You could say that any champion is built from the bottom to the top. Some take years to build (e.g. Muhammad Ali, Oakland Raiders, New Orleans Saints, Pre-Championship Michael Jordan years) or it just takes one spectacular season (1985 Chicago Bears, 1991 Minnesota Twins, etc.) but others take something much more to achieve. Through tragedy, drama, chicken, beer, and a man named Manny Ramirez, the Boston Red Sox achieved something that only the bottom cellars of the four major sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA) can only dream of.
After the 2007 championship season, the Red Sox was put under pressure to keep the title in Boston but it wasn’t the case as their almost perennial all-star Manny Ramirez, continued to bloat his ego, move to 1st after grounding out seconds after trying to reach base (I think it took him like 6-7 seconds to reach a base and get grounded out). The Red Sox did go to the playoffs and reached the ALCS to take on the surprising Tampa Bay Rays. It took seven long, hard games but it wasn’t the Red Sox that would go on to take on the Phillies in the Fall Classic that year.
After making the wild-card spot in 2009 and getting swept by the Anaheim Angels, it looked like the talent that Boston had over the years was starting to grow old and weary. In 2010 the Red Sox missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006, a team that included Victor Martinez (before he became a Tiger, such a wuss), Adrian Beltre (whom we should’ve kept), and Josh Reddick (you’re welcome Oakland). Still the 2010 Red Sox finished with a winning record and finished 4 games better than the Toronto Blue Jays (before they became champions of the offseason, and made good use of the “Universal sign of choking” sign). Nothing would come more painful than the season that came next.
2011 seemed to be a season that would guarantee the Sox a spot in the playoffs and perhaps a shot to win the World Series on the eve of the 100th Anniversary of the opening of Fenway Park back in 1912. Everything went well it seemed, sure Carl Crawford had his ups and downs, but Adrian Gonzales did not disappoint (the way he hit, ran, and played defense just made you drool). The season went well despite a few bumps and holes, which is normal if you follow a team that you love, but if you could give the Red Sox a playoff spot from April to September you’d count your sox to bet that this team would make it to the playoffs.
Based on odds, the Boston Red Sox would make the playoffs based on the percentage of 99.6%. This was on September 3rd, which the wrong turn of wrong turns would do the Red Sox in. ESPN covered it like it was nothing, TMZ felt like it was something that was better than Britney Spears shaving her head, hell even farmers probably talked about it. Here’s the collapse in a glance: 11-game collapse, 9 consecutive blown saves, 7-20 record in September, 10,000 chickens (Colonel Sanders would go apeshit) and 5,000 Blue Moon’s (I had to slip it in, despite no knowledge what beer it was) was consumed that time. Here’s what it felt like: imagine going through so many breakups, car accidents, bad days, injuries, and you just couldn’t do anything about it. Like it was meant to happen. You couldn’t get away from it.
September 28th and the day after was the worst day that I have felt as a sports fan in my entire lifetime. The Red Sox had the chance to get to the playoffs and slay the demons that they were facing for the entire month, they were in Baltimore, and right next to them was the evil Tampa Bay Rays waiting for them to blow it. I remember it fondly.
I was in my 5th year of college, after coming back from being at an unplugged music event at my alma mater’s cafeteria, I listened to friends play music (one even played “American Girl” I recall) and I kept looking at my phone at the Red Sox @ Orioles score and they certainly kept it interesting. After it was done and said with I quickly turned it to ESPN which showed the Red Sox-Orioles game which was in the 9th and as I got comfy, they blew a save. To add more insult to injury they quickly turned it to the Yankees-Rays game and Evan Longoria hits a walk-off in the 12th inning and just like that the fucking Rays were in the playoffs and the Red Sox choked their way into the worst collapse in professional sports history.
After that much of the ingredients that had given the Red Sox the championship glory years before were gone. Terry Francona out the door, Jonathan Papelbon goes into free agency and becomes a Phillie, Theo Epstein gets shown the door and starts a project (a very extensive project) with the Chicago Cubs, while Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Jon Lester the, chicken and beer dinner players were in the clear and still played into the 2012 season.
What 2012 is was much more than what 2011 had brought to the table. It was just a continuation, an extension of the nightmare that the last month of 2011. Though with less chicken and beer, the drama was still there.
I could go on all night about the horrors of 2012 but essentially it came down to two things that turned the franchise around: August 25th, and October 4th. The day in August was both a blessing and yet a feeling of uncertainty. The blessing was that it was the largest salary dump in sports history. To get rid of these salary-pigs in Gonzales, Beckett, and Crawford felt good. It meant that we could go back to our roots and get players that produced more bang for the buck. The uncertainty part was who? Who could possibly replace these players, there could’ve been many players that management could’ve chosen, what they were only me and my fellow Red Sox fans could possibly think of. October 4th, a day that was cherished by anyone that is/was a Red Sox fan: Bobby Valentine was fired, sacked, dumped, and divorced, quite possibly the best move that the Red Sox made all year. That winter was a hard one to endure, the Yankees were shitting on us for our losing ways, the Giants won their 7th title beating the Tigers (at the time tying us for the all-time World Series titles won), and certainly who could forget the supposed “Mayans forgot to include 12/22/2012 in their calendar, but since they didn’t caused everyone to think that possibly the end of the world would happen the day before” myth, which us Sox fans felt that we would never see the Sox win another title before the end of the world. A Boston Red Sox team that wouldn’t include the drama, the players that hated the team as much as its fans hated them, a team that went back to its roots of playing great pitching, good hitting, and timely defense, a team that wouldn’t have a last-place finish, a team that wouldn’t have its worst season since the Beatles would release Rubber Soul, and one more year of playing concerts before calling it good in 1966.
