The Yankees Have Another ENEMY And It's Already Getting Out Of HAND

The New York Yankees have been good mostly every year since 2018, and every season one thing has remained constant. They leave their fans disappointed in the end. At the same time, there's one thing that hasn't been constant, and that's who the Yankees' number one rival is. It's been a constantly changing process. They've basically been taking a pit stop throughout the entire American League East division as far as who these rivals are, and as we stand here in 2024, the Yankees have an updated arch-nemesis. Or, that's at least where things seem to be heading. So if you're part of the 70% of viewers not subscribed yet, come aboard and join the wonderful people who are subscribed to the channel, as back in 2018, the Yankees and Red Sox, the teams that make up the most historic rivalry in sports history, both won at least 100 games. The Red Sox had a historic and dominant 108-win season that led to a championship, but in the midst of all that, there was some drama between the two that sparked the rivalry back up. Nothing compared to what it used to be at its peak, but something. When Tyler Austin slid into Brock Holt at second base, Holt didn't appreciate it. Austin kinda got in his face, which prompted Joe Kelly to later hit Austin. Austin charged them out, nobody even hit each other, and that really was that. It especially doesn't help that it was between Joe Kelly and Tyler Austin. 2018 ended up being Kelly's last season in Boston, and most of you watching this probably don't even know who Tyler Austin is. I don't even know who Tyler Austin is. Sometimes I sit up late at night wondering where that man is, what he's doing, if he's even real. Was he a figment of my imagination this whole time? But you get the point. This wasn't Aaron Judge vs Chris Sale. They did end up facing off in the playoffs when Aaron Judge blasted New York, New York as he walked by the Red Sox clubhouse after the Yankees won game 2, only for the Sox to win the next two in New York and blast New York, New York and the clubhouse as they celebrated. That was really it. Since that, these two teams haven't had much tension between them. Enter the Rays. The Yankees and Rays have had tensions even dating during 2018, starting when CeCe Sabathia hit Jake Bowers on the hand, and seemingly as a way of retaliation, Rays pitcher Andrew Kittredge would throw up behind Austin Romine, who clearly wasn't happy, and neither were the Yankees, specifically Sabathia, having to be stopped by Aaron Boone from storming out of the dugout. But that wasn't the end for CeCe, because the next pitch he threw would smoke Rays catcher immediately getting himself and Boone ejected, pointing and yelling at the Rays dugout on his way off the field. But there's more to this that makes it so incredible and significant. CeCe Sabathia had a bonus in his contract of $500,000 extra if he threw 155 innings that season, and after just 55 pitches, threw 5 shutout innings and now 153 on the season, the bonus was of course in sight, despite it being his last start of the year. He needed 7 innings and he was rolling on the way there, so CeCe defending his teammates and getting ejected in the process cost himself that extra $500,000. Let this be a lesson to you, men and women, if your girl or man doesn't treat you the way CeCe Sabathia treated and stood up for his teammates that day, they ain't the ones. The Yankees ended up giving him the $500,000 anyway, but still, the fact that he genuinely could have not gotten it and still did what he did shows a lot. CeCe really hated the Rays on his way into retirement as much as Michael hated Toby in the office. Okay, maybe not quite that much hate, but you get the point. Yelling after he struck out a Visayo Garcia to end an inning the next year, only for Garcia to start yelling back, CeCe got even more fired up, nobody threw any punches or anything, and afterwards CeCe even said the situation was likely a misunderstanding, considering he wasn't yelling at anyone but rather just firing himself up in the moment. But whatever the case was, CeCe had no issue yelling at a Rays player, and after CeCe retired that offseason, phew, that was it with that, right? No, the rivalry actually got even more heated. The Rays were pitching inside a lot during the 2020 season, something the Yankees had no appreciation for, and remember that, because that specific complaint ends up relating four years and two rivalries later. It started in early August, when after the first game of a doubleheader in which the Lau didn't hold back on his thoughts about the Yankees yelling at his team, saying it was frustrating that the Yankees thought they could yell at them, but not expect some yelling back from the Rays side, calling them childish. And earlier in that same game, after Lau tied it off of Yankee starter James Paxton, knocking him out of the game, Paxton stared over at a Rays dugout that was yelling at him. And in the second game, Andrew Kittredge and Diego Castillo both threw inside to multiple Yankee hitters, firing up Aaron Boone and Yankee hitting coach Marcus Thames, both getting ejected as the Rays pitchers heard it from the Yankee dugout. And about a month later, now in New York, after Rays reliever Diego Castillo threw another inside pitch to DJ LeMayhew, the