World off their shoulders
I left the field that night – you know, THAT night – as the Red Sox continued their celebration amidst a dwindling throng of family, friends, fans, and media. I exited through the right field gate at the old Busch Stadium, where a couple of grounds crew members stood as a light mist began to fall from the increasingly late St. Louis sky.
"Looks like the Babe is crying," one of them said.
Everyone has a favorite story from the night the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years. That might be mine. In one perfect moment, the "Curse of the Bambino" was officially laid to rest, following a two-week period of baseball that we will never forget.
It was surreal. It was magical. And it was ours.
Five years later, and "World Series champion Boston Red Sox" is a phrase more of annual expectation than an impractical goal to cherish forever. That's only natural though. Nothing we ever witness in Boston sports from here on out can or will ever top what we experienced with the Red Sox in 2003-04. Nothing. Even 19-0 would have taken a back seat to the 2004 World Series.
There's little more to be said about a team and a championship that has been documented more than the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Movies, books, commemorative magazines, and those leather-bound books - free with your paid subscription to Sports Illustrated - filled shelves. "Faith Rewarded" was inserted in stockings throughout the region. The trophy toured every town in Massachusetts and every other state in New England. Pennants were laid at gravesites.
Still, a birthday like this one can hardly go unnoticed. They took us on a ride the likes of which we shall never see again. They changed the entire baseball culture of a city once defined by its wallowing in anguish. The bandwagon got awfully crowded and we've had to suffer the misery of "Sox Appeal," Bronson Arroyo's nightclub act, "Fever Pitch," and Blaine Neal since then.
All worth it.
Five years later and the Red Sox are far less compelling. TV ratings are down, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, and Tim Wakefield are hitting their twilight years, and just two years after celebrating title No. 2 of this decade, Sox fans are starting to pick up a certain anguish as the Yankees prepare for their first since 2000. Maybe it's OK to live in the past just for a day.
And seeing as it is American Beer Day, what better way to celebrate than raising a cold one to the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox? They brought joy and satisfaction to Red Sox fans everywhere, and made a fat, dead ballplayer cry when his mythical curse came to an abrupt halt in the most surreal way anyone could have imagined.
It can never be better.
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