2013 began with optimism, the hiring of John Farrell was promising, but nothing was guaranteed. The Red Sox would sign David Ross, Shane Victorino, Jonny Gomes, Mike Napoli, Koji Uehara, and Stephen Drew during the offseason. The acquisitions were not of the Theo Epstein signings in 2011, but of a different sense. My aunt, who lives in Portland, Maine, commented during the playoffs that it was of a “Moneyball” signings. Meaning that these players were good in certain statistics and situations that the Red Sox got for not a lot of money.
The season got off to a good start, an 18-8 record in April, their best record during a month since easily 2011. Even as ESPN prepared to have the first game to have (by coincidence) the Red Sox play against the Yankees and won the game. Suddenly the culture changed and if it was John Farrell was the case or not, the Red Sox were now watchable and enjoyable.
The turning point of this post, the climax, happened with a tragedy. While I didn’t witness it, or saw it happen, I felt, like many of my Red Sox fans, the tragedy of losing someone dear to them, for I knew the pain of loss. It was a rallying cry for not just the team, but the city of Boston and quite possibly the entire region. My aunt had lived in Boston for a good long time and she had lived in the general area where the accused had lived and had the standoff of standoffs. It was destiny for the city to rally on the phrase “Boston Strong!”
Three of the four professional sports teams were still in play during that time. Celtics squeaked into a 7th seed spot in the playoffs, the Bruins a unlikely favorite to get to the Stanley Cup Finals, and the Red Sox having started their season. Out of all these three teams, two of them reached the championship match, out of the two, one became champions. The Celtics did put up a fight against the New York Knicks and nearly put the Knickerbockers on their knees towards a 7-game series but ended up winning the series in 6. The Boston Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Finals against the heavily favored Chicago Blackhawks and took them to 6 games when the Bruins choked by giving up 2 goals in the last 90 seconds of the 3rd period. The Red Sox were the last chance to give the city a chance to celebrate and to have a relief, a closure to a horrific chapter in their cities history.
The 2013 Boston Red Sox finished with the best record in the American League with a 97-65 record, homefield advantage throughout the American League playoffs and World Series. Their run began with the team that had been a thorn in their side for five years, the Tampa Bay Rays, They would beat the devilish Rays (see what I did there?) in four games in the ALDS with their biggest challenge coming to them in a crazy way. In their way towards a potential 13th American League pennant was the Detroit Tigers, a team that has been in their 3rd straight trip to the American League Championship Series, and knew how to get to the Fall Classic. It was a slugfest. Detroit took game 1, Boston game 2, Boston again in game 3, Detroit tied it up in game 4, Boston survived a rally in game 5, and Boston cruised on with a victory in game 6.
It was their 13th American League pennant. They had won the title in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, and 2007. They lost in the Fall Classic in 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986. In ’46 and ’67 they faced off against the St. Louis Cardinals and lost. The 2004 team took on the Redbirds, which were favored to win, and did what Ted Williams and/or Carl Yaztremski could not do, beat the Cardinals in the Fall classic.
This series was different the Cardinals won in 2006, Red Sox won in 2007, Cardinals in 2011, so certainly this series meant something to both teams. The Red Sox exercised their bats in game one, to beat the Cards 8-1. In game two, the Red Sox took the lead after a David Ortiz two-run homer in the 6th, but the Cardinals scored three in the 7th on a bad throw by Jarrod Saltalamacchia to third base, Cardinals won 4-2. Game 3 was a classic, all to the end, then with runners on 2nd and 3rd base with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th. A grounder to 2nd Pedroia throws it to Salty to get the 2nd out and thus throws it to 3rd where Will Middlebrooks fucks up the bad throw by Salty and tries to throw his legs up to slow down Allen Craig, which happened, but as he ran to home it wasn’t an out, it ended in a walk-off. As much as it pained me to see it happen that way afterwards (I was working the closing shift at Kohls, where you couldn’t really have electronics on the floor) Will obstructed Craig and thus the Cardinals took game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the series which made me and possibly many others doubt about the quest to win a championship for the city of Boston. Game four was a desperate game for the Sox as they needed to have a good start for Clay Bucholz, who wasn’t part of the 2007 squad, and their bats to wake up. Jonny Gomes rose to the occasion on a three-run homer to take a 4-2 win and to force a game 6 in Boston. Game five was possibly the most interesting game of the series outside of game three. The pitching duel of Jon Lester and Adam Wainwright was a sight to behold. Late in the game tied 1-1 at the top of the 7th inning, David Ross hit a ground-rule double and Jacoby Ellsbury hit a RBI single to give the Red Sox a 2 run cushion to gain a game five victory 3-1, heading back to Boston. Game six was what many had felt, the Cardinals needed to have a miracle start for Michael Wacha, and the Red Sox needed was just John Lackey and the bats to come through for him. The Cardinals walked David Ortiz but by the end it wasn’t enough to stave off the Beantown bats as they scored 6 runs in two innings, and it was all that the Red Sox needed.
It was relief, a conclusion, a reassurance. This is what I felt after the final pitch was recorded. All the bullshit, the heartbreak, the drama, the chicken ‘n beer, the Man-Ram, the taunts from some people, it didn’t matter anymore, the Red Sox were World Champions of Baseball, their 8th championship in franchise history. Their 3rd title since 2004, their first title-clincher at home since 1918. They move to 4th all-time championships with the Yankees 27, Cardinals 11, Athletics 9.
It nearly made me cry, or at least sob as they celebrated on the field. At the end of it all, I played “Tessie” by the Dropkick Murphy’s. While life moves on and baseball is done until February, the night of October 30th, 2013 will always be remembered as the day that hope was restored to the city of Boston and that years of heartbreak conclude in a championship that both the team and its fans will enjoy for years to come.
“Red Sox, you are the only, only, only.”
‘Nuff Said.
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