Baseball on Television

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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Oct 31, 2013
72,428
Weird seeing Arod as a pinch-runner and therefore a bench player. (1995 ALDS Game 5 ESPN)

Junior was fast
 
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staz

Intangible
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Dec 2, 2004
20,659
The cradle of the game.
Hate when they stretch the SD signal to HD dimensions.

Also, Angels fans can shove those ThunderStix right up their asses. What an abomination.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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May 25, 2008
31,083
Boston, MA
“You gotta be f’n kidding me” was my reaction when Schilling hurt his ankle in the 7th inning and we got the diagnosis after. I’ll admit, that was the first of many moments that postseason that I thought they were screwed.
 

Earthbound64

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I literally tossed and turned and could not get to sleep after this game

I was so pissed.
At the college I attended in western MA, the next day there were anti-suicide and suicide-helpline posters all over the walls.


It's Idiot-proof, too bad the Cubs blew it. What a series it would be. Watched by billions.
Red Sox v Cubs would have been great.
Yankees v Cubs, though, would have been a disaster.

I am so incredibly thankful that the Marlins beat the Yankees that year.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
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Jul 15, 2005
37,054
Hingham, MA
I was flying from Florida to Boston that night. I was consulting at the time, it was a Thursday, so that was my normal travel day. I remember the pilots announcing updates throughout the flight. I was in a cab home when Papi homered to increase the lead. I was living with my parents at the time (I was 22, right out of college). I remember my mom opened the front door and I kind of brushed past her, I was pretty rude. Went into our den to watch the rest with my dad. When the MFY tied it, my dad punched a hole in the wall. I went upstairs to my bedroom and listened to the rest on the radio. After a couple innings had past I started to re-gain hope a little bit when the MFY didn't win it in the 9th, 10th, 11th. I'm still bummed to this day that I didn't get to celebrate with my dad, who wanted it even more than I did.

A year later I was celebrating by myself in Houston. I bawled for like 5 minutes after the final out.

Sports will never matter as much as they did for those two years.
 

Minneapolis Millers

Wants you to please think of the Twins fans!
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Jul 15, 2005
4,753
Twin Cities
You know, I don’t think we lose the pain. I’m not sure we’re supposed to. It remains fresh until something good overtakes it, buries it, locks it away in some inner closet. But it’s always there. It can be dredged up again, even after many years of success and relative happiness. That’s life.

But yeah, I stopped watching the re-run last night after the MFY tied it. I put on the last inning of game 7 2004 instead. No sense torturing oneself.
 

edoug

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Jul 15, 2005
6,007
At the college I attended in western MA, the next day there were anti-suicide and suicide-helpline posters all over the walls.




Red Sox v Cubs would have been great.
Yankees v Cubs, though, would have been a disaster.

I am so incredibly thankful that the Marlins beat the Yankees that year.
The Marlins did soften the blow a little.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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May 25, 2008
31,083
Boston, MA
It would be interesting to see how 2004 would have played out if they had won Game 7. Does Grady Little still get fired if they lose to the Marlins in the World Series? Probably not. They still likely pursue Schilling in the offseason, but Grady is manager in ‘04.
 

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
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Jul 15, 2005
37,054
Hingham, MA
It would be interesting to see how 2004 would have played out if they had won Game 7. Does Grady Little still get fired if they lose to the Marlins in the World Series? Probably not. They still likely pursue Schilling in the offseason, but Grady is manager in ‘04.
Do they still go after Schilling? Or Foulke? Would the MFY have still ended up with ARod? So many what-ifs
 

Al Zarilla

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Dec 8, 2005
58,867
San Andreas Fault
I literally tossed and turned and could not get to sleep after this game

I was so pissed.
First time I ever thought I might die without seeing a Red Sox championship. It’s so hard to get to even an LCS. A year later we shocked the world, and never let up. Well, Bobby Valentine year, but nobody‘s perfect.
 

bankshot1

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Feb 12, 2003
24,651
where I was last at
First time I ever thought I might die without seeing a Red Sox championship. It’s so hard to get to even an LCS. A year later we shocked the world, and never let up. Well, Bobby Valentine year, but nobody‘s perfect.
Al-I totally get it, i had some dark dark thoughts and lots of time to stew in them, on that miserable October 2003 night.
 

Earthbound64

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It would be interesting to see how 2004 would have played out if they had won Game 7. Does Grady Little still get fired if they lose to the Marlins in the World Series? Probably not. They still likely pursue Schilling in the offseason, but Grady is manager in ‘04.
That's something I never really gave much thought.
Any change at all might've caused the Red Sox World Series win in 2004 not to happen. In that sense, 2003 may have been a necessary evil.

(Although the possibility also exists that we could have beat Florida in 2003, so there's that too).
 

InstaFace

The Ultimate One
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Sep 27, 2016
21,753
Pittsburgh, PA
I like your thinking, Timlin in the 8th and Williamson in the 9th.
Now you're just baiting @mt8thsw9th .

And yeah, I've never been more in actual shock than in the aftermath of that game. I have to imagine it's not that different than witnessing a murder happening right in front of you. Every one of us has our stories. Me, I didn't speak to any of my friends on the ride home from the Riviera - and we took a cab, which none of us could afford, because we just needed to get home right-the-fuck-now. I'm not sure I had a pleasant conversation with someone for a week after, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Ran an entire simulated season of CSFBL that offseason, just to take my mind off it.

