NEW YORK — Traditions die hard in the Yankees- Red Sox rivalry, so it wasn’t surprising to hear a familiar chant arise from the upper deck in the late innings of Thursday’s series opener at Yankee Stadium.
“Red Sox suck. Red Sox suck.”
While the Red Sox were losing to their archrivals, the age-old chant is a bit outdated.
While generations of Yankees fans grew up with a well-earned superiority complex, the tide has turned in the new millennium. The Red Sox are now in the role of Evil Empire, while the Yankees are the richest underdogs in sports history.
“They’re the world champions,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “Until someone knocks them off, they’re the team to beat.”
The Red Sox are vying to become the first back-to-back World Series champions since the Yankees won three in row from 1998-2000. They won 13 of the 19 meetings between the two teams in 2013, becoming the first team to beat the Yankees 13 or more times in a season since the 1976 Orioles finished 13-5 against them.
The Yankees also finished 12 games behind the Red Sox last year, the farthest they have trailed them at season’s end since 1991. But the most important factoid is this — the Red Sox have three rings since 2004, while the Yankees have but one.
It’s enough to make a grown man cry in his $12 beer. The Yankees didn’t even make the postseason last year, an injustice of epic proportions to fans accustomed to planning their Octobers in January.
After last year’s disappointing season, the Yankees went back to the drawing board and decided to compete the way they know best — by overspending to grab the best available free agents.
But even spending a combined $438 million last winter on Masahiro Tanaka ($155 million), Jacoby Ellsbury ($153 million), Brian McCann ($85 million) and Carlos Beltran ($45 million) may not be enough in the best division in baseball, where the Orioles, Blue Jays and Rays also have enough talent to contend.
“It’s always competitive, but it’s becoming more and more competitive every year,” Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said. “Most people would say back in the early 2000s it was a top heavy division with the Yankees and the Red Sox. There was a bigger gap between the top and bottom. Now it’s very tight, very competitive.
“You can envision any of the teams ending up on top, with a little luck, a break here or there. We feel we have as good a chance as anyone.”
The division is bunched up in the early going, with no team breaking away.
“I know it’s early, but everyone is right around .500,” Girardi said. “We’re going to beat up on each other a lot. We play each other 19 times, so it’s going to be a really interesting year. It’s pretty hard to predict how many games it will take to win this division, but it’s extremely competitive.”
The Yankees and Red Sox started their rivalry off on an auspicious note with a mild controversy in their first game.
Yankees starter Michael Pineda had a sticky substance on the wrist of his pitching hand during the early innings of a 4-1 victory, a trick some pitchers use to improve their grip.
The goo mysteriously disappeared soon after TV cameras zoned in on Pineda’s hand, but the damage was done, and an investigation by the media was inevitable.
Girardi said he “never saw it, (so) there’s not much for me to speak on concerning it.” Pineda said it was “dirt,” while Red Sox first baseman David Ortiz said “everybody in the league does it.”
Crew chief Brian O’Nora said they didn’t check Pineda’s hand because the Red Sox did not complain.
“If they bring it to our attention then you have to do something,” he said. “But they didn’t bring it to our attention.”
Pine tar or not, the intensity of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, whose signature moment was Red Sox starter Pedro Martinez grabbing Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer by the head and throwing him to the ground in a 2003 playoff brawl, seems to have subsided a bit.
Everyone was chummy before the opener, leading to a veritable hugfest around the batting cage.
“Every year is different,” Ortiz said. “When I first got here, there was a little more fire in it. But the game is still the same … (and) that’s the one thing this rivalry hasn’t lost yet, the intensity.”
Maybe it’s too early, or perhaps it’s just not hot enough. There were plenty of empty seats on Thursday, though the attendance was announced as 42,821, nearly 7,000 below a sellout.
“We still had a really good crowd,” Girardi said. “April and May are tough months. Kids are in school and families are in school, and games (go) late, and (sellouts are) hard to do.”
Cherington agreed with “Big Papi” Ortiz, saying the rivalry never will become just another series on the schedule.
“Any time I walk into Yankee Stadium it always feels totally different,” Cherington said. “There’s something different about playing in the Bronx, playing the Yankees no matter who is in the uniform. It’s a different feel, so I’m sure the games will be very competitive.
“Obviously the Yankees had a good offseason, were very aggressive and put a very good team out there.”
The hostility may flare up again when the series shifts to Boston on April 22, and Ellsbury returns to Fenway Park. Ellsbury is the latest Red Sox hero to join the Dark Side, following in the footsteps of Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon.
“I was thinking about that the other day,” Ortiz said. “But that’s baseball in general. Players always get a new place. I can mention thousands of players who were here since I’ve been here, and they’re all gone. Same with the Yankees.
“That’s baseball. You’re going to be replaced one day. I’m going to be replaced one day, and baseball is going to continue.”
But no matter who wears the uniform, the Yankees always will be the Yankees. And that means finishing out of the playoffs always will be unacceptable.
Girardi knows that, and he doesn’t try to hide from it.
“There’s an expectation that’s always here because the Yankees have had so much success,” Girardi said. “So the pressure is always on.”
Twitter @PWSullivan
