It's the eve of Red Sox vs. Yankees, Round Two, and I couldn't be more pumped up for an early April series.  Both the Red Sox and Yankees are on a roll right now, with Boston having swept Baltimore over the weekend and the Yankees having done the same to Texas.  Red Sox vs. Yankees is always a top-notch matchup, but it's magnified tenfold when both teams are hitting on all cylinders. 

The opening pitching matchup of Josh Beckett and Randy Johnson has the potential to be a classic pitcher's duel.  Both these pitchers have a history of pitching big in the biggest of games, from Beckett's showing in the 2003 World Series to the unforgettable performance of Randy Johnson in the 2001 Classic.  In my opinion, both these pitchers have one great thing in common: they kept those damn New York Yankees down.

When it comes to predicting a winner for Tuesday's game, I'm just going to leave that up in the air.  If I pick the Red Sox, I risk jinxing them (and trust me, the SI cover jinx has NOTHING on the Manrub jinx, just ask me about my track record in fantasy sports.)  If I pick the Yankees, then I'm a worthless SOB.  So I'll go out on a limb and make a Tim McCarver style prediction: If the Yankees don't win, the Red Sox will.  Of course, I'll root for the Sox, but I refuse to predict a victory.

Now, I promised some opinions on NASCAR, so I'm going to dish.  I am a huge NASCAR fan, have been since the early 1990s, and probably will continue to be for the rest of my adult life.  I want to address something that I have noticed, but has not been picked up by the mainstream media: NASCAR's declining popularlity.  Disagree with me if you want, but the numbers bear it out.  TV ratings are decreasing almost across the board.  Coverage in many newspapers is shrinking.  Generally speaking, people just weren't as pumped for the Daytona 500 as they had been in the recent past. 

I believe there are a few problems with NASCAR that have led to the downward trend in general interest.  Many of today's top drivers have all the charisma and personality of a federal prison.  Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 after having an illegal part comfiscated earlier in the week, weakening the credibility of the sport.  Many of today's racetracks have even less character than the corporate-shill drivers.  I'm not sure if any one of these issues, a combination of them, or another problem I haven't mentioned is the primary cause of declining interest.  I don't disagree with the people that are turning away from NASCAR.  Frankly, with the lack of excitement, this season's been pretty boring.