E-Mail This Article to a Friend Another revival of Damn Yankees opens in New England BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

So what exactly is there to say about the renewal of acquaintances between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees in the upcoming American League Championship Series? Well, I’m sure we’ll find something.

Millions of words will be typed in the coming days regarding this ancient rivalry, and the next nine days — at minimum — will provide heightened levels of shortness of breath, blood pressure, and anxiety for the card-carrying members of Red Sox Nation. Tom Ridge may not be altering the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System, but local fans will nonetheless be obeying Code Red conditions.

For Yankees fans? Just another October.

Many whom I perceived as nincompoops around here last week were actually rooting on the Pinstripers to defeat the Minnesota Twins in their ALDS match-up. In their eyes, no Boston world championship would be legitimate unless it made its way through Yankee Stadium and took down the Evil Empire in its wake. Hogwash, I said. If you want to get to the World Series and even win it, then the disparity in the level of competition (along with some luck) is what will determine success or failure; meeting the Twins instead of the Yankees would probably have given Boston an easier road to the Fall Classic, given the Twins’ perceived offensive deficiencies. The Yankees, as one might recall, offer a similar if not superior blueprint as far as competitive comparables go, and the luck factor? Look it up.

Well, Boston fans, you wanted them? You got ’em. Who knows if that’s a good thing? If your team were a veteran World Series participant and maybe even an occasional winner, then it might be expected that you would favor the somewhat cocky/arrogant path about whom you want to vanquish en route to championship glory. If you’re, say, 16 years removed from even a sniff of the Fall Classic and have spent the last 86 years wandering in a title-deprived wilderness, then you take what you can get and hope for the best.

Be careful what you wish for. On paper the Yankees would seem to be the favorites only in terms of attendance figures and team payroll, but history suggests that things might have been better had a Yankees match-up been avoided altogether.

After all, in 1978 some mighty strange things happened in the last six weeks of the season, not to mention during the October 2 one-game playoff at Fenway. What do most people remember about that year? A 14-game divisional lead blown, a Bucky Dent home run, a sun-blinded Lou Piniella making an implausible catch, and Yaz popping out to Graig Nettles with the tying run on third. In 1999, the two teams met in the ALCS and the Yanks edged the Sox in cumulative score, 23-21; too bad the Sox scored 13 of their runs in one game, and otherwise saw a lack of clutch hitting, some inconsistent fielding, and some dubious umpiring result in a five-game whacking. And we need not mention last year’s travails — a tumbling Don Zimmer, a gassed Pedro Martinez, and an exultant Aaron Boone, whose 11th-inning game-seven home run broke the 29-29 tie that the two teams had forged through six games and 65 innings of head-to-head combat.

Since the 2003 season opened, the two divisional rivals have played each other 45 times (not counting spring training), and Boston has won 23 — including 11 of 19 this year. The six series that the two teams played over the course of this season were widely contrasting. First, the Sox won three of four during Patriots’ Day weekend, then swept the Bombers at the Stadium a week later. In late June, however, the Yanks stunned Boston by inflicting three straight humbling defeats, capped by a mind-numbing 13th-inning setback on July 1 that nearly sealed the Sox’ fate the rest of the way. Later that month, a Jason Varitek glove to the barking mug of Alex Rodriguez ignited an emotional turnaround, and the bottom-of-the-ninth comeback win over Mariano Rivera gave the locals renewed hope.

Yet just when Boston’s mid-August hot streak put them in position to perhaps make up a 10-game deficit and challenge for the AL East crown, the New Yorkers dispensed back-to-back 10-run drubbings on the Sox to dash any further hopes of such a haughty enterprise. Yet winning two of three against the Yankees at Fenway in mid-September further clouded the scenario, and most folks felt that only another jihad in October would ultimately settle matters.

An extension to five games against the supposedly dangerous Twins would have put the Yankees in a do-or-die and likely exhausted situation. It would also have shuffled the pitching rotation so that ace Mike Mussina would have been held to game four at the earliest, leaving only the damaged-goods duo of Jon Lieber and Kevin Brown to stem the tide in the opening pair of ALCS games in the Bronx. But while Rivera’s developing crisis in his Panamanian homeland could force manager Joe Torre to juggle his bullpen for a day or two, the fact is that these two teams are heading into this October Armageddon on a reasonably level playing field — although that metaphor always provides a bit of a yukfest when it comes to this pairing and its colorful history.

