Twenty years ago, the Red Sox pulled off a World Series victory after decades of heartbreaking losses.
Fans remember the 2004 season as the one that broke “the Curse of the Bambino” — a superstition that the Sox couldn’t win the title after trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920. The team made it to the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986 — only to lose in Game 7 each time.
More than 80 years after that trade, they swept the St. Louis Cardinals to become the 2004 World Series champions. Along the way, they also became the first MLB team to come back from a 3-0 series deficit, beating their hated rivals — and recipient of Ruth — the New York Yankees.
We asked our readers where they were when the Sox won, and their answers really paint a picture of the historic game(s).
From the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood to New York City to Canada, here are the moments they remember, lightly edited for clarity.
A family affair
“My phone started ringing just seconds after the third out was recorded. It was my dad. ‘Hey.’ ‘Hey.’ ‘That was awesome.’ ‘Yup.’ ‘Love you.’ ‘Love you too.’
“It was surreal. From Game 4 of the ALCS, no one slept. You couldn’t go anywhere without talking about it. I remember a community supper in my small town — the room was just buzzing. Everyone was talking about the Sox.
“I was definitely from a ‘born into it’ family. My dad wanted to name me Carla after Carl Yastrzemski (mom said no). You could find half the people dressed in Sox gear at any given family gathering, the game was always the background noise between April and September (and October, if we were lucky). Baseball connected us in so many ways and the victory felt personal, like our family was finally being rewarded for our loyalty.”
— Elizabeth Crooker
A lucky pair
“My first date with my future husband was on Oct. 16, 2004 — the third loss against the Yankees. We like to say that our relationship turned everything around and squashed the curse.”
— Caitlin Bearce
‘The universe was golden’
“I had gotten engaged a month earlier and was watching the final game on tv with my fiancé. I was a casual Red Sox fan, although my father — who had died three years earlier from ALS — had been a loyal one. Winning the championship was a magical moment. For one night, the sadness over my father’s death was erased and replaced by joy.
“It felt as though everything in the universe was golden. It felt as though good things were not just on the horizon, they were HERE! If the Red Sox broke the Curse, it meant anything was possible. I was a high school teacher who never stayed up late to watch sports, but of course, I watched this series. As the wins mounted up, I’d stumble tiredly into work the morning after just brimming with joy.”
— Barbara Mahoney
Room service with the Sox
“We were on our honeymoon. I remember we had reservations at a fancy restaurant, and the extra innings were never-ending… We kept pushing it back, pushing it back and ultimately got room service.
“[It was the] best wedding present. Just celebrated our 20th anniversary!”
— Jacqueline Church
Magical beads?
“My husband (fiancé at the time) and I were in New Orleans and the Red Sox were down 3-0 to the Yankees. We decided that the best thing to do to support the team was to buy Red Sox Mardi Gras beads for good luck! Our flight home was on the night of Game 4 against the Yankees and we had a layover. During the layover the majority of the people getting on the flight to Boston were crowded around a small TV in the terminal watching the game — it was already in extra innings.
“Eventually it was time to board the flight, announcements were being made, and hardly anyone got on the plane, everyone stayed glued to the TV. Announcements continued to be made and people stayed in front of the TV delaying the flight! Finally, Ortiz hit a home run to win the game, everyone cheered, the flight attendant rushed everyone on the plane, and we took off for Boston with excitement and hope in the stale cabin air. We were wearing those beads that night, and we didn’t take them off until the Red Sox won the World Series!”
— Andrea Schneider
A tuneless ‘Tessie’
“Drunkenly stumbling from Allston to Kenmore with a bunch of similarly lubricated friends, singing “Tessie” tunelessly, and eating a jar of homemade pickles en route (because that seemed like the thing to bring).”
— Chris Wissmuller
A tragic memory
“It’s really not a favorite memory, but an important and tragic memory that is rarely acknowledged when local fans reminisce about this day. My biggest memory from this series is when fans celebrated in the streets and Boston police used a ‘less than lethal weapon’ to control the crowd, killing my fellow Emerson College student Victoria Snelgrove.
“She was only 21 years old. It hurts every time Boston fans relish in the glory of the historic win and don’t acknowledge that an innocent life was lost.”
— Rosalie Norris
A long way from Boston
“The night the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the final game before the World Series, we were driving down the Icefields [Parkway] from Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. There was a freak early, blinding snowstorm that soon covered the roadway with 5″ to 10” of snow. It was so bad that we saw a Canadian ranger 4-wheel drive vehicle that had slid off the road.
“We kept a steady 15 to 20 mph in our borrowed, small, front-wheel drive vehicle and made it to a small motel where the rangers were turning off all traffic. The motel had the game on in the bar. The reception went in and out, but it was the most memorable game ever as we had made it off the highway alive, thanks to my husband’s experience in snow driving in New England.
“This win over the Yankees totally eclipsed the World Series that year. Beating the Yankees was the world series for us.”
— Michelle Loring
A free dinner
“I live in New York City, but I grew up in Fenway Park and even saw Ted Williams play. So, I was already a long-suffering Red Sox fan by 2004. I have a number of memories from that year, but my all-time fave was of the ALCS with the Yankees. Game 4, to be precise. I was really tired and needed to go to work in the morning and, very discouraged, went to bed.
“I was awakened in the early morning by stomping and cheering from upstairs, where my neighbor, who also came from Boston originally, was apparently watching. ‘Oh my god,’ I thought to myself, ‘they must have come back and won!’ And the rest was history.
“It meant that my bet with another neighbor (a Cards fan) won the two of us dinner at a fancy restaurant on the East Side! And it also meant I could host a champagne victory party in Manhattan Family Court for my fellow cohort of Red Sox Nation.”
— Ronnie Dane