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The AL East has been (at least in the last decade) the most romanticized division in baseball. There is the ever present Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and the fact that one or both of them is always in contention to win the division. The rivalry really hit its height in 2003 and 2004 and while both teams have been in postseason contention essentially the whole time since, some of the majesty of the great rivalry and some of the intrigue that has always been associated with the AL East has dissipated.

This year, the division race is just as tight as ever with three teams in contention and there are all sorts of storylines to follow. The Red Sox and Yankees are of course in contention and we have all heard endless stories about the surprising Rays. The race is undoubtedly is going to come down to the last week or two of the season and one of the three is likely to be the Wild Card winner. There are a lot of great things happening in the AL East this year, but I can’t help but feel like something is missing this year.

I think there are a lot of reasons for this. The first is certainly the presence of the third team atop the standings. For the past few years it has only been the Yankees and the Red Sox up there so the battles between the two have taken on more meaning. This year, every game counts a little more for each team and the head to head matchups of the Yankees and Red Sox don’t have any different meaning than the rest of the games with in the division. Plus, there have been so many more televised instances of the rivalry (it seems that way anyway) this year that they just seem so commonplace and not as big as they have in recent years.

The fact that it is the Rays up there with the Yanks and Sox definitely takes something away from the mystique. If it were the Orioles (or even the Blue Jays), there would still be something weird about this season, but the Rays make it even weirder. Even though they came into the league at the same time as the Diamondbacks, they still seem like an expansion team. They have just never settled into the Majors and all of the sudden now here they are leading the AL East in August. Kind of takes something away from the AL East mystique.

I think the other major reason is that the make up of both the Yankees and Red Sox franchises has changed drastically over the past few years and with that much of the same passion and fire that had embodied the rivalry has dissipated. George Steinbrenner is no longer prominently involved. Joe Torre has moved to the West Coast. Pedro is gone. Now, Manny is gone. Posada and Schilling have been injured. Jeter and Mariano are older. Kevin Millar is gone. Trot Nixon is gone. These were the characters that made the rivalry so great and a lot of fun to watch. Hank Steinbrenner and John Henry tried to inject some of that passion back into the rivalry earlier this season, but it all came across as a big media farce. Hank has tried to be his father, but he just isn’t. He’s probably smarter (as a baseball man), but his public comments are just overblown. A lot of the character in the rivalry has fallen by the wayside.

Terry Francona is a great manager and has done a great job of keeping the Red Sox in check over the years. But he is also really even keeled and runs his team like that. He is increasingly intolerant of distractions (Manny) and the Red Sox have less and less of a personality as the season goes along. Players like Trot Nixon and Manny Ramirez have been replaced by JD Drew and Jason Bay, both solid players, but not exactly finalists for Mr. Personality.

None of this is bad for baseball or bad for the AL East. In fact, it is exactly the opposite. This is fantastic for baseball and fantastic for fans of the AL East. The baseball is better and more teams have a chance. The Red Sox have built a model franchise and the Yankees still spend more money than anyone else, but they are still getting challenged by the Rays. There is exciting baseball being played in this division and in a move that is good for the game, it isn’t just being played by the same old teams.

All of this is great for baseball and baseball fans, but there is definitely some of the magic missing from the AL East race this year. I complained about having to hear only about the Red Sox and Yankees for years, but now that the rivalry doesn’t seem to mean as much it definitely feels like something is missing.

As far as the race is concerned, I think it is the Yankees’ race to win. I’m just not sold on the Rays taking control down the stretch and the Red Sox left themselves open with the Manny trade (which even with the reports out of Boston about how he quit on them, I still don’t agree with). The Rays could have a 6 or 7 game lead in this division with the way that the Yanks and Sox have middled in the past couple of weeks, but they didn’t take the division control. Jason Bay has been solid for the Sox so far, but it won’t be long until everyone really finds out that he is no Manny Ramirez.

The Yankees, on the other hand, have all of the pieces (although the Joba injury will definitely hurt morale and their chances). They did a great job at the trade deadline and they don’t have to face Manny anymore. If the Yankees’ pitching can hold up marginally well over the last two months of the season, they should be able to win enough games to steal this division from one of the other two. This is a long shot pick and it is really just a gut feeling, but I think the Yanks have what they need to take control of the division.

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