Money players: the free-spending Yankees and Red Sox are back in the ALCS; New York boasts Alex Rodriguez, but Boston might have the better team

Sporting News, The, Oct 18, 2004 by Stan McNeal

Alex Rodriguez got a taste of the rivalry hours before he stepped into Fenway Park for his first Yankees-Red Sox game. As he tells the story, A-Rod was lunching at a downtown Boston restaurant when a fellow walked by, recognized the Yankees' new third baseman and promptly welcomed him to town with a middle-finger salute.

Given this was before a regular-season series in April, A-Rod should consider a two-word dining tip for his return to Boston this weekend: room service. It's going to be crazy out there.

The intensity of American sport's greatest rivalry never has been greater than it is right now. What began as an offseason game of "We can spend more money than you"--won by the Yankees because they landed A-Rod after the Sox failed to--is concluding exactly the way everyone figured: in a best-of-seven series for the American League championship.

There are reasons aplenty behind the rivalry, but let's not bore you with that Curse of the Bambino business. Focus instead on these:

* Unlike the majority of events in an era when even poker games are overhyped, Yankees-Red Sox lives up to its billing where it matters: on the field. Think Pedro and Zimmer, Aaron Boone, Jeter going face-first into the stands, A-Rod and Varitek. And that's just in the past year.

* The teams' personalities are as different as a frosty beer and a dry martini. Think Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar taking a victory lap after the Sox's Division Series sweep of the Angels, spraying champagne on the Fenway faithful. The next night, the Yankees celebrated their four-game victory over the Twins as if it was something they felt obliged to do. OK, we won again. Let's empty these cases of champagne and get out of here. It looked as if Derek Jeter, who has been through such celebrations once or twice, was not doused at all.

* They're the two best teams in the A.L., if not all of baseball. "Everyone knows it," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says. They're also very evenly matched. Before the first pitch of the ALCS, the two teams were 32-32 against each other since the beginning of the 2002 season. That includes an 11-8 edge for the Red Sox this season and the Yankees' seven-game victory in last year's ALCS.

* For once, the team that's typically the underdog--and the postseason loser--appears to have the upper hand. "Best Boston team we've faced," Cashman says. The difference isn't much, but it comes down to the Red Sox having Curt Schilling. New York's two hired guns, Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez, pitched well in their Division Series starts but mostly have struggled since the All-Star break. Brown, especially, has been suffering because of a bad back and a bad temper. He was walking around like a "robot," as Yankees manager Joe Torre put it, the day after he pitched six strong innings against the Twins in a Game 3 Yankees victory.

* As competitive as the teams are on the field, they are just as competitive in their front offices. For the most part, both know how to use their resources, and what vast resources they have. The Yankees' payroll, somewhere around $185 million, is more than three times greater than the Twins'. The Red Sox--at about $127 million--are not quite up to Yankee standards, but they're closer than any other club.

Though the Yankees won the battle of offseason spending sprees, the Red Sox made the better in-season moves. In a couple of deals around the trading deadline, Sox G.M. Theo Epstein rid his team of the Nomar nuisance and transformed the Red Sox from a squad of mashers to a balanced blend of defense and offense.

The Yankees, with Jason Giambi ailing, picked up first baseman John Olerud in August after he was dumped by the last-place Mariners. Olerud might have trouble catching up to a good fastball these days, but he is on defense what Giambi used to be on offense: golden. In the Yankees' Game 4 victory over the Twins, Olerud showed off his glove three different ways: he picked a low throw out of the dirt; he made a running catch of a high foul pop against the white ceiling of the Metrodome (ask Gary Sheffield how difficult that is), and he robbed Minnesota of a hit by stabbing a hard shot down the line. The Red Sox can attest to how important defense is. They went a major league-best 42-18 after Epstein's moves.

Though the verdict remains out on the trades for Brown and Vazquez, the offseason deals for the marquee guys have paid off in New York and Boston. Sheffield, handling the alleged pressure of playing in New York like a batting practice fastball, performed like an MVP despite a shoulder that has bothered him virtually all season. Schilling won 21 games and, if not for Twins ace Johan Santana (who allowed one run in two starts against the Yankees in the Division Series even though he didn't have a three-up, three-down inning), would be clearing space to display the A.L. Cy Young Award.

A-Rod, on the other hand, took some time adjusting to life in pinstripes. He was hitting .255 going into June. Remember that first series in Boston? A-Rod got a hit in his final at-bat of the series, but otherwise was 0-for-16 with six strikeouts in the four games. His teammates kept their distance, and Torre, who is as protective as any manager, admitted A-Rod was trying too hard.