Thanksgiving, Red Sox Style: Your Biggest Single SoxGasm Moment

[soxtalon]

Hard to pick just one.  Back to Foulke is up there but I was honestly fairly calm at that point and oddly expecting the Sox to win.  After they beat the Yanks and went up 3-0 on St. Louis, I really should have known better but it was just a feeling of inevitability to me.
 
Damon's slam is probably the one as I let out a very large HOLY SHIT and jumped as high as a white man can jump and then just as suddenly collapsed down into a ball, hugging my knees into my chest and in silence knowing any movement I made was bound to start a Yankee rally.
 
Ortiz slam in '13 was the first time I felt like that since.
 
Victorino's slam in Game 6 was the "in-person" moment.  First playoff game I'd been to and I decided to go the day of.  I just remember sitting next to a couple of Detroit fans who were very loud up until that moment. (Not obnoxious or anything, just enjoying their team winning) and watching them quiet down in disbelief as the rest of the park went nuts. 

 

[Rsox4life]

I wonder if anyone else would remember this moment. It was the first Red Sox game I ever attended and weeks before Rico Brogna had been traded to the Red Sox. For some reason I was a big Rico Brogna fan as a kid. In the 9th inning he hits a grand slam to tie it up. Everyone in Fenway was chanting "Rico Rico". Pedro started that game as well. It was about as good as a first game gets for a kid.

 

[DJnVa]

I am enjoying the non-Sox moments in the SOXgasms thread as well!

I was hoping someone would mention that Wrestlemania one. Insane.

 

[4 6 3 DP]

Trots homer off Clemens in 2000.
Damon's grand slam.
Foulkes strike out of Clark in game 6.
Drew's grand slam in game 6 2007.

 

[Granite Sox]

It has to be game 6, 1975. it was one sequence of chilling events after another, Lynn hitting the wall, Carbo going yard, Doyle thrown out at home and Evans catching Morgan's drive deep in right. Finally of course Fisk willing the ball to remain fair.

It didn't end well in Game 7, but that was almost beside the point. For sheer exhilaration that I've never quite matched elsewhere, that was the ultimate. I remember driving back to Storrow through Audubon Circle with people literally dancing on the roofs of adjacent apartment houses.

Since then, I've replayed the game in my head with a clarity that surprises me. I still get chills writing about it. It's the reason I continue to love the game despite all the crap that the intervening years have brought.

 
+1
 
Carlton.  Fisk.
 
I was 13, a fully invested Sox fanatic, and this was my first sustained brush with The Curse as a back story.  Carbo's HR was kind of a "wait... did HE just do that?" moment, but the do-or-die tension leading up to Fisk's shot, then the fair or foul pause, and the subsequent euphoria was magical.
 
All the fantastic moments since that time, including myriad moments in '04, were just confirmatory for me.
 
You never forget your first.

 

[Dahabenzapple2]

Damon's slam

Then to top it - when I walked into Fenway in July 2011 for the first time in 29 years. I spent much of that game watching that game but maybe even moreso thinking about the moments above (except for the Papi slam from 2013, of course)

 

[Reggie's Racquet]

Final out.
Sox - Yankees 2004
I screamed "Yankees are dead" so loud that our closest Montana neighbor 3 miles away called my wife to say...
"Was that your husband?"
My wife said..."Yes...he's fine...he's outside rolling around on the grass with the dog.

When you grow up in Boston and most of your friends and relatives are Yankees fans from New Jersey...well let's just say the World Series was gravy. speaking of gravy...Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[jimv]

Papi's grand slam in 2013. I can still hear Dave O'Brien -
 
This game is tied! David Ortiz! DAVID ORTIZ! DAVID ORTIZ!

 

[Greg Blosser]

Manny's walk-off against the Angels in '07.

 

[pk1627]

Carbo 1975
Damon 2004 trumped it because of the history.

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

Game 1 of the '86 Series. Probably 20 of us crammed into a tiny dorm room watching on what must've been a 19 inch TV. It was a fantastic game-Bruce Hurst over Ron Darling, 1-0. Stealing that first game in NY, you just knew that they were going to win the series. It was a Saturday night, and everyone on campus went crazy. Just a great feeling.

Didn't end so well though.

