(Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Boycott is probably a little dramatic. The Phillies did their best to sour me on the game of baseball for the rest of the season. I was bamboozled and hoodwinked by a Phillies team that couldn’t even finish the season at .500. I was so mortified by the Phillies ineptitude that it made it a lot easier to just stop caring about the MLB all together. It made the transition into football season a whole lot easier to make. However, there is something about October that always pulls me back in. This year, I couldn’t possibly think of turning away from Yankees-Red Sox in the ALDS.
In some ways, this series feels like it could be the renewal of the rivalry. A series that allowed me to watch so many great players etch their name into the historic rivalry. Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez just to name a few. This time around, we get to see Judge, Stanton and Gleyber Torres go up against Betts, Bogaerts, and J.D Martinez. To some 10-year-old boy out there in America, those names will be to them what Jeter and Pedro were to me. A new generation gets introduced to what the rivalry really means during the ALDS.
So, who is going to win it? Well, the Red Sox are the odds on favorite and should really win it. However, in this rivalry you just never know. All I know is, when it’s Yankees-Red Sox in the postseason, that is appointment television. I’m sure MLB executives couldn’t be any happier to see their ratings soar through the roof during this series. As a baseball fan who was down in the dumps after the Phillies collapse, I’m glad this series has gotten me back into the October spirit.
