What year is your favorite Red Sox season?

[dbn]

I was born in '74, so '86 was the first season I remember on the list.  
 
Unquestionably the answer for me is 2004, for all the obvious reasons. 2013 would be a distant second, but also a wonderful season that deserves much love. Then '86. 2003 would be a strange choice, but it such a part of the 2004 story that it might be my 4th choice.

 

[Cumberland Blues]

Nothing has ever mattered as much as that mattered.  Which is why 2004 is my favorite season.

 
This.  It seems like a million years ago now...I cannot fathom anything consuming me the way the 2003/2004 seasons did.  It was not enjoyable at all...except for the end which of course made all the angst worthwhile.
 

 

[lxt]

I grew up in Brooklyn and was raised on the Mets. My grandfather played in the Yankee organization but raised us on the Mets. I still remember the toll attendant who wouldn't take my toll in 1986. He just screamed at me to "Get a Life". Maybe it was the Mets hat I wore. Then Henry came in an brought the Sox. I liked him in Miami and what Lucchino did in Baltimore. I even remember Werner in San Diego. I lost baseball during the strike and kind of lost my baseball heart. Like everyone else Sosa and McGwire brought me back but I never settled on a team. I just kind of followed what was going on with really following anyone. Then the new ownership came in and I loved them. Their desire to keep Fenway, the hiring of Theo and the team that was put on the field. So 2003 is my year. The season I became a Sox fan and remember why I loved baseball.

 

[keninten]

I had to vote 1967. Grew up in NH and everyone was following the Sox. In school they put TVs in the classrooms. I moved to the south in the early 1980`s. I guess what the other teams didn`t have for me was being with other fans going crazy. I really wanted to go to the Duk Boat parade but couldn`t. It may have made a bigger difference to me.

 

[grimshaw]

 
Probably no game summed up the fight of the 2003 team more than this game, in my mind. Granted it was a loss, but it encapsulated what was great, and flawed, about that team.
 
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200306120.shtml

Ramiro Mendoza used to pitch for the Red Sox??  I thought his whole career was with the Yankees.
That's the game I was thinking of when I mentioned 2003. 

 

[Strike4]

It still disturbs me how much 2004 means to me - not as a sports fan, but as a human being. How much I cared.

 

[soxtalon]

It has to be 2004.  Although I remember being surprised at how close 2013 came to being the same level of joy - a level that 2007 (though fun) never quite got close to.

SO 2004 followed VERY closely by 2013
 
Then 2007
 
Then some honorable mentions for me -
 
1988 - Morgan Magic had a very long stretch run of fun...
2003 - That was the first time I thought the Sox actually had it...but as mentioned above it's almost as if 2003-2004 is one big season in my memory now.
1999 - A fun year with Pedro and Nomar along with the great Indians series. 
1986 - The year that I became a Sox fan

 

[jasail]

In 2001 my father suffered a major heart attack and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He got past it, but his doctor gave him 3-5 years given the state of his heart and lungs at the time. In 2003 when Pedro was clearly running on fumes and Grady just left him out there I was shaking with rage, because I thought that that would be my father's one chance to see a world series victory and Gump had just pissed it away. My father lived and breathed baseball. He was a friend of Williams and Yaz and I still have a room full of memorabilia that I got from him (including an autographed Williams home run ball).

For me 2004 wasn't about angst so much as it was about my 70 year old father finally getting to see the Red Sox win a world series after a lifetime of close calls. As much as I loved 2013 (and no mistakes, that team was as much fun as the '75 one that nearly beat both of baseball's ruling juggernauts), nothing ever could top the happiness of being in the room with my father when Johnny Damon hit that grand slam. At that moment we both knew that Boston was going to win it all. For him it was a miracle.

 
This is why I love this game. Thanks for sharing!

 

[SumnerH]

2004 is the greatest sports story ever told. Nothing, for any team in any sport, could possibly top it.

 
This is truth.  This whole topic is bizarre.

 

[Frank Fenway]

2004 and 2013 are an absolute tie in my mind for totally different reasons. It's like picking a favorite kid or something. Can't be done. 

 

[TheoShmeo]

 
This is truth.  This whole topic is bizarre.

Yet 37% of the voters here disagree.
 
To me, that's the beauty of the topic.  I mean, I could never choose any season other than 2004, but many of the posts here about other seasons have been interesting and even compelling.
 
That said, if the question was phrased "what is most important Sox season," I would be surprised if 2004 did not win in a runaway.  So yeah, people can say and 100% mean that their favorite season was a different year.  People choose favorites for reasons other than what was the most defining, game changing and ultimately satisfying.  And indeed, 2004 was tense, the Sox were not good dominant until August, the Yankees series was a total grind, and other years were simply lighter and less tumultuous.  But 2004 is the season that I think the overwhelming number of us would say is the most important.   

