MVP of 2004 Postseason

Who was the Red Sox' 2004 postseason MVP?

  • Keith Foulke

    Votes: 102 35.1%
  • David Ortiz

    Votes: 183 62.9%
  • Curt Schilling

    Votes: 4 1.4%
  • Manny Ramirez

    Votes: 2 0.7%

  • Total voters
    291

Section30

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Foulke gets my vote. I remember praying his arm wouldn't fall off each time he came out of the bullpen. Various players came up with hits and plays throughout. Foulke was the dependable rock that I had confidence in. He clearly sacrificed his body to finish the job. I heard Boston fans boo him the next season and thought about punching a few of them.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
They had Sanders, who had 22 homers and a 103 ops+. They had Walker, who had 11 homers in just 150 ab and a 144 ops+. They had Mabry, who had 13 homers in 240 ab and a 123 ops+. They had Lankford, who had a 100 ops+. And even Womack (.307 avg) and Renteria (.287 avg) gave them something. But Lankford was out for the WS, and Mabry only had 4 ab in the WS.

They led the NL in runs scored with 855. They were a terrific offensive team.
I didn't exactly say they weren't a terrific offensive team; my point was that a disproportionate amount of the terrificness was concentrated at three lineup positions, compared with the Sox, who had good to outstanding hitters at all but two positions.

I mean, yes, Sanders had an OPS+ of 103 (wRC+ 102). In other words, he was a league-average hitter. And he was the fourth- or fifth-best hitter in that lineup for most of the season. The Sox' fifth-best hitter was Johnny Damon, with a wRC+ of 123.

Put it this way: if you look at offensive runs created ("Off" column in FG) the Cards had three guys over 40, but nobody else with as many as 15. The Sox had six guys with 15 or more, none of whom were over 40.

Because of this unbalanced attack, the Cards were highly vulnerable to a pitching strategy focused on neutralizing those three studs. Of course, you still had to have good enough pitching (not to mention good enough scouting) to execute that strategy.
 

ookami7m

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Foulke if we are talking the whole postseason. Yes Papi was on a whole new level but in theory Manny or Tek or Damon could have had the big hits if he wasn’t there. No one else in the team does what Foulke did. And the Tony Clark at bat still gives me nightmares.
 

TFisNEXT

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It’s Papi, but I’ll say that I’ll NEVER have the feeling in my life again that I did before and after this pitch. Ever. I was convulsing.

View: https://youtu.be/Bg6PNoVCfO0
Might be the spookiest at bat of the entire post-season. I cannot think of a die-hard Red Sox fan who didn't have visions of Clark walking off sending us to another offseason of pure misery. It would have been especially brutal considering how awful he was for the Red Sox in 2002.

The visions grew clearer with every 86mph fastball Foulke was chucking up there with no idea where it was going. His arm was shot from his appearances in game 4 and 5. I cannot think of a bigger "exhale moment" when he finally K'd Clark to send it to game 7. It wasn't even joy. Just "wow, we have a stay of execution for another day". I do have to say, I love the lip-reading quote from Foulke....he said something like "just had to make it interesting" when players were lining up on the infield for the post-game high-fives. As if he knew the whole time we was gonna get Clark to K on that fastball in a full count.


As for my vote....it was close with Foulke, but I had to pick Ortiz. Too many pivotal at bats that were so huge. Despite the personal abhorrence toward Schilling in this thread shared by many, his game 6 start was an absolute monstrous performance and a near-miracle. Probably the most clutch start that post-season considering how gassed the bullpen was after games 4/5. And yes, I believe D-Lowe has gotten the cold shoulder over the years for his performance that series.

1. Ortiz
2. Foulke
3. D-Lowe
4. Schilling (he'd be higher just based on game 6 but you have to count his game 1 start too)
 

bosockboy

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Might be the spookiest at bat of the entire post-season. I cannot think of a die-hard Red Sox fan who didn't have visions of Clark walking off sending us to another offseason of pure misery. It would have been especially brutal considering how awful he was for the Red Sox in 2002.

The visions grew clearer with every 86mph fastball Foulke was chucking up there with no idea where it was going. His arm was shot from his appearances in game 4 and 5. I cannot think of a bigger "exhale moment" when he finally K'd Clark to send it to game 7. It wasn't even joy. Just "wow, we have a stay of execution for another day". I do have to say, I love the lip-reading quote from Foulke....he said something like "just had to make it interesting" when players were lining up on the infield for the post-game high-fives. As if he knew the whole time we was gonna get Clark to K on that fastball in a full count.


