Just How They Drew It Up

In a way, J.D. Drew's selection as MVP of the final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium was the most fitting end to both the game and what it represented -- the closing of the Stadium era.

The Red Sox and Yankees are inextricably linked, have been since 1901, when the Boston Americans opened their season against John McGraw and the Baltimore Orioles, already Boston's closest rivals. When the Orioles moved to New York, the rivalry only strengthened, and though dreadfully one-sided for much of its history, there's never been a relationship quite like the one between the Red Sox and their fans and the Yankees and their fans.

After all, each club opened its ballpark against the other: In 1912, the Red Sox opened Fenway Park by beating New York, and in 1923, the Yankees opened their new Stadium by defeating Boston.

The best moments for the clubs have often been in each other's ballparks, and the parks themselves have become symbols of the rivalry -- as much a focus of the debate as the performance of the clubs they house. Bucky Dent's famous home run might have been an out in New York (would have been, if you believe the cries of the day); Curt Schilling bled through his sock on the Yankee Stadium mound.

So in a rivalry in which the Yankees celebrated the 1978 division-clinching win at Fenway, and in which the Red Sox clinched the 2004 pennant in the Bronx, it's fitting that this final All-Star Game featured what it did -- a plethora of Red Sox, a plethora of boos and a plethora of controversy.

Yes, even the Papelbon vs. Rivera dustup, created by the New York press, seemed oddly appropriate. Because it's Yankee Stadium, and did we really think a day dedicated to its celebration would not include at center stage the only other team to factor so strongly into its history?

So, here's to J.D. Drew, the only member from either squad still in the game when it ended. Yankee fans may not like it, but if it couldn't be a Yankee, it should have been a Red Sox.