THERE are so many delicious subplots to the Yankees and Red Sox, but don’t forget about one off the field.
Baseball’s oldest rivalry is also a battle of young GMs – the Yankees’ Brian Cashman and Red Sox’s Theo Epstein.
Cashman already has three World Championship rings at the age of 37. Epstein is 30 and, of course, looking for his first.
The two men battled all winter trying to put together the best team, and beginning tomorrow night at Yankee Stadium they will finally get the chance to settle a fight that began at the GM meetings in the Arizona sun when Curt Schilling first put himself on the market.
Epstein won the Schilling battle and added closer Keith Foulke, but Cashman landed the strongest of counterpunches when the Yankees made the deal for Alex Rodriguez, stealing him away from the Red Sox.
It’s interesting to note that Epstein and his family moved to Brookline, Mass., from New York in 1978, the year Bucky Dent stuck it to the Sawx and the Yankees won their 22nd World Championship – a lead that is now 26-0 over the Red Sox since the Babe was sold.
All during the season, both men knew they were headed in this direction, headed to one more showdown, knowing full well the rivalry is headed to new dizzying heights.
“All year long, I’ve had private conversations with Theo, which is, ‘We’re the two best teams in our league,’ Cashman said in the hallway outside the visiting clubhouse in Minneapolis after the Yankees finished off the Twins. “Everybody knows it.
“I don’t know how much of a higher level it can get with Boston, but I’m sure it will reach new levels.”
It will, because the situation is different this season. The Red Sox are viewed as the favorite this time around because of the addition of Schilling to go along with the power-packed lineup.
It’s also interesting that both teams had to change on the fly this season. The Red Sox resembled a slow-pitch softball team before trading away Nomar Garciaparra at the end of July and adding shortstop Orlando Cabrera and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, moves that counterbalanced Epstein’s big flop of a pitching deal last season when he acquired Byung-Hyun Kim.
Red Sox president Larry Lucchino tabbed the Yankees the Evil Empire, so it’s clear that Epstein is his Luke Skywalker.
“Theo deserves the credit,” Lucchino said of the team’s success this season.
Cashman also had to add a first baseman, John Olerud, when Jason Giambi turned to clay and has retooled the pitching staff. But the GM is tough on himself. Talking about the Yankees’ 64 comeback wins this year, he said, “If I had done a better job, we wouldn’t be coming back all that much.”
The Red Sox have bragged about running the table this postseason, which is really a remarkable comment when you consider the Red Sox haven’t won anything in 86 years, but that is the kind of brash team Epstein has assembled, and they did sweep away the Angels.
That is the nature of this Boston beast.
“I think we’re more understated,” Cashman said of his team. “The bottom line is that we are both trying to get the same thing done.”
Said one highly respected scout, who has followed both clubs, “The Yankees’ focus is simply amazing. I’ve never seen a team more focused, and that is their greatest strength.”
The greatest Red Sox strength is Schilling, who will square off in Game 1 against Cashman’s big pitching addition from 2001, Mike Mussina.
“This is the next rung on the ladder,” Cashman said. “Where we want to be, we have to go through [Boston] and win the American League title first. I think our pitching staff answered a lot of questions against Minnesota.”
That wasn’t the test, though. Now comes the true test, a test Epstein and Cashman have been cramming for their entire lives.
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“I don’t know how much of a higher level it can get with Boston, but I’m sure it will reach new levels.” -BRIAN CASHMAN
