Here’s something to bolster the argument about the Boston Red Sox’s greatness this century.
MLB.com’s Will Leitch and Mike Petriello ranked three of Boston’s four World Series-winning teams in the 2000s highly on their list of Major League Baseball’s last 25 champions Friday. The 2018, 2004 and 2013 Red Sox all claimed spots in Leitch and Petriello’s top-10, with Boston’s 2007 squad the sole representative that falls in the bottom half of their list.
Here’s where MLB.com’s experts rank and remember each of the Red Sox’s four champions in the last quarter-century (in descending order).
2018 Red Sox, No. 2
“Allotting for the fact that there’s still some stuff up in the air with this team … have we already forgotten how truly dominant they were?” Leitch wrote. “They won more games (108) than any other team in Red Sox history, and the most in baseball in 17 years, and then they blitzed everyone in the playoffs, going 11-3 over some pretty fantastic teams in their own right.
“They basically had everything: A lineup that mashed the ball one through nine, Chris Sale as a top-shelf ace and a fantastic defense that everyone underrated at the time in a way they might not now. To be fair, I’m assuming I get the postseason bullpen rather than the regular-season bullpen, but if I do, I don’t think anyone can beat these guys, including those hated ‘98 Yankees. The 2004 Red Sox were the breakthrough team; the 2013 Red Sox fought for a whole city. But of the 21st-century Red Sox title teams, this is the best one.”
2004 Red Sox, No. 8
“So I know they didn’t even win their division, which should probably be a prerequisite for being this high,” Leitch wrote. “(Though they did win 98 games.) And to be honest, this Cardinals fan is convinced that MV3 team of Pujols/Edmonds/Rolen (along with Larry Walker!) was better than the Red Sox and the Yankees. But history is history, and this gang of idiots did something that essentially everyone on the Eastern Seaboard had long assumed impossible.
“If you’re talking 1-2 punches, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez net you a couple of Hall of Fame-quality pitchers, and you’ve still got Manny (Ramirez) and (David) Ortiz and peak Johnny Damon and just the whole kismet of that roster at that time. There was a time when Boston sports teams were likable. This was that time. I’m not sure, in a win-or-go-home situation, there’s any team I’d take over this one.”
More Red Sox: How Boston Began Most Recent World Series Runs
2013 Red Sox, No. 10
“The 2004 team was the most historic, the 2018 team the most dominant, but for my money, the 2013 Red Sox team was the most joyous,” Leitch wrote. “After the Patriots Day Boston Marathon bombing, the Red Sox became Boston’s salvation, the team that everyone could rally around.
“Don’t ignore the fact that this team was more than just “inspiring”; it was really, really good, with the most wins in baseball, thanks to a sneaky-good offense, a terrific bullpen and … whoa, did you see what Clay Buchholz did this year (1.74 ERA in 108 1/3 innings!)? But let’s not overcomplicate this: What Big Papi did this postseason was truly shocking, like Barry Bonds crossed with Babe Ruth and that cartoon where Bugs Bunny just kept hitting home runs. You really can’t stare at that World Series slash line enough: .668/.760/1.188. In six games!”
2007 Red Sox
“… the other three Red Sox championship teams all have obvious storylines,” Petriello wrote. “The ’04 team broke the curse. The ’18 team was the best. The ’13 team had the post-Boston Marathon impact, and the “we just traded away Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto to reset everything” impact.
“So … what were the ’07 Sox about? A transition period, perhaps. They still had a big chunk of the ’04 team, with Ortiz, Manny, Schilling, Varitek and others, but Dustin Pedroia was a rookie. Jacoby Ellsbury was a rookie. It was Daisuke Matsuzaka’s first year in America. It was the second year after they dealt Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins in a deal that returned Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, Jonathan Papelbon’s second year as the full-time closer and Jon Lester’s second year in the rotation. It was, in a lot of ways, a perfect mix of the old and the new. When you’ve won four rings in 25 years, they can’t all be the most memorable team in franchise history, can they?
“Frankly, my memory of this team comes down to this: Weeks before the World Series, I moved from Boston to New York. I went to a Red Sox bar in the East Village to watch this series. They outscored the Rockies 29-10 in a four-game sweep. It didn’t even feel that close.”
Red Sox fans older than a certain age undoubtedly have vivid memories of each of these all-conquering squads. The current delay in MLB’s 2020 season is a great opportunity to relive the best of times in Boston baseball over the last couple of generations.
