Red Sox vs. Yankees

[ZBoyer]

As probably everyone with any ounce of baseball knowledge knows, the Red Sox and the Yankees are facing off in a five-game, four-day series this weekend. Everyone up here in New England, and probably New York and New Jersey as well, is interested in the series, and ESPN has even gone so far as to televise two of the games with FOX picking up the other.

But my question is this: is anyone else in the country interested in this series? Hardcore baseball fans might like it for the high level of competition that they'll see, but I doubt that people outside of this region (or maybe Baltimore and Tampa Bay) will have any kind of interest. How does the strong Milwaukee contingent feel about it? What about the Arizona folks, or those in California or on the west coast?

I'm thinking that not many people care and they feel that ESPN is shoving it down their throats, but it's interesting to find out what people think.

[buzzcut]

As probably everyone with any ounce of baseball knowledge knows, the Red Sox and the Yankees are facing off in a five-game, four-day series this weekend. Everyone up here in New England, and probably New York and New Jersey as well, is interested in the series, and ESPN has even gone so far as to televise two of the games with FOX picking up the other.

But my question is this: is anyone else in the country interested in this series? Hardcore baseball fans might like it for the high level of competition that they'll see, but I doubt that people outside of this region (or maybe Baltimore and Tampa Bay) will have any kind of interest. How does the strong Milwaukee contingent feel about it? What about the Arizona folks, or those in California or on the west coast?

I'm thinking that not many people care and they feel that ESPN is shoving it down their throats, but it's interesting to find out what people think.

Gr8t analysis there ZB. It IS being crammed down everyone's throat and many of those throats can't take it.

Oh BTW, I have no interest in this series whatsoever.

[zoraK]

Those of us in Blue Jays land are certainley interested.

[SabreGuy]

I have, at various points in my life, rooted for both teams as "my" team. (I feel like I'm slowly revealing to everyone today that I am a team-whore. lol It's safe to say, though, that after 13 years or so rooting for the Indians, I've finally got one for life.)

That being said, as I don't really like either of those teams these days, and I need to have a rooting interest in a team to be able to watch a game. (Again, the team-whore thing, as, aside from "my" team, I have about 10 other teams I "sometimes" root for... as long as they aren't playing against the Indians that day.)

What I'm trying to say is, yes, I feel like they shove the Red Sox and the Yankees down my throat. I can understand it... as those teams probably have the most fans in places other than their home city... but not being one of them, I could care less about it. Instead of watching those games, I'll be listening to MLB radio broadcasts of teams I do like, and checking the box scores later to see if the outcome helps any of my other teams. (I guess the Jays are my only other AL team, which makes this series kind of a wash for me in that regard.)

[marlinfan]

ESPN is really milking this, four or five of the games are ESPN and ESPNEWS has a "score update" where they would put real breaking news in the lower right hand corner.

[Gary]

As a Tigers fan i'm glad ESPN had a couple back to back games that I could watch. But of course they had to remind me every inning to not to let me forget that the Redsox and Yankees are playing. If they had it in their own minds I think they should show more enthusiasm for more rivalries and show more games around the major leagues. There is an Arizona-Los Angeles race going on in the west, a St. Louis-Cincinnati Race going on in the Central in the National League and of course what has become by far the best rivalry in the Major Leagues this season the Detroit-Chicago rivalries.

But of course it's all about ratings and how many times we have to see George Steinbrenners grill. It's all about money to ESPN and how many times will we see New York or Boston in a series on Sunday Night Baseball either playing eachother or any other teams. ESPN the world doesn't revolve around Boston and New York. There are 50 states in this country and there should be more than 2 teams playing on ESPN on a nightly basis.

I do understand they do play other teams but they do not get the majority of the time than what Boston and New York get. As a MLB fan I would like to see more teams get more time and more respect.

