Boston - September 25: New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) celebrates his Grand Slam in the eighth inning. The Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees on September 24, 2021 at Fenway Park in Boston on Sept. 25, 2021. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
I never saw the ball actually land. By the time the majestic moonshot off the bat of Aaron Boone was deposited somewhere down the left-field line, on an October Friday morning in the south Bronx, in the bottom of the 11th inning of the seventh game of the most physically and emotionally draining baseball series ever (imagine what it must’ve been like for the players?) I jumped into the arms of some guy sitting a row behind me in the right-field bleachers of Yankee Stadium. I didn’t know him, and I never caught his name.
He was a big dude, maybe had me by 50-75 pounds so he handled the contact like a pro. Delirious from the improbable, emphatic ending to 3:56 of nail-biting postseason baseball I was blessed enough to witness, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’m just thankful the big guy didn’t drop me as the entire Stadium exploded into madness.
We hugged, grinned like two robbers who just pulled off the heist of a lifetime, high-fived, and looked at each other with expressions akin to, “HOLY! SHIT! DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN?!?” Then I searched for my friend Steve amid the hysteria. He was sitting a row or two away. We couldn’t get tickets to Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS together, but we had purchased separate ones in Section 39 two weeks prior just in case the series went the distance. We didn’t care where our seats were, we just wanted to be in the building. And when it was all over, like thousands of others that night, we didn’t leave the Stadium until well after 2 a.m., having belted out about 13 straight versions of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York.”
When we emptied out of the Stadium and onto River Ave., it was a sea of humanity. Nobody wanted to leave the area. Everybody wanted to keep the party going with “Let’s Go Yankees” chants drowning out the occasional shout of “Fuck Boston” spewing from the over-served bros who just couldn’t help themselves. Steve and I ducked into one of the bodegas on 161st St., bought a couple of Macanudos and hightailed it up the hill to the tiny park across from the Bronx Courthouse. We slowly smoked our victory cigars, still buzzing from the wave of energy Boone blessed us with. It was almost 4 a.m. by the time we left the Bronx. I didn’t get to bed until sunrise.
A year later, it was a completely different story when the Red Sox got their revenge in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS at the old Stadium. Boston fans took over the Bronx, celebrating the most epic comeback in postseason history that shut Yankees fans the fuck up for the next five seasons. I’m so glad I wasn’t there for that one—it was excruciating enough watching it on TV up at college in Connecticut. But I write all of the above to relate that there is nothing in sports like a do-or-die Yankees-Red Sox postseason game and the reactions they elicit in baseball fans are unlike another. That’s because few rivalries in sports stir up the kinds of emotions, or deliver the grade A drama, or create history like the two bitter rivals almost always do when everything’s on the line.
We’re lucky enough to witness yet another chapter Tuesday when Boston and New York meet in Fenway Park in the AL Wild Card Game. Red Sox and Yankees fans know that there is no roller coaster in the world like the ride you take when these two teams meet in October. The ebbs and flows of the game will be exhausting in the best kind of way and the sick combination of joy and pride you feel after watching your hated rival get eliminated is a mischievously marvelous sensation. If you’re on the wrong side, you wake up feeling like you’re headed to a funeral.
It’s baseball at its visceral best.
If you’re not the biggest hardball fan, which we know most of the Complex Sports audience isn’t, please hear us out on why you should care about tonight’s unusual, yet awesome showdown. There are legit reasons why you should be glued to your TV for first pitch at 8:08 p.m. ET on ESPN—three of them, to be precise—so if baseball’s a hard sell, on an evening with no major football and only NBA preseason games to offer up a sports distraction, I laid out precisely why you shouldn’t miss a single pitch.
The History
The rivalry is by far the best in baseball. It’s also the best in sports, but I’ll avoid that debate for now. Between the Curse of the Bambino that shouldn’t require an explanation, the players and fans genuinely not liking each other, the cultural differences between the two cities, the offseason competition for top free agent talent, and the fact the two teams—especially this century—are usually battling for position in the AL East, the product on the field almost never disappoints. On the rare occasions they meet in October, multiply the tension filling either Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium during a July game by approximately 150,000 and that’s what the atmosphere will feel like tonight.
While they’ve faced off over two thousand times during the regular-season, there’s only been 23 postseason games between the rivals. The 1976 game, famous for Bucky Dent’s home run, doesn’t actually count as a postseason affair since it’s considered Game No. 163 by MLB. The rivals had a Sunday showdown in the regular-season finale back in 1949, with both teams tied in the standings, to determine who went directly to the World Series (Yankees won). So this will be the rivals’ fifth do-or-die game.
Their last postseason series came in 2018 when the 106-win Red Sox dispatched the 100-win Yankees in four games in the ALDS. Red Sox players blasted “New York, New York” in the Stadium clubhouse while they doused each other with champagne to celebrate the series win.
Yeah, it’s petty like that.
