The American League East was, for years, a bastion of charged-up, rear-back-and-slam, grunting offenses.
The Yankees and Red Sox, of course, muscled up in their own very similar ways, locked in a constant arms’ race (but for bats). Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi gripped the bat so hard it turned to sawdust, and Trot Nixon, Jason Varitek, Manny and Ortiz did a pitch-perfect impression of a group of power bats from the ‘70s. You could’ve spanked mutton chops on any of them, and we’d be none the wiser.
Even the Blue Jays of that era were peppered with grizzled sluggers, Carlos Delgado and Shawn Green tapping harsh liners off the filthy Sky Dome carpet and straight into the window of that bizarre center field hotel.