It started with Babe Ruth. Or maybe with Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. It increased in ferocity with Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk and reached its apex with Derek Jeter and David Ortiz. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have long been adversaries, although the rivalry has admittedly cooled off from that pinnacle of animosity 21 years ago.
For the sixth time, the Yankees and Red Sox are meeting in the postseason as they square off in the wild-card series, a best-of-three with all games at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox won the season series, 9 to 4, but the Yankees have been on a roll since mid-August. As the series kicks off, let’s look at the 10 times when the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was at its hottest.
1. 2003: Pedro, Grady and Boone
What happened: The Yankees beat the Red Sox in the 2003 ALCS, winning Game 7 on Aaron Boone’s walk-off home run in the 11th inning.
Before we get to Game 7, let’s backtrack a moment. By 2003, the Red Sox and Yankees played 19 regular-season games a year in MLB’s unbalanced schedule — and each one felt like its own little mini war. It’s difficult to describe the emotions of these games in this era — not just from the players, but the desperation among Red Sox fans intertwined with the winning arrogance of Yankees fans.
Game 3 was a Martinez-Clemens showdown at Fenway Park. In the fourth inning, Pedro Martinez threw a pitch behind Karim Garcia’s head. In the bottom of the inning, Roger Clemens threw up-and-in to Manny Ramirez, which set off a benches-clearing brawl and featured the ignominious moment when Martinez grabbed 72-year-old Yankees coach Don Zimmer by the head and tossed him to the ground. In the ninth inning, a Fenway groundskeeper got into a scuffle in the bullpen with Garcia and Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson. These teams did not like each other.
Fast-forward to Game 7, another Martinez-Clemens matchup. Clemens lasted just three-plus innings as the Red Sox led 5-2 entering the bottom of the eighth. Throughout the season, Martinez’s numbers had significantly dropped off after reaching 100 pitches, but manager Grady Little brought him back out. Martinez got the first out, but then allowed a double to Derek Jeter and single to Bernie Williams. Little visited the mound and, to the surprise of everyone, left Martinez in the game. He then allowed doubles to Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada and was finally removed after 123 pitches. The Yankees had tied the game.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, Aaron Boone led off against Tim Wakefield and hit the first pitch for the series-winning home run. Mariano Rivera, who had pitched the final three innings for the Yankees, instead of joining the celebration to mob Boone at home plate, went to the pitcher’s mound, dropped to his knees, and cried. Yankees manager Joe Torre was in tears as he hugged his players. Mike Mussina, who had pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Clemens, sat in front of his locker after the postgame champagne celebration, tears streaming down his face, barely able to talk.
We would see different emotions the following year.
2. 2004: Big Papi and the greatest comeback ever
What happened: Down 3-0 in the ALCS and trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4, the Red Sox tied the game off Rivera — you’ve probably heard about Dave Roberts’ steal — and won in 12 innings. Then they won the next three games as well, the only team in MLB playoff history to rally from a 3-0 series deficit. Boston swept a 105-win Cardinals team in the World Series.
In late September, the Yankees twice beat Martinez — scoring eight runs in the first game and rallying in the eighth inning to beat him in the second. “What can I say? I tip my cap and call the Yankees my daddy,” a glum Martinez said. When Martinez lost 3-1 in Game 2, and then the Yankees blasted the Red Sox 19-8 in Game 3, and with Curt Schilling apparently out with a ruptured tendon in his ankle, it looked all over. Maybe the Red Sox never would beat the Yankees.
Enter David Ortiz. After Roberts’ steal and Bill Mueller’s tying RBI single, Ortiz won Game 4 with a two-run home run. Then he won Game 5 with a two-out RBI single in the 14th inning. Then Schilling miraculously made it back for Game 6 and allowed one run in seven innings. It came down to Game 7 at Yankee Stadium. “The Red Sox couldn’t wait to get to the park today,” Joe Buck would say during the broadcast. Ortiz hit a two-run home run in the first. Johnny Damon belted a grand slam in the second. The Red Sox won 10-3. The self-proclaimed “Idiots” had come back from the dead.
The rivalry was never better. But it was never quite the same.
3. 1978: Bucky Bleepin’ Dent
What happened: After a ferocious division race ended in a tie, the teams met in a one-game tiebreaker at Fenway Park. Dent, who had hit four home runs all season, hit a go-ahead three-run home run off Mike Torrez in the seventh inning and the Yankees held on for a 5-4 victory.