 

[zenter]

The Jeff Stone game. At the time, the Blue Jays were our biggest rivals, not the Yankees (they were in the middle of a 6 season stretch not finishing higher than 4th place. 1990 was also right in the middle of the 1985-1995 stretch where Boston or Toronto won the AL East every single season except one). I lived in Toronto. Amidst a ton of insufferable hometown fans.  Was 2004 better? Sure, but that that game in 1990 was my single biggest Soxgasm.

 
I was at this game. It was my first Sox game and we were in the bleachers against the biggest AL East rivals. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Total Soxgasm moment.
 
Like Syd, I also had that feeling with the Pedro bullpen thing against Cleveland in 99.

 

[jasail]

All-time: Robert's steal.

I was a senior in college and living with a Yankee fan in New York. Coming on the heels of 2003, I was thirsty for revenge. Game 3, I was dragged out of my house by other non-NYY fan roomates and brought to a bar. I was despondent, heart ripped out, like I was just dumped. My friends tried to get me drunk and cheer me up, but it was to no avail.

I decided that I would watch G4 in the quiet confines of my room, so that when the Sox inevitably lost I could be left alone to wallow in my own misery. The game went as planned. The Sox played hard but come the 9th inning the Yanks had the game in hand and Mo on the mound. Then Millar walked and Roberts came in. With Mueller's success against Mo, everyone knew he was going.

When he left and stole that base, I let out an audible yelp and felt optimistic about the Sox for the first itme in my life. In that moment, things changed. Every other year, that doesn't happen; instead Roberts gets thrown out and the season is over. From that point forward the series took on a different tenor. The Sox were down but not out and the Yanks were on their heels.

More recently:
Victorino's grand slam in G6 of the 2013 ALCS. I got thrown out of a bar after a wedding in Newport for being too demonstrative following that hit.

 

[smastroyin]

There are really so many.  But I'll go against the grain and speak to something not in-game and more related to the hot stove - the day that the Red Sox closed the deal for Pedro Martinez.
 
I mean look, the Sox have had a lot of great players, but before between Jimmie Foxx and Pedro all of their best players were home grown.  They always seemed to be also-rans for picking up great players from around the league.  I loved loved loved the 1995 season but it was mostly surprises and retreads combined with fantastic seasons from farmhands (Valentin, Vaughn, Naehring).  Before that season, my Red Sox experience was largely Lou Gorman trying to get the marquee guys but often coming up a bit short.  With a possible exception to Mike Boddicker, the Sox always seemed to get the second or third best guy available at the trade deadline.  They spent the early 90's signing the 5th or 6th guy down on the list. 
 
Then you had 95 and the near miss of 96 and then the great Clemens departure, questions about the ownership commitment, etc. etc. and a truly boring ass season in 1997 that ended with the Sox giving up Suppan in the expansion draft (Suppan being a guy who I had followed religiously through the minors).  But then, Duquette went out and got his man.  The best man available in the 1997 off-season.  By far.  And the Red Sox got him.  Sure, as a skeptic I still wondered why you would trade and sign Pedro when you could have just given the money to Clemens, not wasted 1997, and kept your prospects, but that part was water under the bridge.  The moment that trade was actually announced.  Well fuck.  The Red Sox did it.

 

[reggiecleveland]

Nothing compares to the first WS. It washed it all away.

 

[curly2]

Watching on TV: Back to Foulke.
 
In person: Ortiz walkoff to beat the Angels in the 2004 ALDS.

 

[sfip]

Except for people that were at a game and weren't at any '04 games (for example, SoSHers who were at '07 WS Game 4), I can't see any scenario for a Sox fan that wouldn't be in '04 WS G4 or '04 ALCS G7.
 
If I had to pick one moment that hasn't been mentioned, even though the game has, I'd say Troy O'Leary's 2nd HR in '99 ALDS Game 5.
 
Both HRs are worth showing.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01THQyPJB8c

 

[BoSox Rule]

I posted the Manny walk off against the Angels for TV. In person was when Nomar returned from injury in 01 vs Chicago with the HR and Nixons walkoff vs Oakland in 03

 

[djhb20]

One regular season moment for me. Manny's 3-run HR in his first at bat at Fenway. To that point, it was the loudest I ever heard Fenway.

I was at game 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS, and the winning hit in both of those outpaced Manny's HR, but that's all been raised already. That moment in Manny's first at bat at Femway, it was just awesome.

