The rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox is one-sided, as before

It was like that – or at least what it seemed – during the cozy 86 years that connected 1918 and 2004. For years, from New England, we heard tortured tales of “The Rivalry,” about the way the Red Sox could never quite overcome the bump against their old rivals, the Yankees.

Jinxes. Smallpox. Hexes. Curses.

You remember the chorus.

And the funny thing, always, was this: rivalry? Really? In those 86 years between 1918 and 2004, the Yankees won 26 World Series championships. They won 39 pennants. The Red Sox, at that time, had won 26 fewer championships and 35 fewer American League titles. As rivals, it’s hard to think of a more one-sided meaning than that.

Hammer against nail, perhaps.

Lucy versus Charlie Brown, sure.

Notre Dame versus Navy, sure.

Before the 1999 ALCS, Yogi Berra took Bernie Williams aside, smiled and offered advice on the bright side of the feud: “Relax. We’ve been beating these guys for 80 years. They beat them that year too. And again in 2003.

Generations of Yankees fans knew nothing but relentless prosperity against the Red Sox. While a core part of Yankees fan DNA is still believing that the striped comrades would find a way to get it right in the end, an important piece included this caveat as well: and the Red Sox will always fold like cellophane when it absolutely matters.

You may have noticed: this has not been the case for the past 16 years. Since 2004, the scoreboard reads: Red Sox, 4 World Series, Yankees 1. The two times they met in October, the Sox won epically (2004) and in no time ( 2018). It’s funny too: at that point the Yankees had never had a loss record and the Red Sox actually finished last in the AL East not once, not twice but three times (2012, 2014, 2015).

But even in those terrible years, the Red Sox weren’t like that, what they looked like in 2020 i.e. uncompetitive, gentle, lacking both talent and effort. The launch staff were ransacked. Mookie Betts has moved his Hall of Fame track to 3,000 miles. There are still some good players in the team, but not enough.

And it’s shocking to watch. On Monday, the Yankees again turned the woods over to the Red Sox, defeating them 6-2, the 10th consecutive time they’ve beaten the Sox since last year. Before the end of the season, they’ll get three more games at Fenway Park, in which they can match and surpass their all-time record against the Sox, 12, set in 1936 and tied in 1952-53.

In 36, the Red Sox were still at the start of their drought, but they had already lost the American League to the Yankees and were fighting for survival against the Braves, still in Boston. It was still three years before Ted Williams arrived and helped the Red Sox regain some respectability in the relationship. It is no coincidence that the other race 0-12 – 0-9 to close 1952, 0-3 to start 53 – coincided almost precisely with Teddy Ballgame’s second stint as a fighter pilot, this time around. in Korea.

Now, “discordant” does not mean “disagreeable”. Yankees fans must enjoy this little one-sided spasm of pleasure. And the Red Sox, honestly, don’t seem too determined to cover up what really looks like epic tank work. Monday’s loss, their eighth in a row, dropped the Sox to 6-17 this year. This is the most casualties in baseball.

Two years on from a 108-54 regular season, winning 119 games and a World Series and enjoying a place in the conversation ranking teams of all time (which naturally got Yankees fans reacting as s ‘they had walked into a bin of spoiled. meat), they’re a baseball hulk and it’s something to see for Yankees fans who liked what the Old World Order looked like.

Sure, they’re the Red Sox, they’re Boston, they print money (although they didn’t act that way when they still employed Betts), and they’re led by a young executive, Chaim. Bloom, who will likely emerge from this with his reputation intact, albeit a little bit riddled. There is no doubt that they will soon find a way back to relevance, and for those without a dog on the hunt, a revitalized rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox will certainly be welcome.

For the moment? Yankees fans will appreciate the way things are, thank you very much because they look a lot like the way things used to be.