The rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox is probably the greatest of all four major sports. And now a new chapter has just been written, this time off the field.
Indeed, speaking to journalists in Boston for the first time since his arrival from the Saint-Louis Cardinals, Sonny Gray was quick to add fuel to the fire.
It makes me feel good to go to a place where it's easy to hate the Yankees. I never wanted to go to New York in the first place.
Gray has pitched for five teams in his MLB career: the Yankees, Oakland A's, Cardinals, Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds.
But it was by far his time in the Bronx that was the most arduous, as he posted a 4.51 ERA, which was significantly higher than in any of his stints in smaller markets during his thirteen years in major league baseball.
The Yankees acquired Gray in a trade with the A's before the 2017 trade deadline. Subsequently, the right-hander went 4-7 with a 3.72 ERA in eleven regular-season starts for the Bombers and made two more outings in the playoffs that year.
The chain, however, landed in 2018, with Gray having a 4.90 earned run average, which forced the Yankees to send him to the bullpen before finally letting him go at the end of the campaign.
The pressure from New York was too much for Gray and with his recent comments, it is better to tie his hat with a pin this season considering the rivalry between the two clubs.
Remember that at the time, he was happy to arrive in New York.
