Old Rivalry, New Blood

Joba Chamberlain and Jacoby Ellsbury are both under 25. They both possess otherworldly talent. They both share a Native American heritage. Unfortunately, one plays for the Yankees and one plays for the Red Sox

fact is, Red Sox versus Yankees jumped the shark in 2005. In 2003, Boston lost the ALCS to New York on a seventh-game, eleventh-inning walk-off home run—the most hyphenated and painful defeat imaginable, right? Wrong: In 2004, the Yankees lost the ALCS to Boston after leading three games to none—the worst choke in sports, ever. Even Stallone would hesitate to write a sequel to that, but the sports media didn't balk, furiously pimping the rivalry until even fans grew tired of their own players. But in 2007, two rookies, both Native American—Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, 24, who's half Navajo, and Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, 22, who's half Winnebago—made the rivalry vibrate again. In his third big-league game, Ellsbury, like some mad figure out of Negro League legend, scored from second base on a wild pitch. In thirty-three games, he'd bat .353; in the World Series, .438. And Chamberlain, who routinely lit up triple digits on the radar gun, didn't allow an earned run in his first twelve games and threw a slider that may be the game's most unhittable pitch. For once we weren't talking about Manny's wandering attention span or A-Rod's roving eye. To watch the two rookies is to be witness to something fresh, thrilling, and especially in Boston and New York, rare: baseball without baggage.