Plenty Of Intrigue, As Always, To The First Yanks-Sawx Series Of The Season

(Courtesy of whoever did this originally.  Thing is baller)

The best rivalry in baseball heats up again tonight when the Yankees and Red Sox hook up for the first of what will be a 4-game weekend series.  Both teams are 4-5 to start their respective seasons and both teams have some disappointing and unexpected results that put them there.  The Yankees lost 2 of 3 to the Astros and lost the last 2 games at home to the Orioles heading into this series.  The Sawx got swept by the Brewers in their home-opening series.  Needless to say, neither of these teams is off to the start they were hoping for.

What adds to the importance (as important as an early April intra-league series can be) of this series is the vastly different offseasons each of these clubs had.  The Yankees are coming off a high-spending offseason in response to their failure to make the postseason in 2013, part of which included signing former Red Sock Jacoby Ellsbury to a very lucrative 7-year deal.  The Sawx had a relatively quiet offseason, losing more guys than they replaced externally and instead trying to re-up this year through prospects and returning internal young players.  They're still trying to find their footing, but they're also still the 2 big swinging dicks in the AL East, no matter what Tampa Bay has to say about it.  tarting tonight we get our first idea of how much each of them is still swinging...

P.S.- I'm really hoping somebody on the Yankee pitching staff remembers the A-Rod beaning from last year.  Last time I checked, they still owe Boston one for that nonsense.

No Shortage Of Drama These Next Four Games

(Courtesy of Getty Images)

It feels like it's been a long time since the Ryan Dempster-Alex Rodriguez beanball incident took place.  In reality it's been less than 3 weeks, but as almost everybody hypothesized right after that fateful game on August 18th, the Yankees have used that moment and that game as a rallying point.  They've picked up 18 wins in the 26 games since and have been slowly marching their way towards the front of the Wild Card line.  This weekend's series is indescribably important as it starts an 11-game stretch away from the dregs of the American League and against tough AL East competition.  The Yanks need to go at least 7-4 to stay within striking distance of the Rays and keep their playoff hopes alive.

They also have a little score to settle with their rivals from that 8/18 game, a score they didn't get the chance to settle when Brian O'Nora went quick trigger with the bench warnings.

Yanks Still Owe Boston One With Two Series To Go

(Courtesy of the AP)

The buzz immediately after the Ryan Dempster-Alex Rodriguez incident last night was about retaliation.  Whether you liked that A-Rod got plunked or not, there was no denying that Dempster was way out of line in how he went about dishing his version of justice.  Joe Girardi justifiably lost his mind on Brian O'Nora when the warnings were issued without an ejection of Dempster and everybody knew somebody on Boston was getting plunked.  The ESPN cameras actually caught Joe saying it to whoever the third base ump was as he left the field.  It was just a matter of who, when, and what the end result of that was going to be.

Hey, Remember This Fight?

Stacey Gotsulias is the queen of the historical posts over at IIATMS/TYA.  She's always good about remembering what big Yankee moments happened on what days, far better than I am, and it's always a pleasure to see those posts and be reminded of moments I experienced (like David Wells' perfect game).

Somehow I don't think she's going to get to this one, since it probably only matters to manchildren like myself, so I'll do the honors.  With the Yanks heading to Baltimore for a 3-game series tonight, and the video still being up on YouTube, let's take a minute to look back and remember the classic fight from 15 years ago between the Yankees and O's.  It's arguably one of the greatest fights in baseball history and another moment from my early Yankee fandom career I remember watching live.

AB4AR "Parachute Pants vs. Knuckle Dick" Subway Series Live Blog

The decision to do another live blog was a pretty easy one to make once I knew tonight's pitching matchup was Carsten Charles and Robert Alan.  I've listened to everybody on ESPN fall all over themselves praising R.A. Dickey for the past couple weeks and declaring him the no-doubt NL ASG starter over guys like Greinke, Strasburg, and Cain, who are having just as good if not better seasons, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for CC and the Yankee offense knock Dickey down a peg tonight.  CC is coming off a much more CC-like complete game win against Atlanta on Monday, and if he has that 4-seamer working again tonight he could really chew up this Mets lineup.

NYY Starting Lineup:

1) Derek Jeter- SS
2) Curtis Granderson- CF
3) Alex Rodriguez- 3B
4) Robinson Cano- 2B
5) Mark Teixeira- 1B
6) Nick Swisher- RF
7) Raul Ibanez- LF
8) Chris Stewart- C
9) CC Sabathia- P

First pitch should be about 8:07PM Eastern/7:07 Central, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that it's a knuckleball.  Live blog kicks off about 30 minutes before that, so I should have plenty of time to get a few jabs in at John Kruk or whoever is in the BBTN studio tonight.  Come join me, won't you?



(I wanted to go with the Ron Burgundy, "we're on the air?  Right now?  I don't believe you" line here, but I couldn't find it)