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Boston Red Sox

86 Years Later…

It ended on October 27, 2004. It ended on a night where there was a lunar eclipse. It ended 18 years after possibly the 2nd largest choke in MLB history (yes, Yankees fans, the 2004 Yanks are still number one). Yes, the Curse ended. The Boston Red Sox are World Series Champions.Here’s to you Johnny Pesky, and Don Zimmer, and even Bill Buckner. You can finally rest at night without being haunted by the days past. Here’s to the Red Sox fans, of any age, gender, race, or national origin. At long last, Red Sox Nation has become what it always wanted to be: normal. I will admit that I am apart of what WAS the most embittered fan base in sports (now that’s Chicago). At long last, we do not need to here about 1918, curses, or the Yankees anymore. We have, 86 years later, become the most recent team in the AL East to win the World Series.

And it was done in a very un-Red Sox style. Seriously, who would have thought that the Red Sox, after a 19-8 spanking at the hands of Steinbrenner and Co., would a) win a game in the ALCS, b) win the ALCS, and c) sweep the team with the best record in all of baseball. The answer is zero.

The Red Sox of old would have choked, gagged, and laid an egg at some point during this run. Instead, the self-proclaimed Idiots, who had no sense of the word “haircut”, who knew nothing of 1948, the 1970’s in general, 1986, 1999, and, most recently, 2003, and, most importantly, spit in the face, and kicked in the balls, the very essence of the Yankee mystique: George Herman “Babe” Ruth, walked into Games 4, 5, 6, 7 of the ALCS, and Games 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the World Series with the quiet confidence that they were, in every sense, the best TEAM in baseball.

They had no A-Rod. They had no Garciaparra. But they had heart. Tim Wakefield and Dave Roberts made arguably the two largest “plays” in Boston baseball history. Wakefield allowed himself to get shelled, and I mean shelled, by the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS. But his self-sacrifice ultimately allowed the Boston bullpen to be saved, a bullpen who was so magnificent in the final 11 days of the 2004 baseball season. But it was also Dave Roberts, who just ran. Who just ran against Mariano “Hammer of God” Rivera, who did not blow a save in his LCS career. But Roberts didn’t just do it in Game 4. He also did it in an equally important Game 5, both instances leading to the tying of those games, which were both subsequently won by Senior Octobre himself, David Ortiz.

Those two helped lead the Red Sox back to the House that Ruth built, back to the place that had so haunted them so long. But a strange thing happened. Actually, two strange things happened. On two separate occassions in Game 6, the umpires made originally eronious calls against the Red Sox, but later reversed those calls, helping lead the Red Sox to the decisive Game 7. Alex Rodiguez later said that all the calls in the LCS went against the Yankees, even after he tried to explain his unusually femine slap at Bronson Arroyo’s glove. Let me tell you something “A-Rod”, the Yankees got all the calls, all the breaks, all the extra outs for 85 years. It was time for Boston to get a few. And in that Game 7, the Yankees mystique was destroyed by a final score of 10-3.

All that was left was the dispatch of the Cardinals, something that was done unusually, almost creepily, easy. Rolen and Edmonds were a combined 1-33 in hitting, with the only hit being a bunt single in Game 1. The Boston starting pitching absolutely dominated, along with its bullpen. The Cardinals seemingly forgot that they were in the World Series, something that would have happened to the Red Sox up until this year.

And finally, on a cold October night in 2004, the Red Sox played second fiddle to nobody as Edgar Renteria grounded back to Keith Foulke, who threw to Doug Mientk…err, M. for the 27th out on the 27th day of October to vanquish their demons.

So, it finally happened. Babe Ruth is no longer the villain of Boston sports. All Red Sox players and management no longer have to take their wallets anywhere, as they will get paid for wherever they go in New England. And now, the Patriots are back to center stage in Boston as they try to keep their 21 game winning streak going against the Steelers.

Every year before this one since 1918, the question that was always asked in Red Sox Nation was: “Why Not Us?”

Now it’s: “Why Not Go Back-to-Back?”

4 replies on “86 Years Later…”

Eclipse Was a lunar, not solar… and it looked pretty cool to see a red moon on the night of Red (Sox) October

Eclipse I believe that I did write “lunar”, not “solar” down for the type of eclipse

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