[VitaminD]

Beyond the fact that it's a key series between two very good teams who happen to be division rivals and whose fan bases despise the opposition, I have no personal interest in the series. My squad is an NL squad with its own playoff push underway, so these games have zero impact on what my team needs to do. I'd watch it, but I'd just as soon watch a Giants-Dodgers game, or a Tigers-White Sox matchup.

And as a Northeasterner, I fully agree that this series is way too overhyped. There are plenty of other good rivalries out there that get overlooked in the name of promoting all things Sox-Yanks, and they are doing a disservice to MLB by overdoing this series. It is, at its core, a longstanding regional rivalry; it's not USA v. USSR.

[slapshot]

ESPN = Bristol, CT.

Bristol, CT = in between Boston and New York.

Boston vs. New York = big news in Boston, New York and Connecticut.

TV station in CT broadcasts big news in CT.

Bored? Watch FSN.

[Cyclopsis Joe]

Only time I was interested in a "Richest Team In Baseball" V. "Second Richest Team In Baseball" match-up was the '04 ALCS. (That's was the big comeback one, right?)

[See Red]

On ESPN's front page the other day, they had a poll asking what event were you most looking forward to or interested in -- Red Sox/Yankees was the overwhelming favorite. So people, apparently do care. They're the two most popular teams in the league, overwhelmingly if you don't count the Braves and Cubs, which have practically all of their games Nationally televised. Of course they're going to televise as many of these games as possible.

[tp49]

I'm interested but because I'm a Yankee fan and a native New Yorker. If I wasn't I wouldn't care.

[Tazz013]

Wisconsin couldn't care less.

The way I see it, it's just the typical ESPN East-Coast bias. There are plenty of other division/wildcard races going on that I care more about than the Yanks and Sawks.

[VitaminD]

On ESPN's front page the other day, they had a poll asking what event were you most looking forward to or interested in -- Red Sox/Yankees was the overwhelming favorite.  So people, apparently do care.

ESPN's polls aren't exactly rooted in sound scientific theory, mind you. Using that as support for your point of view isn't concrete proof of anything.

And have you ever noticed how ESPN always runs the polls to coincide with one upcoming event? To be fair, run the same poll when the Yankees are in Oakland and the Sox host the Devil Rays, on the weekend of the next Giants/Dodgers series where the Sunday Night Game of the Week on ESPN is Giants v. Dodgers. Their polls always skew in favor of the upcoming event - which, coincidentally, will be aired (as you mentioned) on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPN360, ESPNU, "the Ocho"...

Don't believe me? Back in March, the "best rivalry in sports" was UNC/Duke basketball. Just five months later, it's Yanks/Sox. But care to guess what it will be in March '07?

[See Red]

The poll isn't asking if people were looking to Yankees/Red Sox this weekend or UNC/Duke in the college basketball when it starts -- it was in relation to events this weekend. The poll very easily showed that people were looking forward more to this series than they were to any other sporting event this weekend.

[Bleujayone]

Seeing as I was born and raised in the heart of Red Sox Nation, my interest just happens to be rather high. To be honest it was always the game to watch even when one or both teams had no shot at the postseason. They are the Hatfields & McCoys of baseball and arguably one of the biggest rivals in all of sports. I just try to look at it as just another part of the fun, but I know people on both sides of the line who treat it with the hatred of a centuries-long war between two factions.

People from these two areas not only take they baseball seriously- so too do they take any game between these two teams. The fact that they've been running neck and neck in recent years only adds to the tension.

When Baltimore, Detroit or Cleveland come into town, Red Sox fans still want the hometown team to win, but by and large we remain civil regardless of the outcome. If the Yankees blow into town, we all become rabid fans and the idiot factor among the bleacher creatures tends to go up tenfold.

