Red Sox-Yankees, latest chapter

So, I get home from our Little League game and am posting our stats on-line (if you click on the link, you'll see we kind of got clobbered, but I was happy with our kids for not giving up, etc. etc.), and I tune in the Yankees-Red Sox video feed on ESPN 3. Sure enough, the score is 7-6 Yankees in the sixth and it looks like were in for another nailbiter in the Bronx.

Then, I recall that on the way to our game, I had to listen to my old friend Red and James L. LeCorchick rip apart the networks for constantly showing Yankees-Red Sox action.

Here's what followed: Yankees bullpen is injured. Nobody seems to know if it's Chamberlain or Rivera, but neither is available for the eighth inning. So, Girardi leaves the hapless Chan Ho Park in, who is not even good necessarily when he's healthy, but is now just coming off the D.L. Well, two home runs later, it's 9-7 Red Sox and the Beantowners have come all the way back from an 0-5 first inning deficit to take the lead.

Another recall: during our game, one of our coaches, who's a 'Sox fans, taunts me about Mariano Rivera giving up a game-losing grand slam last night.

Well, Yankees go down harmlessly to Red Sox' set-up man Bard in the bottom of the eighth and a couple Yankees pitchers get the Sox in the top of the ninth. Bottom of the ninth - in comes Red Sox hated closer Jonathan Papelbon. I'm down stairs getting ice cream. I come back up and Brett Gardner is on third and A-Rod launches one to tie it up. Papelbon beans our next hitter - young catcher Cervelli, and Marcus Thames follows with game winner down the left-field line. Yankees win 11-9, players mob each other, Thames get pie in the face, etc. (I text our Sox-fan coach thanking him for jinxing Papelbon.)

You really mean to tell me that is the type of action you want to keep off TV -James L and Red? Maybe the great game is the exception more than the rule, but still, tell me two other teams that could play such an intense game in May? I know I'm a biased Yankee fan, but, when the Yankees and Red Sox get together, it often brings the game to another level that you just don't get with other teams in the regular season. These are the two highest paid franchises in the league, there are some big egos out there, and really, they have some history. I'll go so far as to compare it to Steelers-Browns back in the day. Didn't everyone want to see that?

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I don't think televising the Red Sox Yankees ahead of the Indians-Rays game is a bad decision.

Ralph