NEW YORK — Roman Anthony got the customary introduction to this cauldron of angst and exhilaration that we know around here as “The Rivalry.”
“It’s probably what I imagined, probably a little more,” he said. “For me, I love playing in that atmosphere, I love being booed, I love everything about it. It’s fun.”
So Anthony, barely 21, the new ‘It kid’ with the Red Sox, came to the right place. He checked in with a big home run Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, rakishly flipping his bat. This better-than-the-sum-of-its parts Red Sox team has regained the upper hand over the Yankees and shows no signs of loosening its present grip.
“We had a sense in spring training that they were now starting to emerge as a club,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said, as the Red Sox arrived in New York for the four-game series that concludes Sunday. “Just from the (players) that have developed over the last couple of years that have become core guys, and the emergence of a couple of young players who have shown up and started to establish themselves as core guys.”
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The ancient rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox has always been about core guys: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, Foxx, Williams, Yaz, Lynn, Rice, Munson and Fisk, Boggs and Mattingly, Jeter, A-Rod, Clemens, Pedro, Manny being Manny, Big Papi, Raffy Devers, Aaron Judge.
They’ve often introduced themselves in the opposing ballparks the way Roman Anthony did this week. Through the decades, “The Rivalry” heats up, boils over, then may cool for a stretch, but it’s back on now, and at its best when, as Boone describes: “Both teams are really good, with five or six weeks to go, both teams are playing for a lot, and are in each other’s way a little bit.”
Exactly how things are now.
The Red Sox, after several sub-par seasons that had their fans questioning the organization’s commitment, are reaping the benefits of their patience and their confidence in their evaluations of players. Up and down their lineup, the names and numbers may not be as familiar or scary as some of those others, but manager Alex Cora, who led them to their last championship in 2018, is getting a lot out of what he’s got. The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees 6-3, 1-0 and 12-1, with the chance for a four-game sweep Sunday. They are 8-1 in the season series.
“We’ve had a good season against them,” Cora said, “(if) we continue to do that, we’re going to be in a good spot.”
The Yankees, who led the Red Sox by 10 1/2 games on June 5, have done a good enough job of getting in their own way. They lead the majors in home runs, by a lot, and lead the AL in runs scored, yet they’ve been shut out nine times, the ninth coming Friday at the hands of Brayan Bello, who has blanked them twice, and a pair of relievers.
They’ve outslugged their mistakes against bad teams, which is why they won seven of eight games coming into this series and are in still playoff contention, but have not been able to do that against the first-place Blue Jays, or the Red Sox, or most other contenders. They may make the playoffs, but without a single relief pitcher Boone has any real reason to trust, the Yankees hardly look like a playoff team.
So here is the state of “The Rivalry” that grips Connecticut each summer. Young Yankee Ben Rice, who as a kid in Eastern Mass and once doodled “Yankees Rule” on Pesky’s Pole, homered and tripled Thursday, but the Red Sox continue getting the last laugh, leaving the Yankees to squeeze their bats and grit their teeth in frustration.
On Thursday, New York made four errors and lost a pre-pitch clock style game in 3 1/2 hours. On Friday, the Yankees went down quickly, quietly, before and after Boston’s Connor Wong, hitting .180 coming in, knocked in the only run of the game. They were lifeless and humiliated Saturday.
“Yeah, I don’t like losing to them, I don’t like losing to the Sox and they’ve had our number,” Boone said.
The Yankees, who have only one championship since 2000, despite reaching the playoffs 20 of 25 years, long ago lost that mystique of coming up big in series such as this weekend. It wasn’t that way when Boone was tossed into the middle of the Yankees-Red Sox maelstrom in 2003, and hit that pennant clinching home run in Game 7 of that wild, epic ALCS.
“I was hanging with a few of my teammates the night I got traded,” Boone said, “and (former Red Sox) Timmy Naehring was there, too, and he said, ‘You have no idea what you’re about to walk into. In 2003, it was two heavyweights and he was right. From a rivalry standpoint, it was the real deal.”
It was still just as intense when Cora played for Boston in 2005 and ’06, after the Red Sox ended the long championship drought with the legendary ALCS comeback against New York in ’04. The win Thursday reminded Cora of those every-inning-a-struggle days when rivalry games routinely took 3 1/2 to four hours.
