According to the calendar, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees each opened the 2002 season on April 1, against the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles, respectively.

But for most fans, the first 11 days of the season were a mere extension of spring training, something to occupy their time until the season really got underway. Because for most, it's not baseball until it's Red Sox-Yankees. Everything else is merely a warm-up act.

	A Look At The Series
	The probable pitching matchups for the four-game series between the Yankees and Red Sox, which begins on Friday at Fenway Park: Friday Orlando Hernandez (1-0, 0.00) vs. Darren Oliver (0-0, 16.20) Saturday David Wells (2-0, 2.03) vs. Pedro Martinez (1-0, 7.00) Sunday Mike Mussina (2-0, 1.20) vs. Tim Wakefield (1-0, 7.20) Monday Andy Pettitte (1-0, 3.12) vs. Derek Lowe (1-1, 1.29)

Tonight, it starts for real.

For some, the first meeting between the teams, anticipated though it might be, has once again arrived too early. Like last year, the Yankees are making their first visit to Boston on Patriots Day weekend and many would prefer to let the anticipation build a bit before the annual Tong War begins.

Having the Yankees come to Fenway in mid-April is a little like being told you can open your Christmas presents just after Thanksgiving -- it sounds like a good idea at first, but you'd rather build up to the moment and savor the wait a bit.

The first meeting of the two rivals finds a familiar story-line: the Yankees slightly ahead in the standings and light years ahead in the championship count.

When the Yankees saw another World Series title get away in the ninth inning of Game 7 last year, Red Sox fans could relate -- if they hadn't been so busy chortling with delight and making like Bob Dylan ("How does it feeeeeeeeeeeel?"). When Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez went to New Orleans for the Super Bowl, he found himself being hailed as a conquering hero by New England Patriots' fans. It was Gonzalez's soft liner which helped dethrone the Yanks last November.

As this series kicks off, change is a theme in both clubhouses. Since the two teams last met on Sept. 9, the Red Sox have changed managers twice, general managers once and are owned by someone other than a Yawkey for the first time in 70 years.

The Yankee changes are no more subtle, but are limited more to player personnel. Gone are mainstays Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius. In their place are Rondell White, Jason Giambi and Robin Ventura.

No matter how much the faces change, however, the rivalry remains. Some members of the Red Sox -- like bench coach Mike Stanley -- have seen it from both sides, now. Others, such as pitching coach Tony Cloninger, will be seeing it from the Red Sox perspective for the first time.

And in the bleachers, his emotions at least slightly divided, will be long-time Yankee ace and short-term Red Sox fix David Cone.

The Yankees' biggest edge -- starting pitching depth -- has been negated somewhat in the last few days. When Orlando Hernandez came down with a stiff neck on Thursday, the Yanks were forced to go with Roger Clemens on three days' rest. Hernandez is penciled in to pitch Friday's opener, but if he can't, Yankees manager Joe Torre will have to cobble together a group of relievers.

	Pedro Martinez allowed one unearned run in his last start, a victory over the Orioles last Sunday.

The Red Sox's starting rotation after Pedro Martinez was supposed to be thinner than TV star Calista Flockhart, but the starters have been super to date, fashioning a 3.60 ERA through seven games.

Forty percent of the team's projected rotation sits on the DL (John Burkett has shoulder inflammation; Dustin Hermanson, a slight groin strain), but fill-in Tim Wakefield gave them five strong innings pinch-hitting for Hermanson and Darren Oliver (5-1 lifetime against New York) will draw the assignment in the first game.

And therein lies the obvious differences between the two clubs. While the Yankees won't have the services of Clemens, a six-time Cy Young Award-winner, they can still fall back on two other legitimate aces in Mike Mussina (Sunday) and Andy Pettitte (Monday).

By contrast, the Red Sox will trot out the pitcher with the worst ERA among AL starting pitchers last year (Oliver), a knuckleballer who had been projected to pitch out of the bullpen (Wakefield) and a converted reliever who has made just 24 major league career starts (Derek Lowe).

Even Maritnez is not himself, though he may have finally righted himself last weekend in Baltimore (six innings, one run allowed) when he utlized his legs more in his delivery and exhibited far better command.

Still, not even Martinez has been successful in neutralizing the Yankees recently. In five starts last year, he earned just one win against the Yanks and is 6-6 in his career as a would-be Yankee killer.

Some Red Sox fans thought Martinez was tempting fate when, in angrily dismissing the notion that the Red Sox have been playing under the fabled Curse of the Bambino, he said: "Wake up the damn Bambino; I'll drill him in the ass."

Was it mere coincidence that Martinez went winless for 11 months after issuing the bold challenge? Eighty-four years without a championship will get you thinking.

There will be villains for Red Sox fans to target, with Giambi expected to take the brunt of the abuse. Perhaps as a means of warming up, Sox fans skewered Kansas City outfielder Chuck Knoblauch during the week, presumably for his past association with the Yankees. Once a Yankee, always a Yankee.

"At least this time I know they weren't serious," said Knoblauch good-naturedly.

Tonight, they'll mean it. The vitriol will be real, the passion will be palpable, the tension tangible.

Welcome to the real Opening Day.

Sean McAdam of the Providence Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.