 

[canderson]

May 19, 2008

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

Manny's walk-off against the Angels in '07.

 

 
Never gets old.

 

[bankshot1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivweGwrj-A

 
Me too.
 
The 2-game season-ending sweep over the Twins that clinched the '67 pennant.
 
As a 16 YO, that will always remain the purest feeling of Sox-joy as I've ever had.
 
The other great wins, (Game 6 '75 WS, Game 5 '86 ALCS, Game 7 '04 ALCS, Game 4 2004 WS etal) felt more like relief, redemption, or revenge. By those games the innocence of being a kid was gone. The '67 season came of nowhere and just gave me my first taste of a pennant race, and one of the greatest races in AL history.

 

[MentalDisabldLst]

...But then, Duquette went out and got his man.  The best man available in the 1997 off-season.  By far.  And the Red Sox got him.  Sure, as a skeptic I still wondered why you would trade and sign Pedro when you could have just given the money to Clemens, not wasted 1997, and kept your prospects, but that part was water under the bridge.  The moment that trade was actually announced.  Well fuck.  The Red Sox did it.

 
Well told.  Reminds me of this:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6TnilbMphA

 

[BornToRun]

Papi slam against Detroit in 2013 was pure euphoria.  My whole family was asleep and I swear I jumped into the ceiling and woke everyone.  It changed the whole series. 
 
Youk being pulled and the curtain call against Atlanta was a memorable moment. It wasn't euphoric but it gave me goosebumps because that guy played the game right and I hated to see him leave. The only downside is that piece of shit BobbyV taking the time to "wave him out of the dugout" to steal some spotlight.  Piece of shit ran him out of town.  Which reminds me of a memorable Youk moment in game, 2008 i believe.  Walk off shot over left center against the yankees on a friday night.  I think Jason Bay tied it up late with a solo shot. 

I remember this game. It was the first series against the MFY in 2009. I think Chamberlain started and shut the Sox down. We went into the bottom half of the 9th down 2 and with 2 outs, Bay pounded one over the wall in center just to the right of the line that seperates a wallball from a blast to tie it. Youk ended it shortly after.

 

[SoxinSeattle]

Hendu. Game 5 ALCS 1986. From the depths of despair and misery. ALIVE!

This for me without a doubt.

 

[alannathan]

September 28, 1960, Ted's last AB, the HR, and the brilliant Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu (John Updike).  To this day I get highly emotional when reading the Updike essay.

 

[1918stabbedbyfoulke]

Marchand through Luongo's five hole in game 7 of the SCF.

Oops. Wrong thread.

Then for me it is "David Ortiz! David Ortiz! David Ortiz!". That moment saved the playoffs for the Sox and was the complete validation and exclamation point on how the entire team played and fought back all season in 2013.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Marchand through Luongo's five hole in game 7 of the SCF.

Wrap-around, you mean? Luongo hit it back in his own net.

 

[Dalton Jones]

Damon's grand slam in game 7 in the toilet.   Knew for certain then we'd beaten the motherfuckers for good. Decades of frustration released with that swing. They were dead.  We'd won in the most humiliating fashion for them. Made up for the year before and for Dent.  In their place, four games in the row after facing elimination in every game, their fans watching Damon round the bases in stunned silence.  God that was great.

 

[gammoseditor]

For me it was probably a regular season game at Fenway during Pedro's insane run.  When the games got late and he was over 10 K's and got the first two guys in the inning, the whole stadium was on their feet chanting "Pedro, Pedro, Pedro", and when he got the 3rd guy the whole stadium blew up.  I must have experiences this at Fenway 4 or 5 times and I'll never forget it.  Many moments in '04 were far more historical and great, but the whole run I was more on the edge and nervous the whole time. The ground ball to Foulke was more of a major exhale of happiness than a rush moment.  

 

[Hank Scorpio]

That 1999 ALDS was the first time I ever felt giddy as a Red Sox fan.

Parents were strict with the "lights out" curfew, much to my dismay. Had to listen to the game on headphones in bed. Not sure how I stifled myself when O'Leary hit the second home run. I really wish I could find the WEEI audio for that game somewhere on the Internet. I've looked high and low.

