The Red Sox took their second straight against the Yankees this afternoon, 5-2. It's early in the season, but a few observations are in order regarding the greatest rivalry in baseball. Among today's Yankee line-up, Jorge Posada has the highest batting average at .257. Yankee regulars Alex Rodriguez, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Enrique Wilson, and Kenny Lofton are all hitting below the Mendoza line. Manny Ramirez is on a tear, batting .405 with 3 home runs. The two teams' major off-season acquisitions have fared quite differently this young season: A-Rod has gone 0-8 in the series and is batting .171, while Curt Schilling dominated the Yankees today and is 2-0. Bubba Crosby seems to be the only Yankee hitting the ball well. On a team of high-priced veterans, though, batting .400 seems a less important statistic than making $301,400 a year.

Last night's Fox broadcast was the first baseball game aired on prime-time network television since the 1998 Sammy-McGwire season. It was significant for another reason as well. On Friday night, Fox unveiled a computerized monstrosity known as "Scooter." Scooter is a talking baseball that supposedly teaches children about things like knuckleballs and curves. The concept is so bad that I initially thought it was a joke (Anyone who witnessed this knows what I am talking about.). If it were a joke, the joke was on us. As Enrique Wilson was grounding out in the 3rd inning, viewers were treated to Scooter instead of the game. As far as bad ideas go, I place "Scooter" somewhere between Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park and Patrick Swayze's music career.