Has it been 20 years since the busting of the Curse? Seems like it was just yesterday.
The ‘04 Sox won 109 games, postseason included. Time, however, remains undefeated.
It’s so easy to remember how they were, even as the 2004 Red Sox round third and head toward long ago.
Should the highlights and heroes from that glorious, redemptive, validating October of 20 years ago ever attempt to escape the memory bank, welcome refreshers are but a click or two away.
But we don’t need them. Not yet. Maybe never.
Dave Roberts’s steal and David Ortiz’s back-to-back walkoffs and every detail both major and minute during the comeback from down 3-0 to the dastardly Yankees in the American League Championship Series — before the World Series coda against the Cardinals — remain permanently fresh.
It’s as if the cathartic words stabbed by Foulke and Red Sox fans have longed to hear it were spoken two Octobers ago, maybe three, and not almost 20 now.
And so it is almost disorienting to consider that it has been two decades now since the possible dream happened, when every anguished inning, every hard question about why you care so much, every generational disappointment, proved worth the payoff.
Yet, the passing seasons have lent an additional poignance to those familiar memories. That was apparent during Tuesday’s Opening Day festivities at Fenway Park, when members of the 2004 Red Sox roster and staff, more than 40 strong, returned to celebrate a meaningful anniversary of their championship.
(Indirectly, the reunion also reminded us that there indeed was a time when the franchise’s top priority was assembling the best baseball team possible.)
To see the cast of 2004 Red Sox now is to be jolted by how much time has passed. For some, the Just For Men has been deployed in abundance, if there is a reason to deploy it at all. For others, the crisp, perfect Red Sox home whites might be a bit more snug than during their athletic heyday. The ‘04 Sox won 109 games, postseason included. Time, however, remains undefeated.
They’re not ballplayers now, but masters of ceremony, and they’re good at it. The former Red Sox, led by the children of the late Tim and Stacy Wakefield, emerged from beneath the 2004 World Series banner adorning the Green Monster at the conclusion of an emotional highlight reel during pregame festivities. It was, as always, wonderful to see them.
On Monday night, the Red Sox had sent around a list of players and coaches who would be in attendance, but there was still some suspense in seeing who would emerge and who would not.
David Ortiz, the de facto honorary mayor in perpetuity of this [expletive] city, was there, of course, as was Kevin Millar, Derek Lowe, Mike Timlin, and many more who contributed in varying degrees along the way that season.
Excused absences included Pedro Martinez, Bill Mueller or Roberts, and we’ll just nod in agreement with Lowe’s comments on Curt Schilling, and leave it at that.
Manny Ramirez made the scene, and by all account Manny is still being Manny. Orlando Cabrera, the Red Sox’ stabilizing post-Nomar shortstop late that season, said Ramirez was telling his teammates that Roberts was out on his franchise-altering steal and the whole thing was a conspiracy. “I just [love] to be in Manny’s head for five minutes,’’ said Cabrera.
Before the game, Red Sox manager Alex Cora was asked if he was aware that Ramirez wanted to make his pregame entrance from inside the Green Monster.
“He does?,’’ said Cora.
“He also wants to play,’’ the manager was told.
Cora thought about it a second. “He’d probably rake,’’ he replied.
The full scene Tuesday, idyllic blue sky included, was most reminiscent not of something that occurred in 2004, but rather the ring ceremony on Opening Day 2005, which was parts celebration, coronation, and closure.
That day 19 years ago, Carl Yastrzemski and Johnny Pesky led Red Sox old timers in raising the World Series banner that they could never quite secure on their own. Lowe and Roberts returned for the ceremony despite joining different teams in the offseason, Mariano Rivera proved a Hall of Fame-level good sport when fans cheered him for faltering in the ALCS, and Tim Wakefield, even then the Red Sox’ longest-tenured player, picked up the win with seven quality innings in an 8-1 victory.
“It was a great run last year and it was very exciting to be a part of that,’’ said Wakefield that day. “I think once the game started, it’s time to move on.”
That’s where, of course, Tuesday’s ceremony and the one 19 years ago differed.
Tuesday was not a time to move on. It was a time to remember.
Wakefield became the first member of the 2004 Red Sox to pass away when he died on Oct. 1 of brain cancer at age 57. Stacy Wakefield died of pancreatic cancer on February 29.
When their children, Brianna and Trevor, took the field flanked by their father’s teammates of 20 years ago ― with Brianna soon delivering a first-pitch to Jason Varitek, who engulfed her in a long, heartfelt hug ― we got the kind of reminder that maybe we do need.
The 2004 Red Sox are more than a team now, more than the Curse-busters and ghost-vanquishers, more than legends of that fall. Some of them, in the aftermath of a tragedy that came decades after their triumph, look an awful lot like family.
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