The challenge facing Boston is this: to prove that the Curse is finally over, at least in terms of its match-up with the Pinstripers. (Whatever happens beyond the Sox winning the pennant and advancing to the Fall Classic is another story altogether.) Lose this series — particularly in excruciating or gag-related fashion — and the ghosts will remain, further substantiating the hex. On the other hand, beating the Yankees will irrevocably close one chapter of the legend of the Babe Ruth–inspired curse, and for many around New England and the world, that may just be almost enough for this year. Don’t get too greedy, after all. Baby steps.

Right now Boston has the tools and perhaps the karma to beat New York, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will. Still, there are a lot of favorable factors, including:

• Curt Schilling hasn’t pitched in Yankee Stadium since he was a D-Back in October 2001, but unless his ankle worsens or he registers an unlikely subpar performance, then the Yankee bats should be silenced in game one — and perhaps game five.

• Pedro Martinez has admitted that he’s been the Good Son to the Steinbrenner AC, but for the second straight playoff outing he’ll be going on six days’ rest, a gap that proved to be a boost in Anaheim last week and should provide an additional spark to the ultra-proud Dominican. In addition, his opposition on Wednesday will be Jon Lieber, who is experiencing back problems and a 4.33 ERA (at least it’s down from the early-August mark of five).

• You’re not sure what you’ll get with third-game starter Bronson Arroyo, but in the last month he’s always kept the team close, and he hasn’t lost since August 15. Pitching in Boston in that pivotal game three for the Yanks will be Kevin Brown — who hasn’t beaten the Sox this season and didn’t even last an inning against them in late September (and he’s got a bad back).

• Game four will see Tim Wakefield take the hill. The knuckleballer has had the Bombers’ number for years, and would have been the ALCS MVP last October if not for that little problem with Boone in the 11th inning. The Yankees haven’t beaten him otherwise since May 2003. Furthermore, his opponent in the fourth game, Javier Vazquez, has given up at least four earned runs in his last four starts, his ERA during the season was 4.91, and he’s collected but one win since August 6.

• Not many people mention it, but the depth of the two teams’ benches is remarkably disparate. Who will the Striped Ones plug in to fill late-inning holes? Ruben Sierra, John Flaherty, Enrique Wilson, Bubba Crosby, and Tony Clark — that’s the best a $180 million payroll can muster? Meanwhile, the Sox will counter with the likes of Doug Mientkiewicz, Doug Mirabelli, Kevin Youkilis, Dave Roberts, Gabe Kaplan, and Pokey Reese. Yep, two Gold Glovers and three speedsters on the pine.

Yet a Red Sox–Yankees contest is never predictable. In the upcoming clash for AL supremacy, one can expect at least one bench-clearing incident, at least one dramatic late-inning Yankees comeback, a crucial Manny Ramirez and/or Trot Nixon HR, and a bunch of unexpected turns of events. Anticipate improbable contributions from some of the least likely characters on the teams’ rosters, along with an occasional bullpen meltdown. Also, don’t be surprised to see things happen that no one could have foreseen, and the specters of the ghosts of Red Sox Past peeking over the wall from Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park at the worst possible moment — along with New York’s resident dancing girls, Aura and Mystique, appearing nightly.

There will be nastiness, controversy, and intensity. Things will happen in this skirmish that couldn’t possibly unfold in the midst of any other rivalry. That’s the way it’s always been, and there’s no reason to expect things will change.

Except for one thing: it won’t go seven, and it won’t be a happy ending — for the Empire Staters.

Unless, of course, there really is a curse. And we’ll be able to confirm that in nine days.

In the meantime, I advise salivating Red Sox fans to shed their air of invincibility for a moment and instead adhere to the following proverb:

"Blessed is he who expects nothing [or substitute "the worst"], for he shall never be disappointed."

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com