Yankees started yelling out in anger. The next night, in the very first inning, Joey Wendell would take a fastball to the hip by Masahiro Tanaka. Wendell barely reacted and just ran over to first, laughing it off, but skip ahead to the 9th. And this is where the hypocrisy comes out, and you realize every team does the same thing, and gets mad when other teams do the same thing they also do. Because if you go back to 2018, which is what started all of this, part of what made CeCe Sabathia and the Yankees so upset was the fact that Kittredge threw near Austin Romine's hit. Yet, here's a role this Chapman in the 9th inning of this game a couple years later throwing an even harder fastball over the head of Mike Brasso. Both teams were immediately warned with Rays manager Kevin Cash getting ejected for arguing it, and soon after when Brasso ended up striking out on another heater from Chapman to end the game, Brasso started hearing stuff from the Yankee dugout on his way back to the Rays dugout, turning back and starting to go at them. Nobody fought or anything, a classic everyone stand around and look pretty baseball fight, Anthony Fauci mask edition, but things were hot, and what Kevin Cash said after the game definitely didn't cool anything off, basically sending out a public threat to the Yankees that his bullpen has guys who also throw really hard. The Yankees took this as a threat, and nothing escalated in a crazy way afterward, but as if things couldn't be any more perfect, the Rays and Yankees would match up in the postseason that October. The result? Mike Brasso hitting a go-ahead home run off of a role this Chapman in the final game to help push the Rays to a series win in 5 games. No, I'm not saying that would have been crazy if it happened, it actually happened. This isn't CGI. And so, yeah, these two teams hate each other, and last year the tension only stayed alive after Randy Rosarito was hit by a fastball, thought it was on purpose, and the bench is cleared. The game resumed, Randy would go on a steal second and third base, continue saying stuff to the pitcher, Abreu, as the bench is cleared again. Whether it was intentional or not, the Yankees definitely didn't seem to be fans of Randy, with Randy himself pointing back to when the Yankees hit him twice in a game earlier in the season, and a week after that incident, a Rosarito had gotten deep against the Yankees again, this time off of Garrett Cole in New York doing his signature pose around third base. And when specifically asked if he was bothered by that, Cole acknowledged that he does it all the time so it's predictable, which is an answer coming from someone who was clearly bothered by it, at least that's how I saw it. I'm sure Garrett Cole and the Yankees aren't the only people to not like a Rosarito's pose around third base, but the Yankees definitely didn't love it, and so after getting hit later in the season by the Yankees again, Randy was fired up. And after the game, Brandon Lau was asked about the whole situation, and he basically called out the Yankees, saying that the Rays have more important things to worry about, because they're not a bad team, literally saying, looking at it, it's a last place team against the team that is in contention, obviously referring to his Rays, saying that they're focused on bigger things right now than a little on-field scuffle. We need these games. Damn. So I'm not sure if the Yankees-Rays rivalry is over necessarily at this point now, but it's definitely being overshadowed by some other situations as of the last year and especially right now, and that's because the Blue Jays joined in on the Yankee beef. Alec Manoa, remember him? Well, he basically started a war with the Yankees and all their fans after hitting Aaron Judge with a pitch. Judge wasn't happy, but also immediately understood that there was no ill will by it telling his teammates to stay calm. Garrett Cole was not calm, storming out of the dugout screaming afterwards saying that Manoa had been throwing too many pitches inside to Judge. Manoa then took a shot at Cole, saying that he should walk past the oddie side next time, or in other words, fight him rather than yell at him. The next season, these two were at it again in one of the pettiest situations between two teams we've maybe ever seen. It was wild. It started after the Blue Jays questioned Aaron Judge and the Yankees of cheating and stealing signs before he hit a home run. The Jays' reliever who gave up the home run, Jay Jackson, ended up admitting that he was tipping his pitches. The next night, Yankees starter Domingo Hermano was ejected and suspended for pitching with a sticky substance. Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker started yelling at Yankees third base coach Luis Rojas over where he was standing. Blue Jays manager John Schneider called Yankees assistant hitting coach Brad Wilkerson a fat boy. Yes, seriously. Aaron Boone then started freaking out, basically mocking the Blue Jays by pointing out where their third base coach was standing. I mean, the whole thing was ridiculous. Especially when the Yankees ended up being an underwhelming team in 2023, missing the postseason entirely while the Blue Jays made it just to get swept in the wildcard round. So who cares about this rivalry? The Blue Jays and Yankees couldn't make it anything more than a petty fest. So that's when the other birds come in. The Baltimore Orioles have become a top team in baseball. We saw glimpses of what that could be in 2022. We saw mostly what they were capable of in 2023 as they won 101 games along with the division and they've only continued to roll along in 2024. The Rays were their challenger for the division last year. That's no longer the case. But the issue? The Yankees are back and in a big way. After adding Juan Soto to a team in a blockbuster trade, people still had doubts regarding the Yankees. The pitching looked questionable, especially with Garrett Cole starting the year on the shelf. Aaron Judge was dealing with injury stuff. I mean, Juan Soto's great, but how much can he really change things? Well, Soto has been great, just as advertised, but the rest of the team has also been great. And that includes the pitching as the Yankees have arguably baseball's strongest rotation that's been so dominant even without Cole. Judge is basically the best hitter in baseball. Everything has really fell into place so far for New York. And because of that, as good as the Orioles are, the Yankees are showing that they're just as capable of winning the AL East. So you have these two great teams going up against one another, fighting for a common goal. That alone is going to cause some tension and it has. In the first series between these two teams this year, the Orioles took 3 out of 4 at home. But in one of the games, Juan Soto hit an absolute bomb off of Dean Kramer. Apparently the two had been going back and forth leading up to that moment, with Soto saying after the game that Kramer didn't like the shuffle, and he bet he didn't like the homer too. I love Juan Soto, I really do, and you can't deny that this was badass. But saying this after a game the Yankees lost isn't probably the best thing to do. Yeah, Kramer probably didn't like the homer, but he and his team definitely like beating your team. But whatever. You move on, both teams continue to kill it, and that brings us to another matchup, this time in New York. In the first game of the series, Aaron Judge was hit on the hand by a fastball from Albert Suarez having to leave the game, and a couple innings later, Gleyber Torres was also hit on the hand, but was good enough to stay in the game. Now the Yankees didn't see any of this as anything on purpose, they just weren't happy with the Orioles pitcher's inability to locate on inside pitches because as a result, you saw what happened. I'd definitely say the Orioles are the classiest ALEs team to anger the Yankees so far, because reliever Dylan Tate said that the Yankees being mad was justified, and that any team would get mad about that sort of thing as it's part of the game. Gunnar Henderson, who had a 95 mile an hour fastball from Nestor Cortes thrown up near his face in the 6th inning, didn't accuse that of being intentional, saying it was just a competitive pitch that he didn't really think much of. Aaron Judge, though, whose MRI thankfully came back negative so the injury to his hand is nothing serious, was clearly not happy with Baltimore, again not necessarily accusing them of intent to harm, but just not being a fan of them pitching inside. The very next night, two Orioles were hit this time, first being Gunnar Henderson, in a situation the Oriole announcers were not having. Then the very next inning, Colton Couser was hit by a pitch, throwing his bat into the ground in anger, only for Yankees catcher Jose Trevino to kick the bat back near his direction, and nothing would come from this other than a warning to both sides from the umpire, and again the Orioles went on to win in 10 innings. And in the third and final game of the series, the Orioles showed no mercy, despite one of the most dominant starters in baseball this year taking the mound for New York, that was no match for the power of Ryan. Seriously, if your name was Ryan, you had a good day. Ryan Mountcastle and Ryan O'Hearn combined for 5 hits, 2 walks, and 8 RBIs to contribute to the 17 runs Baltimore scored, Cedric Mullins went deep, Anthony Santander went deep, Austin Hayes went deep, and that was that. Two Oriole hitters were hit, but both led to runs, Jordan Westberg was hit by a slider with the bases loaded, and Hayes was hit by a pitch in the at-bat before he went deep. Everything came up Orioles in this game, they won this latest battle, but the war continues. I don't know about you, but I am pumped for each and every single game these two are going to face off in, just for the sheer fact that it's arguably the two best teams in baseball going at it for the division, but there's also some clear tension between both parties that only makes things more exciting and intense. It's definitely for me the most exciting potential rivalry the Yankees have had with any team in the AL East in recent years. There seems to be a lot here in terms of both teams being so good and the tension that comes with everything else. Will we have a second coming of this wild Yankee-Oriole brawl back in 1998? Who knows, but what I and everyone knows by now is that Orioles-Yankees games are undoubtedly must-see TV, and with how talented both teams are, it may be this way for a long time. Let me know your thoughts, thank you for watching, and I'll see you soon.