Baseball’s best rivalry

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Last month, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox met here in Game 8 of the 2003 American League Championship Series.

That’s what it seemed like, anyway, and that’s what some of the Boston players jokingly called it, what with the fan frenzy (people slept in the parking lot overnight and tickets were being auctioned on EBay) media attention (four times the usual contingent) and marketing opportunities (the Red Sox actually sold commemorative pins at $6 a pop) that accompanied what was nothing more than an exhibition game played during the early part of spring training.

Who won? It doesn’t matter. Absolutely nothing was decided, settled or proved meaningful. New York still owns its 39th pennant, which it earned by beating Boston last fall in what Yankees first baseman/designated hitter Jason Giambi calls “the greatest seven games we ever played in our lives.”

Maybe Giambi lost some objectivity along with all that weight. But it’s kind of refreshing how, unlike many of his peers, he expresses his true feelings. There is no doubt the series was captivating for many reasons. Such as:

• The scuffle, prompted by other scuffles, between 31-year-old Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez and 72-year-old Yankees coach Don Zimmer in Game 3.

• The ill-fated decision by Boston manager Grady Little to leave Martinez in Game 7 even though the rest of the world seemed aware that Martinez had clearly lost it.

• The simple fact that it was the Red Sox again coming excruciatingly close, only to lose — again — to the hated Yankees, now known, according the name given them by a Boston executive last year and possibly for the rest of time, as “The Evil Empire.”

“I don’t think there’s anything as good in sports history as the Yankees and Red Sox,” Giambi said.

Especially when you play for the Yankees.

Probably the most amazing thing about the New York-Boston rivalry is that it continues to build and gather strength despite its lopsidedness. The Yankees always come out on top. Then again, Roadrunner always got the best of Wile E. Coyote.

Such dominance has resulted in many explanations and theories, the most famous being the “Curse of the Bambino,” which traces all Red Sox ills and Yankees success to when Boston sold Babe Ruth to New York after the 1919 season. Since then the Red Sox, the best team in baseball at the time, have not won a World Series. The Yankees have won 26.

The curse has been the subject of books, television programs and unceasing general reference. Most players, who believe their ability to hit, pitch, run and throw dictate the outcome of events, deplore the idea of its existence.

“I don’t believe in that curse thing,” newly acquired Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said. “That’s tremendous fodder for the media, a tremendous excuse for whoever needs to use it. I’m not belittling it, but I just can’t factor that part in.”

The truth is, not all Red Sox fans buy into it either, at least not completely.

“If there’s nothing else to find fault with, you go back to the curse,” veteran fan Vinny Riviezzo said.

That seems sensible. On the other hand, he said, “We keep lighting candles against the Yankees.”

Riviezzo and his wife, Terry, were standing outside the Red Sox spring home, City of Palms Park, about two hours before an exhibition game against the Orioles. They were too late to buy the few remaining tickets on sale. Fans who lined up early in the morning gobbled up those, and the Riviezzos were waiting for the Orioles to return their unused allotment just before game time. Every spring game was a sellout.

The Riviezzos are from Dover, N.H., part of what is incessantly called “Red Sox Nation.” If you live in “Red Sox Nation,” then you root for the “Olde Town Team” (maybe the Sox are cursed because of the self-important nicknames), and if you have the time and the money, this is the place to be during the winter. “There are a tremendous amount of New England people here in the Fort Myers area,” Vinny said.

“You know how much we love our Red Sox,” Terry added.

Yes. Everyone knows.

The pain and angst felt by fans, whether or not they believe in the curse, is well-known. It’s been assigned religious overtones and compared with tragedies found in literature. The phrase, “long-suffering Red Sox fans” (and its National League counterpart, “long-suffering Cubs fans”) is redundant.

All with good reason.

Take last year’s ALCS, Game 7. The Red Sox led 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Derek Jeter doubled for the Yankees. Martinez had thrown 114 pitches, a lot for him. He looked tired. There were several excellent relief pitchers from which to choose. Little stayed in the dugout. The next hitter, Bernie Williams, singled. With the score 5-3, Little came out. Everybody knew he was going to pull Martinez, but instead he left him in. The Yankees went on to score two more runs to tie the game. They won it in the 11th on Aaron Boone’s home run.

On a day he decided to talk to reporters, which isn’t every day, Martinez admitted he had trouble sleeping the night of Game 7. “But after that, it was over with,” he said. “I just have to let it go. I did whatever possible to win that game, and the team did. I mean, it was obvious we didn’t want to go home at that point, but you have to let it go.”

