I remember clear as day sitting down immediately after that happened saying to myself, “they’re gonna blow this somehow…”
Let's enjoy memories of the Red Sox of the past 20 years! What were your favorites (team/player/moment/etc)?
- Thread starter Lose Remerswaal
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I don't know if I thought anything like that, but Game 7 in 2004 definitely felt different than Game 7 in 2003. And to be honest, I don't think it had anything to do with what happened in that specific game. I think it was the events of 2004 Game 6 that gave me more confidence and less dread. The umps getting together and getting two separate calls, Bellhorn's HR and the Slappy McBlueLips play, correct was as big a mental game-changer as any Game 7 HR. The Sox were actually getting the breaks when they needed them (add Clark's double bouncing into the stands in Game 5 too) and that had never seemed to happen before, especially against the Yankees. Whether it was Knoblauch's phantom tag or the ball miraculously finding Piniella's glove or Dent's flyball scraping the top of the wall, everything always broke against the Sox until that series.
In 2003, the other shoe dropping still felt inevitable. In 2004, a 6-0 lead felt nearly unbeatable. 8-1 even moreso. The only blip of doubt in that game was when Pedro came in. That felt a little too much like tempting the fates, but even then, I only felt like it was going to make the last couple innings stressful but not an inevitable loss.
There was another blip of doubt, in the top of the first, when Sveum had the runner thrown out at home. Thank freaking heavens that Papi homered on what I think was the next pitch. Because I was sitting there thinking you have to be fucking kidding me. And even after the homer, I was sitting there thinking it should be 3-0, not 2-0.
Always a joy to relive the Game 7 experience. For me, there were two moments after which I felt legitimately confident they were actually going to win (and for context, I was old enough in 1986 to be utterly despondent for days).
The first was the bottom of the 8th, 9-3 lead, Timlin pitching, Jeter leading off. The AB started with three straight balls, enough to trigger PTSD fears despite the healthy lead. But Jeter eventually tapped a slow roller to third, Mueller made a good play but a tough short-hop throw, and Mientkiewicz made a gorgeous pick to get the first out. Jeter's look of dejection matched my elation...that just didn't seem like a play that would happen in a game we were about to lose.
The second was the sac fly in the top of the 9th to make it a 10-3 game. A friend of mine (also a lifelong diehard Sox fan) and I discussed before the game what size of a lead would make us confident that we wouldn't blow it. We decided it was "16 minus the inning." So a 15-run lead in the first inning would have felt safe, a 14-run lead in the second, etc. That sac fly, giving us a 7-run lead in the 9th, achieved that goal. And they held on.
The first was the bottom of the 8th, 9-3 lead, Timlin pitching, Jeter leading off. The AB started with three straight balls, enough to trigger PTSD fears despite the healthy lead. But Jeter eventually tapped a slow roller to third, Mueller made a good play but a tough short-hop throw, and Mientkiewicz made a gorgeous pick to get the first out. Jeter's look of dejection matched my elation...that just didn't seem like a play that would happen in a game we were about to lose.
The second was the sac fly in the top of the 9th to make it a 10-3 game. A friend of mine (also a lifelong diehard Sox fan) and I discussed before the game what size of a lead would make us confident that we wouldn't blow it. We decided it was "16 minus the inning." So a 15-run lead in the first inning would have felt safe, a 14-run lead in the second, etc. That sac fly, giving us a 7-run lead in the 9th, achieved that goal. And they held on.
I was at Game 7. Cabrera hit this ball and gave a little hop of joy when the run scored. Sox fans assembled in the sections behind the visitor dugout and chanted the entire 9th.The second was the sac fly in the top of the 9th to make it a 10-3 game. A friend of mine (also a lifelong diehard Sox fan) and I discussed before the game what size of a lead would make us confident that we wouldn't blow it. We decided it was "16 minus the inning." So a 15-run lead in the first inning would have felt safe, a 14-run lead in the second, etc. That sac fly, giving us a 7-run lead in the 9th, achieved that goal. And they held on.
I absolutely did not.
