It was supposed to be a match-up for the ages. Pedro Martinez versus Roger Clemens. New York Yankees versus Boston Red Sox. Series tied at one. Clemens starting his final game on the Fenway mound, where he had won a stadium-record 101 games. What it ended up as will be talked about for years to come. In the end, the Yankees came out 4-3 winners to go up 2-1 in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, two wins away from putting the Red Sox to sleep. But, unfortunately, many of the baseball aspects of the game will be forgotten for what occurred in a strangely extracurricular fashion. What was a great game, hard fought on both sides, will be remembered by the series of ugly incidents that took place.

What happened in Game Three did not come out of the blue; the Yankees and Red Sox have a long history of bitter rivalry. Since the Boston Red Sox sold George Herman Ruth (also known as the "Babe") to the Yankees, they have been seemingly cursed. The Yankees have won 26 World Championships and Boston hasn't been able to win any. In between there have been fights between Carlton Fisk and Lou Pinella, Bucky Dent's home run in a monumental one-game playoff, the "Boston Massacre," and the 1999 playoff series in which Pedro-Clemens I went the Red Sox way, though the Series was ultimately won by the Yanks.

Before the season started, the Yankees signed Cuban prospect Jose Contreras (a player coveted by Boston and new GM Theo Epstein), even though the Sox bought out every hotel room in order to get him. This caused Epstein to throw a chair through a hotel window and ignited a war of words between Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner and Boston's VP Larry Luccino in which Luccino dubbed the Yankees the "Evil Empire."

Earlier this year, Clemens hit Kevin Millar with a pitch and Pedro, in retaliation, drilled Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter with consecutive pitches to start out a game sending both to the hospital. So there was some history behind this. But what occurred Saturday afternoon in Boston was beyond anyone's wildest dreams except one WEEI caller on Saturday who suggested that with tensions so high there may be a bench-clearing brawl. "Not a chance," said one of the co-hosts, "there's way too much at stake here." Boy was he wrong.

Clemens, as he's known to early in the game in pressure spots (due to getting too pumped up and overthrowing), struggled early in the game. He gave up two runs on three hits until a crucial double play got him out of the inning. But he finally found his groove.

Pedro on the other hand did not find his groove all game. He still can throw any pitch in any situation, but his pitches just did not have as much on them during this heated battle. His fastball was consistently clocked at least five miles per hour slower than usual and his curveball, also slower, just didn't have any bite and was consistently left out over the plate. The Yankees quickly obliterated a two-run lead off of Pedro, with Karim Garcia singling home the first run, turning around on a usually unhittable inside fastball, and Jeter hit one of those hanging curveballs out of the park onto Landsdowne Street.

Pedro needed someone to pay for all of this good hitting. And with runners on second and third in the fourth, after the Yanks had continued to hit Pedro hard, the Sox hurler tried to cowardly hit him in the head. This was Pedro's way of trying to get out his frustrations.

This sent Garcia and the whole Yankee bench into an uproar, which got even more inflamed as Pedro pointed to his head and told Jorge Posada that he was going to "hit him in the head," pointing to his head twice and telling him, "I'll hit you right here." And after a late, hard slide by Garcia took out Todd Walker, Garcia and the rest of the Yankees had even more words for Pedro, with an infuriated Clemens, Posada, and 72-year-old bench coach Don Zimmer going bananas.

Although the umpires handled things well for the most part, they mishandled the situation by issuing warnings to both benches.

What happened next is one for the history books. The next inning, Clemens, facing Manny Ramirez, lost control of a 1-2 pitch sailing it high but over the plate. Manny, closing his eyes as he moved away from a ball nowhere near him, took exception to the pitch, and charged at Clemens, bat in hand. Both benches cleared and a short, pudgy bald man went clear at Pedro Martinez. The 72-year-old Zimmer forgot how old he was or that he had a metal plate in his head (or had his hip replaced) and looked more like Brian Urlacher rushing the quarterback than a senior citizen.

Pedro, seeing "Zim" coming, took him by the head and flung him to the ground. All the commotion ended as every player (besides Pedro, Manny and David Ortiz) walked over to check on the status of the fallen old man.

No one was thrown out of the game and play continued. Clemens was unbelievably able to regain his composure after being so fired up, and after striking out Ramirez, went on to mow down the Boston hitters.

The rest of the baseball game will not be remembered for Clemens' 102nd win at Fenway Park, Mariano Rivera's continued dominance in postseason play and Trot Nixon robbing Derek Jeter of a home run, but the melee that occurred in the Yankees bullpen. Before the bottom of the ninth inning began, a Boston grounds crew member incited a brawl with Jeff Nelson, sending Garcia sprawling into the bullpen (cutting his hand, forcing him to leave the game), and having the employee leave with cleat marks on his body (all according to various reports). This was the ugliest incident of the game as Nelson and Garcia may face charges by the Boston police.

After the game, the war on words continued from both side's players and management. The tensions were still high even after Zim tearfully apologized for the incident. Interestingly, Sox players were not very quick to defend Pedro's actions except to say "he pitched a good game after the incident.