I'll agree to a point, but there comes a time when enough is enough. As has been noted here many times, the Sox are ahead of the curve as far as doling out beanings. Sometimes you turn the other cheek. Sometimes you stand up for yourself.

The ultimate revenge for A-Rod last year after all the off-season harping from the Sox was the monster home run off Schilling in July. That's the sort of "stand up for yourself" we need more of this year, but if we gotta brush Big Papi back a couple times, well then so be it.

BP

LOL!

For some time now, only one team has used such boorish tactics on field as a strategic device (Red Sox), and got away with it due to the ridiculous disciplinary policies of the MLB. While Alex's idea that the players brings the best out of each other is a noble one, the Red Sox contingent has been more interested in playing to the rabid gallery of their fans rather than letting their sublime skills speak for themselves. So be it. If they want a full-fledged beanwar in this free-for-all, let it be so. This shit is getting tiresome, let's make it so bad that the MLB is forced to take serious note of it. That seems to be the only way that grown men could be convinced that at the end of the day, it is just a game, and not a means to satisfy the public's bloodlust.

He reminds me of that one crazy Dominican dude nobody messed with in the Heights because he'd snap at any moment. You'd always see him in the bodega playing dominoes and laughing, then his wife would talk to some random dude and he's just flip like a pancake. Or somebody bumped his cab while trying to get out of a tight space, there goes Julian beating the crap out of some poor old dude. The only thing missing is seeing him with one of the little Budweiser cans and chilling on a corner dancing bachata, whistling at the big-booty Dominican ladies, and giving a mean stare at every dude that crosses his path. Yeah...Julian is straight crazy. From looking at the pictures, Julian also punches like a little bitch.

Can we talk about Yankee baseball? Specifically Zito/Harden/Loaiza/Haren vs Randy/Moose/Chacon/Wang? Danny Haren scares me a bit- I just have a gut feeling this is the year he goes off.

His career line against the Yanks wouldn't intimidate anybody:

13 games, 15.2 innings, 30 hits, 17 runs, 14 earned runs, 8.04 ERA, .417 BAA.

.313 BAA at Yankee Stadium

Bring the impotent rage, Jules.

so, yanks fans, how about we meet halfway--let's stop pretending that the red sox are the only team that has ever seen behavior like this. let's also not be so naive as to actually put forth ideas like the "rabid gallery of their fans" being to blame for anything players do on the field. please. especially now that kyle farnsworth is on your team, you're in a bit of a glass house. also, when you admit yourself that rj is your team's "best intimidator" with pitching inside, and call for him to exact your vengeance, saying the sox are the only team guilty of HBP--or the only one with a "rabid gallery of fans"-- is talking out of both sides of your mouth.

i believe i've had this debate to no avail on this site before (speaking of tiresome). but i still maintain that as long as both sides keep doing the "it's all YOUR fault" thing, someone is definitely going to get hurt. apparently some people would rather see that than admit they, or the players they root for, might be in the wrong.

What's the breakdown by year look like?

I don't care who's at fault as long as it ends, and quickly. Lately talk about 'the rivalry' has made me sick as opposed to excited, mostly because its become so over-hyped, especially the whole Damon thing. If a brawlfest-factor is added to it, that's taking it way too far.

I will now take Knuckles' fantastic suggestion in 6. I'm not expecting a classic Unit game from Unit on Opening Night. I hope he pitches well, and certainly the A's are suspect against a great lefty like the Unit, but the cold weather factor concerns me.

I also hope the Yanks face Loiaza in the third game, and not Haren who is certainly a better pitcher. I imagine that Bernie DHs on Opening Night, which is probably OK, but I hope he isn't the DH for the entire series. That's probably wishful thinking on my part. My gut just tells me that Phillips has a much better chance of hitting Harden than Bernie does.

