Shot in arm for rivalry
Sale can wake up Red Sox vs. Yankees
For quite some time now, we’ve all been in agreement that a Red Sox-Yankees game is about as “big ticket” as a showdown between the Bruins and Arizona Coyotes.
But it has come to this: College-aged fans of the Sox and Yankees have no real, firsthand knowledge of what this rivalry is all about. The last time these teams truly hated each other was in 2004 — Jason Varitek smushing his mitt in ARod’s face, followed by the comeback in the ALCS — and by my math, a current college senior would have been about 8 or 9 back then.
When the Sox and Yankees meet up this season on national television and the networks roll out the Tek vs. A-Rod video, to younger fans, it might as well be Babe Ruth doffing his cap as he rounds the bases.
This rivalry needs some new blood. And if what we saw a couple of days ago in Tampa is any indication, Chris Sale is exactly what I’m talking about.
It’s not just that the Sox’ newly acquired lefty registered 10 strikeouts in his six innings against the Yankees at Legends Field. It’s this: Sale could have skipped the start in order to avoid showing his stuff to the Sox’ longtime rivals but basically said, “Nah.”
Sale wants to be a part of this Sox-Yankees thing, even if it’s just a Grapefruit League tilt that’ll never, ever get talked about again once the regular season starts.
“Anyone who knows anything about sports knows about Boston and New York,” he told reporters after Tuesday night’s outing. “Even from the outside looking in, you can see it, you can sense the competitive drives on these teams and in this series.
“Coming in here, playing against the Yankees, playing at their park, a night game, gives it more of a regular-season feel. It’s nice. It’s what we’re here for. We’re here to get ready for the regular season. Anytime you can get that much closer to a regular-season game, the better off we’re going to be there.”
It’s not news when a player talks about using a start to get ready for the regular season. When was the last time you heard a player talk about using a start to get ready for a rivalry?
Were Sale just any old schmoe, his quotes would be dismissed as boilerplate. But this is Chris Sale, the guy who sliced up those White Sox throwback uniforms, the guy who wanted to take on the entire Kansas City Royals clubhouse. That guy.
Yes, Chris Sale is exactly what the Sox-Yankees rivalry needs.
Now, nobody is suggesting he’s going to drill Jacoby Ellsbury the first time he faces the Yankees in a regular-season game. In order for Sale to stamp his name on this rivalry, anything he does needs to be natural, organic, not contrived or rehearsed. That’s why the silly Ryan Dempster plunking of Alex Rodriguez back in 2013 doesn’t count. That was nothing more than a has-been pitcher trying to impress other big leaguers by nailing A-Rod, a lame stunt that should have landed Dempster a onemonth suspension.
But Tek vs. A-Rod was real. Fisk vs. Munson was real. Pedro vs. Zim was real. Go all the way back to 1967, to Lonborg vs. Tillotson, and that was real.
Chris Sale can’t do it alone, of course. And that’s part of the problem, at least in the short term. The Yankees don’t appear to be much in the looks department coming into this season, and in order for this rivalry to take off again, both teams need to be good at the same time. Sports Illustrated’s latest power rankings of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams planted the Yanks at No. 17, below the Pirates, Orioles, Tigers and Rockies.
So we might not see much in the way of fireworks this season. But the Yankees do have some promising players in their farm system, and as SI’s Jonah Keri points out, “The slow, methodical trot toward The Bryce Harper and Manny Machado Sweepstakes continues apace.”
In other words, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry is not the Javan rhino. It is not the black-footed ferret. It is not on the verge of extinction. But it is a little sleepy. It needs guys like Chris Sale to wake it up.
‘You can see it, you can sense the competitive drives on these teams and in this series.’ — RED SOX LEFTY CHRIS SALE On rivalry with New York Yankees