Are the Red Sox Ready to Become the Yankees?

Terry Francona, the even-tempered Boston Red Sox manager, was asked Friday about the departure of the Yankees’ Joe Torre, whom he considers a colleague and a friend.

“It’s unbelievable,” Francona said of Torre’s decision to reject the Yankees’ incentive-based offer to return as manager. “It’s almost like ‘The Bronx Is Burning.’ You’re watching something unfold that’s just unbelievable.”

Francona went on to say that any franchise had the right to do as it pleased for the good of the team.

“That’s the way it goes,” he said. “But to do it very publicly, which Joe had to endure, I think was difficult. I’m sure it was difficult, and I feel for him.”

The Red Sox, who trailed Cleveland by three games to one at one point in the American League Championship Series, have roared back to tie the series. They pummeled the Indians in Cleveland on Thursday, and routed them without mercy at Fenway Park last night, 12-2.

But even as the Red Sox were fighting for their playoff lives, their closest rivals, the Yankees, dominated the baseball headlines. The Yankees waited about 10 days after their season ended to make an offer to Torre, who had guided them to 12 consecutive playoff appearances.

For some Boston fans, the Yankees’ hogging of the spotlight is a frustrating signature of the rivalry. One way or another, New York always takes center stage, and that will seemingly never end.