There was a early 20's female MFY fan trying to congratulate me at my Ohio bar and I had my peeps give her the choice of going to the other side of the bar and leave me the fuck alone or get thrown out.
And when Petey came out for the 8th I lost my shit.
So no. Never had that feeling in 2003. 1986? Yeah.
While outside the 20 year window, I want ask - does anyone know if and how I could get my hands on the WEEI recording of this game?
I have so many fond memories of this series. Stepdad surprised us with tickets to ALDS Game 3, which the Sox won 9-3, IIRC. After the game, he was like “so they won… I guess that means I can give you these now…” - and handed me two tickets to Game 4, with the Sox won 23-7. By the end of the game, enough people had left that my sister and I were able to move down to the front row. We actually got seats right next to the Cleveland dugout. And for the entire eighth and ninth inning, my sister (age 12) and I (age 17), were just absolutely ripping on Mike Hargrove. Brutal heckling. People around us were in hysterics. We were landing haymakers on the guy. He finally had enough, turned around and yelled “hey buddy, what time do you have to be at work tomorrow?”
I was in high school, at the time, but worked with it. I shot back “Nine. I’ll let them know you’re available next week. You can put me down as a reference.”
Huh. I think the rest of that game blotted out my memory of that. (My clearest memory is of my 5-month old crying out from her sleep moments before Boone ended it.)
In hindsight, I probably did believe then. Just as I did when they were one strike away in ‘86.
Perhaps my memory of my belief is clouded by traumatic endings.
Speaking of Big Papi, again, I've never seen a more confident hitter, and I've seen all the way back to Ted Williams, who I would describe as a scientific hitter, and, yes, he had to be confident also. Look at Papi here against Joaquín Benoit. I'm sure he's thinking "first pitch baby, and I don't care what kind it is as long as it's a strike". Also enjoy Torii's flip (and we're glad he didn't get hurt), Joe Buck's best ever call (TIE GAME), Koji's wonderment, and totally enjoy the cop.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJyxzaLNlNw
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJyxzaLNlNw
He 100% was sitting on that first pitch. He's even said that he was looking specifically for it because Benoit had gotten him on it the last time he faced him and knew he'd try to do it again. It was a great combination of studying and supreme confidence in his ability to hit it if he saw it.
We all know how 2003 ended.
In early May of 2004, I went with friends to see the Phillies host the Cardinals. As always, I had my Sox hat on, and there's a guy in a Yankee hat near us who sees my hat and starts chuckling. "The Red Sox? Man, I almost feel sorry for you guys." "Yeah, well, don't, because I'm not gonna feel sorry for you guys when we finally beat you." Thankfully, it was very early in the game and my response was only colored by half a beer. He just shook his head.
Very happily raised a glass in abstentia to that guy five months later. So happy I don't hear shit like that anymore.
In early May of 2004, I went with friends to see the Phillies host the Cardinals. As always, I had my Sox hat on, and there's a guy in a Yankee hat near us who sees my hat and starts chuckling. "The Red Sox? Man, I almost feel sorry for you guys." "Yeah, well, don't, because I'm not gonna feel sorry for you guys when we finally beat you." Thankfully, it was very early in the game and my response was only colored by half a beer. He just shook his head.
Very happily raised a glass in abstentia to that guy five months later. So happy I don't hear shit like that anymore.
Mike Timlin single-handedly made camo a thing in baseball. Horrible for the future of the sport, but a wonderful memory.
I was at the game and after Ortiz hit that homer I thought for sure they had won. When Pedro came back out I had so many Yankee fans around me asking me why they brought him back out - but also congratulating me (I was one of the only Sox fans in that section). Even with Pedro out again I didn’t really have much of a doubt … until GL just kept not taking him out. One of, if not the worst nights in my entire life. Took me almost 90 minutes to get out of the parking deck. That’s probably the first time in my life I’d ever felt real, actual, depression.
Dennis Drinkwater All Time Beat the Traffic Guy.
