The 2004 Boston Red Sox

The summer and fall of 2004 ended up being one of the best and most exciting six months or so ever, mainly because of the Red Sox. Now I have grown up a Red Sox fan. I've seen everything from the good to the ugly, if not live than through numerous replays throughout the years. I've seen all the clips of Bucky Dent beating them to the ball going through Bill Buckner's legs. It's all been hard to watch and for anything that I didn't see, my dad would fill in all the blanks. I had lived and died with them every year, including the heartbreaking loss in 2003 where they had looked so good. After every loss, there was always "Well, there's always next year" which had been said for about 86 years. Every year the Red Sox would go into spring training with the hope that it would be the first team to win a World Series since 1918. Now it was not an easy year to say the least. The Red Sox had many ups and downs but were always in the hunt for the playoffs. It was always the Red Sox and Yankees fighting for the lead in the AL East. When it came down to the end of September, it didn't look good for the Sox as far as beating the Yankees for the division lead, but luckily there was the wild card, which they ended up winning to get them into the playoffs where they faced Anaheim Angels. The Red Sox had made quick work of the Angels and won the first three games to sweep the series. After the series had ended and the Red Sox were victorious, the big challenge loomed ahead. For the second year in a row, the Red Sox had to face the Yankees in the League Championship. It had ended in heartbreak last year after Aaron "Bleepin" Boone hit a game winning homerun off of Tim Wakefield to beat the Red Sox in Game 7. Now it was time for the Red Sox to get some revenge. This, however, did not look like it was happening after the first three games of the series. The Sox were beat in everyone, especially in Game 3, where they were absolutely destroyed by the hated Yankees. It looked impossible for the Red Sox to come back from this considering no team had ever come form an 0-3 deficit to win a series in any sport. Now being the die hard Sox fan I am, I had still believed that there was a still a chance because someone would have to do it eventually. I stayed up the next night for all 4 or 5 hours of Game 4 to see the the Red Sox win by walkoff to bring the series to 3-1. The next night was the same kind of game. I stayed up until about 1 in the morning to see the Red Sox win in dramatic fashion for the 2nd night in a row and saw them bring the series to 3-2 and had to head to Yankee Stadium for the next two games. Now after the Red Sox won Game 6, all bets were off. The series was tied and it didn't matter who won the past 6 games because it all came down to this. One game to decide it all and it was one of the greatest games I ever saw. While it didn't end in dramatic fashion or anything, it was the most satisfying win I ever experienced. They had beaten the Yankees. They made the biggest comeback ever in the history of sports to beat their hated rival to go to the World Series for the first time since 1986, the year, coincidentally, before I was born. Once the World Series began, it seemed like the Red Sox couldn't lose. They were facing the St. Louis Cardinals, but after they came back like they did, there was no way they were going to lose, and they didn't. They swept the Cardinals to win the World Series. I was so happy for every Red Sox fan who had been waiting since 1918 to see the first Championship for the Red Sox. They did it, and while it didn't always look good for them, they still managed to pull it off and there were celebrations for weeks after that. There were going to be no more "Well there's always next year" for awhile.