By Sweeny Murti
» More Columns

"The intensity will be interesting.  Looking forward to it?  Who knows?" — Bobby Valentine on Yankees-Red Sox.

Bobby V threw himself headlong into the newest chapter of Yankees-Red Sox two weeks ago when he fired a couple small jabs at the Yankees.  But when the two teams met for the first time in 2012 Tuesday night in Tampa, there wasn't as much good copy to be had.  Valentine mostly shrugged off his place in the rivalry, not really knowing where he fit in yet or what to expect, other than good baseball played in front of passionate fans.

For the most part of the past decade, the managers in this series have spent many, many hours downplaying each meeting, while at the same time realizing they need their players to play to the next level.  The games are important, but the emotions have to also be kept in check.  Not easy to do, but both Bobby Valentine and Joe Girardi know its part of their jobs…

Valentine:

Girardi:

Easy to say in March when the Yankees and Red Sox can play a 1-0 game in under three hours and nobody cares who won or lost.

Not so easy April 20^th when they meet for the first time for real, or October 1-3 when they play the final three games of the regular season.

This is my 12^th season covering Yankees baseball for WFAN.  There is always something interesting going on when the Yankees meet the Red Sox.  But I'm not sure I'll ever again see what we saw in 2003-04, when these two rivals met 52 times in the regular season and postseason.  Imagine if Duke and North Carolina played each other that many times.  It would be hard to sustain the intensity.

We've seen some good baseball the last few years, the story lines still finding their way around these two franchises.  Maybe it will never get back to the way it was in 2003 and 2004.  But if it does get there, it will be because of the games being played between the lines, not by the managers in the dugouts.

Sweeny Murti
Yankees@wfan.com
www.twitter.com/YankeesWFAN