The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. The WP:COMMONNAME evidence is equivocal, but WP:AND is not. Thus, I find a rough consensus to move. voorts (talk/contributions) 02:29, 1 February 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Yankees–Red Sox rivalry → Red Sox–Yankees rivalry – Rivalry names should be alphabetical. Probably is an MOS:TITLE issue, but I am not sure for certain, and this is protected from page move, and it is better to discuss these than to not, even if the page wasn't protected from being moved. And according to this: [1], all other rivalries are alphabetically correct. So move. Servite et contribuere (talk) 14:53, 31 December 2025 (UTC) — Relisting. Thanks, 1isall (talk | contribs) . . (he/him) 13:48, 7 January 2026 (UTC) — Relisting. CNC (talk) 23:20, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Support per nom. I expected Yankees-Red Sox to be predominant in reliable sources, but it's pretty mixed. The Athletic for example has used both in the past year [2] [3]. Jessintime (talk) 15:06, 31 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Relisting comment: Reopened per objection by Frank Anchor on my talk page. Thanks, 1isall (talk | contribs) . . (he/him) 13:48, 7 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Support. I think the current title sounds better, but I could not find a single other rivalry among North American major pro sports that deviates from alphabetical order. Srnec (talk) 14:55, 7 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose per WP:COMMONNAME and results of multiple discussions on this topic in the past. Google searches overwhelmingly favor "Yankees-Red Sox rivalry" (63,800 hits) to "Red Sox-Yankees rivalry" (37,600 hits). This is one of the few rivalries where one of the teams is listed first far more often than the other (such as Harvard-Yale or Army-Navy, though each of those happen to be alphabetical anyway). Frank Anchor 04:21, 8 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Support. Given there is no overwhelming predominance of one form over the other in sources, we should default to alphabetical per usual convention.  — Amakuru (talk) 15:54, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose I agree with Frank Anchor that there is a preference to listing the Yankees first in the RS. I do not think this overrides any desire for alphabetical order. – Muboshgu (talk) 17:16, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Oppose Nothing has changed since the last RM. WP:COMMONNAME advises to use the name commonly used by sources. The proposal to use an alphabetical order is WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS, not guideline based. Additionally, Google Books Ngram shows "Yankees-Red Sox" as dominant.—Bagumba (talk) 19:31, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  The alphabetical rule is not just "OTHERSTUFFEXISTS", it is part of article title policy. See WP:AND, which says "It is generally best to list topics in alphabetical order, especially those involving different countries or cultures". That policy does provide for exceptions if a "conventional or more logical ordering exists", but that doesn't apply here; you're ngram is hardly conclusive, since (per my below comment), phrasing it slightly different produces the opposite result. Overall, this policy exists to avoid pointless arguments about which is the more "important" partner in the rivalry, and we need to rectify this per usual policy.  — Amakuru (talk) 10:42, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  Thanks. Striking OTHERSTUFF.—Bagumba (talk) 18:17, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment Some sources do say Red Sox—Yankees rivalry: [4], [5]. Servite et contribuere (talk) 19:35, 12 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  Nobody is arguing against that point. However, as per my above argument and Bagumba's ngram stats, those sources are distinctly in the minority. Frank Anchor 17:17, 13 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  The ngram is hardly conclusive - if you frame it without the rivalry part, you find they're almost neck-and-neck, with "Red Sox-Yankees" enjoying a slight lead in the most recent years. The fact is, this is an anachronism at the moment, and also showing bias, because it implies the Yankees are the more "important"; it needs to be corrected and aligned with policy.  — Amakuru (talk) 10:42, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  You can’t take “rivalry” out of it, otherwise, it would consider routine game reports or instances of “Yankees-Red Sox game” or the opposite. When describing a single US baseball game, the visiting team is almost always listed first. As the team play roughly the same number of home games per season against each other, it would make sense that that, without “rivalry,” it would be more even. Therefore it is necessary to include the term when looking for references of the rivalry and not routine mentions of a single game. Frank Anchor 11:10, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  ... it implies the Yankees are the more 'important': No, it's merely in line with WP:COMMONNAME, not WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS about the rivalry. —Bagumba (talk) 18:21, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  A COMMONNAME which is entirely unproven. As I said above, the policy exists to avoid pointless arguments of exactly the sort we're having right now. Plenty of sources have been shown to render the rivalry in both directions, such that it is not unusual or strange to choose either of them.  — Amakuru (talk) 18:48, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

  Ooh, and the plot thickens - [the ngram above is not actually comparing the two terms under consideration at all. By putting parentheses around the terms, it turns it into a "composite ngram", where it's subtracting the number of "Red Sox rivalry" hits from the number of "Yankees" hits, and vice versa. As such, it's completely irrelevant to this debate. Again, they should simply be in alphabetical order since there is no proven COMMONNAME one way or the other.  — Amakuru (talk) 18:56, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Note: WikiProject New York Yankees, WikiProject Boston Red Sox, and WikiProject Baseball have been notified of this discussion. CNC (talk) 23:20, 14 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose per Frank Anchor. Randy Kryn (talk) 02:09, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Support per nom, there's no conclusive COMMONNAME order, and seems to follow AND above.--Ortizesp (talk) 20:34, 15 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Support. The Wikipedia:Article titles argument is policy, and as Jessintime found, sources aren't consistent within themselves. Therefore, I don't feel there is enough sources for Yankees-Red Sox for us to WP:IAR. ESB5415 16:56, 21 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
• Support - one way being more common isn't relevant; we only avoid ordering alphabetically when it's about two things that make more sense in one way than the other, like Life and death, or set phrases like fight or flight response. This is neither. Red Slash 17:09, 22 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

• Support. Most sports rivalry articles are titled alphabetically and I don't see why this one can't follow the same naming conventions. Ccai2053 (talk) 18:00, 27 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]