The 1978 division race is often presented as a monumental Red Sox collapse — which isn’t exactly fair. Yes, the Yankees were 14 games behind the Red Sox on July 19. Fair enough. But the Red Sox didn’t collapse: They went 37-36 the rest of the way and finished with 99 wins. There was the famous Boston Massacre series in early September when the Yankees went into Fenway and won by scores of 15-3, 13-2, 7-0 and 7-4, but the Red Sox won their final eight games just to force the tiebreaker game.
In the tiebreaker game, the Red Sox led 2-0 when Dent, the No. 9 hitter in the Yankees lineup, stepped in with two on and two outs. He fouled a pitch off his foot, cracking his bat, and borrowed a bat from on-deck hitter Mickey Rivers. On the next pitch, he lofted a fly ball over the Green Monster.
In the bottom of the ninth, with the Yankees now leading 5-4, the Red Sox had Rick Burleson at first base with one out when Jerry Remy lofted a soft fly ball to right field that Lou Piniella momentarily lost in the sun. At the last second, Piniella reached out with his glove and snagged the ball on a bounce, holding Burleson at second base. When Jim Rice then hit a long fly ball to right field, Burleson could only advance to third base rather than scoring the tying run. Carl Yastrzemski then popped out to end it.
The Yankees had come out on top — and went on to win their second straight World Series.
4. 2004: Varitek versus A-Rod
What happened: On July 24, Red Sox starter Bronson Arroyo hit Alex Rodriguez in the arm with a curveball. As Rodriguez walked to first base and removed his elbow guard, he had some words for Arroyo that might have rhymed with “luck” and “shoe.” Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek intervened, shoved his glove and bare hand into Rodriguez’s face and a benches-clearing brawl was on.
“I couldn’t believe Tek put his hands in his face like that,” the team’s then-GM Theo Epstein said in last year’s documentary “The Comeback.” “I have a perfect angle when he goes down to scoop him up. I thought for sure he was gonna, like, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, just body slam.”
Many Red Sox fans — and players — believe this is when the so-called Curse of the Bambino began to reverse, leading to the 2004 championship. The Red Sox rallied from a 9-4 deficit to win the game 11-10, scoring three runs off Rivera in the bottom of the ninth, the final two on Bill Mueller’s walk-off home run. The Red Sox, out of a playoff position at the time, went 46-20 the rest of the way to lock up the AL wild card.
5. 1973: The Carlton Fisk/Thurman Munson fight
What happened: On Aug. 1, with the two teams battling in a tight AL East race, the game was 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning when Munson tried to score from third base after a missed bunt and crashed into Fisk. The two catchers came up swinging, setting off a huge bench-clearing brawl.
In one sense, this fight set in motion the modern Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. Until the 1970s, the two franchises had rarely been good at the same time, the late 1940s being the primary exception. Fisk and Munson were young, emerging stars who had both won Rookie of the Year honors, two tough catchers who played the game with an extra dose of intensity.
As Peter Gammons once wrote, “Thurman Munson hated Carlton Fisk because he was jealous of him — the chiseled, handsome Fisk, in contrast to the dumpy, stubbled Munson.” Fisk had appeared twice on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and he was voted the All-Star starter in 1973 over Munson.
Fisk ended up at the bottom of the brawl with Gene Michael, who had missed the bunt that led to the melee in the first place. “Fisk had his left arm right across Stick’s throat and wouldn’t let up,” Yankees manager Ralph Houk would tell Gammons. “Michael couldn’t breathe. I had to crawl underneath the pile to try to pry Fisk’s arm off his throat to keep him from killing Stick. All the while he had Michael pinned down, he was punching Munson underneath the pile.”
6. 1999: Finally, the first playoff meeting
What happened: The Yankees beat the Red Sox in five games in the ALCS.
With the creation of the wild card, the Red Sox and Yankees had both made the playoffs in 1995 and 1998, but it wasn’t until 1999 that they met for the first time in the postseason. Before the first game, Yankees legend Yogi Berra gave a pep talk to the team. “Don’t worry,” he reportedly said. “These guys have been trying to beat us for 80 years.”
Bernie Williams hit a walk-off home run off Rod Beck in the 10th inning in Game 1. The Yankees also took Game 2. The much-anticipated Pedro Martinez-Roger Clemens showdown in Game 3 turned into a blowout as the Red Sox won 13-1 behind Martinez’s seven scoreless innings, but the Yankees cruised in the final two games and went on to win their second consecutive World Series and followed with their third in a row in 2000.
