Like any team with a glorious past, the New York Yankees have great respect for history and tradition. They spent $1.5 billion (now about £914 million) building a new ballpark that closely resembled the old one. So it feels right that the first season in their shiny “retro” home could conclude tonight with the Yankees winning the World Series after a pitching duel between two all-time greats.

Taking the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies tonight in the Bronx: Pedro Martínez, one of the most devastating pitchers in Major League Baseball. He was, anyway — Martínez is 38, well past his prime, and was a free agent until he signed for Philadelphia in July.

Starting for the Yankees: Andy Pettitte, a four-times World Series champion. He is eight months younger than Martínez, but will start on a day’s less rest than usual.

Martínez pitched well in the second game, at Yankee Stadium, last week but Philadelphia lost 3-1. He declined to speak to the media yesterday, but tonight the crowd will talk to him long and loud, using the phrase they love to taunt him with, repeated over and over: “Who’s your daddy?”

Martínez and the Yankees have some previous. He formerly starred for the Boston Red Sox, the Bronx Bombers’ hated rivals, before joining the New York Mets. The Yankees’ sense of superiority over Martínez stems from the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series — effectively the semi-finals — at Yankee Stadium.

The Red Sox were five outs from victory and held a three-run lead. But a tiring Martínez was kept in the game by Grady Little, Boston’s manager at the time, and the Yankees rallied to win in extra innings. Martínez suggested playfully in post-game interviews that the Yankees were his “daddy” and New York fans have beat him with that stick ever since.

Boston and Martínez avenged that crushing blow the next year by knocking out New York on the way to winning the World Series, but the man known for his mastery of four different pitches, including a fastball that reached 97mph, never seemed quite so intimidating again.

After winning the first game of the best-of-seven series at the new Yankee Stadium last week, the Phillies lost the next three. Inspired no doubt by the playing of the theme from Rocky over their ballpark’s Tannoy, they staved off ultimate defeat on Monday night with an 8-6 win. As in the opening fixture, the hitting of Chase Utley, who connected for his fourth home run of the series, and the pitching of Cliff Lee were key to victory for the defending champions. But the Yankees remain strong favourites.

Remarkably, this is their first World Series appearance since 2003, when they lost to the low-budget Florida Marlins. The 26-times champions have not won the grand prize since 2000. Each year they have reacted to failure by throwing money at the team; each year it has not worked.

Finally, after another spending spree last winter that has left them with a wage bill of $201 million this year, they have found a formula that seems likely to bring Joe Girardi the title in his second year as manager, thanks in part to Alex Rodríguez, arguably the sport’s best player, shrugging off his reputation as a post-season “choker” in his first World Series.

World Series schedule
New York Yankees lead Philadelphia 3-2
First match: New York Yankees 1 Philadelphia 6
Second: New York Yankees 3 Philadelphia 1
Third: Philadelphia 5 New York Yankees 8
Fourth: Philadelphia 4 New York Yankees 7
Fifth: Philadelphia 8 New York Yankees 6

Matches to come
Sixth: Wednesday, at Yankee Stadium
Seventh (if needed): Thursday, at Yankee Stadium.