To dwell on past failure is to invite more failure. Players know this. But fans are not required to let go. In fact, it is their duty to remember. Red Sox fans, who placed Grady Little on a shelf next to Bucky Dent and Bill Buckner, have not let go.

“Should Pedro have been pulled that time?” asks Terry Riviezzo. “Maybe so. But he did the very best that he could. And it wasn’t gonna happen that day, that’s all.”

Her husband feels a little differently.

“They had a tremendous bullpen,” he says. “Pedro was tired. He’s always tired after a hundred pitches. Grady Little went with his heart instead of his brain. He left him in there, hoping Pedro could get out of it and be the hero. And it just didn’t work.”

Little, whose teams won 188 games in two years, was fired during the off-season and replaced by Terry Francona, who had a reputation in Philadelphia as a “player’s manager,” meaning most people feel he’s a pretty good guy. But that wasn’t the biggest change in the offseason. Schilling, injured part of last year but still a highly effective, durable starter, came in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Keith Foulke, an outstanding closer with Oakland, signed as a free-agent.

Less publicized were the free agent signings of second baseman Pokey Reese and designated hitter Ellis Burks, who began his career in Boston when Ronald Reagan was president (1987), but they are viewed as smart moves nevertheless. The Red Sox won 95 games in 2003 and came within five outs of the World Series. They are supposed to be better in 2004. Fans are so pumped up, they already have bought nearly every ticket for the 81 home games at Fenway Park.

“On paper, I think we have the best pitching staff in both leagues,” Burks said. Then he added the standard caveat. “We just have to make sure everyone stays healthy.”

“We have better pitching, better offense, good defense,” said outfielder Trot Nixon, currently sidelined with a bad back. “We added a Hall of Fame pitcher and a closer. We’ve got the makings of a great ballclub and an exciting ballclub.”

Schilling, who speaks his mind on just about everything, including the need for more thorough steroid testing, said, “For a player, this is a dream environment. It’s a great mix of guys. It starts at the top, the coaching staff, the front office and knowing they’re there to do what they need to do for us.”

Francona, who was hired after spending last year as the bench coach in Oakland and whose Phillies teams were 285-363 from 1997 through 2000, will be closely watched. Sitting in the dugout, spitting tobacco juice at regular intervals, Francona was in his element. He is a baseball lifer. He played in the majors for nine seasons; his dad, Tito Francona, was a big-leaguer too. Terry managed in the minors.

In 1994, Francona managed Michael Jordan, who was trying to make it as a baseball player with Birmingham of the Class AA Southern League. Francona handled the media onslaught with aplomb and did his best to teach Jordan how to play. But what awaits in Boston is different, even different than Philadelphia. He was asked how he will deal with the expectations, the hopes, the intense pressure and scrutiny that is sure to come, if it hasn’t started already.

“I think I’m prepared for this,” he said. “I’m OK with it. I don’t wake up thinking I’m overwhelmed. You’ve got to remember, too, this baseball field is where I’m more comfortable than any place in the whole world. And talking to [reporters] every day, if it was about something other than baseball, it would be overwhelming for me. But it’s baseball. And when you ask me something, I think I know the answer. So I’m comfortable.”

No doubt about it, hopes are as high as ever. This is the year. Curses to the curse. For much of the winter, the Red Sox and how much they appeared to improve were the talk of baseball.

But not for long. The Evil Empire struck again.

• • •

The Yankees for some reason let Andy Pettitte, the anchor of the pitching staff for the better part of a decade, leave via free agency. Roger Clemens retired (only to un-retire and join Pettitte in Houston). To make up for the losses, New York got Javier Vazquez, an outstanding young pitcher and veteran Kevin Brown, who is terrific when he is healthy, which is only sometimes.

The Yankees also signed Gary Sheffield, who can be temperamental but who also can hit, and aging but still speedy centerfielder Kenny Lofton. They beefed up the bullpen with Tom “Flash” Gordon and Paul Quantrill. So far, so good. It’s just owner George Steinbrenner keeping pace, making his moves, spending his money, as usual.

Then, A-Rod.

The Red Sox were supposed to get Alex Rodriguez. A three-way trade was all worked out. Boston would send the moody, slugging outfielder Manny Ramirez to Texas for the best player in the game. Rodriguez would play shortstop. But wasn’t that where Nomar Garciaparra, an all-star himself, played? Yes. And no. No-mah would be no-more in Boston, traded to Anaheim. The Red Sox would end up with Magglio Ordonez, a terrific outfielder from Chicago who would replace Ramirez.

