A new chapter in the feud is about to be written, and it will clearly be in blood. Perhaps it's too strong to say the two teams hate each other, but you can see that feeling from whatever emotional minefield they're presently on. “Hate” may be too strong, but “distaste” comes nowhere near describing the feeling between the two teams today.

Steinbrenner grew so obsessed by the fact his team couldn't come up with a single starter who could stop the Sox from a four-game sweep in the ALCS that he ponied up $32 million to pay aging All-Star pitcher Randy Johnson to anchor his rotation. Then he wrote more checks to add rising star Carl Pavano and injured but hard-throwing Jaret Wright to that rotation, giving New York one of the highest paid staffs in baseball when retainees Mike Mussina and Kevin Brown are added.

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The banishment of pitcher Javier Vasquez, who a year ago was the Yankees’ free-agency find, for his second-half and postseason failures last season only added to the perception that everything the Yankees did since last October's fall had only one purpose: Pass the Red Sox.

The world champion Red Sox.

In Boston the story was much the same. They let Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe leave in free agency because they questioned their continuing value. They added question marks in ex-Yankee David Wells and Astros free agent Wade Miller, who is recovering from a frayed rotator cuff but has a big upside if he's healthy.

The Sox are also counting on the return of Schilling, who might not be ready for Opening Day but who is desperately trying to get there so he can be matched against his former teammate but far from friend Johnson. And the Red Sox expect big things from Arroyo, who won only 10 games last season but had horrible run support in eight of his nine losses. Better run support for Arroyo, the Red Sox believe, and he can become their No. 2 starter and a Yankee killer.

But the Sox didn't stop with rebuilding their own pitching rotation.

They also spent big money to re-sign catcher Jason Varitek and bring in free-agent shortstop Edgar Renteria. They hope Renteria will make people forget not only Nomar Garciaparra but also Orlando Cabrera, who finished the season for Boston in sterling fashion but lacks Renteria's proven bat.

Yet of all the things that have gone on between these two teams, the one the Yankees cannot forget, the one they cannot erase, is that they blew a chance to return to the World Series. They blew it with a 3-0 lead in the ALCS but also with a one-run lead in Game 4 and their tight-fisted closer, Mariano Rivera, on the mound.

Twice the Sox beat back Rivera. After getting past him they twice, including once in the 14th inning, did what heated rivals do - they came back from the yawning jaws of defeat to win.

The sweep created a cavernous self-doubt in the minds of the Yankees’ smug, snobbish fans and even among themselves.

Something seminal happened last October, and it was not simply that this time the Red Sox beat the Yankees.

It was the creation of what might be the greatest rivalry in sports, because now it is more than simply the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Now it's a holy war in which there are two participants, not just one. In the past the Sox were a lot more fixated on beating the Yankees than the Yankees were concerned about losing to the Sox because, in the end, it always seemed to turn out the same way.

As announcer Bob Sterling would say in New York, "Thhhheeee Yankees win! Thhhheeee Yankees win!''

Well last October, just when things were looking grim for the Mudville Nine, thhhheeee Yankees didn't win. The Red Sox won, sweeping them four straight and then doing the same to the St. Louis Cardinals in a World Series that seemed anti-climactic to Sox fans.

Now it is a new season, one in which a real rivalry finally exists between these two long-time sworn enemies. In the past, Babe Ruth always won.

Joe DiMaggio always won. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and Roger Maris always won. Later Thurman Munson always won. And Derek Jeter always won. The Yankees always won in the end, which doesn't make for much of a rivalry.

Everything is different now. Everything is new and even more intense because four months ago, at last, the Yankees did not win. Thus was born a real rivalry. Until this new season is decided, the Yankees are no longer the hunted. They are the hunters, and their prey are the Boston Red Sox.

It's Oklahoma vs. Texas. It's Auburn vs. Alabama. It's the Celtics vs. the Lakers or the Packers vs. the Bears. More than that, it's become the Hatfields and the McCoys or the Montagues vs. the Capulets. It's finally what the Red Sox always thought it was, but the Yankees never quite saw it as.

It's a rivalry, and baseball will be the better for it.