The Red Sox–Yankees rivalry is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Both teams have competed in MLB's American League (AL) for over 120 seasons, and have developed what is considered by many to be the fiercest rivalry in American sports. Nicknamed "The Rivalry" by some, the 1919 sale of star Red Sox player Babe Ruth to the Yankees popularized one of the most well-known aspects of the rivalry: a superstition known as the "Curse of the Bambino", attributed to Boston’s 86-year World Series drought which began upon Ruth’s sale to New York. Coincidentally, when the Red Sox broke the curse by winning the 2004 World Series, they defeated the Yankees in the ALCS after overcoming a 3–0 deficit.
The rivalry is often a heated subject of conversation, especially in the home region of both teams, the Northeastern United States. Until 2014, every MLB postseason featured one or both teams beginning with the inception of the wild card format and resultant additional Division Series in 1995, when both teams were assigned to the American League’s East Division. The Red Sox and the Yankees have faced each other three times in the ALCS, with the Yankees winning twice, in 1999 and 2003, and the Red Sox winning in 2004. The two teams have also met once in the American League Division Series (ALDS), in 2018, with Boston winning 3–1, a series which included a 16–1 Red Sox win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the largest margin of defeat in a postseason game in the Yankees' history. The Red Sox beat the Yankees in the 2021 American League Wild Card Game, while most recently the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the 2025 American League Wild Card Series and 2026 American League Wild Card Series. Across the two series, the Red Sox endured a record 26⅔-inning postseason scoreless streak against the Yankees, the longest playoff scoring drought in Major League Baseball history.
In addition, the teams have twice met in the last regular-season series to decide the AL pennant, in 1904 (when the Red Sox, then known as the Americans, won) and 1949 (when the Yankees won).
The Yankees and the Red Sox finished tied for first in 1978; subsequently, the Yankees won a high-profile tie-breaker game for the division title. The first-place tie came after the Red Sox had a 14-game lead over the Yankees more than halfway through the season. Similarly, in the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees ultimately lost a best-of-seven series after leading 3–0. The Red Sox comeback was the only time in American baseball history that a team has come back from a 3–0 deficit to win a series. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series, ending the 86-year-old curse.
This match-up is regarded by some sports journalists as the greatest rivalry in sports. Games between the two teams often generate considerable interest and receive extensive media coverage, including being broadcast on national television. National carriers of Major League Baseball coverage, including Fox/FS1, ESPN, and MLB Network carry most of the games in the rivalry across the nation, regardless of team standings or playoff implications. Yankees–Red Sox games are some of the most-watched MLB games each season. Outside of baseball, the rivalry has led to violence between fans, along with attention from politicians and other athletes.
Background
Boston and New York City have shared a rivalry as cities since before the American Revolution. For more than a century after its founding, Boston was arguably the educational, cultural, artistic, and economic power in the United States. Its location as a close American port to Europe and its concentration of elite schools and manufacturing hubs helped maintain this position for several decades. During this time period, New York was often looked down upon as the upstart, over-populated, dirty cousin to aristocratic and clean Boston.
In the 19th century, however, New York's economic power outpaced Boston's, fueled by possession of the terminus of the Erie Canal, which spurred massive growth in the manufacturing, shipping, insurance and financial services businesses. Another factor was its more rapid population expansion compared to that of Boston, driven by the growth of these industries, by New York's popularity as an immigration port of entry, and enhanced by a larger population base, even prior to the construction of the Canal – on the eve of the Revolution, New York, with 30,000 people, had nearly twice the population of Boston, with about 16,000. By the start of the 20th century the original dynamic, centered on Boston, had completely shifted as New York, particularly Wall Street, became the financial center of both the United States and the world.
The cities even played two different versions of early baseball. The "Massachusetts Game," as it was called, was played on a field with four bases and with home plate in the middle; whereas, the "New York Game," popularized by the New York Knickerbocker Club, was played on a diamond with three bases. The "New York Game" spread throughout the nation after the American Civil War and became the foundation for the modern game of baseball.
