Here is part 4:
2004 ALCS – New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox
Red Sox 4, Yankees 3
Series MVP: David Ortiz
Game 1 Yankees 10, Red Sox 7
WP – Mike Mussina, LP – Curt Schilling, Sv – Mariano Rivera
Game 2 Yankees 3, Red Sox 1
WP – Jon Lieber, LP – Pedro Martinez, Sv – Mariano Rivera
Game 3 Yankees 19, Red Sox 8
WP – Javier Vazquez, LP – Ramiro Mendoza
Game 4 Red Sox 6, Yankees 4
WP – Curt Leskanic, LP – Paul Quantrill
Game 5 Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 (14 Innings)
WP – Tim Wakefield, LP – Esteban Loaiza
Game 6 Red Sox 4, Yankees 2
WP – Curt Schilling, LP – Jon Lieber, Sv – Keith Foulke
Game 7 Red Sox 10, Yankees 3
WP – Derek Lowe, LP – Kevin Brown
Tom: This series was big for me. 2004 was the first year I really completely re-invested in to baseball after a 10-year hiatus following the 1994 strike. I started working full-time in September of 2003 and the constant baseball talk in the office finally got me back to watching again. In this first full year, I can’t say that I still had a “team” of any sort… so I sort of followed the Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox for the entire season. Honestly, I think the only reason I didn’t fully invest as a Red Sox fan this year is because it would have made me feel dirty inside and I felt guilty hopping on board a bandwagon that people had suffered on for a century. There’s actually a lot I remember about this series. I remember being at a wedding for Game 3 and people clustered around a television at the reception and thinking the Red Sox were done after taking this whipping by the Yankees. I remember the David Roberts steal. I remember the absolute insanity of Fenway Park following that steal. I remember a great series of column my friend wrote on Pulse as he watched those final four games. I remember my girlfriend, for the first time in her life, understanding what life is like for a real sports fan as she watched game six (because if there was a game seven, her professors had tickets and were canceling class… ah, college). It is funny, when you think about it, how well a series can be remembered with a completely undramatic game seven. Of course, people remember what they want — which is why half the world now thinks David Ortiz is the one who knocked Roberts home.
Eugene: I was paying attention to this series from afar. The Cardinals were playing a series almost as epic as this one and I had rooted against the Yankees for a few years now. I remember that the winner of the NLCS was probably going to play the Yankees. No team could come back like the Red Sox would (and no team had until this series). Cast offs became heroes: David Ortiz, who the Twins non-tendered before the Sox signed him. Dave Roberts, the mid-season salary dump by the Dodgers. Kevin Millar, whose contract was being sold to Japan until the Red Sox offered to buy it from the Marlins.
We also got the famous bloody sock from Curt Schilling. Schilling tore the tendon in the ALDS, and had it reattached before Game 6 and Game 2 of the World Series. The sock became famous and was sent to the Hall of Fame. It may be the closest Schilling gets to the Hall.
Chad: This series was really the end of the beginning. At this point the Red Sox had most of the country behind them because of all the time they spent getting whipped by the Yankees. They had the classic, scrappy underdog attitude. Now, they spend as much as the Yankees and everyone outside of Boston despises them. This was a fantastic series that will be remembered forever because of the dramatic comeback from 3-0. It was a great series, but looking back at what it’s spurned, it turned out poorly for the rest of the world.
Tom: To be fair, the Red Sox still spend A-Rod, Mark Texeira, CC Sabathia, and Jorge Posada less than the Yankees.
Aaron: I’ll be honest…by the time this series rolled around, I was sick to death of the matchup, the incessant media hyperbole and the notion that their neverending baseball games are anything less than excrutiating. I didn’t watch much of this series. Oh, I remember a near-empty Fenway Park late in game three as the Yankees were blowing Boston away. I remember Johnny Damon showing the kind of heart he never showed with my A’s in 2001 during game seven (or was it game six?) and I remember…well, I remember the Red Sox won. Maybe it’s a west coast thing, maybe it’s sour grapes, but – at the time – I remember that I couldn’t be bothered to care.
Alex: This was a fantastic series. I am a Mets fan first and foremost, but when the Red Sox came back from behind and beat the Yankees, I was very excited (by the way, I am not a “nouveau” Red Sox fan, I’ve been rooting for them since before it became popular to root for them). They were on the brink of another defeat, but they came back and won. That was awesome.
