How does Wallace Matthews still have a job?

I think a Fire Joe Morgan type website needs to be started to get Wallace Matthews to stop writing for ESPN New York. Time after time he writes the most sensational and illogical articles. He’s the guy who thought Alex Rodriguez should be traded for pitching before his 2007 MVP season because he wasn’t clutch and the one who completely condemned him and asserted he’d be facing a suspension based on an untrue tabloid story about A-Rod playing poker. It's just unbelievable that he writes about baseball professionally. Today he published “Rivalry? Red Sox haven't earned one,” asserting that the Yankees and Red Sox do not have a rivalry this year.

The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry ain't what it used to be, and there's a very simple reason.

In order for a matchup of two teams to truly be called a rivalry, the teams don't necessarily have to be good. But they must be competitive, at least against each other.

Right now, the Boston Red Sox are neither good nor competitive.

The Red Sox are 1 game under 500 and have a +34 run differential. I’ve stated it before, the Red Sox are not a bad team. They have just had injuries and bad luck, it happens. I don’t understand how you could call this team not competitive, because they’re certainly competitive. Who cares if they have a bad record against the Yankees this year? Newsflash, lots of teams have a bad record against the Yankees this year. 

For the moment at least, the Yankees aren't very good either, having lost five of seven games on their just-concluded West Coast trip, but with nearly 100 games of the regular season already in the books, we can draw one conclusion rather safely: They are better than the Red Sox. A lot better.

No shit, they’re up 10.5 games on the Red Sox. It doesn’t mean the rivalry is dead because that’s not how rivalries work. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is probably the oldest and most historic rivalry in sports. It doesn’t just go away because one team has a mediocre year.

It was 20 days ago, just before the All-Star break, when I wrote a column raising the very real possibility the Yankees could sweep the Red Sox at Fenway and put an end to the charade that Boston could still be a force in the AL East this season.

And they came pretty darned close, winning three out of four and heading into the break 9 1/2 games ahead of their erstwhile rivals.

The only thing that has changed over those three weeks is that now, even though the Yankees have played poorly the past week, the Red Sox are 10 1/2 games back.

I know I read that article. I almost did the same thing I did with this article because it's just as stupid. The Yankees since then have played 1 game better than the Red Sox. This means the rivalry is over. I get it.

There was a time was when you could disregard numbers like those in July -- remember back to 2009, when the Yankees started out 0-8 against the Red Sox and wound up winning the World Series? -- but not this year.

Waiting for the Red Sox to hit that hot streak is like waiting for Alex Rodriguez to start hitting like it's 2007 again. Fanciful, unrealistic notions rooted in notstalgia, not reality.

Why not? Isn’t that exactly why you should disregard those numbers? Didn’t the Red Sox start off the season horribly and go on a hot streak just to get where they are? I don’t think we’ve waited all season for the Red Sox to go on a hot streak.

You really just had to somehow take a shot at Alex Rodriguez didn’t you? Just because you hate him doesn’t mean you have to insult the player all the time. You’re the one who wanted the Yankees to trade A-Rod before the 2007 season, so you’re not biased at all. He only won MVP that year but I would’ve much rather had some help in the bullpen.

The truth is, the Red Sox are doormats this year, and their only function this weekend at Yankee Stadium is to serve as slump-busters for the home team.

The difference between what the 2009 Yankees were able to do and what the Red Sox are unlikely to do is this: The 2009 Yankees were bad against Boston and good against virtually everyone else, and even after having lost those eight in a row, they were still just two games behind, waiting to strike like Forego stalking a leisurely pace.

The Red Sox are not doormats this year! You know who are doormats? The Kansas City Royals. Why do you keep saying this when you have to know it’s not true?

We know the Red Sox have talent. They very well could win the series this weekend. Certainly crazier things have happened. I also bet most of your readership remembers the racehorse Forego from 1973. Quite the spot on reference you’ve made there Mr. Matthews.

The 2012 Red Sox have been bad against just about everyone, and while they can hold out hope of at least one postseason game due to the new double wild-card format, any real optimism about making a postseason run has to fall into the realm of fantasy.

Incredible as it may seem, I am told Red Sox fans don't know which to hate more this season, their own team or its manager, Bobby Valentine. In that hatefest, the Yankees are a distant third.

The Red Sox are 1-5 against the Yankees this year. You know that means they’ve actually won more games against the rest of the league than they’ve lost. So apparently having a winning record against the rest of the league means they’ve been bad against just about everyone? This is just an untrue statement.

