The Defining Blast David Ortiz S Home Run In The 2004 Alcs

Few rivalries in sports are as bitter and deeply rooted as that between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. For decades, the Yankees had dominated not only the Red Sox but the entire Major League Baseball landscape, winning 26 World Series titles by the start of the 2004 season. The Red Sox, meanwhile, had not won a championship since 1918 and carried the burden of the so-called “Curse of the Bambino,” which began when Babe Ruth was sold to New York in 1919. When the two teams met in the 2004 ALCS, it was more than just a clash of elite clubs — it was a chance for the Red Sox to exorcise decades of demons and... What followed was not only historic, but transcendent. Game 1 (Yankees 10, Red Sox 7): Curt Schilling, the prized Red Sox acquisition, took the mound despite an ankle injury.

The Yankees pounced, led by Hideki Matsui and Bernie Williams. Despite a late Boston rally, New York took the opener. Game 2 (Yankees 3, Red Sox 1): Jon Lieber shut down Boston, outdueling Pedro Martínez. The Yankees took a commanding 2–0 series lead heading back to Fenway Park. Game 3 (Yankees 19, Red Sox 8): In a shocking blowout, the Yankees pounded the Red Sox, scoring 11 runs in the first four innings. Matsui and Alex Rodriguez starred, and Boston’s hopes appeared all but dashed as they fell behind 3–0 in the series.

At the end of what might be the greatest game ever played, David Ortiz delivered us from Evil. There is a line from one of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Podcasts that I love and that I think is particularly relevant thinking about the legacy of David Ortiz. Carlin tells how he once asked a history professor what the biggest challenge to understanding history is, and his teacher replied, "we know their future." We are now at the end of David Ortiz's... We know him as the greatest clutch hitter in Boston Red Sox history. We know the Hall-of-Fame-caliber numbers he put up. We know what he did in the 2013 ALCS and the 2013 World Series.

Most importantly, we know that he led The 25 back from three games down against the Yankees to the Red Sox' first World Championship in 86 years. Nothing can erase this from our collective consciousness and that presents a challenge for us in understanding the past. It is especially challenging if are trying to understand what might be the greatest game in baseball history and the most important moment of Big Papi's postseason legacy. From our comfortable vantage point in 2016, Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Game is a watershed moment for the Boston Red Sox franchise. Looking back, Kevin Millar’s warning before the game- “don’t let us win tonight,” looks like prophecy. It is the game that gave us The Steal.

It is not really the beginning of David Ortiz’s run as the most clutch player in the game (if his 2003 ALCS performance wasn’t enough to get that ball rolling, his walk-off in the... We can see this all so clearly now. Back in 2004, we did not know any of this. In fact, when Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS began, it promised to be nothing more than another brief entry in the annals of pain that made up the history of the Boston Red... I was just about to turn 25 at the time, living in New York City, just a few congested miles over the Triboro from Yankee Stadium. I remember watching this game in my tiny Astoria apartment without hope for victory in the series.

I think my wife even asked why I was bothering to watch it (Mets fans can be fatalistic too, you know). No team had ever come back from 3-0 at this point. Not one. Not a single team in more than a century of baseball. Game 3 had been as demoralizing a blowout loss as any that I can remember. It had also meant using Tim Wakefield, the scheduled Game 4 starter in relief to save a beleaguered bullpen and handing the ball to Derek Lowe, who had lost his place in the playoff...

Don't blame us if we ever doubted, as the song says. Sitting down to watch Game 4, I was hoping only that the Red Sox would delay the end of the season, pushing the inevitable bitterness of yet another heartbreaking loss to the Evil Empire... About five hours and 12 of the most agonizing innings of baseball ever played later, something had changed. It was still too dangerous to let yourself believe the Red Sox might win the next three, but it seemed better than impossible. At the very least, the Red Sox had just won the greatest game I had ever seen and they would play again later tonight (In my mind now, it is like 6:30 in the... That’s an exaggeration of course, but only a small one.

All of my memories of joy from 2004 are mixed with the memory of utter exhaustion. Those games took forever) Send this article to your social connections. Send this article to your social connections. Reliving this magical nine-day stretch isn’t the same as living it in real-time. But damn, if anything in Boston sports history is worth reminiscing about at any opportunity, isn’t it this?

Let’s go back to October 17, 2004 (and the early minutes of October 18), and this one time, you see, when a guy stole a base and our baseball world began to change … What happened? What happened? Oh, you know. Not much. Just everything.

We’ll get to all that, but the condensed version is promised here, so …

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