Daily Sports: AL East Battle Tonight From The Fens

There’s not a lot of diversity in a sports fans’ daily sports TV choices on Wednesday, but the one option there is at least a big-time option—or at least as big-time as is possible in the month of July. It’s the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays (7 PM ET, ESPN) as the AL East race continues to heat up on Wednesday night from Fenway Park.

Whether the Red Sox have the starting pitching to survive the long haul, is a pertinent question and one that was addressed here on Monday at TheSportsNotebook. For Boston fans who’d rather think about something more pleasant from the recent past—remember this. Today is the anniversary of one of the great regular season wins in franchise history.

It was July 24, 2004 when the Red Sox fell behind the New York Yankees 7-1. Then a brawl broke out, and catcher Jason Varitek shoved Alex Rodriguez in the face, a photo of which became one of the iconic shots of that historic season. The game ultimately ended with Bill Mueller beating Mariano Rivera with a three-run walkoff shot into the rightfield bullpen.

Today at TheSportsNotebook we’re going to take a closer look at the AL Central. If you haven’t had a chance to visit the archive of sports history articles, please note that quite a bit has been added there over the past several days, at this relatively quiet time for sports. The project of adding an article on the best offered each year since 1976 is quickening, and just last week the entries for 1987 and 1988 were completed.