Bill Reynolds: Yanks-Sox pennant race revs up revelry for fans

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

• I know this probably borders on sacrilege here in the heart of this strange world that’s come to be known as Red Sox nation, but baseball is much more fun when the Yankees are in the race, too.

Truth be told, this season had gotten a little boring.

Or how many Sox-Tampa Bay games can you care about, especially when it all seems like some big extended batting practice until the playoffs start?

Sports are always better when there’s a great rivalry involved. Ali-Frazier. Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers in the ’80s. Army-Navy, back when that mattered. So it is with the Sox and Yankees. The better they both are, the better the season is. For scoreboard watching is half the fun, and in a sport where too many games are simply too long, we need all the fun we can get.

• Why do we care about exhibition football games when we don’t about spring-training baseball games?

• There’s no truth to the rumor that the General Assembly wanted to schedule their next session in front of the video slot that doubled a player’s money.

• Or that any Sox player who underachieves will have to go on “Sox Appeal.”

• The NBA is in the middle of being embarrassed by a gambling scandal with one of its referees, and the pre-Olympic team, stocked with NBA stars, is playing in a tournament in Las Vegas. Go figure.

• You’ve got to love Pacman Jones, now a member of the musical group Posterboyz, whose new song is about “big money, cars, and jewelry.”

• And I only have one question: Did someone forget the weapons?

• Line of the Week comes from George Steinbrenner on the death of Yankee great Phil Rizzuto: “Heaven must have needed a shortstop.”

• When did every day in America become “dress down day?”

• You know it’s a strange baseball season when Hanley Ramirez has more home runs than Manny Ramirez.

• And that two of the most promising kids in the game — the Red Sox’ Jacoby Ellsbury and the Yankees Joba Chamberlain — have an American-Indian heritage.

• The word is that South Kingstown’s Erik Murphy, who plays basketball at St. Mark’s, in Southboro, Mass., is being recruited by national champion Florida.

• The next person I text message will be the first.

• The Sporting News has the Pats winning the Super Bowl and Laurence Maroney as a star on the rise.

• It also has the Cowboys coming out of the NFC.

•And former Brown star Zak DeOssie as a backup linebacker for the Giants.

• The three pages of foreclosures in Thursday’s paper tells you all you need to know about Rhode Island’s economy.

• Did you see where Coach Pierce is now on record saying the Celtics need a veteran point guard?

• Fare thee well, Wily Mo. Come back when you learn to hit the curveball.

• The Sox were right on Johnny Damon, now a part-time player in the Bronx.

• The problem with most summer movies is that you can almost feel your brain atrophying as you watch them.

• Former URI basketball coach Brendan Malone is back in the NBA as an assistant coach, this time with the Orlando Magic. His son, Mike, is an assistant with the Cavaliers.

• Remember when the biggest problem in Michael Vick’s life was that he didn’t throw the ball very well?

• The acquisition of Wily Mo Pena for Bronson Arroyo might have been Theo’s worst move.

• The best new dramatic series on TV is Damages, in which Glen Close is flat-out terrific.

• The word is the Los Angeles Lakers were all set to get Kevin Garnett for Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown, before the deal suddenly fell apart.

• There are few things more obnoxious than watching some bozo talking on his cell phone at a Red Sox game.

• There’s no truth to the rumor that baseball would be better if the games were six innings.

• I don’t know about you, but I can live without any news about the Britney-K-Fed custody battle.

• Manny isn’t the same hitter he’s been, and maybe now that he’s 35, we shouldn’t be surprised.

• Very few contemporary writers do it any better than James Lee Burke, whose depictions of post-Katrina New Orleans in his new The Tin Roof Blowdown will break your heart.

• Yesterday won’t be the last game Clay Buchholz wins in the big leagues.

• The next time you can’t figure out your computer, Bunky, remember that the geeks have won.

• The Celtics could use Adonal Foyle as a backup center, a big body who doesn’t want to shoot.

• Have the Yankees bullpen woes put too much pressure on 37-year-old Mariano Rivera?

• Let’s see: we’ve had a protest march in North Providence that seemed like some throwback to the ’60s, American Idol tryouts in Cranston, a video slot at Twin River that started spitting out money, the news that Buddy’s going to have his own talk show on WPRO, and it seems like every other Connecticut resident is riding around in South County.

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