The recent Unpopular Opinion Game on Facebook reminded me that a lot of people don't care for watching sports. While I have a difficult time understanding and relating to that, we all like what we like. That said, I mean it when I say nearly three weeks without any major sports (with no reprieve in sight!) has been difficult. For a lot of us, if we can't go out, can't hang out with people, can't go anywhere, we're used to at least having a "big game" to watch, especially this time of year.
So, I'm going to start, once per day, posting something about my all-time favorite sports-watching experiences, and I would invite my sports-fan friends to do the same. Instead of being sad/bored without sports on now, let's reminisce and celebrate what sports have brought to our lives.
For me, there is and probably always will be one sporting event that stands above all others. That is the 2004 American League Championship Series, in which the Boston Red Sox became the first team in MLB history to win a best-of-seven postseason series after trailing 3 games to 0.
I didn't watch a lot of baseball in the early 2000s. I had stopped collected cards and my Orioles were terrible, so why bother? Moreover, those were the years in which I got big into movies, so my mind was occupied with other things.
PLUS, where baseball was concerned, the New York Yankees were annoyingly good. They had the most money, had won 4 of the previous 7 World Series, and were packed to the brim with highly-paid stars you claimed to hate but really just wanted on your team (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, A-Rod, Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield, Jorge Posada, etc...). So it was little surprise when I heard on ESPN one morning that they were well on their way to another World Series, up 3-0 on the good-but-not-AS-good Boston Red Sox. BUT THEN....
Okay, to be honest, I didn't actually watch any of the series until it was 3-1, after the Red Sox got one back on a 12th-inning walkoff home run by David Ortiz in Game 4. That was the game with Dave Roberts' famous 9th-inning steal against Mariano Rivera, which led to the Sox tying the game when they were two outs from being eliminated and sending the Yanks to the Series.
But, MAN, I tell you what. I watched EVERY PITCH of the final three games, including the 14-inning, almost 6-hour Game 5 in Boston, a nerve-shredding thriller that ended when David Ortiz did it again, fouling off six pitches in a row before hitting a bloop single to center field that scored Johnny Damon for another walk-off win.
Game 6 was another classic. That was the game with Curt Schilling's bloody sock (he pitched six full innings on a severed ankle tendon) and the two calls that the umpires initially got wrong, but, after convening, changed their minds and got right. First, that Boston second baseman Mark Bellhorn had hit a shot into left field that actually went into the stands for a home run...it didn't bounce off the wall for a double like they originally thought. Secondly, A FRAUD Alex Rodriguez ABSOLUTELY slapped the ball out of the glove of Boston pitcher Bronson Arroyo on his way to first, leading to the Yankees tying the game late. This was correctly ruled interference, A-Rod was out, and the Yankees had a run taken off the board. Ultimately, the Sox won a nailbiter when the Yankees left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.
Game 7 turned out to be a bit of anticlimax (though any non-Yankee fans were NOT complaining). Ortiz hit a two-run homer in the first inning. A couple batters later, Johnny Damon hit a grand slam to make it 6-0, and the Red Sox ultimately won the game 10-3. Sounds like a blowout, and it was...but I still remember the 7th inning, when the Red Sox brought in Pedro Martinez in relief, and the Yankees staged a mini-rally, grabbing three quick runs to give the Yankees and their fans hope. The "WHO'S YOUR DAD-DY!!??!" chants from the New York crowd were audible from the TV. (I remember I got really annoyed and anxious during this part of the game. I made some sharp comment to my Mom, at which time she left to watch the game elsewhere with my dad. My older sister blamed for me being mean and chasing her off, though my Mom has since claimed this was not why she left the room, haha.) But, ultimately, it was only a mini-rally, and the Red Sox won.
It was historic in so many ways. The Red Sox became the first baseball team ever to erase an 0-3 deficit and win a best-of-seven series. The Yankees became the ultimate chokers, the first team to ever LOSE a series after taking that kind of advantage. The Red Sox won the pennant, then went on to sweep the Cardinals in the World Series to end the "Curse of the Bambino", ending an 86-year championship drought that supposedly started because they traded a promising young player named George Herman Ruth to the Yankees after failing to recognize his potential.
Oh, and THIS then-high school junior won $3 bucks in a bet with his New York-native teacher, who had been sure the Yankees would win. 
I don't watch as much baseball as I used to. But the 2004 ALCS ALWAYS stands out as one of the most epic and memorable sports-watching experiences I've ever had.
No comments:
Post a Comment