Ten years ago today, one of the most infamous moments of the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry took place at Fenway Park When Jason Varitek fed Alex Rodriguez a face full of glove along the first base line, sparking a huge bench-clearing brawl during a Saturday afternoon game in Boston.
The brawl ended up becoming one of the defining moments of the Red Sox’ 2004 season, which culminated in their first World Series championship in 86 years. Still to this day, photos from the Varitek-Rodriguez scuffle can still be found all around Boston, a reminder of that historic season and how intense the rivalry between the two American League East teams used to be.
These days, the rivalry doesn’t seem to have the same fire it did around a decade ago – when Varitek stepped up to A-Rod, when Pedro tossed Don Zimmer, when playoff series between the two were almost guaranteed to go a gut-wrenching seven games. Nope, today’s Red Sox and Yankees rosters are a lot less impressive and star-studded, and with a lot less bad blood between them.
A lot has changed in 10 years – at this point, Yankee fans probably enjoy photos of A-Rod getting punched in the face as much as Sox fans do – but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate the good times. For more on the infamous brawl’s tenth birthday, check out this in-depth piece by ESPN’s Joe McDonald.
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