It was 20 years ago today the Boston Red Sox did the impossible. They came back from an 0-3 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.
While winning the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals would mark their first championship in 86 years, it was icing compared to the cake of finally beating the Yankees. The Red Sox had come up short against the Yankees in 1949, 1978, 1998, 1999 and especially one year earlier in 2003.
When the Red Sox were down by a run in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4, I made a point of turning down the sound on FOX and listened to the radio broadcast by Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano on WEEI. Of course, Mariano Rivera would walk Kevin Millar (who was telling anyone who would listen not to let the Red Sox win this game), pinch runner Dave Roberts (now manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers) would steal second and score on a base hit by Bill Mueller. David Ortiz would hit the walk off HR in the 12th inning. From this point forward, I tuned it exclusively to WEEI. I'd like to think this was one of many small things which tipped the balance of the universe in favor of the Red Sox.
Game 5 was the most difficult to watch. I felt so much stress, I came very close to turning off the game as the clock kept ticking in the early hours of the morning. But I had come this far, so I was going to stay all the way. Besides I was hardly the only one in New England who stayed up until 2:35 a.m.
Game 6 was the Curt Schilling bloody sock game. Then came the blowout in Game 7. I was working a lot of OT and was walking home at the start of the game. I will always remember Johnny Damon's grand slam HR in the second inning off Javier Vazquez because I was walking by the Corner Tavern on the corner of Mass Ave and Marlborough Street and I remember seeing the patrons in the basement jumping through the roof.
At the time, I was living in the Fenway. So, no sooner than Alan Embree got Ruben Sierra to ground out to Pokey Reese, I went out and made my way to Fenway Park with tens of thousands of other revelers. The crowd was overwhelming, and I thought to myself, "I hope my shoelaces don't become untied because I might get trampled to death." Sadly, a young Emerson College student named Victoria Snelgrove was shot and killed by a projectile at the hands of a Boston Police officer attempting crowd control. But for the grace of G-d....Given my recent experiences with Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade, this is not something I would contemplate doing now. If the Red Sox go a World Series again, I will celebrate from a safe distance.
Nevertheless, the morning after the Red Sox triumph, the normally quiet commute on the Green Line was jovial with strangers actually talking to one another. This mood extended to giving homeless people $5, $10 and even $20 bills. Of course, such euphoria is short-lived which makes it all the more special when it comes by in fleeting moments.
This year, the Yankees go back to the World Series while the Red Sox had to settle for a .500 season. But with four World Series titles in this century, one cannot complain too assiduously. We are part of a generation during which the Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics have all won championships and we can savor it in the moment and on anniversary days such as today. Sadly, Tim Wakefield and David McCarty are no longer with us but Big Papi, Pedro Martinez, Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek along with Terry Francona (albeit in a Cincinnati Reds uniform) are still very much with us.
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