Nestor Cortes says Yankees-Red Sox isn’t a rivalry anymore
Many people consider the rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox to be the biggest in all of sports. It dates back to the Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams days in the 1940s and has only gotten stronger since.
The players never liked each other and the fans especially on both ends helped make for some all-time moments. Then you factor in how close the two cities are and you’ve got a perfect rivalry. Also helping throughout the years was the fact that both teams were always competitive.
The early 2000s was an especially heated spike for the rivalry. The two were constantly meeting in the playoffs and created some all-time moments within baseball. Now while the rivalry currently may not be as heated as it was at one point, there is no doubt in the mind of any baseball fan that it still exists.
But with the Yankees and Red Sox set to clash for the first time this season on Friday, Nestor Cortes and other Yankees are seemingly downplaying the rivalry entirely.
“It doesn’t feel like what we have with Tampa now, or with Toronto now,” Cortes said. “You could argue that the Red Sox haven’t been who they really are the last couple years.”
Quote via WEEI
But Nestor wasn’t the only Yankee to share his thoughts on the current state of the rivalry. Gerrit Cole also chimed in and echoed the thoughts of Cortes.
“I can’t speak to the hatred 15, 20 years ago, but I would say there’s not much of that now,” Cole said. “We want to beat them just as badly as we want to beat Baltimore. And even though it is more unique in the sense of the history, I’m not sure how much we carry that baggage with us.”
Quote Via Gerrit Cole
So yeah it’s clear that some of these current Yankees aren’t respecting the history of this rivalry. Now, on the one hand, Cortes is right in that the Red Sox have not played up to normal standards over the last two years.
Last year was a real low for the Sox who finished last in the AL East with a record of 78-84. The start of this season is not faring much better with the Red Sox still in last at 31-31. So yes obviously it has not been a great two-year stretch for the Red Sox. But I don’t think it’s really fair to only take a season and a half and use it as a basis for judgment.
Why don’t we look a little farther back and reveal that the Red Sox have won the last two playoff meetings? Or did Cortes and Cole just forget to mention that in their interview? I didn’t think so.
Cole also didn’t seem to mention that in the 2021 AL Wild Card game they lost, he got shelled and didn’t make it out of the third inning. Huh, seems like he totally forgot to mention that as well, crazy right?
Nestor Cortes also has a career 5.59 ERA against the Red Sox. So maybe he should start preparing a bit more and put some respect on the Red Sox name. Yeah, maybe the Yankees have been better than the Red Sox for the last couple of years, so what? What have they accomplished with it, getting spanked by the Astros year after year?
I guess if that meant anything then maybe the Yankees could finally win something meaningful in this decade.
I think I should also follow all this by stating that I am not a Red Sox fan. I’m not even a fan of an American League team for that matter. But I just found it interesting when I saw what these two had to say about the rivalry.
They seemed to conveniently forget a lot of the recent history and I just wanted to make sure they remembered. You know so they don’t continue to go out and say dumb/untrue things. Yeah maybe it’s gonna be a couple more down years for the Sox, they still own you in the playoffs, recently at least.
***
Subscribe to our Youtube!!
Check out our Merch!!
