In celebration of the 10 Year anniversary of the 2004 Red Sox world series – and even more importantly – the improbable feat of winning the 2004 ALCS (after being down 3-0 to the NY Yankees), I am posting my game-by-game blog entries that were originally posted on the wildly popular 2 Walls Webzine back in 2004. These blog entries were part of a collection of “roundtable” discussions amongst other writers on the site (both Red Sox and Yankees fans).
After 10 years, it’s hard to remember the drama, the heartache and the unbelievable achievement that occurred at the time. The Red Sox have won twice more since then, and the next generation of Red Sox fans (including my own teenage sons) don’t really understand what the ’04 Red Sox accomplished. They simple assume that every few years the Sox will be in the World Series. Maybe that’s a good thought.
2004 ALCS – Game 1 (10/12/04)
Yankees Win 10-7
You know what? I’m starting to think that we’re all a bunch of chumps. That this whole Yankees-Red Sox, 100-year old rivalry is nothing but a gigantic fix and marketing campaign, coordinated by Major League Baseball and Ogilvy & Mathers.
I can’t figure out how every single Yankees-Red Sox game, playoffs or not, becomes such a rollercoaster drama. I had predicted that this ALCS would be a borefest, compared to last year – as I can’t imagine what could top a 7-games, extra innings, walk off homerun ending.
And last night, through six innings, it looked like my predication was going to be true. Sox down by eight going into the 7th inning – Mussina not even letting one Sox near first base. Boring… I even contemplated rooting for Mussina’s perfect game, because as a baseball fan, watching history is always a treat. But then I remembered that this was Mussina and that his last perfect game attempt was foiled by the Sox in the 9th inning. Sure enough – before the inning can end, the Sox chase out Mussina and put up a 5-spot.
MLB and Ogilvy scripted it perfectly:
Scenes 1-6: Mussina perfect.
Scenes: 7 & 8: Red Sox comeback.
Scene 9: Tearful dominance by tragedy-strickened Rivera.
Predictions: Pedro shuts down the Yankees in game 2 and shuts up the crowd. Schilling pitches game 6 and wins series for the Sox.
2004 ALCS – Game 2 (10/13/04)
Yankees Win 3-1
Sorry boys, but this series has just become a test for the infinitely faithful. Sure, the New York Spankees came from behind 0-2 in the ’96 World Series to beat Atlanta – but this is the Boston Red Sux. They’re fighting more than the Yankees, the New York crowd, the curse, and the 86 year drought. They’re fighting themselves.
Something happens to this team whenever they are in the presence of the Yanks. You can’t blame the pitching. Pedro pitched as well as anyone could expect. You can’t blame Schilling, as they had every chance to win that game as well. It’s all about hitting and all about attitude. There’s no fire. No passion. And watching last night’s last a bat, with Kevin Millar digging in, representing the tying run, with Ortiz on second base (showing the rest of the team that you can hit off Rivera), and the entire Red Sox team sitting on the bench, every one of them with the 1,000 yard stare – they have no interest.
How about lining up at the fence and cheering on your teammates? One lousy hit and the momentum changes, maybe even the series changes. The Sox gave up after Olerud effortlessly smacked that two-run homer off Pedro in the Sixth. Oh no, were down by three runs, we’ll never catch up… The Red Sox of the regular season would laugh at this concept.
2004 ALCS – Game 3 (10/16/04)
Yankees Win 19-8
Stephane Fitch and I discovered something while we watched the Pedro game (game 2). I use to think Yankee fans were the greatest fans in the world, with the way they're so into the game and supportive. Turns out they're actually all just assholes.
I don't know... I guess I'm a bit disappointed (at Yankee and Red Sox fans) because the game has gotten diluted with hype and nastiness. The coolest thing I ever saw this year was the Dodgers going out to shake the hands of the Cardinals after they lost game 4 and the series to them. It was the ultimate sportsmanship and ultimate show of respect for some good baseball players. You would never see that type of class or respect in Boston or New York. And if they did, the fans wouldn't like it. They don't have that type of respect for anyone else but their own team. (Unless their own team or individual players start to slump, then they'll turn on them too.)
2004 ALCS – Game 4 (10/17/04)
Red Sox Win 6-4 (12 Innings)
Okay, I’ll fess up and tell you that I went to bed last night at 11:30pm, absolutely sure that the Yanks would end the game and the series with a 4-3 win over the Sox. I guess that makes me a bad fan, even a bad person. It certainly makes me a bad supporter of my team.
I even started writing my series wrap-up in the deep recesses of my mind while I slept. I started off with three words: “Burn down Fenway.”
I really don’t believe in curses, but because most of Boston does, I was figuring that the best way to relieve this city and its fans would be to have a Fenway Park burning celebration. Call in some priests, have an exorcism, douse the Green Monster in Gasoline and light it up. After the smoke cleared, claim the land as sacred burial ground and put up a statue of Ted Williams and fence it off from trespassers. Later, build a domed, astro-turfed arena next to Foxboro Stadium, change the team’s name to the Foxboro Red Sox, change the logo design and adopt a well-groomed clubhouse rule.
Of course, now that I’ve written this, and the Sox go on to win the league championship, I’ll look like the worse flip-flopper this side of John Kerry.
2004 ALCS – Game 5 (10/18/04)
Red Sox Win 5-4 (14 Innings)
Top of the 6th, Jeter has just hit a bases-clearing 3-run double and now the bases are loaded – again. Where’s Grady Little when you need him? At least Grady Little took the effort to make the long walk out to the mound and look like he was in charge. Terry Francona looks like a guy sitting at a craps table who keeps letting his life savings ride it out.
