Its a rivalry between the fans, but when you see guys like Damon/Clemens,etc just walk over to the other side, its hard to take seriously as an outsider.
Would Woody Hayes ever taken an offer at Michigan? He'd die before doing that. Coach K at UNC? Of course not.
Pro rivalries pale in comparison to college rivalries.
OSU/UM
UNC/Duke
Florida/Florida St/UMiami
Texas/Oklahoma
Alabama/Auburn
and a whole lot more...
give me those over the superficial Bos/NYY rivalry any day.
Cubs/Cardinals is the best rivalry in baseball IMO.
People also forget that the Yankees/Redsox deal is a more recent thing, I would even say that the Yankees and Blue Jays were just as big rivals in the early 90s. Hell, there was an extended period in time where the Yankees and Tribe were eachother's biggest rival.
Also, ESPN doesn't seem to realize that 95% of the country doesn't care about it, yet it is all I see during Baseball Tonight and SportsCenter during the season. For instance, this past season in May or so, two top national league teams had a great extra inning affair (can't remember who), but the leading story on Baseball Tonight was how the Yankees and Redsox game that was rained out would effect the AL East race.....in May.
Part of my problem is that ESPN/National pudits somehow believe that most of the country cares about the rivalry.