July 24, 2004. Alex Rodriguez was in his first year in pinstripes and experiencing the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry first hand. There was something in the air that day. The animosity was palpable and circumstances were just right for something to go down. The Yanks were in Fenway up 8.5 games in the division. A-Rod had brought home the game winning run the night before. Boston had tried to trade for A-Rod in the offseason, but he signed with their mortal enemies. Aaron Boone had crushed Boston’s dreams in the ALCS nine months prior. The rivalry was in its prime and something was bound to happen.
Trailing 3-0 in the top of the third, Bronson Arroyo was on the mound facing off against A-Rod. With two outs on a 1-1 pitch, Arroyo drilled A-Rod on his left elbow with an inside fastball. As A-Rod slowly started toward first base, he stared the pitcher down and had some choice words.
“Throw that s*** over the f***ing plate,” Arroyo recalled. “Then he said the exact same thing again.”
Catcher Jason Varitek was in A-Rod’s face at this point telling him to shut up and go to first.
“I told him, in choice words, to get to first base,” Varitek said. “And then it changed from him yelling at Bronson to us yelling at each other, and then things got out of hand.”
A-Rod threw out a string of f-bombs to Varitek and then, as the kids say, it was on. Varitek, still wearing his catchers mask, shoved his mitt into A-Rod’s face. The benches and bullpens emptied and we were in the midst of a good old fashion Yanks/Sox smackdown. When the dust settled, Varitek and A-Rod were ejected and Arroyo gave up eight runs through 5 2/3 innings. However, the Sox would come back to win it on a Bill Mueller two run walk off homer.
