“July 24, I think was the date,” Tim McCarver said, recalling the day of the 2004 fight between Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek.
Positioned as FOX’s lead analyst, there hasn’t been much McCarver has missed — or forgotten — in the recent rounds of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.
“I know of no greater fire that burns between two teams in any given sport than Red Sox-Yankees,” said McCarver, who will be on hand for this Saturday night’s game between the Yankees and Red Sox in The Bronx. The middle of three games between the two AL East titans will be FOX’s first prime-time game of the season. “Each year the situation and circumstances change for each team. When we did the game on April 9, the Red Sox were off to a deplorable start.”
The 2003 and 2004 seasons may have been the height of the rivalry as the teams played two seven-game ALCS, with each team winning once. And there were two memorable bench-clearing brawls, with one between Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez and Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer in 2003 preceding the Varitek-A-Rod scuffle.
But with Carl Crawford now finding his way in Boston, and Adrian Gonzalez never losing it, they have crawled back into the race with the Yankees and Rays, promising another season of crucial matchups.
One thing not even McCarver has seen is Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter facing the barrage of criticism that he has been hit with this season.
“The patience for older players is almost nil in professional sports. If you have a bad first month people are inclined to say it’s because of your age,” McCarver said of Jeter, who will be 37 next month.
“Older players have the track record of slowing down with a few exceptions. If you read about Jeter, Rodriguez and the Yankees, you would think they are 2-30, but they have mostly been in first place.”
Jeter has been the central figure for the Yankees over the past 15 seasons. And McCarver said it would be foolish to count out the Yankees captain, who is chasing down 3,000 hits this season.
“One of an athlete’s greatest accomplishments is when people say he is washed up and he comes back to prove them wrong,” said McCarver, who played with six teams from 1959-’80.
“I can tell you personally that’s one of the most satisfying things that can happen to an athlete. Who knows if Jeter or A-Rod is going to have a torrid five months? But I wouldn’t bet against either one coming back and having respectable years. It’s understandable because a player may not have the resiliency to bounce back and play like they did when they were younger.”
One thing that is for certain is McCarver will be in the booth for the games.
“If the Red Sox and the Yankees are playing on the weekend, we do the game,” McCarver said of his network.
justin.terranova@nypost.com