On Friday, FOX put aside its usual Friday night lineup to show the first of the regular season matchups between the Red Sox and Yankees.
Regular season baseball rarely is shown on primetime network television. Unlike professional football, baseball does not offer the crowd-pleasing attractions of violence, risk of paralysis, and most importantly, easy gambling. Baseball is usually exiled to the metaphorical tundra of ESPN2 while earth-shaking football match-ups like San Diego at Jacksonville are beamed into our living rooms every autumn Monday.
Unfortunately, baseball fizzled in Friday night's primetime audition. The much-anticipated game, a listless 6-2 Yankees loss, was marred by five errors. In Boston's half of the first inning, comical misplays by Jeter and Giambi handed the Red Sox four runs and eventual victory.
Meanwhile, Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield stymied the Yankee offense. I may find a Zen pleasure watching overpaid superstars wave helplessly at the fluttering knuckler, but I'm certain that most of America was colossally bored. The other two games of the series have featured more of the same: little drama, sloppy defense, games played in a coma-like stupor normally associated with regular season hockey.
But before we judge either team, we have to remember that it is only April, and baseball is an unforgiving game in the cold. At game-time on Friday, it was 41 degrees, on Sunday afternoon, a mere 53 degrees. At these temperatures, chilled hands are numbed by the sting of a bat or the smack of a ball.
Even in October, extreme cold can make a pennant-winning baseball club play like a squad of Little Leaguers. The 1997 Indians-Marlins World Series is famous for cold, snow, and the worst level of play in living memory.
Thanks to the unbalanced schedule, there are 19 games between the Yanks and Sox this season. The unbalanced schedule is great for baseball, building great rivalries not limited to Boston and New York. It is a great way to build interest in baseball's marathon regular season.
But why spread these rivalry games out into the meaningless, cold days of April? As we all witnessed this weekend, neither the Yankees nor Red Sox are a finished project, and these teams will be vastly different come October. Last April, David Ortiz was a benchwarmer and Jason Giambi had a .733 OPS. Shea Hillenbrand was the Red Sox third baseman.
The April games may count just as much as those in August, but this weekend's series seemed like a beta test for the "real" games yet to come. The Yanks and Sox will play six times in September. Let's hope those games amaze us and meet the high standards set last October for battles between Boston and New York.
