One Year Ago
- Thread starter SoxLegacy
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SoxLegacy said:
Papi's prediction of a first-pitch splitter, Hunter over-running the ball and missing on the reach back, the Bullpen Cop w00t, and Salty's dribbler past Iggy will always and forever be unforgotten. It's on my DVR forever.
Or until the next generation of hardware.
I remember it well.
I really should process the pics off my SLR and get them up here somewhere. Crappy phone placeholder for now:
I really should process the pics off my SLR and get them up here somewhere. Crappy phone placeholder for now:
This was an amazing night a year ago. I was in section 2 - row A - right against the wall. The guy behind me called the Grand slam before the bases were even loaded. The place shook. I'll never forget that game.
When I got back into baseball in the early '90s, all I wanted was an epic, iconic October home run to call my own - I was too young to watch/remember '75 and had lost interest by '86 (so no Fisk or Hendu for me).
David Ortiz has given me about 10 of 'em over the years. What a dude.
David Ortiz has given me about 10 of 'em over the years. What a dude.
I actually liked Buck's TIE GAME call. He put a lot of passion in it for him.rembrat said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSFMimAI3Q
Rembrat, I fully agree with you--easily an historic call that simply makes me smile and shiver at the same time--epic call. Al, I like Buck's call as well, but personally think O'Brien's is better. Love the look on Benoit's mug as he watches it.....can almost see the wheels turning like "Holy, shit, I am done". Finally, no idea why there's a tag line of Red Sox on this thread...I wrote it on a tablet and it popped up so I selected it, and could you explain your picture, ifmanis5? All I am coming up with are obscure references to Texieria and Lackey.....
I was at home watching on TV and when he hit it out Mrs Jerry asked me "Did that really just happen?"
My wife was terribly ill at the time and finally got some sleep. All I can remember is silently screaming and dancing around a room. It was pure joy.
Pure adrenaline is right.
Many might say the grand slam woke the fans up, but the sheer presence of Ortiz at the plate as the tying run was enough to get fans riled up. As Benoit took his warmup tosses, fans all around me spoke of the yet-to-happen heroics as if they were preordained. "Grand slam right here. No doubt."
Then it really happened, and no one was quite sure what to do, so we just jumped around screaming like maniacs.
I bear hugged a total stranger, and high-fived several others.
Many might say the grand slam woke the fans up, but the sheer presence of Ortiz at the plate as the tying run was enough to get fans riled up. As Benoit took his warmup tosses, fans all around me spoke of the yet-to-happen heroics as if they were preordained. "Grand slam right here. No doubt."
Then it really happened, and no one was quite sure what to do, so we just jumped around screaming like maniacs.
I bear hugged a total stranger, and high-fived several others.
Frank said:
I have to say, I know this feeling precisely. A few years ago, my now-wife, then-girlfriend had come off of working at the hospital for 30 hours and she simply hadn't slept. The Red Sox were losing 5-0 to the Orioles when she came over for a nap, and I turned off my laptop on that Sunday afternoon in May. She had fallen asleep -- but I couldn't. So I opened my laptop and MLB.tv reconnected.... and suddenly Julio Lugo beat out an infield single and the Red Sox had beat the Orioles on Mother's Day, 2008. "Silently screamed" is a perfect way to describe my actions there.
I remember it like it was yesterday.curly2 said:
My sister was in town, and with her moving to New Orleans, she had become a Saints fan. With the Saints beating the Patriots late and Brady throwing a pick with 2:24 to go, she started playing the Saints theme and dancing around my living room. I was livid, needless to say. With time running out and Brady having just converted a 4-and-4 to Austin Collie (!), he then threw to Thompkins in the end zone -- we all know how that went. I figuratively shit all over my sister after this and she was mad, but not at me, but at her now-beloved Saints.
But the Red Sox still had to play and a bunch of friends came over to have fun on Columbus Day Sunday and we were drinking a lot (to the point where we had to call the local packy to deliver us more beer, thank you DC for your loose liquor laws!) and Ortiz came up and our game of Cards Against Humanity had to stop -- Ortiz was batting with the bases loaded and the three Red Sox fans in the room had to watch. And Ortiz did what he did. And I ran through the first floor of my house in a loop four times in about ten seconds before I settled in my kitchen and punched my trash can in happiness so hard that it went everywhere and I had to clean it up once the euphoria subsided.
