Red Sox, Yankees, Round 1.

Every baseball season, there's something on the mind of every baseball fan that resides in either Boston or New York. And it has absolutely nothing to do with their own teams. These two cities hate each other. In fact, they hate each other so much, they think about the other team almost as much as they think about their own. This will be on full display this weekend as the beasts from the AL East collide for the first time in 2009. There's only 19 chances to see these teams beat the shit out of each other, so don't miss it.

Even if you can care less about these two teams, the pitching matchups will sure catch the eyes of every true baseball fan. Today, it will be two young studs going at it in Lester and Chamberlain. Tomorrow afternoon's matchup features two of the premier power pitchers in the game with Beckett and Burnett. Then youngster Justin Masterson will face off against veteran Andy Pettitte for game three on Sunday Night Baseball (you just know ESPN has every one of these Red Sox vs. Yankees games covered).

The Red Sox come into this series winners of their last 7 games, including a sweep of both the Twins and Orioles. Meanwhile, the Yankees just came off a succesful series against the A's, where they won both games, while the third was rained out. On the New York side, Posada, Damon, Jeter, and Swisher have been hot as of late. Meanwhile, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkillis, and Mike Lowell have been swinging hot sticks for the Red Sox.

It will be an interesting series that's for sure. These games mean a lot to both the people of Boston and New York. As an outsider, I'd like to see nothing but some entertaining games. And when I mean entertaining, I mean Varitek shoving his glove into A-Rod's face or Pedro Martinez pushing down Don Zimmer. But even if those things don't happen, great baseball should be upon us.

- Stan (White Sox writer)