One of the enduring memories of Spring Training 2004 will be the first Sunday in March, when the Yankees visited the Red Sox in Fort Myers, Fla., for a game that those on hand considered far more than just an exhibition.

There were collectible "March 7" pins sold outside City of Palms Park just for the occasion, and the sentiment of the day was best captured by Yankees fan John Velazquez, who rushed in through the turnstile and said, "I flew down from the Bronx just for this, the biggest exhibition ever. It's my 34th birthday and there was no way I was going to miss this, especially since it's the first pitch since [Aaron] Boone."

The first pitch since Boone. Major League Baseball seasons always start fresh in the spring, but this particular one is going to begin as if Boone's pennant-winning homer for the Yankees happened just last night. Emotions in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry did not ebb over the offseason; they flowed more than ever. The first exhibition in Fort Myers was just a "friendly" reminder that everyone is watching to see what happens next when Alpha and Omega begin another regular season, and the intensity will be obvious when the clubs meet in April for home-and-home series.

Boston struck the first blow after the World Series by trading for Arizona star pitcher Curt Schilling, and the Yankees' subsequent loss of free agent pitchers Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens to Houston made many believe that the power had shifted to Beantown. But the Yankees responded by acquiring strikeout artist Javier Vazquez from Montreal and 2003 National League ERA leader Kevin Brown from Los Angeles.

The Red Sox also hired a new manager, Terry Francona, who had been with Schilling in Philadelphia. The Yankees made lavish acquisitions for their bullpen, hoping to better bridge the gap to their closer, Mariano Rivera. The Red Sox hired an elite closer of their own, Keith Foulke, but they were unable to complete a trade that would have sent their star outfielder, Manny Ramirez, to Texas for arguably the best player in baseball, Alex Rodriguez.

The Yankees had the last word in a loud way, acquiring slugger Gary Sheffield from Atlanta and landing Kenny Lofton, one of the Cubs' 2003 postseason stars. And in the loudest move of all, the Trade That Never Happened became the one that did in the Bronx. The Yankees shipped All-Star second baseman Alfonso Soriano to Texas for Rodriguez, who will shift from shortstop to third base, joining Derek Jeter to form potentially one of the best five infield left sides in Major League history.

Overall, it was an offseason of one-upsmanship that theoretically made both clubs better and threw even more excitement into the rivalry. After a brief exchange of choice words between the clubs' owners and a never-ending exchange of words by the clubs' fans, camps opened and the evaluations and preparations began.

Schilling and Brown have appeared to be in top form. Rodriguez has handled the position change well so far. Foulke and Lofton have had their struggles. And maybe the best camp by anyone on either club has been enjoyed by the guy given the least attention in the Yankee lineup, Enrique Wilson, who matched A-Rod with 20 total bases through the first three weeks of exhibition games.

If Wilson does anything like that at the very bottom of the order this season as Soriano's replacement, the New Murderers Row might be nastier than ever. And if David Ortiz keeps hitting homers for Boston as he has this spring, then it could be another monster offensive year for the Sox.

Most major preseason publications are predicting a World Series for the Red Sox, and although The Sporting News yearbook was printed before the A-Rod trade, its weekly magazine (which was around when the Sox last won it all in 1918) stayed with Boston and predicted on its cover that the Cubs will beat the Sox in an Impossible Series. Along the way, Yankees and Red Sox fans are expecting to pump up the volume in this rivalry beyond any level ever heard previously.

The first regular season meeting between New York and Boston is scheduled for April 16 at Fenway Park, a Friday-night game that will be televised nationally by FOX. It is the opener of a four-game series there, and a three-game series between the clubs will begin the following Friday night, April 23, at Yankee Stadium.

Seven Yankees-Red Sox games in 10 days, and with any luck the elements will cooperate better than they did early last season. Indeed, it would take the most severe conditions to keep people from seeing any of those seven games. As fans showed on March 7, there is something even more special than ever about a Yankees-Sox game in 2004.

As another chapter resumes in this rivalry, we're reminded of Dean Anderson, a Red Sox fan from Newton, Mass., who was among the early ones to show up that spring day in search of a ticket. Some fans had camped out overnight -- and this was just Spring Training. Imagine what the regular season will be like.

"It's amazing, for an exhibition game. But that's what this rivalry has come to," Anderson said. "It's going to be an unbelievable rivalry all year."

Mark Newman is a writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.