As for the second paragraph, you’re a freaking journalist. Who have you been talking to? Isn’t it kind of your job to tell us? Red Sox fans might not be overly optimistic about their team but I’m sure they hate the Yankees more.

And there's no reason to believe the Red Sox can reverse their fortunes this weekend in the Bronx. The pitching matchups -- Phil Hughes vs. Aaron Cook, CC Sabathia vs. Jon Lester and Hiroki Kuroda vs. Felix Doubront -- all favor the Yankees.

Cook has faced the Yankees once, two years ago as a Colorado Rockie, and got lit up for six runs in 5 2/3 innings. Lester, who has had a dreadful season (5-8, 5.46), couldn't get out of the fifth inning when he faced the Yankees in that final series before the break.

And while Doubront pitched well against the Yankees in their first meeting in April -- his six-inning, one-run performance turned out to be a footnote to the Yankees' 15-9 comeback win at Fenway, a game that turned out to be symbolic of Boston's entire season -- the Yankees showed signs of decoding his mysteries on July 7, getting home runs from Mark Teixeira and Andruw Jones.

So you would be totally shocked if Phil Hughes got bombed or gave up a big home run to David Ortiz? Or if Jon Lester came out and pitched a good game? God knows he’s due. Nothing is predetermined and while the Yankees do have a better team, you never know what’s going to happen. The Red Sox are not a terrible team like you think they are, they’re capable of winning a couple of games.

Only a poor performance out of the bullpen in that game by the since-departed Cory Wade stood between the Yankees and what would have been a backbreaking four-game sweep that weekend.

The Sox played without Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Carl Crawford that weekend, but they have returned to the lineup and it hasn't made any difference -- Boston is 6-7 since the break and comes to New York a last-place team with a record a game below mediocrity at 49-50.

At their worst the Red Sox are around a .500 team. Again, why does this make them so terrible? I don’t get it. They have a bunch of players who just came back into the line up so that’s looking good right? 13 games going 6-7 happens all the time in baseball. Remember how you said earlier the Yankees are also struggling right now? It happens.

The division race is largely over -- even if the Yankees were to play .500 ball the rest of the way and finish at 91-71, a highly unlikely outcome, the Red Sox would have to play .667 ball (42-21) just to tie -- and the only carrot left for them seems to be finishing as the fifth-best team in the AL, also known as the second wild card.

But to this point the Red Sox have not shown the character to overcome their considerable injuries the way the Yankees, equally hard-hit, have, nor has their starting pitching staff shown itself to be anything but highly overrated.

So what if the division race is almost over? You can’t go and say this team is a doormat and then say they have a shot at the playoffs. What in the world are you trying to tell us in this article? They’ve underperformed we get it. They’re still not a terrible team though. Why exactly is the historic rivalry not a rivalry this year? What if the Red Sox do grab that Wild Card spot, win the game and then play the Yankees in the playoffs? Would the rivalry still be dead?

The Yankees are far from healthy -- A-Rod's broken hand Tuesday night added to an injured list that includes Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Brett Gardner, Joba Chamberlain and Michael Pineda -- but they have demonstrated an indisputable ability to rise above adversity, plus a depth in both bench players and pitchers that has allowed them to thrive under conditions in which other teams -- hint, hint -- have folded up.

Exactly, the Yankees have a ton of injuries but they’re a deeper and better team than the Red Sox. Stating the same thing over and over again does not make your main thesis true when it doesn’t support your claim. I also hate these stupid character arguments. Like the Yankees players have more character and want to win more than the Red Sox players. Give me a break.

In past seasons, a Yankees-Red Sox series could transcend the woes of either or both of the teams involved, simply through pride, ability and the force of the rivalry itself.

But not this year.

In 2012, the Yankees and Red Sox are no longer rivals.

In fact, one of them is a doormat.

They should just rename the Red Sox the Doormats. They're terrible, the least characterful, near .500 team that's ever happened. How dare we even call this a rivalry anymore? 

Joking aside, Wallace Matthews actually believes this year that the Yankees and Red Sox are no longer rivals because in some perverted universe he thinks a very competitive, playoff contending Red Sox team, are doormats?  On what planet does that article make any logical sense to write? Why is it needed?

I’m sure Yankee Stadium will be close to sold out this weekend and I’d like to see you tell those near 50,000 fans that there’s no rivalry this year. This is a crazy article and you are a terrible and misinformed sports writer.