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| Photo Creds to Bleacher Report |
Even as a young boy, I knew all about the Boston Red Sox and their efforts to break the ''Curse of the Bambino''. I knew that Boston had been waiting since 1918 to win a World Championship, and I knew that Babe Ruth starred on that team as a pitcher before being sold to the rival Yankees two years later. I knew about Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and all of Boston's heartache that had transpired over an 86-year period. I knew about the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry and how New York had won 26 world championships in the span it took Boston to win one. So naturally, when the 2004 ALCS rolled around, I was rooting for the team that had been waiting almost a century to win a world championship as opposed to George Steinbrenner's ''Evil Empire''.
The first time I remember being mesmerized by Boston's large designated hitter, David Ortiz, took place four days before that ALCS got underway. The Red Sox were facing the Anaheim Angles in game 3 of the American League Division Series, having a 2-0 series lead and needing just one more win to advance. I remember watching Anaheim's star right fielder, Vladimir Guerrero, coming up to the plate in the top of the 7th with the bases loaded and two outs, and promptly smacking a Mike Timlin offering over Fenway Parks notoriously small right field wall, tying the game at 6.
The game remained tied until the bottom of the tenth inning when little Joe Smeltzer found out what Big Papi was all about. With two outs and Johnny Damon on first base, I watch with glee as David Ortiz smashed a Jared Washburn offering over the left field wall ("The Green Monster"), and Boston was on their way to the ALCS. The Evil Empire was next.
I had been a baseball fanatic before 2004, and remember bits and pieces of the playoff action from 2002 and 2003. However, the 2004 ALCS was the first playoff series in which I remember where I was for every single game. I watched game one on my mothers tv upstairs (she was out of town) and was disappointed to see the Yankees snuff out a Red Sox rally and hang on for a 10-7 win.
The next game was exciting for me because Pedro Martinez, who was one of my favorite baseball players at the time, was on the mound and was greeted with the now famous "who's your daddy" chants from the Bronx faithful. Pedro pitched well, but a two-run blast from John Olerud was the difference in a 3-1 Yankee win. Watching the game from the same location, I was again disappointed.
Game 3 was an absolute massacre. I don't remember too much about it, but the score says it all: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8. It was the most lopsided loss in Red Sox postseason history, and it appeared to have buried them. Then something funny happened. You know that big fella I was telling you about earlier? Yeah, well, he wouldn't let that happen.
I wish I could tell you I saw the Red Sox comeback in game four, but I am sad to say that I fell asleep before the 9th inning. I remember waking up the next morning, however, and finding that Boston came back from 4-3 down in the bottom of the 9th against the great Mariano Rivera, with Bill Muller driving home the tying run. Then I saw the highlight of that big puma driving one over the right field wall in the Bottom of the 12th, not allowing the Evil Empire to come away with a sweep. I was thrilled to see this, and I began to have hope that my playoff heroes would come back. I was aware that no team had ever rallied from being down three games to none in a postseason series, but after seeing what David Ortiz was capable of, I had a glimmer of hope.
I am quite thankful that game 5 of the 2004 ALCS was:
1) Not played when I was at an age old enough to know what stress was
2) Not involving my Pittsburgh Pirates
If both of these things were the opposite, I might be dead from a heart attack. That's how intense this game was. Just like the night before, the Red Sox were able to tie the game off of Rivera (this time it was in the bottom of the 8th). Just like the night before, that large man who didn't play defense and had a smile that was even bigger than his 6'3, 230-pound figure, sent the Northeast into a frenzy. It was 11:10 PM, the game had been going on for close to 6 hours, and Big Papi just wanted to go home. He had already homered earlier, and he delivered once again by driving home Johnny Damon for the games winning run. Just like that, the series was headed back to New York. I remember coming home from daycare (6 years old, remember), and watching every pitch in our living room with my parents. We were elated when Big Papi finally brought the game to an end, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Game Six was more about Curt Schilling than it was Big Papi, as Schill pitched one of the most courageous games in MLB history in the now infamous ''Bloody Sock Game''. This set up a do-or-die game 7, and the big boy was clutch once again, hitting a 2-run homer in the top of the 1st inning to set the tone for a Red Sox rout. Boston won 10-3, completing the greatest postseason comeback in the history of sports. Boston would go on to win a rather anti-climatic World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games and finally breaking the Curse of the Bambino.
Ortiz was a solid hitter before the 2004 postseason, but this is when the world realized how special he was. The big guy would go on to become one of baseball's most dangerous hitters over the next few seasons, including a fantastic 2006 campaign in which he hit 54 home runs and had 137 RBI. Ortiz became one of my favorite baseball players, and so much of it was due to his heroics in 2004 that gave me my first great baseball memories. I thought Big Papi was a hero. Then I got to middle school, and things began to change.
I can't pinpoint an exact moment, but sometime in my middle school career, I started to have harsh feelings about Ortiz and the Red Sox. I saw Boston as a team filled with money that was no longer the underdogs and saw them as no different from their pin-stripe wearing rivals. I saw Ortiz as a guy who possibly got away with PED use and questioned why the media were not hammering him. I developed a resentment of Boston, who has won two more world titles since breaking the curse, that lasted up until this past Tuesday, when, after 503 career home runs and 1,641 career RBI, the mountain of a man that is David Ortiz announced that the 2016 season would be his last. I originally did not want to do an article on Ortiz's announcement, but then I thought of the thrills he gave me in 2004. I thought of how happy I was when my cousins watched him hit a walk-off home run during a Sunday Night Baseball game in August of 2006 (yes, I seriously do remember that). I thought of the fact that, for the first six seasons of his career (all with the Minnesota Twins), Ortiz was, at best, a slightly-above-average player, and how he worked his tail off to become a superstar. Above all, I have realized that for the past five years or so, I have been too hard on the man who I once admired.
