Eight years ago, Yankee Aaron Judge and Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi were the two best rookies in the American League. Judge was on his way to Rookie of the Year, but the Red Sox had the better team (remember those days?), and I couldn’t help but notice that Benintendi played better than Judge in the first 15 games between the Sox and Bombers that season.
And so in the Aug. 21, 2017, Globe, I wrote a column on the two rookies, citing other Red Sox-Yankees individual rivalries such as Ted Williams vs. Joe DiMaggio, Carlton Fisk vs. Thurman Munson, Wade Boggs vs. Don Mattingly, and Nomar Garciaparra vs. Derek Jeter.
After many paragraphs on Big Poison vs. Little Poison — noting that Judge hit .155 (9 for 58) with one homer and two RBIs in his first 15 games against the Sox, while Benintendi had four homers and 12 RBIs against the Yankees — I concluded, “I’m taking Benintendi,” and it splashed down in the Globe under the headline, “The vote here is Benintendi.”
Wow. In a half-century of opinions that sometimes didn’t age well, this is one of the worst.
Read the full column from Dan Shaughnessy at Globe.com/Sports | 
