The Greatest Rivalry In Sports

Kyle Penton


The Greatest Rivalry in Sports


A Tale of Two Cities


Tony Massarotti and John Harper





Imagine being 1 hour away from your biggest dream, something you have worked your entire life for, and it being ripped away from you in an instant. That is what happened to the Boston Red Sox in the 2003 American League Championship Series against their biggest rival, the New York Yankees. The Red Sox led the Yankees by a score of 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, and they thought they were golden. Not only did the Yankees rally back to tie it, they ended up winning in the bottom of the 11th inning on a walk-off homerun by Aaron Boone, ending the Red Sox’s season with one swing, “Tim Wakefield, who in one pitch went from Most Valuable Player of the series to a most unfortunate, undeserving tragic figure”(7). The Red Sox and Yankees were incredibly evenly matched in the 2003 season: even in the playoffs they scored the same amount of runs in the series until Boone’s series ending homerun.





The Yankees made it to the World Series, and played against the Florida Marlins, but ended up losing the series 4 games to 2. This gave both the Red Sox and Yankees a sour taste in their mouth; the Yankees moreso more so because they were the favorites to win the Series, but fell short to the Marlins. That meant both ball clubs had some hunting to do in the offseason, needing that one player that could boost each team over the other. That is where Alex Rodriguez comes into play, “A-Rod’s future had been the talk of the baseball off-season, of course…”(27). The Red Sox were going to trade Manny Ramirez, one of their stars, for Rodriguez, but the deal fell short, giving the Yankees a chance to swoop in and grab the reigning American League Most Valuable Player. The Yankees succeeded in acquiring Rodriguez, allowing them to believe that they now had everything they need to win the World Series. The Sox could not just sit back and let this defeat their offseason, so they went out and got a new manager, Terry Francona, and two key players, Kevin Millar and Curt Schilling. Boston needed to show its city they were not scared of the Yankees, and that they could win a title, “If you believe your opponent is better than you, your opponent will be”(25).





This is a tremendous book about the city of Boston and the legend of the 2004 Red Sox team and how they were developed. Anybody who knows the slightest bit about Boston sports knows about the 86 year World Series drought that the Red Sox had after losing Babe Ruth, and about their historic comeback against the Yankees in 2004. I not only enjoy the story it tells, but I love how it is told. Tony Massarotti writes from the Red Sox perspective, and is actually a Waltham native and Waltham High School graduate, making this book even more special because he signed the inside cover. John Harper then gives information from the Yankees perspective, because he is a New York writer.





If you are familiar with the 2004 Red Sox, I encourage you to read this book because it goes in depth about many events that you may not have known about, like how the Red Sox almost acquired alex Rodriguez.