The Red Sox have been playing great baseball since unloading an unhappy Devers in June. GM Craig Breslow made a wise decision there, and made another at the trade deadline, when he didn’t disrupt a team on a roll. The relatively modest moves he’s made didn’t throw much red meat to fans, but nearly every player he has acquired has helped.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman added seven players in late July, but the Yankees are still sputtering toward the playoffs, when these ancient rivals could be positioned for another October clash. Sure, anything can happen then, and “The Rivalry” is relevant again. But even if they have more or less the same record at the moment, all that one can survey this late August looks promising for the young and jaunty Red Sox.
The Yankees … not so much.
More for your Sunday Read:
Little League memories
Zach Osborne, who played for the Yard Goats a few years ago and is now the team’s hitting coach, was MVP in the 2002 Little League World Series, in which his team from Louisville beat Japan in the final at Williamsport, Pa.
“I got to experience that with my own father (Troy Osborne), he was our head coach,” Osborne said. “I went through that whole summer with him, and he was definitely hard on me, in a good way. We got to share that special moment together.”
The focus on fundamentals stayed with Osborne, 35, who later played college ball at Tennessee. A middle infielder, he reached Double A in the Rockies’ organization, playing at New Britain in 2015, with the Yard Goats through the all-games-on-the-road season of 2016, He’s in his second season on manager Bobby Meacham’s staff.
“With the Yard Goats in Double A baseball, we’re always trying to teach the fundamentals,” Osborne said. “There are times in games where players rely on their talent, but the more fundamentally sound team usually wins the game, that’s all the way from Little League to the big leagues.
“I remember back, before the Little League World Series, we would have practices all day long, on weekends, we were constantly working hard and that’s what we were going over. Weren’t working on hitting three-run homers, we were working on throwing strikes as pitchers, and all the small stuff within the game.”
Each year, including 2025, Osborne tunes into the Little League World Series, which concludes Sunday, whenever he can, in the clubhouse or the coaches room, to see bits and pieces of the games, something pro players like to do. “It sure brings back a lot of memories,” he said.
Hoosier classic
Braylon Mullins, who could be the next big-time freshmen for UConn men’s basketball, brings the Indiana hoops pedigree to Storrs, a merging of two powerful brands.
“It’s a much different thing, Indiana high school basketball is its own thing,” Mullins said. “Those gyms are incredible, the atmosphere is incredible, the way everybody plays there is incredible. It’s different, Indiana high school basketball, and I’m very happy I got to experience that.”
Mullins played for Greenfield Central High, and at peak times of year, played before close to 10,000 people. In his senior year, his team, ranked No. 3 in the state, played No.1 Fishers High in a tournament in New Castle, Ind. Mullins scored 33 points, but Fishers won by five.
“Four of the best teams in the state going there to play, it’s a moment I won’t take for granted,” Mullins said. “It’s a crazy experience.”
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Sunday short takes
*Last week in this space, we wrote that Mamadou “Mo-Mo” Dieng, young, high-scoring striker for Hartford Athletic, was not long for the USL. On Friday, he signed with Minnesota United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS).
*The World Series Club of Hartford County has lined up veterans of one of the great World Series ever played, the 1975 epic between the Red Sox and Reds, for its next event, Sept. 3 at the New Britain VFW. Bernie Carbo, he of the dramatic Game 6 home run for the Red Sox in the 1975 Series, pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee and catcher Bob Montgomery will be there 6 to 9 p.m. to share their stories. Go to the WSC website for tickets and information.
*In August 1968, the Giants unloaded veteran quarterback Earl Morrall. He signed with the Colts, led them to the Super Bowl and was the NFL’s MVP. … In a related development, the Colts have named Daniel Jones their starting quarterback.
*The Norwich Sea Unicorns were in fifth place early in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League season, but rallied to the finals and defeat the New Britain Bees for the championship last week, the franchise’s third in a row.. Bryce Detwiler, incoming UConn freshman, was MVP of the finals.
Trumbull’s ’89 Little League champs watching, marveling as Fairfield kids follow in their footsteps
*Dave Galla, one of the players on the Little League World Series champs from Trumbull in 1989, reminded me this week that the team was rewarded with a trip to the World Series, yes, that World Series two months later. “We drove over that (Bay Bridge) that collapsed the day before the earthquake,” he said.
*The oddsmakers set the over-under for UConn football wins at 7 1/2, with under favored. My prediction, as the season dawns, would be over, with another bowl game in the offing. Like the vibe around the team.
Last word
Like those of a certain age, when I learned Fairfield National Little League coach Brian Palazzolo was in the swimming pool business, I immediately thought of the 1976 film “The Bad News Bears” … Water Matthau … Morris Buttermaker. Brian didn’t know what I was talking about. “… Oh yeah, that kind of went over my head,” he said. He’s 45, not of a certain age.
Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM EDT
