July 24, 2004 started like any other summer Saturday for Boston Red Sox fans.

We were anticipating another showdown with the hated New York Yankees. We got so much more than that.

We got Alex Rodriguez finally receiving his overdue comeuppance for his arrogance and more than a bite-sized portion of Jason Varitek’s leather in his big mouth.

We also got a game that changed the course of a rivalry.

One thing we didn’t get was the turning point of Boston’s season.

Let’s set the record straight. The Red Sox were in a funk before the brawl and they stayed in a funk for two weeks after it. In their first dozen games after the rhubarb, they were 6-6. The hot streak that ultimately propelled them to the wild card didn’t start until mid-August. Theo Epstein’s trading deadline deals for Orlando Cabrera, Doug Mientkiewicz and Dave Roberts had more to do with that.

Unfortunately, the myth that just the brawl was the spark the Sox needed has become part of baseball lore. It’s like how people think the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team won the gold medal when they beat the Russians, or that Derek Jeter is a great defensive shortstop. Perpetuate a myth long enough and it eventually becomes a fact.

All that does is overshadow the real impact the game had on the rivalry. It didn’t send Boston on its way to the post-season, but it set the tone for what was to come in the fall.

Looking back at the game itself; the foreshadowing is quite evident.. The Sox battled back from a big deficit (one the Yanks built upon after the brawl, incidentally) and beat Mariano Rivera on Bill Mueller’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth. They were clearly no longer intimidated by the greatest closer ever, and this fearlessness would serve them well in October.

As for the fight itself, it exposed the 2004 Yankees for the frauds they were.

See, the Yankees were always the tough guys in these things. Whether it was the Thurman Munson-Carlton Fisk bout of 1973, the 1976 rumble involving Fisk, Lou Pinella, Bill Lee, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, et. al., or, yes, even the Zimmer-Pedro bowling demonstration in 2003, the Bronx Bombers always took the fight to the Red Sox. Yeah, they usually fought dirty, but at least they fought to win.

That wasn’t so last year, and the contrast between the two teams was as plain as the blood trickling down the side of Tanyon Sturtze’s face. The Red Sox were in this thing to win it. The Yankees were looking for an excuse to back down, and they still were a little less than three months later.

No longer were the Yankees to be feared. The Red Sox players understood this and believed it long before their fans did, and they never stopped believing it, even down 3-0 in the ALCS. With the fight, they began chipping away at New York’s alleged “mystique.”

Now, only the most pessimisstic Sox fan fears the Yankees. They’re not fearsome. They’re kind of pathetic actually, with their $200-plus million payroll yielding a pitching staff that isn’t worthy of the Milwaukee Brewers.

In fairness, the current Red Sox aren’t much better. If the brawl has had one bad side effect, it’s that the Sox seem disinterested unless they’re playing the Yankees. They’ve coasted through this season, leading many to suggest that they need another fight to light their fire again. Some were even forecasting fisticuffs to break out when they renewed the rivalry after the All Star break.

Hey, let’s not make these fights a regular rivalry sub-plot, okay? For one thing, we don’t need to encourage any more teachers to lead their students in a letter-writing campaign to get both sides to shake hands. Enough of that silliness.

We also don’t need to do any more damage to the Yankees’ “mystique.” It’s just not the same when they’re pathetic.