5 questions with Colin Barnicle, director of the Netflix docuseries on the 2004 Red Sox
The series premiered on the streaming platform on Wednesday.
Five questions with Colin Barnicle, director of “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox,” which debuted on Netflix Wednesday.
Q. One of the striking things about the player interviews is how candid some of them are about their self-doubts. Derek Lowe, for one, is objectively hilarious talking about how down on himself he was going into his Game 4 start against the Yankees in ‘04. Were you surprised how frank everyone was about how low they felt at certain points?
A. I think some of the candor comes with the passage of 20 years. And some of it is just who these guys are. It got cut for time, which is probably a poor decision on my part, but I asked Tom Werner, “What were you saying to the staff and to the fans after Game 3 of the ALCS in ‘04?” And he said, “Oh, I told them we’ll be back here, we’ll be back in Yankee Stadium again, and we’ll beat these guys and we’ll win the World Series.” And I said, “What were you thinking?” And he said, “Oh, I was thinking there was no way we were coming back.”
Q. I found Theo Epstein to be the most compelling interview in the documentary. Did you have any idea he was such a great storyteller?
A. I remember we were hoping to get a good two-hour interview out of him and we interviewed him for seven hours and he could have kept going. I felt a large part of the candidness of the interviews was the passing of Tim Wakefield.
When Tim passed, all these guys came back together who might not have texted each other as often. Their journey together kind of was revived when Tim passed away. I feel like a large portion of the candidness of the interviews, Theo’s included, has to do with the fact that these guys were already reminiscing about their shared history with Tim and that team.
Q. Grady Little is going to exasperate Red Sox fans all over again when they hear him in the documentary. Were you surprised he’s so defiant about the decision to leave Pedro Martinez in when everything was falling apart in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS?
A. You know, I kind of get it from Grady’s perspective. Terry Francona was the perfect manager for the Sox when they ended up winning. But a lot of Grady’s fingerprints are on that 2004 team, and he should get credit for that. He should get credit for really maturing David Ortiz into the hitter that he became and giving Kevin Millar, whom the Marlins were going to send to Japan, the confidence to believe he belongs here.
I mean, the guy won 95 games back-to-back years and lost his job. That has never happened. From my perspective, having been at that game, I really just asked the questions I wanted answered when I was sitting in the stands that night.
Q. Was there anybody you had hoped to talk to that just wasn’t up for it?
A. We didn’t get Nomar [Garciaparra]. We reached out to him multiple times. But him not being able to sit down was kind of an indication to us that this story is still present, good or bad, for a lot of these players. Whether it be [Derek] Jeter, A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez], or Nomar, not getting them to sit down was kind of a benefit to our team, because it was a reminder that, while this happened 20 years ago, for them it never really stops happening. It was more confirmation that this is a story we should tell, right now. It always stays with them, for every single day of their lives.
Q. Watching the second part of the doc, on the 2003 season, really brought back the tension from the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry at that point. And it needed to be told in full, because 2004 carries even more weight because of how ‘03 ended. But I’ve got to tell you, it was painful to relive.
A. Oh, it’s horrifying. I remember when we went down to see Kevin Millar. He has two teenage boys, so they weren’t born yet when all of this happened. So it was interesting showing them clips of these games that they didn’t live themselves.
They were living them watching them now, let me tell you. You could hear them saying stuff like, “Come on, take Pedro out.” They were experiencing what we did. I think it makes you appreciate the payoff in 2004 even more.
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