MMM: Already sick of it

I don't know about you, but I am already sick of the national attention given to the Yankees and Red Sox this year. They just played a three-game series at Fenway over the weekend, and lo and behold, all three games were nationally televised: Friday night, an ESPN special; Saturday, the FOX game of the week; Sunday, the ESPN Sunday night game of the week.

It's a pattern that played out multiple times last year, and it's got to stop. Is there any storyline left that hasn't been played out to death? We know, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees and there was supposedly a curse placed on the Boston franchise. In 2004, the Red Sox ended that supposed curse by rallying from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees in the ALCS. And they've won two of the last four World Series, while the Yankees remain the franchise with the most world championships under their belts.

ENOUGH! GIVE IT A REST! GIVE US SOME OTHER GAMES BETWEEN SOME OTHER TEAMS!

I suppose I am lucky in that I've got the MLB Extra Innings package, so I can watch pretty much any other game that's on (unless it involves the Angels, Dodgers, Giants, A's, Diamondbacks or Rockies -- more on that another time). But that's the rub -- I can only watch another game if it's on. And on the weekend, FOX and ESPN have exclusive windows on Saturday afternoon and Sunday night, respectively, meaning that no other games can be televised when their national games are on.

And get this -- when there actually was some legitimate drama involved (Saturday, Papelbon to face A-Rod with two runners on, two outs and the Sox leading by a run in the eighth inning), an extended rain delay ended the FOX telecast, so when the game resumed, I was treated to an infomercial or some lame movie of the week on my local FOX affiliate.

The two storied franchises hook up for a two-gamer at "the Stadium" (as if there's no other) this week, and guess what? The Wednesday night game is on ESPN! Thursday's game is not nationally televised, however, leading to much strife among members of Red Sox Nation and Yankees ... whatever they're called.

A couple of notes on Sunday night's game -- I flipped it on for about five minutes at about 6:30 p.m., a full 90 minutes after the first pitch, and the game was in the bottom of the third. I don't know if ESPN sneaks in extra commercials, or if the games just drag because every at-bat is so packed with drama, but these Yankees-Red Sox tilts are interminable.

And during the brief span in which I was watching, Jon Miller pointed out that a Red Sox batter had hit a ball to the deepest part of right field at Fenway, then mentioned that his broadcast partner, Joe Morgan, knew all about that part of the park. The camera cut to the booth as Miller related the story of Morgan hitting a drive to right field in the 1975 World Series, only to see Dwight Evans make a great catch and turn it into a double play.

The look on Morgan's face was priceless, and his reaction entirely predictable. Morgan -- who used to play in the major leagues, just ask him -- looked like he'd swallowed a live rat, then pointed out that the Reds went on to win that World Series. I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that booth during the next commercial break. Classic stuff.