Red Sox' early success
The Red Sox were one of the most successful teams in baseball from 1901 to 1918. They won the inaugural World Series in 1903 (as the Boston Americans; the team changed its name to Red Sox in 1908) and four more between 1912 and 1918. The Yankees were founded in 1903 after franchise rights were purchased from the defunct Baltimore Orioles (as the New York Highlanders, in reference to playing games in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.) The two teams had their first meeting in Boston on May 7, 1903. The game was marked by a fight when Boston pitcher George Winter was knocked down. Boston would eventually go on to win the pennant and the inaugural 1903 World Series. The 1904 season featured the teams facing each other on opening day. Later in the season, the Highlanders, led by pitcher Jack Chesbro in his record-setting 41 game-winning season, met the Boston Americans in the season's final game to decide the American League pennant winner. Chesbro threw a wild pitch in the top of the ninth inning, allowing the winning run to score from third base, and Boston won the game, and the pennant. The New York Giants, who had already clinched the National League pennant, refused to play in the 1904 World Series because of a perception of the "Junior Circuit" as being inferior (and because of alleged animosity between American League founder and first president, Ban Johnson, and the hierarchy of the Giants, owner John T. Brush and his team's Hall of Fame coach, player-manager John McGraw); thus, there was no World Series that year. Not until 2004 would the Red Sox again defeat the Yankees in a title-deciding game.
On April 11, 1912, the Highlanders debuted their pinstripes in a game against Boston, by then known as the Red Sox. Nine days later, Boston opened Fenway Park with a game against the Highlanders, who had left their home field of Hilltop Park to play in the newly rebuilt Polo Grounds; soon thereafter, in 1913, the team dropped the nickname Highlanders in favor of Yankees.
Six years later, the Chicago Cubs scored two runs off of Babe Ruth in game 4 of the Series, snapping his then record World Series scoreless inning streak at 29+2⁄3 innings. The Red Sox won the game, 3–2, and went on to capture their fifth Series title, their third in four years, and fourth in seven years.
The Yankees would however receive one notable moment of glory against the Red Sox during this era. On April 24, 1917, Yankees pitcher George Mogridge threw a no-hitter at Fenway Park, the first in the ballpark's history and first in Yankees history.
"The Curse of the Bambino"
In 1916, Broadway producer Harry Frazee purchased the Red Sox, on credit, for $500,000. Frazee lost his patience with Ruth despite the latter's success with the Red Sox, as Ruth had threatened to hold out for a larger contract and become a distraction. After the Red Sox finished sixth in the American League in 1919, Frazee, needing money to finance a Broadway musical, often said to be No, No Nanette (the success of that 1925 play is actually what paid off the loan). However, Ruth was sold to the Yankees in 1919, and "No, No Nanette" was produced by Frazee in 1925. Frazee received $125,000 and a loan of $300,000 – secured on Fenway Park – for Ruth, despite Ruth having set the record for home runs with 29 in 1919. This began a series of deals with the Yankees that resulted in a long period of mediocrity for the Red Sox while the Yankees began their dynasty.
Ruth's arrival in New York simultaneously launched the Yankees dynasty while ravaging the Red Sox. While the Red Sox' five World Series titles were a record at the time, 1918 would be the team's last championship for 86 years. The Yankees then created the greatest dynasty and team in baseball history. Meanwhile, Ruth's home run-hitting prowess anchored the Yankees line-up, which became known as "Murderers' Row" in the late 1920s. The Yankees reached the World Series seven times during Ruth's New York years, winning four. This abrupt reversal of fortunes for the Red Sox marked the beginning of the supposed "Curse of the Bambino." But it was not the Ruth deal alone that reversed the fortunes of both clubs. Frazee also sold many other players to the Yankees.
Robert W. Creamer reported that "[the] loan was made and relations between the two clubs continued to be cordial, with Frazee sending player after player to the Yankees over the next few seasons for more and more cash. This was no accident. Frazee and Yankees owner Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston were friends, and American League president Ban Johnson's attempts to drive Frazee out of the game had caused the five teams loyal to Johnson to make no deals with the Red Sox as long as Frazee owned the club, leaving only the Yankees and White Sox as trading partners. When the White Sox' reputation was destroyed in the Black Sox Scandal, Frazee's only option for trades was to deal with the Yankees. The Red Sox soon became a baseball disaster area, finishing dead last nine times in eleven seasons."