In three ALCS showdowns, the Yankees own the 2-1 advantage. But the Red Sox can hold that unprecedented comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the 2004 ALCS over the Yankees’ heads for the rest of eternity. While Yankees fans can clap back about their 27 championships—18 more than Boston’s won—the Red Sox forever have the honor of ripping the hearts out of their rivals in the most excruciating fashion on the way to winning the first of their four titles this century.
You also never know what’s going to happen when it’s October and it’s Yankees-Sox. The 2003 ALCS featured an infamous brawl in Game 3 that saw Pedro Martinez toss the late Don Zimmer to the ground during a benches clearing incident that had Martinez’s prints all over. He threw a questionable pitch at Karim Garcia’s head earlier in the game. Roger Clemens poured gasoline on the situation when he threw upstairs on Manny Ramirez who took major offense. Brawls in baseball normally are reserved for the regular-season, but tensions ran so high in that series—with superstars in both dugouts, legacies on the line, and fans hyped up to epic levels—it didn’t take much for emotions to spill over.
The Star Power
The 2003 and 2004 series featured a stupid amount of star power in the form of future Hall of Famers—as well as ones that deserve to get in if you ignore allegations of steroid use, positive PED tests, or a truly putrid taste in politics—in both dugouts. Derek Jeter, Mike Mussina, Mariana Rivera, Roger Clemens, David Ortiz, Martinez, and Ramirez all suited up in ‘03. Curt Schilling and his bloody sock were there for the Red Sox in 2004 while the Yankees replaced Boone with Alex Rodriguez and added Gary Sheffield to the outfield.
Fast forward 17 years and while the current rosters of the Yankees and Red Sox don’t quite feature as many legendary names as above, this game will still have a number of premier players who you should be familiar with.
We’ll start with the modern-day Bash Brothers of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton who carried the Yankees’ offense down the stretch of the season. Combining for 74 home runs on the season—many mammoth shots—those two can blow open any game with one swing. Stanton did it multiple times during the Yankees’ sweep of the Red Sox two weekends ago. So do not miss their at-bats. Meanwhile, on the mound, Gerrit Cole, the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history who will likely finish in the top 3 of AL Cy Young voting this season, gets the start for the Yankees. New York’s paying him $36 million a season not to just get them to October, but deliver a dynamite performance on the biggest stage.
As for the Red Sox, Nathan Eovaldi gets the start for Boston and after an awesome season he’ll likely finish in the top 5 AL Cy Young voting. The left side of the Boston infield is arguably one of the best in baseball with the young lefty Rafael Devers, who’s big hit Sunday helped secure home-field advantage for the Sox tonight, manning third while Xander Boegarts, a two-time World Series champ with the Red Sox who is easily one of the best offensive shortstops in baseball, forever scares the shit out of opposing pitchers. The Yankees catch a break with the dangerous JD Martinez unable to play tonight after he injured his ankle in the regular-season finale Sunday.
Pulling the strings from the dugout, Yankees manager Aaron Boone will try to out-maneuver his counterpart Alex Cora, widely considered to be among savviest leaders in baseball.
The Drama
Just like March Madness, it’s a one-and-done scenario tonight with the Wild Card, a special quirk in baseball’s postseason that was introduced in 2012. Winner keeps it moving while the loser settles in for a long offseason. So that means both managers will do anything and everything to keep their season alive. Even though the pitching’s always elevated in the postseason—because the best staffs always lead their teams to October—every pitcher’s on an extra short leash. Every plate appearance is pressure packed. Benches will be used up, bullpens will be exhausted, and nerves will be completely frayed by the end. You’ll feel the intensity through your TV.
The Red Sox, the top team in the Wild Card standings, host the second-place Yankees for the right to move onto the AL Division Series and face the league’s top team in the Rays starting Thursday. Iconic Fenway Park is the setting and no home field in baseball offers up as many quirks, like the Green Monster and Pesky’s Pole, that can make the ancient arena more closely resemble a pinball machine rather than a major league park.
And because it’s postseason—and not playoff—baseball, the importance and precision of every pitch is magnified. When you’re playing Game 75 out of 162, every pitch isn’t an edge of your seat event. Your entire season can’t be ruined with a random fifth inning hanging slider that’s blasted into the second deck for a three-run homer if it’s only June. Now that it’s October, completely different story. A fastball thrown in the third inning that was supposed to paint the black but drifts over the middle of the plate and is smacked for a two-run double could be the difference. One bone-headed mental error on the basepaths could be a death sentence. One miscue in the field could easily end up being a killer. The Yankees, it should be noted, played 89 games this season decided by two runs or fewer, which was the third-most in MLB. So a tight game, which most are in the postseason, favors New York. They’ve also won six straight over the Red Sox. But Boston won the season-series 10-9.
When the calendar turns to October, you live and die on EVERY SINGLE PITCH. So settle in for what’s guaranteed to be another epic chapter of baseball’s best rivalry. And if you’re new to baseball’s postseason, count your lucky blessings that your introduction is Yankees-Red Sox. I promise they will not disappoint.