Red Sox, Yankees playing for all the marbles, and also a playoff berth
The Red Sox and Yankees renew sports' fiercest rivalry tonight to start a season-ending three-game series that will shape both the AL playoffs and the bragging rights of millions of fans, including the typical, randomly selected Boston and New York fans pictured below.
The games will be played as scheduled after baseball commissioner Bud Selig on Friday denied a last-minute, $6.2 million bid by George Steinbrenner to buy all three victories. The ruling was called a "travesty" by the Yankees' house counsel, Satan.
The big weekend series will reopen debate about whether "The Curse of the Bambino," the historical hex thought dead last year when Boston won the World Sereis, might in fact still exist. The curse is represented below by an exceptionally bad Babe Ruth impersonator. Below right, a Red Sox official responds.