It was such a fucking awesome day.
Of all his heroics, to me that was the most "clutch" of all of them. It was the most probable and improbable result at the same time. On the one hand, there is the feeling, "of course he did it, that's what he does." On the other, I still cannot believe he did it.
My third favorite moment from that game was in the bottom of the ninth. Fielder had just ole'd a bad throw from Iggy, and the ball magically found its way through the hole in the screens in front of the Sox dugout to put Gomes on second. Salty pops up weakly down the first base line, but Fielder lets it bounce harmlessly off his glove. Fielder is frustrated and glares into crowd, and a little boy, while everyone else is trying to find the ball, gives Fielder a waive and says, "hello Prince Fielder." The look on Fielder's face is excellent. Porcello throw a wild pitch, Salty knocks one off Iggy's glove, and the Sox win three of the next four.
My third favorite moment from that game was in the bottom of the ninth. Fielder had just ole'd a bad throw from Iggy, and the ball magically found its way through the hole in the screens in front of the Sox dugout to put Gomes on second. Salty pops up weakly down the first base line, but Fielder lets it bounce harmlessly off his glove. Fielder is frustrated and glares into crowd, and a little boy, while everyone else is trying to find the ball, gives Fielder a waive and says, "hello Prince Fielder." The look on Fielder's face is excellent. Porcello throw a wild pitch, Salty knocks one off Iggy's glove, and the Sox win three of the next four.
I'm re-reading both the Sox GT and Patriots GT from that day and I'll post what said on Facebook that day: these are the good old days.
We're really fucking lucky.
We're really fucking lucky.
I screamed so loud the missus and the kid were like "WTF?" from upstairs. "You have to warn us when you're going to do that!"
"The sox are in the playoffs, baby- that's all the warning you need"
Had a ball texting my sis in NJ, posting on the board with you all (pages 49-52 are a must read for anyone from that game thread).
"The sox are in the playoffs, baby- that's all the warning you need"
Had a ball texting my sis in NJ, posting on the board with you all (pages 49-52 are a must read for anyone from that game thread).
Drove up to the game that day and listened to the Pats game with my then 13 year old son. I almost drove off the road when Brady fired the game winner to Thompkins and Zolak lost his mind. We were just passing the full lots on Beacon Street. I turned to him and said "well you know that means that the Sox biggest hero is going to pull this one out too." When Tiz strode to the plate with the bases loaded, we just kind of looked at each other and hoped. Bang. Brady and Ortiz, in one day. Delirium.CaptainLaddie said:
If anything, lucky is too small of a word for what we are.
This was without a doubt the greatest live sporting experience I have ever had. Fenway was so tight and frustrated and desperate for some kind of release. I seriously went insane. I screamed and jumped around and hugged at least five strangers in our section. My brother was back for game six and he said that a guy behind him asked him who the lunatic was who was with him at the last game because he had never seen anyone expressing pure joy and exhiliratiion so freely in his life. I was not alone in that expression that night. I mean, a single or a double doesn't get the job done there. A walk doesn't. It's grand slam or nothing really. There have been better hitters and better all around players to play for the Red Sox but you could argue that no player has had a greater impact on this team than David Ortiz.
Edit - Fenway was levitating after that hr. I can't imagine what it sounded like just outside the stadium and I would be curious to hear from anyone who was at games four or five in 2004 AND at this game if the sound was comparable.
Edit - Fenway was levitating after that hr. I can't imagine what it sounded like just outside the stadium and I would be curious to hear from anyone who was at games four or five in 2004 AND at this game if the sound was comparable.
I was there as well. Pavilion SRO, right above the first base side next to the press box. Buchholz was getting hit around and the Sox couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag. I was upset because not only were they losing but I was also putting off a shit ton of work to go to this game, thereby making the rest of my week quite stressful. So I wasn't a happy camper. After the Sox were retired in the 7th I decided to take a walk to collect myself and try to enjoy the rest of the game, as shitty as it was. I ended up in Pavilion SRO in the exact opposite section of where I originally was, over on the third base side. Middlebrooks ripped the double and I started to think "just make it interesting, score a couple runs."
