False rivalry

Here in my latest post about my frustrations related to the sport of hockey, I’m going to talk about baseball. Specifically, I’m going to talk about the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox.

This rivalry has deep roots. Boston and New York have always had a sense of resentment towards one another. This is primarily due to the ages of the cities, their large populations, and their proximity. To an extent, this has spilled over to the world of sports. When the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, this was transformed into one of the biggest sports rivalries in history.

The rivalry was dying. People were no longer dwelling on the history with Babe Ruth. There was still a resentment between the two cities, but the rivalry had essentially died everywhere but in the front offices.
The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry would eventually be nothing more than one team signing a player to keep him off of the other team’s roster. The players and fans really didn’t show any ill will towards each other. During this time, these two teams transformed baseball from a team sport into a spending competition. We also saw the remaining teams decline as a result of a diminished player pool.

If the Red Sox hated the Yankees so much, why did they copied their business tactics? As far as I’m concerned, the Boston Yankee clones are no better than the New York Yankees. But things were about to intensify. The media saw value in the rivalry and joined in the rivalry that had almost become extinct. Thanks to the dumbing down of society, the fans mindlessly followed the media. This was a league-manufactured rivalry.

In the years that followed, Major League baseball took advantage of the rivalry. They started promoting every matchup between these two corrupt teams. They started talking about postseason matchups in the preseason. I believe it was 2004 when the entire season was promoted as the year that the Red Sox would finally beat the Yankees and continue on to win the World Series. How did they know? The bottom line is that how the entire year went for the Red Sox made this one of the most hollow championships in history for any sport.

The reason that I’m bringing this up is because we’re seeing the NHL trying to go down that same path. The rivalry that shouldn’t have existed did wonders for the Major Leagues’ bottom line. The NHL wants the same. Since Comcast controls the NHL television rights, they traded Boston for Philadelphia. Ever since the current television deal has been in place, we have had the Rangers-Flyers rivalry crammed down our throats. Like the baseball rivalry, this rivalry is clearly being manufactured by the league and media. Also like the baseball rivalry, they are sacrificing what’s right for personal gains. So much for the NHL having its own identity, and so much for there being any chance whatsoever for these media favorites to win my support.