On a beautiful baseball day of three winner-take-all playoff games, the main event couldn't be better.
New York Yankees. Boston Red Sox. The Yanks in pinstripes in Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox in those familiar road grays that spoiled the party back in 2004.
This is why we watch sports. This is why we watch baseball.
For a whole generation of baseball fans, it's those back-to-back Yankees-Red Sox ALCS clashes in 2003 and 2004 that define their early memories.
Aaron Boone hitting the walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield.
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Then the comeback in '04, that Dave Roberts stolen base, the Red Sox celebrations that preceded the final end of their Curse of the Bambino.
Thursday night won't have that magical allure in lights of a Game 7. This is a Game 3.
But in a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series, this is the best on offer.
The Yankees or the Red Sox will advance, and the other will go home.
It's a bit of a weird setup. Rookie pitchers are on the mound. The managers are both taking matchup-seeking with substitutions and bullpen moves to the extreme.
But it's still Yankees-Red Sox.
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It's a rivalry that would've existed between New York and Boston even without the infamous trade of Babe Ruth.
But down the years, that made this the biggest rivalry in sports.
Baseball may not occupy the place in the culture it once did, but this is different.
This is Yankees-Red Sox, and with the season on the line, it doesn't get better than this.