 

[glasspusher]

Yaz's homer to right, off of Guidry to start the scoring in the playoff game in 1978- my first year rooting for the sox, I was 13, growing up in NJ. I'd be damned if I ever rooted for that team from NY. Watching all of Fenway rise up and cheer that.
 
Hendu's HR in Game 5 in 1986. I remember sitting on the living room floor, holding my dog, thinking that they never got a chance to show how good they were in that series.
 
Pedro and O'Leary in 99. I was at game 2 where they got creamed at The Jake.
2004, from the ALCS onward I was a nervous wreck- although I loved it, I was a wreck.
2007- JD Drew in Game 6 against the Tribe.
2013- Papi's slam, Victorino's two great game 6s. The last two innings of the bullpen against the Tigers and Verlander in Game 3

 

[ConigsCorner]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JivweGwrj-A

Yes.  What a great pennant race that was, three teams fighting to the last day of the season.
After Petrocelli caught the popup, the Sox still had to wait for the outcome of the Tigers/Angels game.
The 1967 season changed everything.

 

[Jim Ed Rice in HOF]

For me it's got to be a moment that I witnessed live. Although the clinching '04 games are the best moments fos Sox fans, Watching on TV just can't generate the emotion that is released when you're surrounded by 36K like minded individuals.

Before other Sox players patented walk off wins, there was Trot's pinch hit, extra inning blast in the '03 ALDS. The Sox were one game away from being swept by the A's and when he hit that HR Fenway erupted like nothing I'd heard up to that point.

For a tantric Soxgasm, I'm going withe the whole '99 ALCS Pedro vs Clemens game. The "foreplay" leading up to that one (Cy Young vs Cy Old) and the electricity outside the park, followed by the blow out and the "where is Roger? In the shower" chants made that day incredible.

 

[Devizier]

My in-person Soxgasm moment is Tony Cloninger beating the shit out of Brook Fordyce in the brawl that started when noted juicer Gary Matthews junior charged Derek Lowe from first base.

 

[RoyHobbs]

So many awesome moments in here. I'd go with Hendu (TV category) and Mo's opening day granny (at-game category) -- still one of the most sportsgasmic crowd experiences ever, I remember my tiny and comported 55-y.o. aunt jumping and high-fiving complete strangers.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD5ZY5G8KLM
 

 

[Soxy]

Bellhorn's Pesky Pole dinger to win Game One of the 2004 World Series.
 
I was at the game, sitting in the bleachers behind the Red Sox dugout.  I remember him hitting one down the right field line that went just foul.  You could feel the crowd build up in anticipation, only to feel the air let out when it went foul.  "AhhhhHHHH.....ooohhhhh."
 
Then, a pitch or two later, Bellhorn hit the pole.  "AhhhhHHHHH....[THUD]!"  And everyone just exploded.  I remember jumping up in the air with my arms extended, then wildly high-fiving anyone and everyone within reach.  At that point, I was pretty damn confident they were winning the whole thing.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kYNJminXrE
 
Yeah, that would have to take it for me.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

That's the greatest thud I've ever heard.

 

[rlsb]

Yaz's homer 10/2/78.  Sitting in section 39, I nearly went deaf.

 

[crystalline]

For me one of the biggest moments was in game 5 2004 when the Thermos hit a ball to right field that I can still see in my mind. I thought the series was over then as we watched the ball carry to right where it was going to roll into the corner and score a run. And then it bounced into the stands for a ground rule double!

It's a strange kind of moment, a ground rule double. But I was absolutely convinced that the game was over and so was the series as the ball jumped off the bat and bounced slowly into right. The long path of the ball gave you a lot of time to consider how bad an ending this was, after game 4, and then game 5 was looking so good, only to be snatched away in the 9th by the Thermos who of course of all people would be the one to get hot this game. And then it was a double and the game was still tied!

 

[ToeKneeArmAss]

Lots of great posts here.  I could easily agree with "back to Foulke", or Fisk off the pole, or Hendu in Game 5, or Ortiz off Quantrill, or Damon's slam, or the 7-run comeback in Game 5 of the 2008 ALCS or ... well, most of these.
 
But for me, the single best moment (and I don't think it's been mentioned upthread) was Ortiz' single to center to drive in Damon to end game 5 in the 2004 ALCS.  It was just the absolute perfect conclusion to what had been 28 hours of the most intense hours of my life.  I remember being manic afterward for hours, saying over and over again "No one can take this away from us. No one.  Never.  No matter what happens next, these games will always be special."
 
