I Was Serious

For those of you who didn't think I was serious when I said that I would not watch a single pitch of the early August four-game series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, I assure you that I was. I did end up watching a little less than one inning of that entire series—so I didn't keep my word completely—and, coincidentally or not, the Yankees won all four games. This reinforced, at least to some extent, my personal jinx theory.

Making it a much less difficult task than one would think—there is absolutely no way I could go anywhere in Boston without inadvertently catching a glimpse on the television—I was in Portland for three of the four games, so I only had to ignore the Thursday night game before I left.

I also said that if the Yankees "...miraculously win three or four of those games, I will do the same for the next series." Since they won all four, my self-imposed ban was to continue through the Yankees-Red Sox series two weekends later. Well, after they split the first two of that series, with the Yanks losing 14-1 when I wasn't watching, I lifted the ban for the Sunday night game, an 8-4 New York win.

To summarize, for the year the Yankees have been outscored by the Sox 38-15 while I've watched, and have outscored Boston 63-40 when I've not. The latter score would be much more lopsided in the Yanks' favor if not for the aforementioned 14-1 Red Sox win.

All that being said, and especially considering the Yankees' fairly comfortable lead atop the AL East, I will be in attendance for the September 26 matchup in New York with my pal Lee Mazzola. Lee and I have quite the storied history with Yankees-Red Sox games, with outcomes favoring both sides of the rivalry, but it's been a few years since we've gone to one of these games together. So, I'm very much looking forward to a renewal of sorts.