Pedro Martinez alleges the Yankees bugged Red Sox clubhouse during 2004 ALCS
“I remember before the game, just getting up to the ceiling of the clubhouse and pulling a microphone."
Netflix’s new documentary, “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox” offers a cathartic look back at the most stunning comeback in baseball history.
But the three-part series is also unearthing plenty of new talking points and storylines from the Red Sox’ epic seven-game bout with the Yankees two decades ago.
Headlining those new narratives is a claim from Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, and several other Red Sox players that Boston found a microphone in the Yankee Stadium visitor’s clubhouse before Game 2 of the ‘04 ALCS.
“I remember before the game, just getting up to the ceiling of the clubhouse and pulling a microphone and I guess a little device that was relaying our conversations,” Martinez noted in the series, as transcribed by Michael Silverman of The Boston Globe.
“I know the difference between a microphone and not a microphone,” Schilling added in the documentary. “And this was like a lapel mike and it was attached to … a little box with the red light on.”
“Something was going on,” Martinez, who started Game 2 and took the loss in a 3-1 pitcher’s duel between him and Jon Lieber, added.
Then-Yankees manager Joe Torre didn’t mince words when asked in the documentary about the insinuation from Martinez that New York was listening in on the Red Sox talking strategy.
“(Expletive). I say it didn’t happen,” Torre said. “And if it did happen, we didn’t get the benefit of a microphone, someone else did.”
While both Martinez and Schilling brought up the topic of the microphone during the series, Colin Barnicle — the director of the documentary — admitted on MassLive’s “Fenway Rundown” podcast that multiple other Red Sox players mentioned the discovery of the microphone before Martinez, who was one of the last players to interview during the taping process.
“We had heard about it,” Barnicle told MassLive’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo. “Pedro was the last to be interviewed, so originally, that section had several players in it. We heard from Bronson Arroyo and Doug Mirabelli and Curt Schilling and most of the pitchers. They were like, ‘Yeah, no, that happened. We pulled a microphone down.’ Then they had their team meetings, the pitcher team meetings, on the team bus. They would walk outside and have it on the team bus.
“I think it goes more toward the paranoia of these teams at that moment. They obviously didn’t bug their own clubhouse for that next game where they gave up 19 runs. The proof’s kind of in the pudding that maybe that didn’t really lead to anything. Maybe it did. All the Yankees said, ‘No, I had never heard of that before.’ But it is odd. It’s totally weird that there was a microphone.”
Whether or not there might be some snooping in place during that heated series between the Red Sox and Yankees, Boston ultimately got the last laugh when it punched its ticket to the World Series in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com