Patrick O'Keefe

Who better to talk about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry than Tom Gordon, who calls his days in Boston among his happiest in the game. Gordon came up as a Royal, and was signed away by Boston where he was converted from a starter to a closer. He set the team’s single-season saves record, but blew out his elbow. After stops in Houston and both sides of Chicago, the Florida native was lured to the Yankees. With all due respect to the other teams he’s played for, Gordon said that was all like the minors compared to being a Yankee. When Flash first saw the sign in the Yankees clubhouse and plastered throughout the lower reaches of the stadium with the Joe DiMaggio quote, “I’d like to thank the good lord for making me a Yankee,” he felt it was written for him.

While on the Red Sox’s side of the rivalry, Gordon acknowledged that he felt the Yankees were a bit full of themselves, pompous and conceited. Now on the Yankees’ side, he says it’s merely pride and professionalism. He couldn’t believe it when he got to spring training, and there just roaming around was Yogi Berra and Reggie Jackson along with the pictures every where of DiMaggio, Mantle, Ruth, Gehrig. No franchise has as many all-time great players or parades them as proudly and as often.