And then recounting ALL the heroics and incredible moments over that short time span - Ortiz walk-off HR, Cabrera's stab of A-Rod's liner, Kapler's sliding snag, Clark's ground-rule double, Roberts' steals, Millar's walks, Foulke's clutch innings, Varitek cutting down Bernie trying for 3rd (and Mueller's great block of the bag), Tek's SF to tie it in game 5, the unbelievable collective bullpen effort ...
 
It still gives me chills to think about this.  No one can ever take that away. 

 

[Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt]

So many awesome entries above, I'm co-signing left and right. Not sure if this one has been mentioned, but...

Varitek finally catching the third strike from Wake after what felt like approximately twenty-three passed balls. That was a sort of horror story euphoria I will never quite forget.

 

[Hyde Park Factor]

Best moment I was there for: Yaz' 400th HR. The place went nuts, they showed it on the big screen about 15 times and some kid named Henderson was playing LF for the A's. It was fun in the week or so leading up to the game, knowing he was closing in on the milestone. I checked the box scores and watched the calendar like a maniac every day and my dad and I drove my mother and sister crazy with our incessant talk of the odds of it happening at our game. And then it did.

Best moment ever: the Ortiz HR in game 4,2004. That's when the momentum shifted.

 

[kelpapa]

The actual moments have been covered pretty well, so that one euphoric moment that I was present for was Gomes' three-run jack in Game 4 of the World Series. Heading into the series, I was convinced St. Louis was going to win. I drove to St. Louis the day before, and we had to listen to the obstruction call in the car ride. It was tied at 1, and I think I was bitching about Gomes being in the game when he poked it to left center. I was sitting in center, and I could see it the whole way.
 
I think that was Lackey warming in the pen at that time, too.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtodC5i-Exc

 

[reggiecleveland]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8GCH5qf9IY
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYanopv3NCs

 

[ookami7m]

The younger me would have said Brunsnsky's slide into RF with the catch that no one saw. Now though I have to go with Damon's lead off HR in game 7 of the 04 ALCS. That was when I knew we were going to win.

 

[LahoudOrBillyC]

The younger me would have said Brunsnsky's slide into RF with the catch that no one saw. Now though I have to go with Damon's lead off HR in game 7 of the 04 ALCS. That was when I knew we were going to win.

Damon did not hit a lead off home run in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. So you might have to stick with Brunansky.

 

[cannonball 1729]

I'll echo D-Lowe dropping the hammer on Terrence Long.  I was at the Riviera in NYC, it was my first postseason as a Sox fan, and all year I had had little confidence in Lowe.  After the way Grady had Grady'd up the inning, I was just wondering if the game was going to be tied and go to extras or if we'd lose on the spot.  I was racing through what it would feel like for our season to be over.  It was a full count.  How could he not walk in the tying run?
 
As the ball flew across the TV screen - I still remember where I was standing in that bar - I knew it was too far to the left.  Fastball inside and up, ball four.  My mind had already started to process how we'd salvage the tie.  I think the only person more surprised than I was that it dropped a whole fucking foot , right into the middle of the strike zone, was Terrence Long.  When I saw the ump's fist shoot out to signal strike three, I lost it and started hugging everyone in sight.  Beer was spilled everywhere, the place was mayhem.  My heart was racing for hours.  I needed a shower by the time I got home.  What a rush.

 
Am I missing something?  Long struck out on a 1-2 count.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

In person?  I've had a few pretty awesome moments at Fenway -- I was there for the back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers vs the Yankees in 2007 (with my then-girlfriend, now-wife in her first experience at Fenway), and for King Felix going 7+ perfect (and believe me I was rooting for it), and for back-to-back Pedro starts in 99, and I was even there for the comeback vs the Rays in the 08 playoffs.  But my favorite is still being at Fenway on my birthday in 2004 for Game 5 of the ALCS.  Nothing compares to that for me, in person.
 
Yeah, back to Foulke was great, but the pure "HOLY FUCK!" of Ortiz' grand slam in October 2013 was pretty incredible, and Bellhorn's homer in G1 of the 2004 WS is up there was well.

 

[Rasputin]

I still smile whenever I hear a ball hit the foul pole.