A World Without the Yankees or Red Sox

To the headline I say, "If only. We can dream. We can hope. Yes we can, just one month left."

With the calendar turning from August to September and as we enter the final month of baseball, there is a huge possibility that the two mightiest of evils may be left out of October for the first time in a very long time.

As I write this post, Boston trails Tampa Bay by 5.5 games with 26 games left for the Red Sox (including tonight's tilt with Baltimore). New York is 12 games back of the Rays, with 25 games left to play in the season.

Boston, however, does own the wild card right now, leading Minnesota by 2.5 games.

So, there is that possibility and oh how I and many others are rejoicing the fact that the Sox and the Yanks may not see the postseason in 2008.

Many may say that I'm just jealous. And, yes, I am, because these have been two of the most successful franchises in all of professional sport in the last 15 years (and maybe all time). But so is the rest of the country, especially people out here on the west coast.

We're tired of the New York/Boston-bias (let's get this straight. When we say "east coast bias," we really mean the bias the national media puts on the New York and New England sports teams).

We're tired of getting Yanks/Sox shoved down our throats. We're tired of having to watch the Yankees and Red Sox on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball everytime New York and Boston has a series ending on a Sunday.

We're tired of the 15-minute segments devoted to the Yankees and the 15-minute segments devoted to the Red Sox on SportsCenter.

We're tired of Jeter, Posada, A-Rod and Mariano. We're tired of Varitek, Big Papi, Beckett and Schilling.

We're tired of 26 World Series championships. We're tired of 86 years. We don't care about a fucking bloody sock.

We're just tired of the Yankees and Red Sox.

It will be refreshing to see a playoffs without one of the two and a little weird. So much attention has been put on these two teams once October 1 comes around, and yes, I'll admit it, if both teams don't make it, it will feel like something is missing.

But baseball has survived before. And baseball will continue to thrive, even without the Yanks and Sox. And I argue that it's healthy for baseball--to get away from the Yankees and Red Sox. There's plenty of drama out there besides these two spotlight-stealing, headline-whoring ball clubs.

So, I'm wishing for every Red Sox loss and Yankees defeat. I'm wishing for a postseason free of the corporatized Boston and New York markets.

Let's hope for an un-adulterated postseason.

Everyone's been talking about change lately. Let's also see some change in the world of baseball.