2004 ALCS, Game 3, Red Sox vs. Yankees at Fenway Park on October 16, 2004, by JJ Fad
From MemoryArchive
Who: JJ Fad What: Game 3, 2004 ALCS When: October 16th, 2004 Where: Fenway Park
This game, which was The Worst Game Ever Played, was supposed to be day the Yankees got their comeupance. Glorious retribution at the hands of the Sox. That was far from what happened, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
The 2004 regular season for the Red Sox had been amazing. A slow start and middling middle of the year didn't bode well for our heroes, but a Varitek glove to an Alex Rodriguez face awakened the sleeping dragon known as the Red Sox offense.
A near perfect august had the Sox nipping at the American League East leader's, the Yankees, heels, nearing within 3 games in September. A poorly played series against the Yankees left the Sox watching their arch-rival clinch another division win. They had to settle for a backdoor pass into the post-season, the wild card.
The two teams, who this year and the last had been as closely matched as was possible, seemed destined to an October rematch of last years Championship Series, where it took extra innings in the final game of the series to determine a winner. Neither would disapoint, with both steamrolling over their division series opponents. And so, the 2004 ALCS matchup was exactly the same as the year before, but I was sure the results would be the opposite.
I entered a raffle for Red Sox post-season tickets and actually won two tickets to any home game I chose. One game was to take place on my birthday, October 16th, the third game of the series and the first played in local Fenway, so I went with that. The best I could manage were two standing room only tickets, but to be there was enough for me. The first two games of the series didn't go exactly as I would have liked. The Sox lost both of the first two games played in Yankee Stadium, and came home with their tails between their legs. I knew the sox weren't going to be swept at the hands of the Yankees, and if there was any cosmic justice they couldn't lose on my birthday, so I was very confident as my future fiance and I headed off to watch a game on a beautiful fall evening.
We arrived at the park early to find a standing spot where you could see over the heads of the people in the seats, even when they were standing. We found a perfect spot on a ramp that not only allowed us to see, but let us lean against a bar for support. When the other fans started pouring into the park we found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of friendly, enthusiastic fans. The night was starting off great and I had been good all year, so I guessed my karma was in proper working order.
The first sign that trouble was on the way should have been the temperature dropping 20 degrees and a strong wind picking up. Our light fall coats didn't keep us nearly warm enough, but the palpable excitement in the air made us forget our shivering. Besides, there were vendors walking around with Hot Chocolate. Things only got worse from there. I won't bore you with the details, but know this: the game became a travesty around the 4th inning. The game started with both teams scoring a lot of runs. Eventually the sox stopped scoring. The Yankees didn't. All of the excitement and energy in the park was sucked out. By the 8th inning most of the locals had left, fearing their souls couldn't take this sort of beating. I was determined to stay it out, though, and moved up to around the 20th or so row (thanks to the mass exodus). Sadly, the only people remaining were Yankees fans, completely smug and shrill. In the 9th inning, with the Yankees up 19-8, a horse-looking New York woman's scream of "Hit another homer, Hideki" chased me from the park.
Nobody was talking to each other in the streets. Nobody was talking on the subway as we rode away. Even the pan-handlers and tacky t-shirt salemen didn't really put any effort into their work. The city was in mourning. I got home and threw my Sox hat into the corner. I alternated between two states of mind: I was a jinx, the Sox let us down...again. I gave up on the team, and it didn't make it any better when the next day you couldn't turn around without hearing somebody mention that no team had ever come back trailing 3-0 in a seven game series. Never. I listened to the radio for the next game instead of watching the TV. I couldn't stand to hear the national broadcasters proclaim my team dead in the water.
Of course what took place over the next four games was completely unprecedented and spectacular. We came back to win the series, and then walked over the Cardinals for our first World Series in 86 years, but thats a whole 'nother story.
External Links:
Official Website of Major League Baseball
