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Weekend at the Races
David Ortiz, Jason Giambi, Aaron Boone all figure to play big roles in determining which team gets in.
(Reuters/AP)
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Still, if Cleveland wins a couple of games this weekend, the Red Sox-Yankees series at Fenway Park presents the delicious possibility of being a winner-take-all, loser-go-home affair, with one of the teams thus becoming the most expensive team in history to miss the playoffs. The Yankees, in fact, have not missed the playoffs since 1994 -- the year there was no postseason because of the players' strike.
Not since 1949 have the Red Sox and Yankees met on the season's final weekend to determine which team goes to the postseason. The Yankees swept both games to win the pennant. In 1978, the teams finished the season tied in the standings, forcing a one-game playoff that the Yankees won on Bucky Dent's famous homer.
For those who believe in karma, Sunday -- the final scheduled day of the regular season -- marks the 27th anniversary of the day that will always be remembered in Boston as the "Bucky [Bleepin'] Dent game."
Your starting pitchers this weekend in Boston: David Wells, Tim Wakefield and Curt Schilling, respectively, for Boston; and Chien-Ming Wang, Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina for New York.
"It feels," Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said this week, "like we've started the playoffs already."
"It'll be exciting," Torre said, "to the point of anxiety."
Since the start of the 2003 season, the Yankees and Red Sox have met each other 68 times in the regular season and postseason combined. Each has won 34 times, including seven apiece in the postseason.
By the time the season comes to a climactic close on Sunday, that tie will be broken.
Unless, of course, the season doesn't end on Sunday.