How the Sox won this game I’ll never figure it out, unless I watch the whole thing over again in slow motion. But I don’t have that kind of time. My only guess is that Francona is the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in baseball right now.
Pedro got out of that bases loaded jam (thanks to Trot Nixon’s diving catch). Johnny Damon redeemed himself for his awful steal attempt and doubly worse attempt at a bunt, by drawing a walk in the 14th which allowed him to score on Ortiz’ game-ending hit. If you (or Francona) had asked Varitek how he was doing behind the plate with Wakefield throwing the equivalent of greased monkeys at him, he probably would have screamed “get me the hell outta here!” and asked for Mirabelli to relieve him. Watching Matsui scoot from base to base each time Varitek watched a ball fly off his glove was excruciating. Thank goodness Wakefield finally threw a heater to get out Sierra.
There were so many opportunities for the Red Sox to screw it up, but somehow, someway, they pulled it out. And it wasn’t even like the Yankees screwed up and gave it to them. It was pure dumb luck or some other force.
It was also a good game. One to remember. And that’s not just a Red Sox fan talking. Any true baseball fan will tell you that, regardless of the outcome, it was an exciting, rollercoaster game. Some of those Yankees fans on this site will probably respond (if they respond) that it was an awful game – that the Yankees screwed up – that they don’t like games like this. That they would rather see another 19-9 drubbing of the hated Red Sox.
Fine. Be that way. My 4-year old son acts that way when his 3-year old brother gets the toy that they’ve been fighting over. For me, I can honestly say, that if the Yankees won it in the end, after all of the back-and-forth, after all of the excitement and fear – I still would have written in this space that it was a great game.
2004 ALCS – Game 6 (10/19/04) Red Sox Win 4-2
All I can say is “wow”. And I’m not talking about last night’s game or the series in general. I’m talking about the complete 360-degree turnaround in attitude and trash talk that this 2 Walls tread has produced. Webb and Brown, although tentatively hopeful, are prepping themselves for a letdown. I’m disappointed that the king Yankee trash-talker Fishman has suddenly remained silent since game 3. I won’t lower myself by giving it right back to him. (Although, I probably already did by calling him an “asshole”. Sorry about that Fish.)
But the Yankee fans aren’t the only ones doing 360s. Us Red Sox fans have also done a complete turnaround. After game 3 I denounced this series as nothing but “hype and nastiness” citing the NLCS as a real baseball environment. I actually went to bed before the end of game 4, conceding defeat, only to wake up to a Boston victory. Even then I felt it was only a matter of hours before it would end in game 5. Fitch and I both talked about being put out of our misery by a quick Yankee win, only to be tortured more by that 14 inning Boston marathon.
Even self-proclaimed neutral territory Brendon “Switzerland” McCullin has shown that he really does care about the outcome of this series. He hasn’t said outright, but we can all tell he’s rooting for the Sox.
And now last night’s game: I never believed. Even up 4-1 in the 8th I was waiting for the “screw-up”. And when I saw Arroyo drop the ball as he tried to tag ARod, I immediately wondered if Bill Buckner was watching this game.
But something happened on that play. Something that I feel may be a turning point in the Red Sox long line of bad luck. Because, see, things like that happen to the Red Sox. Weird, unexplainable things happen during these critical, historic games. Things that can be shown over and over and over again on highlight reels, to show the unbelievers that a curse really does exist – like blurry UFO photographs or crop circles or fuzzy ghosts in the background of innocent family photos. And this looked to be another in the long line of fuzzy ghosts photos in the Boston Red Sox photo album.
But this time, somebody turned on the lights at the right moment and we got to see the strings and the puppeteer. It wasn’t a Red Sox screw-up. The umpires reversed the call and got it right. And they rewound the movie and Jeter went around the bases backwards and they took a run off the board, and the Red Sox got a chance to do it right. And they won.
I’m not going to make any predictions about tonight’s game. But I believe we, as a collective group of friends and 2 Walls colleagues, have all matured as baseball fans in an amazingly short amount of time, and regardless of the outcome will be in agreement that this has been nothing short of spectacular in the history of this rivalry.
2004 ALCS – Game 7 (10/20/04)
Red Sox Win 10-3
It really is unbelievable, and I think everyone is in shock – Red Sox and Yankee fans alike – and I don’t think the significance of what has happened this week will sink in until the Red Sox complete the “impossible quest” by winning the World Series. I made my wife sit down and watch the last out with me, trying to explain the historic value of it. I explained that aside from the minor 18-year wait for the Red Sox to return to the World Series, or the more significant 86-year wait since the Red Sox won the World Series – we were watching something that had never been done before. Sure, records are broken all the time and unbelievable feats are accomplished. In fact we watched Ichiro Suzuki breaks the 84-year old single season hits record this season. That was unbelievable. But watching the Boston Red Sox come back from a 0-3 deficit in a 7-game league championship series and win – well, that’s like our parents watching Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. There was no record to be broken – it simply had never been done before in the history of baseball. I never imagined any scenario that could top last year’s ALCS. I figured if the Red Sox won the series that would be good enough. But to be painted into an impossible corner, three outs away from elimination, and an obstacle in front of them – equivalent in size to an erupting Mount St. Helens blocking their path to survival – I can’t imagine anybody having the kind of faith it would take to see them succeed. I certainly didn’t. I’m happy for Boston. I’m happy for the fans. I don’t think this is any kind of shift in power or the fall and rise of empires. The Yankees will continue to be the gatekeepers of the American League, as they will continue to build their roster with the biggest and the best. But for Boston, they now have a ticket to legitimately challenge the gatekeepers each and every season – and only the gatekeepers – without those pesky demons and ghosts to haunt them.
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