Still the Best Baseball Rivalry!

Baseball or Politics? Did a construction worker-Red Sox fan really bury a Sox T-shirt in the poured concrete of the new Yankee Stadium? What a sacrilege! No matter, though. Unless you are hopelessly superstitious, it won’t have any impact on the outcome of what I still consider to be the best matchup in baseball.

Tonight at 8 o’clock, if you are a baseball fan, you’ll be watching these two teams slug it out inthe rubber-match conclusion of a three-game series at Fenway Park. And, if you are not such a fan … well, you might as well watch it anyway. Otherwise, one of your only other TV alternatives is to click to CNN and suffer along with two presidential candidates, as they slug it out in a two-hour program billed, Faith and Politics, The Compassion Forum.

If you choose the latter option, you’ll get a lot of politics and a lot of posturing about faith, but I honestly doubt that much of it will be accurate or meaningful. I hope I’m proven wrong about that. Nonetheless, best to put the CNN slugfest on the VCR for subsequent viewing.

Friday night’s 4-1 Yankees’ win over the Sox featured stellar pitching by Chien-Ming Wang, the go-to guy for jump-starting this rivalry in unfriendly territory. Saturday afternoon, though, Jonathan Papelbon, Boston’s super-focused star reliever, returned the favor by striking out A-Rod and putting away the rest of the line-up in the top of the ninth inning, after a dramatic, lightning-punctured 2-hour-11-minute rain delay. Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis took care of producing RBIs for the Sox, garnering a 4-3 win.

I’m a Red Sox fan, but I don’t hate the Yankees – I stopped that nonsense awhile ago. I’ve since come to respect the power of the Bronx Bombers, while rooting for the Sox. It’s better that way.

Tuesday’s School Elections: A critical Bridgewater-Raritan schools election is scheduled for this Tuesday, April 15th. Three incumbents, Evan Lerner, Dr. Arvind Mathur, and Al Smith (Raritan’s representative) are running unopposed this year. Ho hum! Nonetheless, there is a monster budget on the ballot for your approval or disapproval. That last one is anything but a trivial matter. So go ahead and get out there with your vote. It really does matter. The polls will be open from 7 AM to 9 PM.