Baseball season is long

And by baseball season, I mean the likely 26 games the Yankees and Red Sox are going to play between now and sometime in October (19 regular season, 7 -- unless a real shocker occurs -- in the ALCS). It starts tonight...

...when [Randy] Johnson takes the ball against David Wells in what figures to be another bizarre evening since Wells was once a fan-favorite in the Bronx but is now, officially, the enemy.

"That's going to just be strange," said Jason Giambi. "I told him, 'Dude, it's going to be crazy when you get out on that mound,' but that's Boomer. He's always the guy in those situations."

Wells is a perfect example of the constant crossover between the Yanks and Sox. They are, it seems, perpetually linked, be it in battle on the field or an offseason bidding war. The Rivalry has become baseball's hallmark, its showcase matchup that long ago surpassed regional novelty status and became a national attraction.

"If we played them at midnight, there'd be a lot of hubbub," Joe Torre said.

Don't laugh. The competitiveness between the teams has reached the point that every game between them is an event. The Yankees were besieged by credential requests from media outlets around the country for tonight's game and both stadiums sold out tickets to the rivalry games in minutes.

After the riveting television dramas of watching the crowds watch the building in which people are dying, a nation turns its weary eyes to the Bronx. To paraphrase.