As for my vote....it was close with Foulke, but I had to pick Ortiz. Too many pivotal at bats that were so huge. Despite the personal abhorrence toward Schilling in this thread shared by many, his game 6 start was an absolute monstrous performance and a near-miracle. Probably the most clutch start that post-season considering how gassed the bullpen was after games 4/5. And yes, I believe D-Lowe has gotten the cold shoulder over the years for his performance that series.

1. Ortiz
2. Foulke
3. D-Lowe
4. Schilling (he'd be higher just based on game 6 but you have to count his game 1 start too)
When Foulke said that I think that’s when I knew these guys were different. Fearless.

Alternate universe: imagine games 6 and 7 flipped. Blowout in game 6 (like 2003), and Foulke
striking out Clark to end game 7. That might have put me in a hospital.
 

TFisNEXT

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When Foulke said that I think that’s when I knew these guys were different. Fearless.

Alternate universe: imagine games 6 and 7 flipped. Blowout in game 6 (like 2003), and Foulke
striking out Clark to end game 7. That might have put me in a hospital.
This would be like D-Lowe striking out Terrence Long in Oakland (game 5 2003 ALDS) raised to the 100th power.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXgepikMxuk
 

AlNipper49

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It’s Ortiz.

I love Foulke for giving up his career for the Sox. I do think that there were other closers (even Fruitbat) that could have been plugged in and the Sox still win.

There is no player I have ever seen in MLB that could or would do what Ortiz did that postseason. He was absolutely irreplaceable.
Unless we're talking about 2013 Ortiz.

I think that Ortiz was the MVP.

Foulke was the guy throwing himself on the mine in the WW2 movies. He was the hero.

Schilling was the magic, what he did in the bloody sock was one of the great moments in baseball lore.

Lowe was the comeback kid, a guy who stepped up in a huge way. The guy that every team who wins seems to have.

From what happened in the previous years, particularly in 2003, makes 2004 not only the curse breaker, but probably the greatest World Series story of all time. From what the players did (the above, Bellhorn and Damon's big hits, Tito out-managing the world, etc), to the Yankees 3-0 comeback. Hollywood couldn't come up with a better script.
 

Bergs

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Ortiz, Ramirez, Pedro, and Lowe were huge. The 2003 team was great, but it needed a little bit more to push it over the top. Schilling and Folke were they key ingredients.
Tito says hi!
 

billy ashley

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I voted Foulke, I could be wrong. It's him or Ortiz.

I think the tiebreaker for me is that Ortiz, as amazing as he was, was just as elite in other big spots over his career. Foulke, while always good, never was that good before or after. It was a good player having the run of his life... call me sentimental, but I think that's the tie breaker for me.

Ortiz is possibly my favorite Sox of all time, on the other hand.
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
Tito says hi!
You know, I had kind of forgotten the significance of that being Tito's first season. Of course it's impossible to forget that the previous year was the Tragedy of Grady, but Tito was such a low-key presence that his influence doesn't necessarily jump to the front of my mind as a factor in how 2004 went. But obviously it was important, not just in terms of the immediate result but the way it set the tone for the years that followed. Really, has any manager's first year with a team ever been more momentous?
 

bosockboy

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Quick shout out to Curtis Leskanic who got us to Ortiz in game 4. Left his arm and career on the mound that night. Never pitched again.
 

richgedman'sghost

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My instinct was Foulke, then I looked up Ortiz's numbers and remembered all the big moments he had. I don't know why I thought it would be Foulke.

As a side note, what a fall from grace for Schilling. I can't think of anything like it for an athlete.
Aaron Hernandez had a pretty big fall from grace
 

TFisNEXT

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Quick shout out to Curtis Leskanic who got us to Ortiz in game 4. Left his arm and career on the mound that night. Never pitched again.
Earth Pig!!

That at bat of him facing Bernie Williams with the bases loaded ranks up there on the shitting-pants-o-meter, maybe just a slight notch below the Tony Clark game 6 at bat. I even remember the first pitch to him....I was completely expecting a bases-loaded walk and then Leskanic dumps in a breaking ball of all pitches to get ahead 0-1, and then Williams subsequently popped out to shallow center.