10-9 yanks 2002
10-9 yanks 2003
4-3 yanks 2003 alcs
11-8 sox 2004
4-3 sox 2004 alcs
10-9 yanks 2005

Cliff I'm right there with you. Not only don't I want to see the guys fight I 'm tired of the tension level. Does it have to be the apocalypse every time they play? Maybe it's just the ESPN/CNN age we live in but Christ it sucks the joy out of it. Plus and I think this bugs me as much too, its easy to call for a bean ball war when it's not your head the batting helmet is sitting on.

Can it be April 3rd already?

Blanton's another good pitcher- decent K/BB, not a real flyball pitcher. Oakland definitely has the deepest rotation in baseball- with Saarloos, Kennedy, and the Admiral, you could argue they go 8 deep without a huge dropoff. They're much better positioned to absorb injuries than any other contenders.

Point taken. I am more interested in ending this thing than anyone else, it distracts us from being baseball fans. If anyone, on any team thinks fighting skills win baseball games, they ought to be on the street, not in a game which is primarily for spectator entertainment.

Lets also personally, between you and me, agree to the following: the next time an Yankees or a Sox player fight each other, NO MATTER THE PROVOCATION, they would be condemned regardless of the jerseys they wear. So, when Varitek throws the first punch on Alex Rodriguez, HE is in the fault, not the other way round. When Tanyon Sturtze out of nowhere jumps on Gabe Kapler, HE is the one at fault, not Gabe Kapler. I am an avid cricket fan, and any form of assault on another cricketer on the field earns you a full year of suspension, at the least.

Lets get back to talking about the Yankees.

Can't wait!

BUT...

Pitching inside / intimidation is a different matter and it IS part of the game. And if you pitch inside to intimidate, people WILL get hit. If a team allows its players to get hit by intimidators, and does not retaliate with its own intimidators, then that team probably lacks any cohesion or self-respect. Even the Yankee teams of the 90s -- the most gentlemanly, class acts we have ever had win a ring -- didn't let pitchers get away with crap like that. Hitters want to know their pitchers got their backs.

If Schilling is going to keep doing what he's been doing in Spring so far, then I'm 100% behind retaliating for it -- for any team he does it to. You don't do that by fighting...you do it by waiting until the right time...when RJ is on the mound and Big Papi is up and nobody's on...and then you send a 97 mph fastball right at his head or his kneecap. Hopefully it's the day AFTER Schilling pitches, so he's not in the game but has a real good view of it from the dugout...surrounded by his teammates. Whether you hit Papi or not is irrelevant -- the message is absolutely essential nonetheless. "Hey Curt! Papi almost got his kneecap taken out by RJ. Whose fault do you think that is? Just to be clear...every time you do it to us, the same thing's going to happen again."

And if you get enough of that going on...fights will occur because of it. Biggest mistake the AL ever made -- letting pitchers stay out of the batter's box. Things were a lot easier when it was the guy who did the headhunting that had to get in there and hit next inning. :-)

Cliff, I think you're right about Blanton being the A's fourth-best starter 15, but seeing that Loaiza is being paid big bucks, I imagine he's technically 4th and Blanton is technically 5th. That's a frickin' scary rotation, when Joe Blanton is your fifth starter.

Its going to be a long Opening Day, waiting for 10:05 PM EST to show up on the clock.

Appropriate in this case.

When is someone going to get their head out of their ass and go to bat to "South Bronx"? Especially during the Mets games:

"So you think that hip-hop had it's start out in Queensbridge?
If you popped that junk up in the Bronx you might not live!"

I'm sure Aaron McGruder got it from hip hop, but I know almost nothing about hip hop, so . . .

jedi re 27 - if only the Yanks could have used Halsey in a LOOGY-type role . . . oh well. As you said, instead of hanging on to decent bench filler and back of the pen guys, the Yanks always seem to trade them away.