Among others, Wally Schang, Everett Scott, Carl Mays, Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush and Sam Jones went from the Sox to the Yankees in the next one to three years, along with Ed Barrow, the former Red Sox manager who became the Yankees' general manager and empire-builder for the first quarter-century of the Yankees' dynasty. Scott, a former Red Sox team captain, actually took the reins as Yankees captain from Ruth when he arrived; in doing so, he became the only player in history to be named captain for both teams.
Yankees dominance during the curse
From 1920 through 2003, the Yankees won 26 World Series championships and 39 pennants, compared to only four pennants for the Red Sox. In every year that the Red Sox won the pennant – 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 – they lost the World Series 4–3, leaving them with no World Series titles. During this time, the Red Sox finished second in the standings to the Yankees on twelve occasions – in 1938, 1939, 1941, 1942, 1949, 1977, 1978, and every year from 1998 to 2003. During the 84-year period, the Yankees finished with a better regular-season record than the Red Sox 66 times, leading one sportswriter to quip that the Yankees' rivalry with the Red Sox was much like the rivalry "between a hammer and a nail." The Yankees finished second in the standings to the Red Sox twice, in 1986 and 1995.
1920s and 1930s: First Yankees dynasty
Just two years after Ruth's sale, he went on to have a record setting season, one of the greatest in major league history for a batter. This propelled the Yankees to win their first pennant and face their cross-town rival. Ruth got hurt during the Series, and the Yankees eventually dropped the last three games, losing the Series 5–3 to the Giants in the last ever best-of-nine Series. Both the Yankees and Giants would play in the 1922 World Series as well, a series that would be the Yankees' last in the two teams' shared stadium at the Polo Grounds, as the Giants served the Yankees an eviction notice after the 1921 season.
The Yankees moved across the Harlem River to the Bronx into Yankee Stadium. On April 18, 1923, the Yankees opened their new home against the Red Sox. Over 74,200 people watched the Yankees defeat the Red Sox, 4–1, in the first game played at the stadium. Babe Ruth hit the new stadium's first home run, christening the stadium as "The House that Ruth Built." Ruth would finish the year with a .393 batting average and the Yankees won their first World Series that year. Of the 24 players on the Yankees, 11 previously played for the Red Sox.
Several lesser known moments in the rivalry occurred during the 1930s. Pitcher Red Ruffing was traded in 1930 from the Red Sox to the Yankees. Ruffing, who had limited success with the Red Sox, would go on to a Hall of Fame career with the Yankees winning six World Series. On May 30, 1938, before 83,533 spectators at Yankee Stadium, Yankees outfielder Jake Powell and Red Sox player-manager Joe Cronin fought on the field and beneath the stands. Both players were fined and suspended for 10 games. The Yankees and Red Sox would finish first and second in the League respectively that year as well as the following. The Yankees went on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series a year later.
1940s–1960s: Teddy Ballgame and Joltin' Joe
The rivalry intensified in 1941 when Ted Williams of the Red Sox batted .406, becoming the last player to bat over .400 in a season. Despite his accomplishment, Williams lost the AL MVP race to the Yankees' Joe DiMaggio, who in the same season set the record for a hitting streak, with 56 straight games with a hit. Williams later reminisced about his rivalry with DiMaggio saying "DiMaggio was the greatest all-around player I ever saw. His career cannot be summed up in numbers and awards. It might sound corny, but he had a profound and lasting impact on the country." Both teams almost swapped the two players. In 1947, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and Yankees GM Larry MacPhail were rumored to have verbally agreed to trade DiMaggio for Williams, but MacPhail refused to include Yogi Berra and the deal fell through. Joe DiMaggio's younger brother Dom would play for the Red Sox his entire career during the 1940s.
The Red Sox won 15 games in a row in 1946. They were unstoppable and were in first place all but two days in the season, and would play in their first World Series game since 1918, having finished ahead of the Yankees in the American League for the first time since selling Babe Ruth. Since the Red Sox last pennant in 1918, the Yankees had won 14 pennants and 10 World Series. Boston would eventually lose the Series 4–3 to the St. Louis Cardinals.