This thread has been great for thinking of so many of those unsung heroes again that have mostly been long forgotten. Someone further back mentioned how Hollywood couldn't have written a better script and I agree. So many after-thoughts from the regular season playing huge roles during that playoff run.
 

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This thread has been great for thinking of so many of those unsung heroes again that have mostly been long forgotten. Someone further back mentioned how Hollywood couldn't have written a better script and I agree. So many after-thoughts from the regular season playing huge roles during that playoff run.
You know, every offseason, I'm thinking we ought to have some coordinated group watch-through of one of our classic seasons + postseasons. Like, twice a week, we all start watching the same video at the same time (maybe someone streams it) and can just yammer on about it, toss in old memories or factoids, etc. Choose nights where the Cs and Bs aren't on, if we can. The first year we've got enough to go on there would be 1999 I think, between some of the big Pedro games + ASG that year and then the ALDS and some ALCS. 2003 would be optional, but 2004... man, we've got at least half a dozen worthy regular-season games from 2004, if not a dozen, and then all 16 playoff games. Just relive it, even the losses, and feel what it was like.

You've got the 4 championship years, and to that you could add 1999, 2003, 2008, maybe even 1986 at some point a long way off when we feel like we can laugh about it. Could do a Tragedy Offseason and do just the 1946, 1967 and 1975 WS (+ 75 ALCS). Either way, that'd be a fun way to pass some of the time until baseball comes back.
 

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Ortiz has a good argument, but I'm going with Derek Lowe. His ALCS Game 7 vs NYY is arguably the most-clutch pitching performance in franchise history, and he followed that up with seven scoreless innings in the World Series clincher. Lowe probably belongs in the Red Sox Hall of Fame for that postseason alone.
 

Adirondack jack

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...I don't have time to look it up right now, but even though they had a bad regular season,....
Must be a very busy dude with dial up internet. The '04 Cards had 105 wins, man.

Any answer that doesn't include David Ortiz is getting a little to cutesy for me. Do your math folks.
 

Sandy Leon Trotsky

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Must be a very busy dude with dial up internet. The '04 Cards had 105 wins, man.

Any answer that doesn't include David Ortiz is getting a little to cutesy for me. Do your math folks.
I was actually asking about the 2013 Cardinals... perhaps not clear in my post... man. But now had some time.... even 2013 Cardinals had 97 wins and were 1st in NL Central.
 

Adirondack jack

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In fairness, the team you may have been mis-remembering... the 2006 World Series Champs Cards. Regular season record .. 83-78.

Eckstein rode off in a shiny corvette, iirc.
 

wiffleballhero

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In the simulacrum
Part of the pleasure of this thread, and that team, is that there really were many excellent, awe inspiring performances. It is not at all odd that so many players have been mentioned. And indeed, from Leskanic through Bellhorn, there were just incredible, surprising examples of rising to the occasion. I'd even throw a shout-out to Millar for keeping them from looking into the abyss after game 3.
 

InstaFace

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And for working the walk right before Dave Roberts' Moment. Having that kind of discipline against Fruitbat back then was a rare feat.
 

rajendra82

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It’s Papi, but I’ll say that I’ll NEVER have the feeling in my life again that I did before and after this pitch. Ever. I was convulsing.

View: https://youtu.be/Bg6PNoVCfO0
I have never screamed as hard at my TV as I did at the end of games 4, 5, and 6. It's all I could do to keep from fainting. I had to travel during game 7, so missed all of it except for the final 3 or 4 innings, but the pilot was giving out scores over the PA system before and after we landed, and the whole airplane applauded upon hearing Damon's grand slam, and this was on a flight from Atlanta to Pittsburgh.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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And for working the walk right before Dave Roberts' Moment. Having that kind of discipline against Fruitbat back then was a rare feat.
No kidding. We don’t have to go further than the Cabrera at bat later in the inning. First and third with just one out, a decent fly ball wins it, and he whiffs on three straight pitches, all out of the strike zone.
 

Leskanic's Thread

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Quick shout out to Curtis Leskanic who got us to Ortiz in game 4. Left his arm and career on the mound that night. Never pitched again.
You could say the whole postseason run was hanging on by the thread keeping his shoulder intact.

I just saw the poll today, immediately voted Foulke...then was persuaded by the posts after to switch it to Ortiz. It's easier to give it to Foulke now that we know the trajectories after 2004 (Foulke, as mentioned, sacrificed his career; Ortiz had perhaps an improbably better postseason run nine years later). Still...it's easier to think of another relief pitcher replicating Foulke's performance than another hitter doing what Papi did.