It was all set, and if you thought the city went nuts after the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, wait till Red Sox Nation gets to celebrate its first World Series victory in 86 years.

Of course, the deal never happened. The Red Sox wanted to reduce their portion of A-Rod’s 10-year, $252 million contract, the players’ union rejected that and five weeks later the trade was off. Rodriguez remained a Ranger.

Then Aaron Boone tore up his left knee. Eventually he was blamed for tearing the heart out of Red Sox fans.

Playing in a pickup basketball game in January, a violation of his contract because of the injury risk, Boone ripped his anterior cruciate ligament and was lost for the season, thereby creating a hole at third base. That prompted Steinbrenner and his young, resourceful general manager Brian Cashman to work out a deal, in just three days, in which the Yankees got Rodriguez (for a pretty good player, Alfonso Soriano) and put him at third base next to shortstop Derek Jeter. Thus the Yankees stole all the Red Sox’s offseason thunder and, not to mention, gave themselves an incredibly potent lineup.

Red Sox fans are now sporting a T-Shirt that reads, “Aaron (Bleeping) Boone,” except it doesn’t say “Bleeping.”

Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, who coined the “Evil Empire” thing, immediately decried the deal. The Yankees, whose payroll has topped the game for years, were closing in an $200 million (the Boston payroll is a still healthy $125 million). Steinbrenner fired back in a memo taunting Lucchino and the Red Sox.

And Nomar? Still with the Red Sox. When it appeared Rodriguez might come and he might go, Garciaparra told a Boston radio station, “I’d definitely be hurt. I’m in a place that I’ve given so much of my life and so much of my effort.”

Despite the bruised feelings, Garciaparra, who is nursing a strained Achilles’ tendon, is considered a gamer. He is expected to play hard and well. “I’m just focused on this year,” he said. I’m here today. I could be gone tomorrow, but I’m here today and I’m just focusing on that.”

The Yankees, who last week re-signed their closer Mariano Riviera for two more years, are focused on another pennant and winning it all, something they failed to do in each of the last three seasons. For all the talk about purchasing power, the Yankees lost the 2003 World Series to the Florida Marlins, the 2002 AL Divisional Series to Anaheim and the 2001 World Series to Arizona.

If Pedro Martinez is over what happened last year, Giambi is not quite there.

“You think about it, New York and Boston should have been in the World Series,” he said.

“When we got to the Series, we were emotionally spent. You’ve got to tip your cap to the Marlins. They got the big hits, they got the big pitching performances. [Pitcher] Josh Beckett was unbelievable. But we just didn’t play well.”

Giambi sat in the spacious clubhouse inside the Yanks’ gleaming, state-of-the-art Legends Field in Tampa. It’s quite a place, a Steinbrenner creation, which means only the best. Some decried the stadium as too nice, too corporate, lacking that cozy, intimate spring training feel. It’s Yankees all the way.

“This is what you call the big leagues,” said Gordon, a 15-year veteran, looking around the clubhouse. “I heard a lot about the organization, how they take good care of the players, and everything I’ve seen so far has been good.”

Lofton, who is starting his 14th major league season, said, “I can tell you, it’s first-class over here. They try to keep the players happy. The clubhouse guys, how they treat you, how they respect you. It’s great. I’ve never seen this before.”

Nor has Lofton witnessed the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry up close. But Gordon has. He played in Boston for four seasons. “The fans definitely have the Yankees on their minds.”

Players don’t get as excited as fans; we know that. Outwardly, many acknowledged the specialness of the Yankees and Red Sox but make it a point to say they cannot get distracted by it, nothwithstanding the occasional brawl between ace pitcher and old coach. After all, it’s a long season.

“You guys make a much bigger deal about it than we do,” Schilling said to the media. “It’s a neat environment, but it’s also disrespectful to other teams in our division to say it’s our No.1 concern.”

Fox will televise the Yankees-Red Sox game on the night of April 16, the first regular-season, week night, prime-time telecast in more than five years.

Some players do, in fact, make a big deal about it. There’s Giambi, who relishes the rivalry. “If it could ever possibly have gone to a new level, I think it has,” he said. “Boston and New York, playing prizefighters, going back and forth, seeing who can make the biggest acquisition.”

Then there is the new Boston second baseman, Calvin Reese Jr., who has never been involved in anything like this before but can’t wait to get at it. When you’re the only major leaguer named “Pokey,” it’s OK to shed the cool facade and reveal the kid that exists under every uniform.

“I lie in bed at night,” he said, “and dream about playing the Yankees.”