Things seemed grim for the 2004 Boston Red Sox during the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.
You know the story by now: Boston fell into a 3-0 hole and looked as if it was going to get eliminated by New York for the second straight year. But Dave Roberts stole second base, the Red Sox came back to advance to the World Series and sweep the St. Louis Cardinals to break the 86-year curse.
And according to Terry Francona, who managed the Red Sox at the time, his team felt pretty good after winning Game 4.
“I actually felt good about our ball club after we won that game. And I think our guys felt good, which is more important,” Francona told Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on MLB Network’s “High Heat.”
“My biggest concern was: we make a mistake we go home because we had played ourselves into a hole. So you have a Tony Clark double that bounces out, thankfully. If it doesn’t maybe they score there. I was concerned if somebody made a mistake, again, we go home. But really nobody did. It was a fun time to watch that group of players to play that high level of baseball. It was fun to be apart of.”
It certainly was a fun time.
Of course, Boston went on to win again in 2007 under Francona.
