NEW YORK — When the Yankees play the Red Sox, it's baseball's version of the Hatfields versus the McCoys — and that's when they meet during the regular season. Starting Wednesday night, the AL pennant will be on the line.
And if you listen to Boston's Todd Walker, the title of best team in baseball is at stake in the AL championship series.
"The team that wins this wins the World Series. We're the two best teams in baseball," he said Tuesday. "No disrespect to the Cubs and the Marlins, but we're the best two teams."
Traveling across the country after its dramatic win at Oakland on Monday night, the Red Sox arrived in New York at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday to take on the team Boston president Larry Lucchino called the "Evil Empire."
The Yankees, coming off a first-round win over Minnesota, are seeking their 39th AL pennant, trying to get to the World Series for the fifth time in six seasons.
And their always-demanding fans are looking for their team to restore luster to a franchise that hasn't gone to the World Series in two long years — since the seven-game loss to Arizona in 2001.
Losing to the Red Sox would bring unthinkable shame upon Yankee fans, who weren't pleased their team won the season series by only 10-9, getting outscored 109-94. To them, beating Boston is a rite of nature, a close-to-annual event since former Boston owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to New York in 1920 for $125,000 plus a $350,000 loan that helped finance his Broadway musical, "No, No Nanette."
While the players might not know the history of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio or Carlton Fisk or Thurman Munson, they understand the importance of advancing.
When Boston's Tim Wakefield takes the mound against Mike Mussina in the opener, the Red Sox will try to continue the roll that began when they overcame a 2-0 deficit in the first round against Oakland, sweeping three straight games to advance to the ALCS for the first time since 1999 — when they lost 4-1 to the Yankees.
The Red Sox are looking for their first AL pennant since 1986, trying to lift their curse and win their first World Series title in 85 years.
There will be several individual dramas:
— Roger Clemens returning to Fenway Park one final time to pitch Game 3 against Pedro Martinez.
— Jeter on the same field with Nomar Garciaparra, his shortstop rival to the north.
— Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer back at Fenway Park against the team he managed in the loss to Dent and New York in the infamous 1978 one-game playoff.
Notes: The Red Sox won't know until Wednesday whether OF Johnny Damon, who sustained a concussion in Monday's crash with Damian Jackson, will be available. Damon returned to Boston on Tuesday and was to see a neurologist. Boston also was waiting test results on RHP Byung-Hyun Kim, who has a sore arm. ... Torre said New York might make roster changes but wasn't sure.