Game 3 was an absolute massacre. I don't remember too much about it, but the score says it all: Yankees 19, Red Sox 8. It was the most lopsided loss in Red Sox postseason history, and it appeared to have buried them. Then something funny happened. You know that big fella I was telling you about earlier? Yeah, well, he wouldn't let that happen.
I wish I could tell you I saw the Red Sox comeback in game four, but I am sad to say that I fell asleep before the 9th inning. I remember waking up the next morning, however, and finding that Boston came back from 4-3 down in the bottom of the 9th against the great Mariano Rivera, with Bill Muller driving home the tying run. Then I saw the highlight of that big puma driving one over the right field wall in the Bottom of the 12th, not allowing the Evil Empire to come away with a sweep. I was thrilled to see this, and I began to have hope that my playoff heroes would come back. I was aware that no team had ever rallied from being down three games to none in a postseason series, but after seeing what David Ortiz was capable of, I had a glimmer of hope.
I am quite thankful that game 5 of the 2004 ALCS was:
1) Not played when I was at an age old enough to know what stress was
2) Not involving my Pittsburgh Pirates
If both of these things were the opposite, I might be dead from a heart attack. That's how intense this game was. Just like the night before, the Red Sox were able to tie the game off of Rivera (this time it was in the bottom of the 8th). Just like the night before, that large man who didn't play defense and had a smile that was even bigger than his 6'3, 230-pound figure, sent the Northeast into a frenzy. It was 11:10 PM, the game had been going on for close to 6 hours, and Big Papi just wanted to go home. He had already homered earlier, and he delivered once again by driving home Johnny Damon for the games winning run. Just like that, the series was headed back to New York. I remember coming home from daycare (6 years old, remember), and watching every pitch in our living room with my parents. We were elated when Big Papi finally brought the game to an end, and I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Game Six was more about Curt Schilling than it was Big Papi, as Schill pitched one of the most courageous games in MLB history in the now infamous ''Bloody Sock Game''. This set up a do-or-die game 7, and the big boy was clutch once again, hitting a 2-run homer in the top of the 1st inning to set the tone for a Red Sox rout. Boston won 10-3, completing the greatest postseason comeback in the history of sports. Boston would go on to win a rather anti-climatic World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games and finally breaking the Curse of the Bambino.
Ortiz was a solid hitter before the 2004 postseason, but this is when the world realized how special he was. The big guy would go on to become one of baseball's most dangerous hitters over the next few seasons, including a fantastic 2006 campaign in which he hit 54 home runs and had 137 RBI. Ortiz became one of my favorite baseball players, and so much of it was due to his heroics in 2004 that gave me my first great baseball memories. I thought Big Papi was a hero. Then I got to middle school, and things began to change.
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| Photo Creds to america.aljazeera.com |
I can't pinpoint an exact moment, but sometime in my middle school career, I started to have harsh feelings about Ortiz and the Red Sox. I saw Boston as a team filled with money that was no longer the underdogs and saw them as no different from their pin-stripe wearing rivals. I saw Ortiz as a guy who possibly got away with PED use and questioned why the media were not hammering him. I developed a resentment of Boston, who has won two more world titles since breaking the curse, that lasted up until this past Tuesday, when, after 503 career home runs and 1,641 career RBI, the mountain of a man that is David Ortiz announced that the 2016 season would be his last. I originally did not want to do an article on Ortiz's announcement, but then I thought of the thrills he gave me in 2004. I thought of how happy I was when my cousins watched him hit a walk-off home run during a Sunday Night Baseball game in August of 2006 (yes, I seriously do remember that). I thought of the fact that, for the first six seasons of his career (all with the Minnesota Twins), Ortiz was, at best, a slightly-above-average player, and how he worked his tail off to become a superstar. Above all, I have realized that for the past five years or so, I have been too hard on the man who I once admired.
When I started writing this piece, memories of that 2004 ALCS started flooding back into my brain. I realized that there had been post seasons that took place much later than that ALCS did that I do not have nearly as much a recollection. It reminded me of a time when I didn't know what stress was and just enjoyed everything sports had to offer, and just like that, I grew to love David Ortiz once again. I believe that this man will find himself in Cooperstown one day. It is true that Ortiz has been linked with PED's, but I do not think that this should keep him out (I'll probably do a whole separate post on the juicers). Ortiz was/is a great player, and next to Edger Martinez, I feel that he is the greatest career Designated Hitter ever to play the game. Ortiz also seems like a great guy. The Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball will miss the big guy's power, charisma, and smile, and I feel that Ortiz has earned his place as a Red Sox legend. Athletes can be jerks who take everything so seriously, but I never saw that with Ortiz.
I see Papi as a child in a grown man's body, as he has always been filled with enthusiasm and has so much fun playing the game. I'm sure anybody who knows him can attest to that statement. Thank you, Papi, for the great memories that you gave me in my youth. It is hard to think about the game without your presence in it. I hope that your 162 game farewell tour is special, because you are certainly deserving of one.
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