So too do Yakee fans, although they have tried harder to hide it. I went to Yankee Stadium years ago when someone in the Yankees front office thought it would be a swell idea to have a "Bat Day" promotional giveaway when the Sox came to the Bronx. I'm not talking inflatable bats mind you, I'm talking about solid wooden baseball bats the size of police battons. Great. The first 5,000 people through the gates, many of them already liquored up before hand and now they get to be armed too. The bats were small enough you can hide them up a sleeve or pant leg. And boy, did they come out when someone caught wind of a Sox fan in the stands. I had always seen police at sporting events, and I had even seen a few rowdies tossed out, but this was the first time I ever saw riot-gear police rounding up hoards of people.

I had never seen such mass thuggery until years later when I got to witness something similar in Fenway, oddly enough when the Yankees came to play. Anyone remember the "phantom tag" about 7 years back? In many way this rivalry brings out the worst in some people. They take the whole win/loss thing very personally.

[Seadragon76]

I can see someone who lives in that part of the nation caring a lot more then someone who doesn't live there.

Me? I couldn't give a rat's ass less about the Skankees and the Red Sux. I, of all things, am tired of hearing about these two teams day in and day out. I would rather see Toronto make a huge run to take over the AL East and win the division, making sure that baseball is safe from the bandwagoning morons that lurk in the Northeast and in NYC in October.

I could care less about them. I just want to see my Mariners on ESPN just once. That's all I ask, people. No Skankees, No more Red Sux, No more White Sux, No more Tiggers, No more Bonds crap, just one stinking Mariners game. PLEASE!!!

[FiddySicks]

What about the Arizona folks, or those in California or on the west coast?

We find it as interesting as watching C SPAN. We got the AL and NL West race to think about.

[pcgd]

0 to negative interest.

Even though my team sucks the least out of a terrible division, Cardinals/Cubs will always have a better atmosphere to me than Red Sox/Yankees.

For 2 main reasons:

No DH

Respect

We may hate each other, but we respect each other. Save for about 2 jerks in every bar of 200, everyone will get along before and after the game no matter if they are wearing red or blue. Its a fun experience going to a Cardinal Cub series, no matter if its in Chicago or St. Louis. Both cities travel very well and the stadiams are about 60-40 or so.

I'll be in the bleachers tomorrow.

[Waffles]

I'm a Yankee fan...and if the Yankees and Red Sox never played each other again, it'd be decades too late. Besides the fact that they play each other every two weeks and each game is treated like the :censored:ing rapture, this rivalry brings out the absolute worst in everyone, as Pat pointed out. Nothing is more degrading to the sanity and dignity of otherwise rational Yankee and Red Sox fans than another stupid, redundant chapter in this idiotic "rivalry".

My interest level in this series is as high as it would be if it was the Devil Rays 2 1/2 games back.

[jkrdevil]

I'm a Yankee fan...and if the Yankees and Red Sox never played each other again, it'd be decades too late. Besides the fact that they play each other every two weeks and each game is treated like the :censored:ing rapture, this rivalry brings out the absolute worst in everyone, as Pat pointed out. Nothing is more degrading to the sanity and dignity of otherwise rational Yankee and Red Sox fans than another stupid, redundant chapter in this idiotic "rivalry".

My interest level in this series is as high as it would be if it was the Devil Rays 2 1/2 games back.

I agree. I'm interested in this as a Yankee Fan because it is a pennant race and the Red Sox are 2.5 games back (hopefully more after this weekend). If the Blue Jays were 2.5 games back and they and the Yankees were playing a 5 games series in 4 days I would be equally as interested. Sure this series has been hyped up more because of recent history and the history of back in the 70's when again the teams were good at the same time. That said in the 90's when it was the Yankees-Orioles battling it out for first those were the big series.

As for ESPN of course they are going to show this series as it is a key rivalry series with 2 huge markets. Is ESPN and the media focused eastern focus yes but thats because the same reason why Boston and New York can have a combined payroll of over 300 million. The Northeast contains the huge markets. The Boston, New York, Philly, and Washington teams are always going to be frequently on National TV.