Once the order turned over, my thoughts quickly turned to "just give Papi a chance to tie it." Because even in those rare situations where he doesn't come through, the atmosphere in Fenway when Ortiz has a chance to tie the game or give the Sox the lead late is electric. After Pedroia ripped the single to right field, you could feel the entire crowd thinking the same thing. The whole park was tense with anticipation throughout the pitching change. I was geared up for a long battle between Ortiz and Benoit, so I was a little surprised when he swung at the first pitch.
Right off the bat I could tell it was arguably the hardest hit ball I've ever seen. But from my angle (pretty much exactly the view at 1:33 in the video clip below), it didn't look like it had nearly enough height. I thought it was headed more towards the triangle at first. But then it curved, and it carried and Torii Hunter was right there, and I could just barely make out the ball drop neatly beside him as he flipped into the bullpen.
Everyone went batshit insane. I was running around in circles at the top of the concourse high fiving everyone I could reach and hugging all of the other guys in SRO I had just met minutes before. I think that was the most amazing part of the whole thing. Everyone was expecting Ortiz to do it (hell I was hoping for it from the moment we got multiple baserunners that inning) and he went out there and did it.
I was 11 years old in 2004 when Papi made me a baseball fan and a Sox fan with his heroics. To be standing there at Fenway, nearly 10 years later, watching him continue to do insane things in October was so surreal. If he doesn't get a statue, a number retirement, and a HOF induction....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSFMimAI3Q&t=93s
Once the order turned over, my thoughts quickly turned to "just give Papi a chance to tie it." Because even in those rare situations where he doesn't come through, the atmosphere in Fenway when Ortiz has a chance to tie the game or give the Sox the lead late is electric. After Pedroia ripped the single to right field, you could feel the entire crowd thinking the same thing. The whole park was tense with anticipation throughout the pitching change. I was geared up for a long battle between Ortiz and Benoit, so I was a little surprised when he swung at the first pitch.
Right off the bat I could tell it was arguably the hardest hit ball I've ever seen. But from my angle (pretty much exactly the view at 1:33 in the video clip below), it didn't look like it had nearly enough height. I thought it was headed more towards the triangle at first. But then it curved, and it carried and Torii Hunter was right there, and I could just barely make out the ball drop neatly beside him as he flipped into the bullpen.
Everyone went batshit insane. I was running around in circles at the top of the concourse high fiving everyone I could reach and hugging all of the other guys in SRO I had just met minutes before. I think that was the most amazing part of the whole thing. Everyone was expecting Ortiz to do it (hell I was hoping for it from the moment we got multiple baserunners that inning) and he went out there and did it.
I was 11 years old in 2004 when Papi made me a baseball fan and a Sox fan with his heroics. To be standing there at Fenway, nearly 10 years later, watching him continue to do insane things in October was so surreal. If he doesn't get a statue, a number retirement, and a HOF induction....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YSFMimAI3Q&t=93s
M
MentalDisabldLst
Guest
An under-rated part of the Ortiz moment is shown at 1:25 in that clip above - the bullpen catcher just turns his head, reaches over, and catches the grand slam ball, nonchalantly. No big deal. Pay no attention to the huge gentleman flinging himself over the wall at me. Or the fans going berserk. I'll just look over here and - oh, hey, there's a ball coming down out of the sky. Yoink!
Thank you for this.
CaptainLaddie said:
Thank you for this.
Frank said:
This was exactly how it went for me. My wife was five months pregnant at the time and had gone to bed early that night. I did the silent scream and dance around the room routine for a while, until I realized that I had no one to celebrate with. At that point, I knelt down in front of my dogs and gave them both big hugs. They hated the whole ordeal, but I didn't care.
I came to find out the next day that she wasn't asleep yet, so my controlled celebration was all for naught.
I'm gonna be honest, I love when the Red Sox win the World Series, but having a year off from the stress of playoff baseball every once in a while isn't the worst thing. That notwithstanding, these are really some great memories. One day we'll really appreciate just how good David Ortiz was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClylGO9wE1c
David Ortiz Hits Grand Slam. Game 2 ALCS. FOX, WEEI, WXYT Call
David Ortiz Hits Grand Slam. Game 2 ALCS. FOX, WEEI, WXYT Call
What gets me about that grand slam is how locked in he is. He doesn't crack a smile or do any crazy celebrating about saving the playoffs for the Sox. Ortiz is in the zone the whole time. His attitude when crossing the plate is "We ain't done with these bitches yet."