It's hard for me to remember, but Jeff Suppan was on that team, a midseason acquisition. Dude sucked so hard he was left off the postseason roster, after we'd given up Freddy Sanchez and everything. And 12 months later, well... you know about his baserunning.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Jan 23, 2009
20,673
Maine
It would be interesting to see how 2004 would have played out if they had won Game 7. Does Grady Little still get fired if they lose to the Marlins in the World Series? Probably not. They still likely pursue Schilling in the offseason, but Grady is manager in ‘04.
Honestly, I think the only thing that would have saved Grady's job was winning the World Series. Everyone in the front office was ready to let Little go before Game 7 happened. Didn't Henry even say in the moment that he left Pedro in to face Matsui, or maybe when Pedro took the mound to start the eighth, "can we fire him now?" Little was clearly incompatible with what Theo was trying to do with baseball operations. Only winning it all could have possibly swayed Theo from getting his own guy into that job in 2004.

I expect that off-season would have gone a bit differently if they'd gotten past the Yankees and lost to the Marlins, from the player acquisition side of things, but I have no doubt Grady Little wouldn't have managed a game for the team in 2004 or beyond.
 

lexrageorge

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Jul 31, 2007
18,095
The ALCS disaster in 2003 was just the culmination of the front office's issues with Grady Little. Henry supposedly wanted him fired earlier that season, but Theo supposedly talked him out of it, feeling that a midseason move like that could just make things worse.
 

Beale13

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Feb 2, 2006
395
17 years later, I still have no patience for anyone trying to attribute the result of that game to anything except Grady Little. The Red Sox didn't lose because of Tim Wakefield or because Pedro couldn't get it done or because the Yankees were clutch. There is only one easily identifiable and irrefutable reason why the Red Sox lost that game. In my life and experience, there's never been a more horrific and less justifiable moment of coaching than Grady Little's eighth inning.
 

joe dokes

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Jul 18, 2005
30,233
And another passed ball. Wake v Sierra v. Fetal position
 
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Remagellan

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For those into pain I just happened across 2003 G7 ALCS on ESPN

Sox up 4-1 B6th

I hate this fucking game
One of my best friends, a huge Cardinals fan, called me in the eighth inning of that game so we could "count the outs together". I immediately knew it was a terrible idea, but he stayed on the phone until the lead was lost. I still give him crap about "tempting the baseball gods" like that and how 2004 and 2013 were part of his penance.

I never watched the Boone home run. After the lead was lost, I tuned to the WEEI call on my computer and listened to that with my back turned away from the TV whenever the MFYs were at bat. As soon as it happened, I just pointed the remote over my shoulder and shut off the TV, turned off the computer, and tried to go to sleep.

(If it weren't for that game, Game 6 of the 2003 ALCS would have gone down as one of the greatest comeback wins in Sox playoff history. Jose Contreras was untouchable in that series...until he wasn't.)

Among my favorite memories of my late boss at Tisch was her coming up to me the next day while I was sitting at my computer with the baseball version of the "thousand mile stare", and, in full grandmother mode, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder and saying, "Someone told me something really terrible happened to the Red Sox yesterday. I don't care about that, but I know you do, so I wanted you to know I'm sorry and hope you feel better soon."

Well, it took a year...
 

Remagellan

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I still haven't watched it. I left the house after Matsui, and every time ESPN feels like tormenting us by showing the "Boonie," I flee the room.
P.S., your boss was wonderful to say that.
She passed away in 2013, and the department's memorial for her was the same day as the Sox victory parade, which I did not come up for as I had for the 2004 and 2007 parades. But as a co-worker said to me at the time, citing that story, "Well, if you did miss her memorial service for a Red Sox parade, you know for sure that she would have understood it."
 

Mugsy's Jock

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Dec 28, 2000
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UWS, NYC
I was at the game, third row, on the aisle, right behind the MFY on deck circle. A few seats from Giuliani in one direction, and McCartney in the other. Can still picture and hear it, clear as can be.

Even as Wakefield’s last pitch approached the plate, in that fraction of a second, I felt a discernible sense of dread rising. And when Boone swung, I could hear the sound of the bat and saw the ball start its trajectory. I knew. Dropped my head and sprinted out of there. Never saw the ball land. Was on the subway platform by the time “New York New York“ started playing. Friends I was with couldnt figure out where I was and thought I’d been raptured.

I was convinced I’d never see the Sox win. I passed on tickets to every ALCS game at the Terlet in 2004, because I let memory of the pain overcome any shred of hope and redemption. I’ll never let that happen again. (Went back to playoff games in 2007, and finally saw a clincher last year at Dodger Stadium)

I’ll never rewatch the Boone game, curious though I am to see if I can see myself on the broadcast. Even after all the happier games since, that one lingers.
 
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Minneapolis Millers

Wants you to please think of the Twins fans!
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
4,753
Twin Cities
I’ll never rewatch the Boone game, curious though I am to see if I can see myself on the broadcast. Even after all the happier games since, that one lingers.
They all linger. I can still see Yaz popping up against Gossage. I remember exactly how I felt, the mixture of anger and frustration and sadness, the belief that it was just too goddam unfair.
The difference is that I can flip a switch (or 4) in my mind now, smile, the neck muscles relax, and the blood pressure instantly starts to drop.