Also want to echo the honorable mention to Mark Bellhorn. I've always thought that if ALCS games 6-7 and WS games 1-2 were one four-game series, he would have been the clear MVP.
5 for 12, 5 R, 8 RBI, 3 HR, 5 BB across those games. What a run.

And to add to the under-sung heroes discussion: I feel like it's never commented on, but I always give credit go Bill Mueller for showing bunt after the Roberts' steal. He shows bunt on the next pitch (which makes sense...get the tying run over to third with one out against an all-time closer), setting Mariano up to put the ball over more of the plate on the following pitch. We know the Charlie Brown-esque result of that.
 

HriniakPosterChild

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And for working the walk right before Dave Roberts' Moment. Having that kind of discipline against Fruitbat back then was a rare feat.
Millar has talked about that AB (of course he has, he talks about everything, but I mean on camera).

He wasn’t looking for a walk, he thought he could homer off FB, and he was looking for the pitch to do it with. (He did hit a long fly ball, but pulled it foul, IIRC.)
 

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trekfan55

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It’s Papi, but I’ll say that I’ll NEVER have the feeling in my life again that I did before and after this pitch. Ever. I was convulsing.

View: https://youtu.be/Bg6PNoVCfO0
No, just no.

A Youtube clip of just the final pitch does not begin to explain what I (all of us, really) was feeling and thinking during that AB. This was the moment when we thought the Yankees would break our hearts again, when we knew Foulke was on fumes, and every pitch felt like someone was hitting me on the head or in the face. My kids still remember me almost breaking doors and shit I was hitting, and I will never forget that strikeout. Ever. I just slumped to my bed and screamed "lo ponchó" over and over. I could not believe it.

The MVP of that post season can be split between Foulke abd Papi. Sox do not win if either fails in their moments.

Kudos to Millar also. Those two ABs against Rivera (Game 5 too) set the table.
 

Wallball Tingle

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Kudos to Millar also. Those two ABs against Rivera (Game 5 too) set the table.
All great (stressful) memories, but that was Gordon that Millar got the BB against in Game 5. Right after Ortiz homered against him to make it 4-3. Right before Roberts came in, the crowd chanted "Gorrrrr-don", and Nixon sent Roberts to 3rd with a single. THEN Mariano came in.
 

uncannymanny

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Ortiz hit five homeruns. Two were game winners, two gave the Red Sox the lead, and one got them within a run. The team was 5-0 when he homered. Foulke, Manny and Schilling had their moments, but nobody was as critical to the team’s success in all three rounds than Ortiz.
This. Foulke was amazing, but it could've been done by someone else. I just can't imagine anyone else getting the hits that Ortiz got in the spots he got them with the pressure on like that. I saw the last AB of his career and was positive he was going to homer to put them in the playoffs. A legend well earned.
 

Minneapolis Millers

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This. Foulke was amazing, but it could've been done by someone else. I just can't imagine anyone else getting the hits that Ortiz got in the spots he got them with the pressure on like that. I saw the last AB of his career and was positive he was going to homer to put them in the playoffs. A legend well earned.
Yeah, this is how I came down on the question, too. But, as is usually the case in baseball, it was a true team effort. Others helped put Papi in those spots. And I still get a little anxious thinking about the team’s squander AFTER Roberts scored. Mientkiewicz bunts Mueller to 2d. Scoring position, one out. Damon chops an easy grounder that Clark muffs. First and third. But then Cabrera whiffs on 3 pitches. Two outs. Manny walks on 7 pitches. Up comes Ortiz, bases loaded, two outs, to deliver this win.

And he pops up. Think if NY had scored and won it in extras. No game 5 heroics. No bloody sock game. No greatest come back ever. We’d be looking back on that Ortiz at bat as the typical Sox, Yaz-like moment, where our flawed heroes come up just short, again.

Then I take a deep breath, fast forward to watch the 12th, and grin through the rest of the postseason highlights.
 
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trekfan55

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All great (stressful) memories, but that was Gordon that Millar got the BB against in Game 5. Right after Ortiz homered against him to make it 4-3. Right before Roberts came in, the crowd chanted "Gorrrrr-don", and Nixon sent Roberts to 3rd with a single. THEN Mariano came in.
Absolutely my bad. And I remember Gordon on the mound vs Nixon with Roberts on 1st.
 

