Posted on 10/17/2003 11:41:09 AM PDT by Whitebread
Dan Shaughnessy, Globe StaffDan Shaughnessy, Globe StaffDan Shaughnessy, Globe Staff 2,496 words 17 October 2003 The Boston Globe THIRD A.1 English Copyright (c) 2003 Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.
NEW YORK - And so a new generation of New Englanders has learned the risk of rooting for the Red Sox.
They will tease you for months. They will tell you they are different from their forebears. They will claim that what happened before has nothing to do with them. They will make you believe this really is the year.
But in the end, they will fall and sometimes they will do it in excruciating fashion. The weight of the Boston uniform is always too heavy.
Meet the new Red Sox. Same as the old Red Sox. In perhaps the most painful game in franchise history - no small statement given the Sox' penchant for macabre moments - the Sox last night lost the American League pennant to their century-old nemisis, the New York Yankees.
Aaron Boone's 11th-inning, first-pitch, walkoff homer off Tim Wakefield at 12:16 this morning gave the Yankees a 6-5, Game 7 victory over the Sox, putting New York in the World Series against Florida, beginning tomorrow night. Naturally, Boone is the grandson of Ray Boone, a (retired) longtime scout with the Red Sox.
Cover your eyes, Sox fans - it gets worse. Boston led, 4-0 in the fifth and 5-2 in the eighth. Like their Cub cousins earlier this week, the Sox were five outs away with a three-run lead. Champagne was chilling.
But before you could say Calvin Schiraldi, Pedro Martinez coughed up four straight hits, three runs, and the American League pennant. Maybe this was revenge for the night Pedro said, "Wake up the Bambino. Bring him back and I'll drill him."
Fittingly, Martinez was KO'd by a bloop two-run double to center by Jorge Posada. That's the same Posada who engaged in an angry exchange with Martinez during Game 3 after Pedro hit Karim Garcia. Pedro claimed he was telling Posada that he would remember everything that was said. Now Posada has given the Boston ace a new memory. A recurring nightmare.
It won't take days, weeks, or months to find the Game 7 goat. Say hello to Sox manager Grady Little, who joins Denny Galehouse, Johnny Pesky, Bill Buckner, Mike Torrez, John McNamara, the aforementioned Schiraldi, and Bob Stanley in the Sox collection of dartboard ornaments.
Little left Martinez in the game long after it was clear the fragile ace was done.
It was surprising to see Pedro start the eighth. With one out, he surrendered a long double to Derek Jeter, then a hard single by Bernie Williams.
Grady went to the mound. Relievers were ready. Nothing.
Hideki Matsui cracked a hard double to right. Still no hook from the manager. Martinez was left to face Posada, who more than evened the score in their personal war with the bloop double to center. That tied the game and finally Little came out to get Martinez.
"Pedro Martinez has been our man all year long and in situations like that, he's the one we want on the mound over anybody we can bring out of that bullpen," said Little. "He had enough left in his tank to finish off Posada."
The manager said Martinez told him he wanted to stay in the game when he went out for the first visit.
Yankee manager, Joe Torre said, "Obviously, he wanted to stay in. It would be tough for any manager to say no . . . hen it's Pedro Martinez."
There was an air of inevitablilty after the fateful Yankee eighth. The Sox weren't able to do anything with Yankee closer Mariano Rivera (three innings, 48 pitches) and it was just a matter of time before someone hit a walkoff homer off the weary Wakefield.
"For three innings I was waiting to see Manny [Ramirez] turn his back and watch a ball go into the stands," said Torre. "It finally happened."
This was easily Boston's most crushing loss since the sixth game of the 1986 World Series, when the Red Sox held a two-run lead with two outs and nobody aboard in the bottom of the 10th at Shea Stadium. In Sox-Yankee lore, it certainly belongs with the 1978 playoff game in which Bucky Dent hit the three-run homer and acquired a new middle name.
The Sox had a golden chance to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1986. They had a chance to become the first team to win Games 6 and 7 at Yankee Stadium since the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals. They had a chance to win a fifth-consecutive elimination game. They had a chance to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. Maybe it was a bad idea to paint the World Series logo on the Fenway lawn Thursday afternoon.
The Sox aren't going to the World Series because Grady fell asleep at the wheel and Pedro couldn't perform like a star when it counted. So now they go home to watch the World Series on television and we wonder if CEO Larry Lucchino will bring Grady back and we wonder if Nomar Garciaparra has played his last game for the Red Sox. Hard questions in the wake of a terrible defeat.
