Sports Redux: Anticipation Edition

Think back to the glory days of '04, when an odd phenomenon swept across Red Sox Nation. The day after we realized that our beloved boys of summer-turned-autumn were heading to the World Series, many a bleary-eyed Sox fan remarked that winning the Series would be amazing, unheard of, astounding. But there was an anti-climactic twinge to the remarks, because Shaughnessy's curse had already been broken for some of the crowd. The Sox had already done the unheard of. They'd defeated the Yankees in historic fashion. Good had overcome evil and the trophy was to be the perfect epilogue to the fairy tale story.

It's a different game when the Red Sox play the Yankees. Yes, we have the eight-game lead, but for three days, the rest of the season (our success, the Yanks' season-long uphill climb) is taking a backseat. This is all about the three-game series - the one that prompts baseball fans in other cities to roll their eyes, muttering about how it's always all about the Yankees and the Red Sox. Boston heads into the Rumble in the Bronx with Daisuke Matsuzaka facing off against Andy Pettitte.

Over-romanticizing, you say? No more than everyone else. Curt Schilling remarked upon the different nature of the series as he chatted with WEEI en route to the airport this morning. The Globe pondered whether today's early morning lunar eclipse could serve as an omen for the Sox (given, of course, the red moon over St. Louis in 2004). John Henry examined the Sox-Yankees matchup in an interview with the Herald. The Dirt Dogs crew is panting in anticipation of a possible New York massacre.

Sure, the ProJo is pointing out that New York needs to really pull off something special to put some immediacy and drama into the series, but we respectfully disagree - we've seen too much happen in years past to sit back and yawn over this type of matchup.

So here we go: Red Sox and Yankees. Let's have some fun.

-- Down at the Razor, Asante Samuel actually spoke to the media! Crazy! And basically, all we learned is that he's happy to be back and he's going to work his butt off. No gossip. No trash-talking. No reference to feeling disrespected. Boo. We waited this long for that???

-- Finally, on the Celts front, James Posey was formally introduced to Boston on Monday, and sparkling on his left hand was what everyone within the organization hopes to have by season's end - a championship ring. Nice touch, James.

Jorge Posada-inspired image by Dennis Carroll. We can't help it - the image just makes us snicker.