Bunt4aTriple

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Tangentially related:

My wife is an attorney and got an invite, along with a ton of other attorneys in New England, from a vendor, Thomson Reuters, to participate in a live Q&A/watch party for the first couple of innings on Wednesday with Keith Foulke. My 10 year old daughter was so excited as they sent a swag pack the week prior including a signed ball. We watched Faith Rewarded the week before. I had told my kids all about Papi's heroics in the ALCS, but it was fun to give them the complete picture, including seeing A-Rod's catcher's mitt sandwich (good), them hearing Nomar's name, probably for the first time (bad- definitely my fault, since he was Mookie before Mookie) and Schilling's epic performance in spite of his despicable behavior since (really ugly). We paused the parade footage so they could see their mom up on my shoulders on Boylston.

Anyhow, it turned out there were maybe only 15 people on the zoom, including TR employees, so we got to chat for the full hour and he was really candid. As it was reported in '04, he really doesn't seem to give a shit about anything baseball unless he's directly involved. Everyone in my family got to ask a question. My 7 year old asked what his favorite thing about baseball was and he said the competition and the salary. My 10 year old asked why he was #29 (her favorite number). When he got to Chicago he asked for #9 since it was his favorite inning to pitch, but it was retired, as was 19, so 29 was the first available. I asked him if when he showed up in '04 if Manny busted his beans over this homer from the prior season or if he didn't even realize Foulke was the same guy. Unfortunately, he said he didn't remember that homerun. I also asked if thought the expanded playoffs diminished the regular season at all. He was aware of a change, but had no clue about any of the details, which was consistent with his "love" of baseball. Although he was at Cooperstown for a HOF game, he said he had a "good time" the night before, so slept through the tour but then jumped in with how fantastic the hockey HOF was.

Overall, it was really enjoyable and he seemed very much like his persona, but a lot more affable.
34419

P.S. That's not my kid in the foreground. Even my dog was into it.
P.P.S. The answer is still Ortiz.
 

Norm Siebern

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No, just no.

A Youtube clip of just the final pitch does not begin to explain what I (all of us, really) was feeling and thinking during that AB. This was the moment when we thought the Yankees would break our hearts again, when we knew Foulke was on fumes, and every pitch felt like someone was hitting me on the head or in the face. My kids still remember me almost breaking doors and shit I was hitting, and I will never forget that strikeout. Ever. I just slumped to my bed and screamed "lo ponchó" over and over. I could not believe it.

The MVP of that post season can be split between Foulke abd Papi. Sox do not win if either fails in their moments.

Kudos to Millar also. Those two ABs against Rivera (Game 5 too) set the table.
I couldn't watch it. Just couldn't. I sat huddled, with my head between my knees hunched over, sitting on the landing of the stairs leading up to the second floor of my house. Around the corner in the living room my wife, the brave one, sat and watched, giving play by play above the sound emanating from the TV. When Foulke struck out Clark she let out a whoop of joy and told me I could return to the room. To this day I'm not sure I've ever seen that strikeout. I will have to dig out the DVDs.

This is why I will always refer to Foulke as Jesus. He delivered us from evil and was our salvation from how many years of torture. He sacrificed himself on our behalf. He was our personal savior.
 

tims4wins

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I couldn't watch it. Just couldn't. I sat huddled, with my head between my knees hunched over, sitting on the landing of the stairs leading up to the second floor of my house. Around the corner in the living room my wife, the brave one, sat and watched, giving play by play above the sound emanating from the TV. When Foulke struck out Clark she let out a whoop of joy and told me I could return to the room. To this day I'm not sure I've ever seen that strikeout. I will have to dig out the DVDs.

This is why I will always refer to Foulke as Jesus. He delivered us from evil and was our salvation from how many years of torture. He sacrificed himself on our behalf. He was our personal savior.
Here you go. Timestamped at the Clark AB. I forgot he went to 2-0. That 2-0 pitch was a meatball. McCarver "boy you have to wonder what Clark was looking for"

View: https://youtu.be/SdLMztZk_X4?t=10196
 

Archer1979

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Got to go with Ortiz on this, but after watching that ALCS Game Six clip, it reminded me of my son when he was watching Game 7 between the Celtics and the Raptors that went down to the wire. All of 22 years old, he stood up from MY chair that he had sat in during the whole game without getting up once, and his Philmont Ranch T-Shirt was drenched in sweat. I pointed this out to my wife who said that was me in 2004.

