Glory Days of the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry, and into the future.

From 2004-2009, and again in 2011, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees had the best teams in baseball hands-down. Starting in 2004, with the historic comeback by Boston against New York, with Boston's even more spectacular win in the World Series that year, for the first time in 86 years, and the New York Yankees' counter-move by signing Randy Johnson, possibly one of the best starting pitchers in baseball history the next year, the Sox/Yanks rivalry had never been more brutal. Both Boston and New York spent literally hundreds of million of dollars on upgrading and fine-tuning their teams with players like Randy Johnson, (Yankees) Daisuke Matsuzaka, (Red Sox) Johnny Damon, (Yankees, formerly Boston) and Curt Schilling (Red Sox), creating grossly overpowered teams that regularly clashed in colossal contests, pitchers like Randy Johnson, AKA "Big Unit," who struck out 20 batters in a game that he pitched with the Diamondbacks against the Reds in 2001, also pitching a perfect game against Atlanta in 2004, won the Cy Young Award 5 times, posted 4,875 strikeouts in his career, ended the Yankees dynasty in 2001, had a strikeout average of 10.59 per 9 innings, and accomplished so much on the field that Baseball America named him #3 on the top ten starting pitchers of all time, against hitters like Manny Ramirez, the Red Sox slugger that won the MVP award in the 2004 World Series, as of 2012, he is still playing, with 555 home runs in his career. By that point, the Red Sox and Yankees were the only teams that really mattered, especially going into 2006 and 2007, when the Sox won the World Series again, taking the title from the Colorado Rockies. However, as the whole Boston-New York drama was dominating the baseball headlines, other teams, especially the Philadelphia Phillies, were rising to contention. The Phillies offensive power was already starting to make noise as early as 2003, and the following year, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were added to the team, and shortly after, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Cole Hamels. By 2007, as the Red Sox were making headlines with their second World Series win in 3 years, Philadelphia was considered "the team to beat." By 2008, the Phillies won the World Series, and lost in 2009 to the Yankees, who took their 27th title. This was the beginning of the end for the Francona Dynasty in Boston, as of February 2012, Boston has not won a playoff game since 2008, even though this was not expected at all. In all respects, the 2011 baseball season was predicted to be Boston vs. Philadelphia in the World Series, as the Boston Globe called the 2011 Red Sox the "best Sox team ever." The addition of Adrian Gonzales and Carl Crawford made the Red Sox the AL favorite, and the Phillies, with their star-studded rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, not to mention thier stellar hitting power, were by far the NL favorite. Fast-forward 162 games, and a totally different picture emerged. Boston, in the biggest choke in history, collapsed so spectacularly that one might never have guessed that the Curse of the Bambino was ever broken at all. They lost 25 games in September, and missed the playoffs completely, despite their power and ability. The Phillies did little better, losing to the Cardinals in the NLDS, even after winning 102 games. Philadelphia is facing the problem of an ageing lineup in 2012, and now that the NL East has become far more competitive, with the Miami Marlins, Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves improving dramatically, the Nationals are only an ace pitcher or two from becoming a dyansty-level team, the Marlins now have one of the most ferocious starting rotations in baseball, and the Braves are still potent, Philadelphia could miss the playoffs for the first time in 6 seasons. It's worth mentioning that the Nationals have the building blocks for a multi-championship dynasty on the level of something not seen since Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada. They have their own 'Core Four," and a very potent offense, and should be able to seriously contend this year for their first trip to the postseason in their only 7-year history, but next year, if, say, the Nationals sign Matt Cain, Cole Hamels and another power hitter, all three of which come onto the free-agent market for 2013, the Nationals will have a godly team. They'll have a team that echos of the 1998 Yankees or the 1998 Braves, winners of 114 and 108 games, respectively, and possibly be one of those "once in a generation" lineups that people who see them in 2013 will still be talking about them in 2030. Hang tight, we'll see where this goes.