And the biggest heroes in Boston sports history...

 
All photos courtesy of ESPN.COM

Once again, the Arizona / Boston connection... My Diamondbacks gave Red Sox fans a thrill in 2001, defeating the Yankees in a World Series that had it all, including incredible performances by Curt Schilling (and Randy Johnson), and a comeback against Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning of Game 7, when they were 3 outs away from elimination...

So what do the Red Sox do in 2004?  They pick up Curt Schilling, and defeat the Yankees in an ALCS that had it all, becoming the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to come from a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason series in 7 games. They came back against Mariano Rivera when they were 3 outs away from elimination, and gave us four incredibly stressful, amazing days of baseball.  The World Series was almost anticlimactic in comparison, with the Sox sweeping the high-powered St. Louis Cardinals.  Just one question... why didn't Byung Hyung Kim make the Red Sox postseason roster?  : )  Looking back, that might have been a good thing.

I grew up with the Red Sox.  I can remember rooting for them as far back as 1977, and I remember smashing my transistor radio on the sidewalk after Bucky Dent's homer in 1978... I remember watching the ball go through Buckner's legs with my parents, from their house in Arizona, totally incredulous of what had just happened.  It was then that I thought there HAD to be something working against this team.  I bet the Psychiatry / Therapy market in Boston experienced one heck of a boom in business in October, 1986.  I grew up with Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski, George Scott, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Dennis 'Oil Can' Boyd, Mike Greenwell, and yes, Roger Clemens.  I was the biggest Clemens fan when he pitched for Boston.  I followed him through his 20 strikeout game, the 24-4 season, the game where he actually had to bat and got a HIT (this was before interleague play), and his Cy Young Awards.  I still remember his lame excuse for going to the Blue Jays, "... well, they've won more championships than anyone else in the 90's... it was 1997, for crissakes, and the Jays simply had offered him more $$.  Like the majority of Red Sox fans, I lost interest in him at that point, and began to despise the guy when he not only had some mean things to say about Red Sox ownership and fans, but signed with the Yankees as well.

Dwight Evans was one of my childhood idols... Sean Cassidy and Richie Cunningham aside, this guy was the shit.  He could throw a strike from the right field wall to home plate on a single bounce.  Guys didn't dare test his arm.  I hate seeing Manny Ramirez wearing Dewey's number.  I think Jim Rice's 14 will get retired in Boston one day, but if they retire 24, Evans and Ramirez might be sharing that honor. 

I have to take back some of the things I might have said about the 2004 Red Sox after Game 3 of the ALCS.  I know I'm not alone here, come on, admit it.  You said those things too!  The Sox came to Arizona to play the Diamondbacks in two exhibition games at the end of March 2005, and I brought a sign that said "PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGIES FOR WHAT I SAID ABOUT YOU AFTER ALCS GAME 3 - GO SOX!"  I guess there's room in my life for two baseball teams.  I can't get behind the Arizona Cardinals, I've tried over and over, and I'm just a Patriots fan, pure and simple.  But the D'backs grew on me for several years.