What was (Or is) your favorite Red Sox August of all time?(Except 1967)

[jaytftwofive]

On a former past web site(BDD) we always would post what was your favorite Red Sox month of all time. There are many that I can think of 86, 04, 90 but my choice would be 1995. That was the Mo Vaughn, Wakefield, Hansen lightning in a bottle year. They were in first place most of the year and nobody believed it and expected them to fall back. By the end of July MFY got acquired David Cone and all the experts(Including Gammons) said the Yanks would overtake the Sox. We got Rick Aguilera, went 23-7 and never looked back. Yes we kind of fell back in September and by October we were the 94 Red Sox and kind of knew they would lose to Tribe but what a fun year it was. The first time I ever got horse and semi lost my voice was when the Mariners beat the Yanks in Game 5 on the Edgar Martinez hit to win game. The reason I say not 67 is because that's usually the obvious answer and I always like an alternative. Plus my all time favorite Red Sox player went down on August 18th.

 

[jaytftwofive]

But if it is 67 then so be it. If you want you can also put your other favorite Red Sox months.

 

[tims4wins]

2004. After the deadline deals, they scuffled for ~10 days, going 4-4 to begin the month. Then they closed the month going 17-3, and never looked back

 

[InstaFace]

Yeah wasn't 2004 the 10-game winstreak and 16-1 stretch where they went from "slightly-above-average team" to "holy crap these guys have got it together, we have a shot"? (answer: yup)

Hard to top that in my lifetime.

 

[pk1627]

I'll take 2004, but that season will always be remembered for 4 days in October (although August got them ready for that).

Here are two other favorites:
1. 2013 - from an until-then shaky Lester starting against SF they went 17-5 to increase the division lead from essentially tied to 9.5
2. 1990 - 19-9 August gave them a healthy lead, which they needed all of to get to the Jeff Stone game at the end of September

 

[grimshaw]

The '98, '99, 2005 and 2008 teams were all playoff bound and had Augusts with winning percentages higher than .600, and the '95 team had the best August of all their playoff teams at 23-7.

Those teams all performed well, but the '98 and '99 teams were still big underdogs to the Yankees, and 2005 and 2008 teams were coming off of World Series wins. At least in 2008, Bay came over and fit right in.

My favorite regular season team ever was the 2003 version, but 2004 has to be it since they ran away with it in August and the former was just ok that month.

Though watching our kids mash the baseball everywhere last season is something I'm sure I will miss sooner than later.

 

[drbretto]

Jumping in on 2004 as well, even before I knew I was joining a chorus. They were underwhelming right up until August, then suddenly became the best team in baseball.

 

[jaytftwofive]

Remember month not favorite year or team. I wanted to start at the beginning of the year but here are my others. I try not to base it on how they finished but how good I felt at the time. April-05, Obvious. May 1986. Took over 1st on May 15th for good and through key pitching injuries(Hurst, Nip and Oil Can-suspension?)led us to one of our favorite summers. They never lost the lead. June 1978, Sorry they just kicked butt. July 1988. September to come soon.That might be the toughest. You think of 2004 with the Varitek-A-Rod fight and Mueller HR but after taking 2 out of the 3 from the Yanks, they actually entered August a lot further behind then July 25th. Second choice for July was 1993. They were .500 or under at the end of June but just went nuts and went like what 25-5 or something like that.

 

[m0ckduck]

2004 is the answer.

But as a dark horse selection, I submit the 1996 team. This was the 'let's play Jose Canseco and Kevin Mitchell together as corner outfielders!' squad that began the season 2-12. On July 31, they were 47-58, 16 games back. Suddenly, the team finally woke up and went 22-6 to start August, pulling into Wild Card contention before losing the last two games in August to finish the month 22-8. They wound up finishing the season 8 games over .500— not enough for a wild card spot, but a finish that dignified the most disappointing first half I can ever remember from any Sox team.

Edit: I was remembering the hitters on this team and struggling to imagine how they played so badly for four months to start the season. Then I looked at the pitching-- yikes. That has to be one of the all-time worse Boston staffs. A crappy year from Clemens, then THREE guys with ERAs over 5.00 as the only other pitchers with more than 100IP. Not to mention 87 innings of Vaughn Eshelman and his 7.08 ERA.

 

[jaytftwofive]

2004 is the answer.