The 2003 Red Sox were an admirable bunch. Keep them in your hearts for a while. No group of athletes can be truly prepared for the larger forces that clearly have gripped this franchise and the one in Chicago.
The Red Sox-Cubs World Series America wanted won't happen. It's Marlins and Yankees tomorrow night. In the House That Ruth Built.NEW YORK - Another cataclysmic collapse. Even by the lofty standards of the Red Sox, this was a fold of epic proportion.
In the seventh and deciding game of the American League Championship Series last night, the Sox took an early 4-0 lead and still led, 5-2, in the eighth. Five outs away from a World Series meeting with the Florida Marlins beginning tomorrow night, Pedro Martinez unraveled on the Yankee Stadium mound, surrendering four consecutive hits and the American League pennant as the Yankees rallied for three runs to tie the game and then won it in the 11th when third baseman Aaron Boone crushed Tim Wakefield's first pitch high into the night in left to send the Sox to perhaps their most excruciating loss in franchise history, 6-5.
The New England mind boggles. New dark history. There was Enos Slaughter, Bucky Dent, and Bill Buckner. Now add another another chapter in the four score and five years of Red Sox heartache.
These Sox led New England to believe they were different. They threw off every challenge. But in the end, the fibers of the Boston uniforms were again too heavy.
The Curse of the Bambino reared its fat ugly head in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium. Champagne was chilling for the Sox when Pedro took a 5-2 lead to the hill. But after getting the first out, he was touched up for four straight hits (three doubles) and finally left after Jorge Posada's bloop double to center tied the game.
In the wake of the Sox comeback win in New York Wednesday, a game that pushed the series to the limit, not much was accomplished in New England's workplaces and schools yesterday. There was simply too much anticipation about the grand finale. Sox fans around the globe checked in with friends close to the epicenter, desparately trying to connect with the sporting event of their lives.
This was an event with absolutely no need for artificial enlargement. It offered a return to childhood for many Red Sox fans. In the backyard mind games of a Boston-based kid, who wouldn't concoct the scenario of Sox vs. Yankees, Game 7, Martinez vs. Roger Clemens.
The classic pitching duel, two future Hall of Famers with nine Cy Young Awards between them, fell apart faster than a cakebox in a carwash.
Clemens got through the first without any damage, but the Sox rocked him in the second. After David Ortiz lined to center for the first out, Kevin Millar cracked a single to center and Trot Nixon launched a 2-and-0 pitch into the center-field bleachers. Jason Varitek followed with a two-out double to right and scored when Enrique Wilson threw away Johnny Damon's routine grounder to third.
Millar, Mr. Cowboy Up, led off the fourth with a laser homer. Clemens was yanked before getting anyone out in the inning. It was as if his Joe Hardy bill finally came due. He looked all of 41 years old as he walked off the field for the final time in his 20-year career. It was hard to believe that 17 years ago, Clemens was the Sox' winning pitcher in the seventh game of the ALCS against the California Angels. Mike Mussina replaced Clemens and stopped the Sox surge.
Jason Giambi, dropped to seventh in the batting order, led off the fifth with a first-pitch homer to center, cutting Boston's lead to 4-1. Two innings later, Giambi hit another solo homer and it was 4-2.
For superstitious Sox fans, the next few minutes were excruciating. With two out and nobody aboard, the annoying Enrique Wilson hit a weird hop single to first, then Karim Garcia singled to right. Alfonso Soriano, always a home run threat, was next, but Martinez struck him out on 2-and-2 pitch.
Ortiz padded the lead with a solo shot off reliever David Wells in the eighth. Again working with a three-run cushion, Pedro came out for the eighth and gave up another run on a Derek Jeter double and a Bernie Williams single. Sox manager Grady Little came out to talk with his ace, but left Martinez in the game. The Sox got a big break when Hideki Matsui's shot into right went for a ground-rule double. Amazingly, Little stayed with Martinez, who was closing in on 120 pitches.
Then Posada's bloop to center scored two and that was it for Pedro. Alan Embree and Mike Timlin came on to douse the fire and it was on the excruciating ninth.
But only heartache loomed.NEW YORK - Another cataclysmic collapse. Even by the lofty standards of the Red Sox, this was a fold of epic proportion.