View: https://twitter.com/jake_yasi/status/1713555514028609585?s=46&t=lRRJs5ySDY6Z8VLw05vTlw
That feeling--the thousand or so Sox fans behind Sox dugout in ninth, and all still there 30-45 minutes post-game, was akin to what it must have felt like to be at VE Day or something like that. I hugged several dozen Sox fans that night I have never met before or since (at least knowingly) and the joy we all felt at that spot in that moment was as pure as it could possibly be.
To go from the absolute pit of despair after the homer in 2003 game 7 to 19-8 in game three of 2004 ALCS to that moment, all in just over one year, still astonishes me.
In terms of the feel of 2004 game 7 - I spent a lot of the afternoon of game 7 walking around NYC with my Sox hat on. For the first time in my sporting fan life the Yankee fans around NY were scared and admitted to being worried about losing a game to the Red Sox. I absolutely believe the players and Yankee team were as well, and that showed in the actual game. That was NEVER the way Yankee fans acted and you could just feel the difference this time.
I have been a Sox fan since early/mid 80s. In Aug. of ’02 I talked my girlfriend (now wife) in to driving from Michigan to Massachusetts to finally watch the Sox at home. We had tickets for the 27th against the MFY. On the 26th, the Sox were getting blown out by the Angels and people were leaving the park in droves. I grabbed her hand, and courtesy of a nod from a security guard, we passed through the gate and found ourselves 5 rows back near the visitor’s dugout in the 7th. Damon eventually hits a walk-off in the bottom of the 10th. A perfect introduction to Fenway!
I was at that Angels game as well and it was my first time at Fenway, too. That was an awesome game, and I think it was Nomar bobblehead night. I might be a bit of a good luck charm because the Sox are 10-0 with me at Fenway.
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For those of you who are both Sox and Pats fans, which run was better and/or more enjoyable for you:
(1) The Red Sox from 2003-2018
or
(2) The Patriots from 2001-2018
The case for the Red Sox (as I see it): I've always been a Red Sox first guy, and they had so many close misses. Seeing them slay the Yankee dragon in the fashion they did was unreal. Dominating four World Series has been incredible.
The case for the Patriots (as I see it): Much more reliably good than the Red Sox. Plus, six titles instead of "only" four.
What say you, SOSH?
(1) The Red Sox from 2003-2018
or
(2) The Patriots from 2001-2018
The case for the Red Sox (as I see it): I've always been a Red Sox first guy, and they had so many close misses. Seeing them slay the Yankee dragon in the fashion they did was unreal. Dominating four World Series has been incredible.
The case for the Patriots (as I see it): Much more reliably good than the Red Sox. Plus, six titles instead of "only" four.
What say you, SOSH?
Pats for me because they made / chased history, and had 2 GOATs for the entirety of the ride. After the Sox won 2 (or even 1), it was all icing on the cake. Whereas every Pats game for 20 years felt like life or death.
And I say this as someone who was more of a baseball fan growing up whose dad had partial season tickets to the Sox.
Edit: nothing in my life mattered more than the Sox in 03-04. But that was only two years. Higher peak but shorter lifespan. Hell I didn’t even watch game 5 of the 2018 WS. 20 something year old me would have found this impossible.
And I say this as someone who was more of a baseball fan growing up whose dad had partial season tickets to the Sox.
Edit: nothing in my life mattered more than the Sox in 03-04. But that was only two years. Higher peak but shorter lifespan. Hell I didn’t even watch game 5 of the 2018 WS. 20 something year old me would have found this impossible.
Pats was more enjoyable for myself. Incredibly easy to root for and watch play. It was basically a sure thing they were going to be playing in the AFC championship. That’s ridiculous to think about but yeah. The Sox was more of a stress roller coaster.
I mean, objectively, it has to be the Pats. IIRC, they had only one season in that stretch with <10 wins (2002), and towards the end made the AFCCG pretty much every year, with the only “downside” being on the losing end of 3 Super Bowls. The Sox, OTOH, missed the playoffs in 2006, 2011-12, and 2014-15, and included that 93-loss 2012 season that had potential to tear the team apart further had the front office not course-corrected with the Punto Trade and firing Valentine after the season.
