And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him…
And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
–The originals of "The Curse of the Bambino", in the Book of Genesis

My heart laments that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.
– William "Author" Shakespeare, Julius (Don't Call Me Syd) Caesar

No spring training games have yet been played and yet Trot Nixon is already filling the Yankee bulletin board with quotes about Alex Rodriguez.

He's not a "Yankee type". He's a "clown" for getting up at dawn to run stairs while Nixon is admittedly sleeping and driving his kids to school, hopefully not at the same time. Nixon also opines that regarding A-Rod's three-month-old infant, "He's got a kid now, too, so I guess he'll have his limo driver take her to school." I guess Nixon started school right out of the womb: that's why he's so proficient at them there fancy ciphering.

Meanwhile, Derek Jeter's name was pronounced "obscene and vulgar" after a Yankee fan won on eBay the one-day naming rights to the Fleet Center and chose the shortstop's moniker. Usually, it's just his glovework in the field that gets called vulgar. Some would say it's vulgar to extort money from the public for a one-day re-christening, especially when neither of the arena's two inhabitants is playing on the given day. (At least they gave the proceeds to the Jimmy Fund, the arena's new one-day, "G Rated" eponym.)

Sheez, how would Boston have reacted this offseason if they hadn't won the World Series? Hanged A-Rod in effigy, or maybe actuality? The Red Sox did complete what has been called by many (especially Curt W. Schilling) the greatest comeback in sports history beating the Yankees in the ALCS. Why all the sniping now?

So it goes in what the media seems to think is the greatest rivalry in baseball history. Sorry, Dodgers and Giants. Your bi-coastal rivalry that helped end Jackie Robinson's career is now just a footnote. The "Shot Heard 'Round the World"? Eh, it doesn't compare to "The Comeback", Jeter's grab in the stands, or the "Tek"/A-Rod-induced brawl. It's been devalued to the also-ran level of, say, the "A-Rod Slap" or the "First Annual Don Zimmer Toss".

Of course, it all dates back to that dreaded and accursed day when the Red Sox sold the great Babe Ruth to the Yankees so that, the apocryphal legend goes, then-owner Harry Frazee could produce "No, No, Nanette". This is the single event other than Robin Williams discourse on the Fisk homer in "Good Will Hunting" that occurred prior to last year's World Series win in the Red Sox fan's view of the world (a truly desolate wasteland like in the famous "New Yorker" illustration).

I think some fans would be surprised by not only the total lack of rivalry in the early years, but by the fact that they were even comrades, "Insurrectos", that faced off against AL founder and then-president Ban Johnson. Frazee eventually mortgaged Fenway to the Yankees as a countermove in this ongoing war. The Yankees almost moved into Fenway as a further countermove, according to historian Glenn Stout. Imagine the Yankees and Red Sox amicably sharing a stadium today.

Anyway, I thought that looking at the transactional history of the two clubs would help shed light on their evolving relationship. And it goes a little something like this…

First, we'll start with a BA table, as is my wont. Below are all the transactions that the two clubs have had throughout their history. The first couple of transactions actually predate the Yankees and the Red Sox. They were between the old Baltimore Orioles (precursor to the Yankees) and the Boston Somersets (who wouldn't be known as the Red Sox until they swiped the name from the Boston NL club in 1907).

Trades, player purchases, waivers picks, and Draft 5 picks are listed. Each player is listed for each transaction along with his Win Share totals. That is, his career WS prior to and following the trade are listed along with his WS totals for the season in which the trade occurred, split up by prior to and following the trade if midseason. Also, the WS values are all translated into Win Shares Above Baseline (WSAB).

After each transaction, running totals for all trades up to that point appear. The positive values in the running totals favor the Yankees; negatives the Sox (don't feel slighted, Red Sox Nation—it's arbitrary). At the bottom is a breakdown of the transaction totals per decade.

You'll note that the Twenties, which kicked off with the Ruth sale, were a huge plus for the Yankees. But you can also see that the first decade of the century was a big plus for Boston and helped build their early dynasty. From the 1910s through the 1970s, the Yankees pretty much owned the Sox in their mutual transactions, though the Sox have "won" their scant few trades since.

Next, we'll look at their biggest individual transactions.