But as a dark horse selection, I submit the 1996 team. This was the 'let's play Jose Canseco and Kevin Mitchell together as corner outfielders!' squad that began the season 2-12. On July 31, they were 47-58, 16 games back. Suddenly, the team finally woke up and went 22-6 to start August, pulling into Wild Card contention before losing the last two games in August to finish the month 22-8. They wound up finishing the season 8 games over .500— not enough for a wild card spot, but a finish that dignified the most disappointing first half I can ever remember from any Sox team.

Edit: I was remembering the hitters on this team and struggling to imagine how they played so badly for four months to start the season. Then I looked at the pitching-- yikes. That has to be one of the all-time worse Boston staffs. A crappy year from Clemens, then THREE guys with ERAs over 5.00 as the only other pitchers with more than 100IP. Not to mention 87 innings of Vaughn Eshelman and his 7.08 ERA.

Yes that was a great month and a fun one. I think they actually went to only 6-19 or 6-21 to start the year, but finished 85-77 so a good turn around. Speaking of pitching they made a terrible trade on 7-31 trading Jamie Moyer for Darren Bragg. Moyer was 7-1 or 8-1 And a good lefty??? Why Dan why? Then of course the next bad trade at the end of 97 was Aaron Sele for Jim Leyritz??? We give up two pitchers who helped the Mariners win 116 games. What could have been had we had them from 98-2001 or 02? Not that the Sox could have beaten the 98 Yankees but maybe 99, 2000??

 

[jaytftwofive]

I think I'm switching my favorite July from 88 to 75. Though the start of Morgan's Miracle was great the 1975 team really pulled away in July and assured Red Sox fans there would be no choke like 1974. They swept the Yanks at Shea I believe and went 9 games up and coasted home. It think Fred Lynn capped it off with a great catch to end one of the games.

 

[sheamonu]

August 2004 for the question posed by the thread. Overall - I'll always have a soft spot for September 1972 - won 20 games, Luis came to the fore, first pennant race I actually remember ('67 is just an impression of general excitement), finished the month a game and a half up...

October sucked.

 

[rlsb]

August 1975 in particular for going 9-6 on a five city road trip from the 6th to the 20th that included a west coast trip, a doubleheader and losing only a half game of their lead in the AL East to Baltimore, their closest competitor.

 

[jaytftwofive]

August 2004 for the question posed by the thread. Overall - I'll always have a soft spot for September 1972 - won 20 games, Luis came to the fore, first pennant race I actually remember ('67 is just an impression of general excitement), finished the month a game and a half up...

October sucked.

Yes Tiant had a great year. Considered second best pitcher that year next to Carlton's unbelievable year. I think that might be my September. Of course it ended bizarre with Luis Aparicio falling down on that base running error in Detroit. Before the Wild Card they were the first team in baseball history to lose a pennant by a half game. There was a strike at the start of the season and you weren't allowed to makeup games even if one team played more then you. I still think that was unfair and they should have been allowed to make up one game.

 

[TFisNEXT]

2004 is the no-brainer for me for August.

If thinking about July...I echo the post further up that mentioned July 1993 (and the big run started the last 10 days of June). That's when I truly fell in love with the Red Sox. I had been rooting for them before as a young child since the late 1980s, but that 1993 team really grabbed my heart as they went on that 10 game winning streak in mid/late July to pull into a tie for the division lead with mighty Toronto. I was at the 8th game of that win streak....a walkoff win in 10 innings by Bob Zupcic which is the game that pulled the Red Sox into a tie for the division lead. Then I believe the winning streak ended in Milwaukee with a crushing blown save by Jeff Russell to none other than Tom Brunansky with 2 outs in the 9th inning...a walkoff 2 run HR. The Red Sox would never see first place again after that game.

 

[ledsox]

1971, because it was my first Fenway game and it established my passion. It was Friday the 13th. Freddy Patek hit a lead off HR. The Sox hit into FIVE DPs. Dick Drago went 9 for the Royals and beat Lonny. The Sox were in the middle of a 7 game losing streak. But I saw all that green for the first time, saw a Reggie Smith HR and truped myself when Yaz took a big swing and flew out to Cookie Rojas at 2nd. Hey, I was 9. Never forget it.

2004 too. Saw two wins vs the Tigers at Fenway in August as the Sox were becoming the best team in baseball history.