Subjectively, though, and speaking only for me, I was raised on the Sox, starting to go to games at Fenway in the late 80s as a little kid with my uncle. I’d been to several games by the time that 2003 season started, including the only time (at that point) I’d actually gone to a different city to see them play. I wouldn’t go to my (only, to date) Pats’ game until right after the 2013 World Series. The 2001-18 Pats put them into my consciousness in a way previous editions hadn’t, but the Sox were woven into the tapestry of my life so thoroughly that I can never quantify just what those runs meant to me.
Don't make me choose which of my children I love best.
OK, it's the Red Sox. 2004 can't be replicated by any football scenario. And even if it could, to build up 60 years of enmity first and then have that happen... no.
OK, it's the Red Sox. 2004 can't be replicated by any football scenario. And even if it could, to build up 60 years of enmity first and then have that happen... no.
I am not really a Pats fan. I am a Red Sox fan who also likes the Patriots (not from Boston so I guess that's allowed)
Yet I cheered loudly in 2002 when the Pats won, and I called my brother, who was on vacation (he is a die hard Pats fan, went to College in Boston) to congratulate him.
But nothing compares to seeing Boston win the WS in 2004. Absolutely nothing. And then to win another one in 2007 to boot.
I believed. I believed that that the homer was an answer to the Giambi blast, and was telling us that "we got this!"
I was sitting on the Sox side of the field, between the Sox batting circle and dugout, and will NEVER forget the feeling of seeing Pedro walking back out to start the 8th. The mixture of anger and horror is something I've never forgotten. Thank all that is good for 2004. Had that not happened, I can imagine that the Grady Boner Game would have haunted me like, to a lesser extent, the Too Many Men on the Ice Game haunted me until the Bruins finally broke through against the Canucks.
Adding to the list, Andrew Benintendi's game ending catch against the Astros in the 2018 ALCS will always be way up there for me. What a play and what giant gonads he showed.
And speaking of that, Schilling's performance in G2 of the 2004 WS deserves a lot of love. Game 6 against the MFYs was shocking and wonderful, and gets most of the attention. But coming back soon thereafter, and doing it again in a relatively tight game at Fenway showed incredible fortitude. It's too bad G38 is so polarizing (for good reasons). His contributions to 2004 and 2007, both on the field and off ("Why Not Us?" and "Best Red Sox Team EVER" still echo beautifully) were MASSIVE.
It was indeed on the very next pitch. Thank You, Beautiful Man.
Ortiz is my favorite Red Sox ever. So many times he delivered wins or hope, when it was most needed.
Pedro was the greatest Red Sox I ever saw but truth be told, Pedro as a Red Sox Champion was not nearly the same Pedro as the utterly dominant one we saw in 1999-2001 and other times before 2003.
Papi's home run off Gordon in the bottom of the 8th of game 5 was the single most important play in the entire series IMO. In a series with like 100 very important plays.
I'd take Mueller's single off the Fruit Bat to tie it in Game 4...largely because it was Fruit Bat, the loss seemed almost guaranteed before that, and it was one game earlier. But this is the highest of high class debates.
What will never cease to amaze me about that team is the sheer number "man, if that didn't happen then none of it would have happened" type plays there were.
Every time I think about that run, I remember another one of those moments.
So many moments on the field. But even though it probably falls slightly out of the 20-year range, I'm going to throw up a curveball: the MegaTarp thread.
I've lurked here forever, only recently upgrading to a registered lurker who could post. Taught me a lot about statistical analysis and history. But the MegaTarp thread might just be the funniest thing I've ever read. Wife (the Sox fan who got me into this) kept coming into the office trying to figure out why I'm incoherently cackling like a hyena.
I'm guessing it's lost to the sands of time, but if anyone can find and re-post MegaTarp . . .
I've lurked here forever, only recently upgrading to a registered lurker who could post. Taught me a lot about statistical analysis and history. But the MegaTarp thread might just be the funniest thing I've ever read. Wife (the Sox fan who got me into this) kept coming into the office trying to figure out why I'm incoherently cackling like a hyena.
I'm guessing it's lost to the sands of time, but if anyone can find and re-post MegaTarp . . .