Cue whatever music you think is appropriate for Armageddon. What you are about to read will disturb you, but it is far more frightening for me as the one writing it. My fingers feel dirty, tainted, just typing the words. I agree with Dan Shaughnessy. Damn, that hurt. But the CHB hit the nail right on the red-afro-covered head: the 2004 World Series is still the greatest.
Just the fact that we have three championships to choose from makes me feel spoiled, like that kid growing up who always had the new BMX bike or the first Atari console on the block or that awesome Mattel football game and had the Farrah Fawcett poster hanging on the wall in his bedroom (yes, I’m old). Think about it, three World Seris championships for the Boston Red Sox in our lifetime!
Maybe it was because it was the first, don’t they say you always remember your first? Maybe because it broke an 86-year long streak of heartbreak and misery. Maybe because it we shared it with our kids, or our dads. Or maybe because our dad wasn’t around to see it. Whatever it was, 2004 was magic.
“I think ’04 was a much more personal championship,’’ said Lobel. “You had people visiting graves of loved ones who never saw them win. It was a one-on-one thing for a generation that had never seen this happen.
“This was different because of the Marathon bombing. This was more of a communal thing. It had a broader brush than ’04. After what happened last year, none of us thought this was possible. I just think this had a bigger impact on a wider number of people.’’
Not me. The 2004 playoffs were 1 in a million. The Sox trailed the Yankees three games to none, losing Game 3, 19-8, at Fenway. Then they came back. They remain the only team in big league history to win a series after trailing, 3-0. And they did it at the expense of the Yankees — the team that had won 26 World Series since the Sox’ last title in 1918.
How could we have forgotten so soon? The 2004 Red Sox were Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsmen of the Year,’’ the first team to receive the mag’s ultimate award. The ’04 Boys had Schill’s bloody sock and Kevin Millar talking about Jack Daniels and thousands of people lining the streets of Boston when the Sox came back from Logan in the early morning hours the day after the clincher in St. Louis. That was before the real parade.
“Everywhere we went, people were bowing,’’ said manager Terry Francona.
Nice work, Dan.