BTW, just because Big Papi is good doesn't mean we should light him up. Just because he has the flare for the dramatic doesn't mean we should go after him. Or even Manny. I'm not a man of violence, nor do I like to advocate violence, I'm a peaceful man who believes in the beauty of the butterfly, daffodils, flavored coffee, and the rights of the indigenous people of Australia. BUT, I wouldn't mind seeing a 97 MPH go straight to core of the team. The heart of the team is Jason Varitek and he has a nice bull's-eye with a big 'C' on his shirt. Just like Jeter is our captain and the heart of our team, so is V-Tek. Jeter always gets hit, but we don't hit their "Captain". Hit'em in the fingers and see how much he likes it. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the initiator of all this garbage. Let's see him put down two fingers and ask for a fastball, when he's crouched down and the bones in his fingers have been turned into mush from a nice pitch from our "enforcer" of the day. Hit'em hard!!!! And if those bastards sitting down in the bench want some too, then we go toe-to-toe with those punks. No more nonsense from those clowns!!!!

1. Julian Tavarez' punch looked like something Damon Wayans would throw while in his "super flaming' character's guise. I can just hear Tavarez as he swung...

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuh-Eeeeeeeeeh!"

2. It's out of character for me to say this, but I want these teams to throw down this year. I don't like fighting in sports too much. I don't like hockey for that very reason. That having been said, the Red Sox have taken a lot of F-ing liberties at the Yankees expense the last 2 years and we haven't responded at all.

A-Rod took the high road when the entire Sox roster was calling him out last Spring Training. The press in Red Sox Nation is all over the Yankees to this day....completely obsessed even though they won a title at our expense. It's time we beat them down in Yankee Stadium and then wipe the field with them the rest of the season...to the tune of 14-5 in the season series.

One asterik...no gloves to the face. No catcher's wearing masks. No 80 year old bench coaches charging pitchers. I'm talking about Gary Sheffield against Jason Varitek mano a mano.

Everyone, be sure you go to the Canyon of Heroes and read Mike's piece on Mr. October.

http://tinyurl.com/qaeyy

I fear that pre-season jitters are coming to a head and normally sane people are getting a little overzealous in their blood lust. Let's hope that this season's Yankees/Sox matchup are clean, well-played games with a bit of schadenfreude for the fat ex-mullet-head and cappy 'tek and leave it at that. If the beanings start I support responding in kind, but there is no need to instigate. With this lineup I think we can rely on the bats, not the fists, to do all the talking necessary.

I don't know the fancy shmancy tiny url thing, so the article is on yahoo.com and has the title: Nixon says fewer intradivision games could reduce melees.

Basically he is saying that playing teams 19 times a year causes tension between the teams and therefore brawls. However, I think the Red Sox are the only team that fights with the other members of the division (sans the Blue Jays) on a regular basis.

The Red Sox get their chip on their shoulder from the constant fan and media banter that paints them as the long suffering underdog. They thrive on that crap in Red Sox Nation and they always have to prove that they are tough enough to win.

Tampa is going to get better under the new ownership and I really think you'll see a competetive ballclub down there in a few years. They start creating that winning atmosphere by not taking shit from the Red Sox or anyone else....even in pre-season.

The Yankees don't need to fight with the Sox to crush them, they only need to consistently win. The thing is, the Sox are always coming in with a metaphorical battery on their shoulder daring us to knock it off. (Remember that 80's Duracell commercial with the Aussie skinhead?)

If it comes down to it, I want the Yankees to put a few lights out. I hope it doesn't happen and I hope our bats speak for themselves, but I'm all for a few black eyes if that's what it takes to control the rivalry a little more.

Nixon should shut his dirtdog yap. The Yanks used to have major problems with Baltimore, before the unbalanced sked, Yanks-Sox in the 70's, etc etc etc.

Boston is the only current club that I can think of who constantly gets chippy with more than one team, so I'd say that it's a combo of the attitudes in their clubhouse, bloodlust on the part of their fans, and familiarity breeding contempt. But 6 less games against TB/NYY will do nothing to de-escalate things. You might even venture that more would happen in a shorter period of time if both teams think they have less chances for payback if they feel the owe them one.

The only thing that will calm Boston down is one of their stars getting hurt in a fight, buzzed one too many times, or suspended for a length of time that hurts them in the standings. And I can't wait to see what Beckett does once Manny Ortez start styling their homers this spring...hopefully against Philly in June.