Frank Franklin Ii / AP file

Daisuke Matsuzaka and the Red Sox might not be better than the Yankees this season, writes JT the Brick.

Then on March 30, I tuned into “60 Minutes” to watch a fluff piece on legendary “Stat Man” Bill James, who has the title of “Senior Advisor for baseball operations” for the Red Sox. Morley Safer interviewed James with a Red Sox cap on and portrayed him as the reason why the franchise turned the corner with his help for identifying undervalued talent. Safer never got around to mentioning the fact that the Red Sox have now joined the Yankees as out-of -control spenders who will spend whatever it takes to sign any player that can help them win. When Katie Couric recently interviewed Alex Rodriguez, she asked him if he ever took steroids, and I don’t remember her wearing a Yankees cap.

Let’s get back to Tuesday night’s game in Oakland in which the Red Sox beat the A’s 2-1 and Matsuzaka pitched a great game and got the win. They don’t play their first game at Fenway Park until April 8 when Matsuzaka is scheduled to pitch in front of a fan base that will celebrate the fact that the ream will raise another championship banner. The entire roster should feel like rock stars by the time it gets back to Boston after visiting the Far East, Bay Area and cosmopolitan city of Toronto. Mick Jagger never had it so good 

The New York Yankees are the only franchise that can keep the Red Sox from becoming the next great sports dynasty. George Steinbrenner, along with his sons Hank and Hal, clearly is motivated to stop Boston in its championship tracks. This is the last season for the Bombers at Yankee Stadium, “The House that Ruth Built.” Nothing would be sweeter for the Yankees than to eliminate the Red Sox on the hollowed grounds in the Bronx en route to winning their 27^th championship. Players such as Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera would love to win their fifth championship and put an end to any talk of a Boston dynasty.

If the Yankees could open the 2009 season in their new state-of-the-art ballpark while raising a World Series flag, it would put a damper on any fan who thinks he lives in a Red Sox Nation. Rodriguez is clearly the player on the Yankees with the most pressure to win, but if he delivers in the postseason and gets his first ring, it would all but silent any Red Sox fan who was born to hate the “Evil Empire.”

The Red Sox are better on paper than the Yankees, and they know it. They are proven winners who have played superbly when the pressure is on the line. They Yankees have been postseason chokers since their collapse to Boston after holding a 3-0 lead in the ALCS in 2004. This is the best rivalry in professional sports and this new chapter has a lot riding on the outcome. Let the best team win even if that includes the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers or even the Chicago Cubs!