My son wonders how any of us are still alive after watching that 2004 post-season.
 
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tims4wins

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Got to go with Ortiz on this, but after watching that ALCS Game Six clip, it reminded me of my son when he was watching Game 7 between the Celtics and the Raptors that went down to the wire. All of 22 years old, he stood up from MY chair that he had sat in during the whole game without getting up once, and his Philmont Ranch T-Shirt was drenched in sweat. I pointed this out to my wife who said that was me in 2004.

My son wonders how any of are still alive after watching that 2004 post-season.
It's a great question. There will never be anything we experience again in our lifetime that will be similar to those 4 days. It mattered so much. And it was all so surreal.
 

Jimbodandy

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It's a great question. There will never be anything we experience again in our lifetime that will be similar to those 4 days. It mattered so much. And it was all so surreal.
Surreal is a great word for it. I was second-guessing myself for being in the chair for the start of game 4 after the shellacking of game 3. Then a few short days later, we're going to the world series. It was so weird.

To answer Archer's kid, some of us got through it by heavy drinking. At my current age and sober, I'm not sure that I could handle it.

Papi was the MVP of that series without question, but Foulke deserves so much love for making it happen too. Ridiculous effort.
 

Archer1979

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Surreal is a great word for it. I was second-guessing myself for being in the chair for the start of game 4 after the shellacking of game 3. Then a few short days later, we're going to the world series. It was so weird.

To answer Archer's kid, some of us got through it by heavy drinking. At my current age and sober, I'm not sure that I could handle it.

Papi was the MVP of that series without question, but Foulke deserves so much love for making it happen too. Ridiculous effort.
Awesome. I couldn't do that as I was the only one in the house at that time that would torture myself in that manner and just don't like drinking alone. Rest assured though that my "uniform" was exacly the same all the way through to Game Four of the World Series.

Oddly enough, my son is still wearing the same green Philmont Ranch T-Shirt and I'm sure that he hasn't washed it. The thing is so filthy now that I might be able to claim it on the Census.
 

tims4wins

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I've written this before, but game 5 was a Monday, after a long day of drinking and watching the Pats beat Seattle (21 in a row!) and then game 4.

I was living in Houston at the time so I was an hour ahead. I think game 5 first pitch was 5pm ET. So I was at work for the first hour of the game. I didn't even crack a beer until the 7th inning. And yet I still ended up hammered since the game went so long.

Good times.
 

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Here you go. Timestamped at the Clark AB. I forgot he went to 2-0. That 2-0 pitch was a meatball. McCarver "boy you have to wonder what Clark was looking for"

View: https://youtu.be/SdLMztZk_X4?t=10196
That just made my blood pressure shoot up a couple of points.

How the hell did I survive that? I still thought Tony Clark would manage to get a hit. And there are actually good descriptions of the situation by McCarver, like on the 2-0 pitch mentioned above, and the fact that the runners go on the pitch at 3-2 (which means a well placed single scores 2). I need a drink or 3 on the Shabat table tonight.

Regardless of what we endured in 2007 (down 3-1 to Cleveland) or 2013 right before the Papi grand slam, or others, nothing compares to that feeling. Specifically that AB in Game 6 when we dared hope and the Yankees almost slammed the door in our faces.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
SoSH Member
Apr 15, 2006
8,634
Somers, CT
I don’t think you can discount the current state of the world when looking back on this. My baseline stress with Covid and politics is probably around the peak of the Clark at bat. If you were to add that last out to my current situation my blood pressure would make my eyes explode.

My inability to drink like I used to would just be the icing on the cake.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
37,054
Hingham, MA
Honestly I thought I remembered Clark fouling off a couple 3-2 pitches and it being an even longer at bat. But my god do I remember by heart beating out of its chest.
 

bob burda

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
1,549
OJ Simpson might dispute that decision as well.
It's an interesting subject that could be devoted to another thread. What makes Schilling unique is the way he relentlessly did things to destroy his legacy, not just a single episode (though yes, I know Hernandez likely was murdering people for a 2nd time during his football life). It's not like any one of the episodes he did would have been sufficient on their own - but he just never learned and continued on without respite. I wonder if the cancer treatment affected his brain, it's a thing that can happen.