The New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox rivalry is one of the biggest in sports history. But a new reality series will have it play out among their fans at the poker table rather than on the baseball field.

The teams' two regional sports networks, NESN and the YES Network, have been developing the "Partypoker.net Boston vs. New York Poker Challenge" since last year. The idea is to pit six poker-playing Red Sox fans against six Bronx counterparts in no-limit Texas Hold 'Em poker in a nine-episode series that will air on both YES and NESN beginning March 13. The series will tape next week at the Turning Point Resort & Casino near Syracuse, N.Y.

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Because of licensing rules, none of the fans can wear Red Sox or Yankees hats. But Bill Borson, NESN vp programing/production, said that each player will wear Tommy Bahama shirts with the show's logo on the front, either Yankee blue or Red Sox red. The networks hope the players -- who were being finalized this week -- will not only be great poker players but also passionate and personality-driven baseball fans.

There also will be interviews and other Red Sox- and Yankees-centric pieces to the series.

But not every baseball fan need apply. John Filipelli, YES' president of programing and production, said each fan-player needs to have great poker skills.

"You can't just be a passionate fan," Filipelli said.

Added Borson: "You need good competitive poker playing; that's what people watch."

And each player has to pay $2,500 just to get into the game.

Both networks were interested in developing programs together and both were interested in poker programing, which has worked well for ESPN and Fox. It was Red Sox co-owner Tom Werner who came up with the idea of playing on the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.

"The only place we wanted to go with this was YES," Borson said. "They're the home of the Yankees. We're the home of the Red Sox. It was a logical match."

Source: Reuters