569
No, the rivalry will never be the same. And that's a good thing.
 
Because unless the Sox go another 86 years without a championship, the have/have not dichotomy that fed the rivalry at its most basic level won't be the same.
 

Section30

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 2, 2010
1,260
Portland OR
To rebuild the rivalry I recommend that the Yankees go through a 50 year drought. Then, eventually, we can crush their hopes in the 2065 playoffs.
 

SoxJox

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SoSH Member
Dec 22, 2003
7,082
Rock > SoxJox < Hard Place
Another consideration that seems to have lessened the intensity is that we haven't for some time seen the same frothing competition and bidding wars for free agents like Bernie Williams in 1999, ARod in 2007, Texeira (who I always have to pinch myself and recall he was drafted by the Red Sox in '98, but did not sign) in 2009, or Contreras in 2010.  Hell, even battles over Dice K, Carl Pavano, and Andy Pettitte are in the mix.