There's no such thing as clutch. Except David Ortiz.
Everyone who wandered with despair through the wilderness of 1975, 1978, 1986, 2003 et al appreciates full well the majesty of Big Papi. That granny was the cherry on top. (Or the whipped cream. The World Series might have been the cherry.)
Everyone who wandered with despair through the wilderness of 1975, 1978, 1986, 2003 et al appreciates full well the majesty of Big Papi. That granny was the cherry on top. (Or the whipped cream. The World Series might have been the cherry.)
Punchado said:
I was outside the stadium in the parking lot behind the Green Monster for all three. Our TV/audio rig runs about 10 seconds delayed, so you hear the crowd before you see what's happened. When Papi hit the slam last year, the roar was like nothing I've ever heard. My brother instantly turned to me and yelled "Grand Slam!" I knew instinctively he was right, but as a lifelong fan I didn't allow myself to believe it til I saw it 10 seconds later.
In Game 4 of 2004, everyone was all so emotionally drained that the sound was more like a collective gasp of exhaustion. Plus we knew we were still down 3-1. The next night it was more triumphant. Still, and maybe I'm just making this up in retrospect, but it feels like it was tinged with faint desperation and the clattering chains of the ghost of 1918.
The jubilation from Papi's 2013 slam had none of that. Just pure unadulterated ecstasy and release. Remember that for the 16 preceding innings we were absolutely getting our heads handed to us by Detroit pitching, and everything looked pretty bleak. The whole world turned around in that moment.
I was driving a 25 foot camper through New Jersey when this happened. I was working on a documentary and was dropping our sound guy off at the train station and was with two non baseball fans so I was overruled on radio rights. I had my iPad streaming the audio through my earbuds.
When they went down I decided to turn it off and join in the conversation with the other two guys in the camper. As it got later I grew more and more anxious to check on the game. The sound guy had fallen asleep, the PA in the back was lost in his phone, so I flipped the radio on and scanned for the game. I had the volume low so as not to disturb the sound guy, but I found it... just in time for Papi to step into the box. My scream when it went out made both guys jump out of their shorts. They thought we were about to crash.
I got into my hotel room just in time for the end of the game. Despite having just finished an 18 hour day, I couldn't sleep. It was the perfect way to finish that job, which had mostly sucked.
When they went down I decided to turn it off and join in the conversation with the other two guys in the camper. As it got later I grew more and more anxious to check on the game. The sound guy had fallen asleep, the PA in the back was lost in his phone, so I flipped the radio on and scanned for the game. I had the volume low so as not to disturb the sound guy, but I found it... just in time for Papi to step into the box. My scream when it went out made both guys jump out of their shorts. They thought we were about to crash.
I got into my hotel room just in time for the end of the game. Despite having just finished an 18 hour day, I couldn't sleep. It was the perfect way to finish that job, which had mostly sucked.
This was the first postseason my oldest son sat down and watched with me. When Ortiz hit that out we were screaming together and giving each other hugs and I felt like I could cross another important moment off the DAD list. Like others, I still get goosebumps watching it.
Ed Hillel said:
Yup. Of course. Koji came out of the bullpen in the ninth inning of game 2 of the ALCS. I watched parts of both of them last night on DVR and got myself confused.
Another reason I never say "with my luck...", you know, when a Debbie Downer type always predicts the worst. With bad luck, Koji could have had his bad second half last year. If he did, I don't know how far we get. Even if the Sox won it all, the stress with anybody else closing would have enormous compared to what it was with him.DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/feature/moment/_/page/mlbmomentpapigrandslam/papi-grand-slam
Interesting retrospective on espn.com, including thoughts from Mani Martinez, the bullpen catcher who caught the HR....
Interesting retrospective on espn.com, including thoughts from Mani Martinez, the bullpen catcher who caught the HR....
I fell asleep on the couch about 15 minutes before Papi's homer. It's in the top 5 regrets of my life.
DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
Of course I'm glad it happened. But after watching probably 160 regular-season games start to finish, including West Coasters that ended at 2 a.m., I doze on the Papi-Hunter-Horgan moment.
I'll never forgive myself.
Edit: But this is a time for celebration. Everyone. No more crying. Let's all raise a glass to Papi. TO PAPI!
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