In the seventh and deciding game of the American League Championship Series last night, the Sox took an early 4-0 lead and still led, 5-2, in the eighth. Five outs away from a World Series meeting with the Florida Marlins beginning tomorrow night, Pedro Martinez unraveled on the Yankee Stadium mound, surrendering four consecutive hits and the American League pennant as the Yankees rallied for three runs to tie the game and send it into extra innings.
The New England mind boggles. New dark history. There were Enos Slaughter, Bucky Dent, and Bill Buckner. Now there may be another another chapter in the four score and five years of Red Sox heartache.
The Curse of the Bambino reared its fat ugly head in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium. Champagne was chilling for the Sox when Pedro took a 5-2 lead to the hill. But after getting the first out, he was touched up for four straight hits (three doubles) and finally left after Jorge Posada's bloop double to center tied the game.
In the wake of the Sox comeback win in New York Wednesday, a game that pushed the series to the limit, not much was accomplished in New England's workplaces and schools yesterday. There was simply too much anticipation about the grand finale. Sox fans around the globe checked in with friends close to the epicenter, desparately trying to connect with the sporting event of their lives.
This was an event with absolutely no need for artificial enlargement. It offered a return to childhood for many Red Sox fans. In the backyard mind games of a Boston-based kid, who wouldn't concoct the scenario of Sox vs. Yankees, Game 7, Martinez vs. Roger Clemens.
The classic pitching duel, two future Hall of Famers with nine Cy Young Awards between them, fell apart faster than a cakebox in a carwash.
Clemens got through the first without any damage, but the Sox rocked him in the second. After David Ortiz lined to center for the first out, Kevin Millar cracked a single to center and Trot Nixon launched a 2-and-0 pitch into the center-field bleachers. Jason Varitek followed with a two-out double to right and scored when Enrique Wilson threw away Johnny Damon's routine grounder to third.
Millar, Mr. Cowboy Up, led off the fourth with a laser homer. Clemens was yanked before getting anyone out in the inning. It was as if his Joe Hardy bill finally came due. He looked all of 41 years old as he walked off the field for the final time in his 20-year career. It was hard to believe that 17 years ago, Clemens was the Sox' winning pitcher in the seventh game of the ALCS against the California Angels. Mike Mussina replaced Clemens and stopped the Sox surge.
Jason Giambi, dropped to seventh in the batting order, led off the fifth with a first-pitch homer to center, cutting Boston's lead to 4-1. Two innings later, Giambi hit another solo homer and it was 4-2.
For superstitious Sox fans, the next few minutes were excruciating. With two out and nobody aboard, the annoying Enrique Wilson hit a weird hop single to first, then Karim Garcia singled to right. Alfonso Soriano, always a home run threat, was next, but Martinez struck him out on 2-and-2 pitch.
Ortiz padded the lead with a solo shot off reliever David Wells in the eighth. Again working with a three-run cushion, Pedro came out for the eighth and gave up another run on a Derek Jeter double and a Bernie Williams single. Sox manager Grady Little came out to talk with his ace, but left Martinez in the game. The Sox got a big break when Hideki Matsui's shot into right went for a ground-rule double. Amazingly, Little stayed with Martinez, who was closing in on 120 pitches.
Then Posada's bloop to center scored two and that was it for Pedro. Alan Embree and Mike Timlin came on to douse the fire and it was on the excruciating ninth.
PLAYOFFS 03 / RED SOX VS. YANKEES
Bucky
Buckner
BOONE!!!
Did anybody notice Drudge's headline about the game last night getting Fox one of the largest television audiences in history? Boston had an 81 share.
Well you won't be seeing those kind of ratings for the Yankees-Marlins...YAWN...(crickets)
Who is this Homer and why is he trying to capture Al Pennant?
At least there's football
I think they should score the teams on how diverse they are and how many players came up from hardship to make the big leagues. This would be much more Boston.
I haven't shed a tear. Nor have I whined like a liberal. Our team had the Yanks beat. And Torre knew it. He's the one I saw crying like a baby.
Typical Yankee's sycophant-babble.
A Yankees/Cubs series would have had huge ratings - two giant television markets (1 & 3, I believe) and a real David vs. Goliath story going for it.
It's the Marlins that are going to kill the ratings. People in Florida don't even watch the Marlins, so forget about the rest of the nation.
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