Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant Paperback - 2005

First line

IN RETROSPECT, THE END WAS MERELY A BEGINNING.

From the rear cover

As 2003 was just beginning, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino launched an unprecedented era of cutthroat competition between the two franchises when he off-handedly labeled the Yankees the Evil Empire.'' The conflict made for fascinating back-room intrigue, above and beyond the thrills the teams produced on the baseball field. Longtime baseball writers Tony Massarotti and John Harper tell the tale of two cities in the truest spirit of the rivalry - shouting at each other from opposite sides of press box: Massarotti from Boston, Harper from New York. Each has deep baseball roots and viewpoints shaped by a lifetime of living on opposite sides of the endless debates - or raging arguments - between Beantown and Big Apple sports fans. Beyond the hows and whys of the wins and losses, Massarotti and Harper capture not only the passion the rivalry generates in the two cities, but give readers a look from the inside - what it's like to cover these teams and deal behind the scenes with a temperamental superstar such as Pedro Martinez or an outrageous owner such as George Steinbrenner. Six straight seasons of the Yankees finishing first, the Red Sox second, in the AL East provided the backdrop for growing hostility. So, as always, both the Red Sox and Yankees entered the 2003 off-season seeing ghosts. To the Yankees those ghosts took the form of aura and mystique, the friendliest of supernatural forces. To the Sox they took the more full-figured form of (who else?) Babe Ruth and the countless spirits who made up his legacy. Some things, it seemed, never changed. Yet, the storied rivalry continued to grow by the minute. In New York and Boston, after all, the baseball season never really ends so much as a new one begins.

Media reviews

Citations

• Ingram Advance, 04/01/2005, Page 139