The End of the Rivalry?

Column Like I See 'Em: A Change Is Gonna Come

"Do you hear the people sing? Singing the song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums, there is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!" Well, maybe not tomorrow. But soon, hopefully." So maybe this musical excerpt from "Les Misérables" doesn't capture completely the demise of ardent NBA fans everywhere?"life" in the final line would be better replaced with "change"?but that's why Sam Cooke's 1964 hit single sits atop this article. And while it might be too optimistic, I'm under the impression that there's no such thing, and therefore regret not titling it "A Change Has Gotta Come."

Column Like I See 'Em: The Things We Now Know

This week proved to be one of, if not the most challenging in my one-and-a-half year tenure as a columnist for the Orient; at least in terms of deliberating what to write about. The difficulty of my situation, however, lay not within the confines of a slow news week, but rather a week that brought with it too many storylines worth further exploration: The resurgence of exciting hockey, the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs unfolding better than we ever might have imagined, the NFL Draft set to kickoff tomorrow afternoon, and how the D'Backs have become the best team in baseball, to name a few.

Column Like I See 'Em

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

April 18, 2008

First, Chien-Ming Wang showed why he is still one of the most valuable pitchers in baseball. Then, after a sporadic rainfall blanketed the field a couple of times over, resulting in a two-hour and 11-minute long rain delay, Jonathan Papelbon entered and answered, blazing three straight past Alex Rodriguez, subsequently erupting into his usual extravagant celebration like a sugar-high kid at Chuck E. Cheese. Finally, Phil Hughes didn't have it, and the opposing bats did, while Joe Morgan?in a nutshell?told the world that the minor leagues was a place for young players to develop; the sky is also blue, in case you were wondering.

If you are still a bit hazy about the above paragraph, I don't blame you. This is a time of year when stress levels?still in their infantile stages?begin to elevate, challenging projects are visible on the horizon, and there remains little free time to keep up with professional sports while maintaining an arduous daily schedule. Therefore, don't worry if the names Hughes or Morgan didn't ring a bell. After all, it's still early. But essentially, on Friday, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox gathered at Fenway Park in Beantown and renewed their vows of hatred for one another opening a three-game series...or did they? You could feel the tension in the air just by watching as leviathans Ramirez and Ortiz stepped up against an unhittable Wang...or could you? The best rivalry in professional sports had finally made its much-anticipated return, and each of us was as thrilled as can be...or were we?

Last Friday night, amid Relay for Life, the Film Festival, and, well, it being a Friday night, I nearly forgot about the match-up that has caused me more general anxiety and distress than all six seasons of "24" (except for the last one; if you haven't seen it yet, don't bother?trust me on this one) combined. Even when I made it back from the Film Festival around 9:30 p.m., and saw that the game was close at 3-1 in the top of the eighth, I didn't even bother watching the rest of it. Maybe I didn't because I knew if Wang got into trouble, Joba would save the day, or maybe it was because I had to make a few phone calls first. But what if I hadn't finished watching the game because I didn't care enough about the outcome?

When I walk to dining hall or to class, I always seem to encounter the usual suspects (imagine that: Kevin Spacey and Stephen Baldwin on this campus; who knew?). And with some of them?depending on (a) whether or not the Red Sox lost the previous evening, (b) whether or not the Yankees won the previous evening, and (c) how New York is doing in the standings with regards to Boston?I will try my best to induce a feeling of irritation with a simple provocation such as, "How'd the Sox do last night?" And usually, I get the expected smile and shake of the head. But not so much anymore...at least not these days.

More people this year have responded to my lame attempt to get under their skin with a "What happened? I don't even know," "Did they lose?" or my favorite, "It's way too early for baseball for me." This last reply has resonated with me far more clearly than any of the others, because it actually offers something that is both extremely valuable and blatantly obvious: the idea that perhaps maybe it is, in fact, too early for baseball.

While spring is imminent and is gradually making its presence known day-by-day, not all of the snow has vanished, and a portion of us are still locked into NHL Playoffs mode (yes, some of us still watch hockey), European soccer mode (or the MLS for all you neophytes), or I-can't-wait-for-Isiah-to-finally-be-canned-even-though-he-probably-won't-be mode. At this point in the year, we are all preoccupied with other things, so when baseball sneaks up on us like this, most of us aren't yet ready to accept it. The players are called the boys of summer for a reason, right? And in a season where a team like the Tigers stink (for the person that just awoke from a three-year coma, nothing's changed), and the lowly Marlins rule, you can only think that the beginning will have little bearing on the season's end?especially with the Yanks and Sox.

To be totally honest, last weekend's series between the two rivals felt emotionally deflated. There were few notifications about it on TV, bustle around campus was almost inaudible, and the only relevant subplots leading up to game one on Friday involved a hawk attacking a girl named Alexa Rodriguez (the hawk was apparently of the species Scottus Borasus) on a tour of Fenway Park, and a rebellious construction worker burying a Red Sox shirt in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium, only to have it dug up and inflame the volatile Hank Steinbrenner who immediately called for the perp's head (to put it politely). The games were relatively boring, with not even a whiff of a potential controversy brewing. The two squads by today will have completed a random, insignificant two-game series in the middle of the week, throwing a couple more logs on the fire of this heated rivalry...if we can even call it that anymore.

I realize that Major League Baseball aspires to increase its fan-base year after year, and by pegging two traditional foes against each other early on will almost certainly lead to a boost in TV ratings. But there is absolutely no conceivable reason as to why the Yankees and Red Sox should ever play each other in April, or even in May for that matter; it's just too soon. If they play each other 19 times a year, wouldn't you want to see those series spread out from mid-June to late September when both clubs not only for the most part have gelled, and are finally into the swing of things, but also that the fans are also finally into it, too?

Unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do about it this season, where luckily, there are only five "meaningless" games between the two, all coming in April. But it's certainly something to consider for the future. So, is the rivalry really dead? No, of course not; it just might feel that way (a harmless brawl wouldn't hurt). So finish your homework, turn in your papers, and tune in to America's greatest sport...you don't have to worry about anything just yet.

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