Yankees and Red Sox Rivalry

The New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox are undoubtedly the greatest franchise rivalry in Major League Baseball and you can certainly make a case for it being the best rivalry in sports history.

The all-time season record between the two teams are 1,117-933-14 (.545 winning percentage) in favor of the Yankees. The post-season record is 11-8, also with the Yankees maintaining the upper hand.

The Yankees have the largest marginal victory in this rivalry--they won 22-1 back in June 19, 2000. There was the Boston Massacre the other year at Fenway Park, where there were multiple 20 run games that the Yankees won.

Interestingly enough, there's a couple of things to be mentioned about this rivalry: (1) Which team is the better team of this past decade?; (2) Is the rivalry less competitive?

I am a Yankees fan, so naturally I'd have biases towards claiming that Yankees have the better team of the decade--but I say this in terms of what it means to win in baseball. Unlike football, it is not as difficult to win the world series 2 out of 4 years; but to win and maintaining a post-season standard, while rebuilding over ten years is more impressive.

The Red Sox won back in 2004 as well as 2007; the Yankees won in 2000 and in 2009. Both have two world series victories this decade--but the Yankees have played in the World Series 4 times opposed the Red Sox who have reached there twice in this millennium.

In terms of whether the rivalry is less intense--it could be seen that way because as of recent history, both teams have strong rosters but there is more of sheer dominance during the games. When I think of the rivalry, I think of Zimmer going down--I think of "Who's your daddy?"--I think of the curse of the great Bambino--I think of brawls practically every series!

I don't see these occurrences anymore. The players might have gotten better, but the rivalry might be dropping off a bit.

Hopefully the battles are intensified with the newer acquisitions for each club, and maybe we'll actually see some physical confrontations; anger and pure frustration is what creates a real rivalry.

I want to see A-rod glaring at a pitcher after he gets hit, or even some dirty base-running pushes to knock the ball off a glove--it's the biggest rivalry known to sports history!

My goal for this next season is watch some Yankee-Red Sox fights--it isn't the morally right thing to want, but it's what made these teams so well known. In any sport--you could like teams and like their rivals like Nets and Knicks, same division but because both the teams are so poor, I still root for both of them. I should hate Duke because I like UNC but I enjoyed both the atmospheres. When it comes to the Red Sox, I simply hate their team because it's just a rivalry that you must despise each other.


April 4th is the opening day and the Yankees will play against the Red Sox. Will see how this year pans out...