7. 2018: The best Red Sox team ever
What happened: Both teams remained perennial contenders, but didn’t meet in the playoffs after 2004 until the 2018 ALDS. The Red Sox, who won 108 games in the regular season, won in four games.
The Red Sox followed up their 2004 World Series win with titles in 2007 and 2013. The Yankees won in 2009. By 2018, the Red Sox had the highest payroll in the majors and had signed big-name free agents and traded for big stars. After beating the Yankees, they beat the Astros in the ALCS and the Dodgers to win the World Series — their fourth since 2004.
The Red Sox had become the Yankees.
8. 1949: Yankees win AL pennant on final day of season
What happened: The Red Sox entered the final two-game series of the season at Yankee Stadium needing one win to capture the AL pennant. The Yankees won both games.
A year after Cleveland had won a tight three-team race (and beat Boston in the first-ever tiebreaker game to win the pennant), the 1949 pennant race came down to the final series between the Red Sox and Yankees. On Saturday, before 69,000 fans on Joe DiMaggio Day (he was given two cars, a boat and other gifts and then went 2-for-4 while nursing a 102-degree fever), the Red Sox took an early 4-0 lead, but the Yankees battled back to win 5-4 behind 6⅔ scoreless innings of relief from Joe Page and Johnny Lindell’s go-ahead home run in the eighth inning.
It came down to a winner-take-all game on Sunday before 68,000 fans. Ellis Kinder and Vic Raschi locked up in a pitchers’ duel, the Yankees leading 1-0 when Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy pinch hit for Kinder in the top of the eighth. The Red Sox failed to score and in the bottom of the inning, McCarthy brought in Mel Parnell — who had started on Saturday. Tommy Henrich greeted him with a home run and the Yankees exploded for four runs to take a 5-0 lead. In the top of the ninth inning, DiMaggio — who had battled bone spurs in his right heel all season — failed to run down a long drive from Bobby Doerr and removed himself from the game. The Red Sox scored three runs, but Raschi finished off the 5-3 victory and the Yankees went on to their first of five consecutive World Series victories.
9. 2002: The Evil Empire
What happened: In December 2002, after the Yankees beat out the Red Sox to acquire Cuban right-hander Jose Contreras with a $32 million deal, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino referred to the Yankees as the “evil empire.”
While the Yankees lost the 2001 World Series and lost to the Angels in the 2002 playoffs, they were at the height of spending extravagance and on-field domination in the George Steinbrenner era. And Lucchino didn’t like Steinbrenner. The Red Sox, after all, had just finished in second place for the fifth season in a row.
The Yankees entered the 2002 offseason vowing to cut payroll. Then they signed Japanese star Hideki Matsui. And then Contreras. “We couldn’t — the right word is we wouldn’t — sacrifice the opportunity to sign these talents on the basis of reducing payroll first,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.
It was too much for Lucchino.
The New York Times reached out to him after the Contreras signing. He initially offered a “no comment.” Then he changed his mind. “No, I’ll comment,” he said. “The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.”
Was Lucchino wrong? The Yankees’ payroll was now about $158 million, well above the $117 million tax threshold at the time, and way above any other team. They had won four World Series since 1996. Fans of the other 29 teams despised the Yankees with the heat of a million suns. But Lucchino also came across as, well — a whiner. From an organization that couldn’t win it all.
Things were about to get much more heated.
10. 2021: A lump of Cole
What happened: The last time the teams met in the playoffs, it was in the winner-take-all wild-card game. The Red Sox knocked out Gerrit Cole in the bottom of the third and went on to a 6-2 victory.
Cole had been the Yankees’ big free agent signing before the 2020 season and would finish second in the 2021 Cy Young voting, but he had a 4.91 ERA in four regular-season starts against the Red Sox and then got a quick hook in the wild-card game after allowing a two-run homer to Xander Bogaerts in the first and a solo home run to Kyle Schwarber in the third. (Apparently, the Red Sox were his daddy.)
The Red Sox would beat Tampa Bay in the ALDS before losing to Houston in the ALCS — and then missed the playoffs the next three seasons. In fact, both teams missed the 2023 playoffs, only the second time that had happened in the wild-card era, which began in 1995.
Neither team now rules the sport. The Dodgers have become the dominant franchise, the Red Sox are spending less on payroll than they did in 2018, the Yankees haven’t won a World Series in 16 years and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner even complained that the Dodgers’ spending made it difficult for other teams to compete with them.
So, yes, it’s a different era. But Yankees versus Red Sox, in October, is still something special.
