The weather may be cooling down in the Bronx, but the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is just heating up. This week the Bronx Bombers are hosting Boston in their last battle of the season. Although the Sox are struggling, sports fans should not expect anything less of the classic showdown series. Past games have brought about bench-clearing brawls, pitchers punching coaches, game-winning homers and a multitude of mischievous acts by Alex Rodriguez.
The average person may wonder what the cause of all of the hate could possibly be. Why did Thurman Munson blatantly barrel into Carlton Fisk? Why did Pedro Martinez throw Don Zimmer to the ground? Well, the answer is quite simple; when the greatest baseball player of all time is traded, people tend to become slightly angered. In 1919, Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, traded Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees due to the Sox’s struggling financial situation. Ruth went on to lead New York to extreme success with his outstanding abilities, while Boston went into a slump of misfortune and failure. Ever since then the tension has risen, making each and every time the two teams step foot on a field wonderfully unpredictable. What adds to the drama is the fact that the two teams continue to trade players between each other. The once beloved athletes of one team become traitors, and enemies are transformed into allies. Players develop personal rivalries creating verbal and sometimes even physical fights. One can only imagine what the coming week will bring. Harry Frazee was only attempting to save some money; however, in doing so he created the greatest rivalry in the history of the game of baseball.
