Todays American League Champion Series opener between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in The Bronx has newspapers churning out story after story about the legendary rivalry.
The Hartford Courant decided to send two reporters on a drive from Yankee Stadium to Fenway Park to see where the landscape changes from Yankeeland to Boston territory. They found the dividing line fuzzy, including at a stop at Torno Hardware on Post Road East in Westport.

James Boone Jr., 36, of Milford, (l.) and Pete Welsh, 22, of Westport, both Torno Hardware employees, after their baseball differences were highlighted in today’s Hartford Courant.  WestportNow.com photo

Excerpt: ғJames Boone Jr. and Pete Welsh have spent most of the morning arguing over who will represent the American League in the World Series.
Boone is a Yankees devotee, Welsh a fringe Red Sox fan.
ԔBoone says Welsh is like most of the few Red Sox fans he knows in the area.
‘They show their faces when things are going well,’ Boone said. ‘Now that the Red Sox have been good you really start to see the fans come out. Once they’re winning they come, other than that they hide.
ԓ‘You’ve never seen so many Red Sox fans as we’ve seen the last couple weeks. All of a sudden they’re popping out of the woodwork. Yankees fans are always right there, though.”
“Boone is excited and apprehensive about the ALCS.
“‘I don’t think anybody wanted to see Yankees-Oakland again,’ Boone said. ‘We’ve seen too much of that the last few years.
‘But really, I would have preferred Oakland just because I’m afraid of the Red Sox. They’ve got the best-hitting team in the league. But this is definitely the better series.’Ӕ

Sports fans at Columbia University are looking forward to the arrival of Staples basketball player John Baumann.

Todays Columbia Daily Spectator puts it this way: ғChalk up yet another recruit for new men’s basketball Head Coach Joe Jones. This time the Lions have landed 6’7” forward John Baumann, from Staples High School in Westport, Conn.

It said Baumann becomes the fourth recruit to orally commit to Columbia.

“My relationship with the coaches, the guys on the team, and the excitement of rebuilding the program was why I chose Columbia,” Baumann told the newspaper.

“[Jones] really understood me as a person and as a basketball player. And it’s not hard to sell Columbia as a school. … I really wanted to be in New York City.”

Baumann averaged 28.5 points, 12.0 rebounds, and just over two blocks a game for Staples last season. He was also being recruited by American, Brown, Penn, and Yale. He said that he could play either small forward or power forward, the newspaper said.

The Staples Wreckers football team today easily rolled over Trinity in Stamford 42-6.

The win improved the Wreckers to a 3-0 record on the season.

Staples scored in every quarter, allowing a Trinity touchdown only in the final quarter. Senior halfback Jimmy Hughes accounted for four touchdowns, finishing with 121 yards on 13 carries.

His first one of the day broke the school record for career touchdowns—it was his 43rd, surpassing the record 42 held by Rob Krauss.

Staples led at half time 28-0.

Next Friday, Staples goes up against Trumbull, the alma mater of Coach Marce Petroccio.

Todays The Day of New London reviews weekend high school football action and says the Staples Wreckers are gaining increasing state-wide attention.

Excerpt: ғMarce Petroccio, head coach of Staples High School of Westport, never saw a rout over New Canaan coming.

Imagine, then, how the Rams felt when the Wreckers scored five touchdowns in the first 25 minutes of Friday’s Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference game at New Canaan. Staples turned a game between two defending state champions into a blowout as it won, 36-0.

ӓThe Wreckers, the defending Class MM champion, made quite an impression on the voters in The Day’s Top 10 state coaches poll. They earned two first-place votes this week, including a first-place vote that went to top-ranked Ansonia last week, and moved up one spot to No. 4.

The defending Class M champion Rams, who were No. 6, dropped out of the Top 10.

ӓAsked if he thought the game would be so lopsided, Petroccio said, Absolutely not. I think our kids were extremely ready to go. They were excited. We don’t get the opportunity to play at night (Staples does not have lights) and we don’t get the chance to play on Astroturf.

ѓThey turned the lights on and the kids were sky high. We scored on a pass play early and it just kind of snowballed for us.Ԓ

Meanwhile, the New Haven Register named Staples its team of the week, saying: “Staples-Westport: The most anticipated game of the season turned into a showcase for the Wreckers.

“Speedsters Jimmy Hughes and Matt Samela combined for five touchdowns, but it was the defense that stole the show in a 36-0 victory over New Canaan.”