The Evil Empire

It's another interesting week in the history of the Red Sox-Yankees baseball rivalry.

You might have heard about one of the latest chapters. The New York Post revealed that a construction worker at the new Yankee Stadium dropped a David Ortiz jersey into the concrete some time ago, as a way to curse the new ballpark.

The Yankees responded in their usual good-natured manner: "It never happened." Then more evidence and witnesses came forward, and the story seemed to be true. So the Yankees spent the time to chisel down into the concrete, taking a few hours in the process, to pull out the jersey. Apparently it will be given to charity for a public sale, which actually is a classy gesture on New York's part.

It was easy to wonder what might happen to the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry what with George Steinbrenner's health failing. George was a great villain over the years; he made winning a little extra sweet.

But have no fear, Hank is on the way. George's son has come through with some silly statements about the state of the rivalry in his first full year of being the main team spokesman. I particularly liked his claim that ESPN was biased toward the Red Sox while saying that Red Sox Nation couldn't possibly compare to Yankee Universe.

The Red Sox and Yankees played their first three games of the season over the weekend, and the games as usual were long and dramatic. There's two more coming up in a couple of days.

Fasten your seat belts. It'll be another fun trip.