 

[Pedro 4 99MVP]

It still disturbs me how much 2004 means to me - not as a sports fan, but as a human being. How much I cared.

THIS!!!! Outside of the birth of my children and watching my son win his state and NE wrestling titles, those 4 days in October are the most important days in my life. It is sort of disturbing and amazing at the same time. (and yes, I did put those days ahead of my wedding for a couple of reasons; 1. my wife doesn't read this, and 2. I always knew we would end up together, so the wedding was more a formality)

 

[DJnVa]

I'm really confused as to how anyone can pick any season other than 2004, and the fact that someone has fonder memories of a losing year than 2004? Different strokes I guess.

 

[smastroyin]

I think there is a journey versus result thing going on and I also think that is fair.
 
2004 was kind of a lame season and while these guys all came together in the playoffs, it didn't seem like they were on the same page all year.  You had the Schilling/Pedro dynamic going on and the long unfolding of Nomar's end as a Red Sox.  You had a hot start followed by three months of mediocrity with only the Varitek smashing ARod to show for it.  I don't know if people really remember how lame the whole world seemed when the Sox lost the "Pokey's was better" game and we were treated to shot after shot of Nomar sitting on the bench.  Then they did get hot after the trade deadline (but not immediately, we had about 10 games of freaking out about the trade and the team being lethargic before they went on their winning streak but that essentially ended when in mid September they got their asses handed to them by the Yankees "I guess the Yankees are my daddy" again when the division title was in reach.
 
the result trumps all of that, but I can also see that maybe people didn't enjoy the whole season as much as they might say they do now.  I'm sure the game threads from the July timeframe would not be kind to that team.

 

[DJnVa]

Sure. But to me the end of the season game threads would trump a late July one, just like while the 1986 team may have had rollicking game threads in June, but the last 2 would have been horrible.
 
 
Do they look back on the 2007 Patriots season as their favorite because the regular season was fun, even though the last game sucked?
 
I mean, I guess I can see that, but I don't understand it at all. Of course, I also don't understand how someone can be a Yankees fan, but it does happen.

 

[moondog80]

Yet 37% of the voters here disagree.
 
To me, that's the beauty of the topic.  I mean, I could never choose any season other than 2004, but many of the posts here about other seasons have been interesting and even compelling.
 
That said, if the question was phrased "what is most important Sox season," I would be surprised if 2004 did not win in a runaway.  So yeah, people can say and 100% mean that their favorite season was a different year.  People choose favorites for reasons other than what was the most defining, game changing and ultimately satisfying.  And indeed, 2004 was tense, the Sox were not good dominant until August, the Yankees series was a total grind, and other years were simply lighter and less tumultuous.  But 2004 is the season that I think the overwhelming number of us would say is the most important.   

 
 
Yeah, I get it.  Different seasons affect people different ways, and there's no accounting for taste.  That's fine.  I'm just saying that there will never, ever be anything like 2004, anywhere.  Just think of all the layers involved.  I mean, all the history, both long term and recent to 2004, then the way the series itself unfolded.    Even with he Cubs, what's the scenario where they win the WS that comes anywhere close to that?

 

[Al Zarilla]

Yet 37% of the voters here disagree.
 
To me, that's the beauty of the topic.  I mean, I could never choose any season other than 2004, but many of the posts here about other seasons have been interesting and even compelling.
 
That said, if the question was phrased "what is most important Sox season," I would be surprised if 2004 did not win in a runaway.  So yeah, people can say and 100% mean that their favorite season was a different year.  People choose favorites for reasons other than what was the most defining, game changing and ultimately satisfying.  And indeed, 2004 was tense, the Sox were not good dominant until August, the Yankees series was a total grind, and other years were simply lighter and less tumultuous.  But 2004 is the season that I think the overwhelming number of us would say is the most important.   

1967 was very important even with the World Series loss. The Sox had had 8 straight losing seasons since Ted's last years, and attendance had reached a near term low of 652,201 in 1965. It climbed to 811,172 in 1966 as the Sox had a decent second half. In 1967, it more than doubled and we've never looked back. You could say that 1967 was the most important year for the franchise, even though it fell one win short, in that it catapulted the team into top drawing echelon status for good. Still, 2004 is the most successful, satisfying, wonderful year, no doubt.

 

[chrisfont9]

Moondog, the variety of answers has more to do with where people were in life and the extent to which they could enjoy it. I was at Fenway in '75 and '86, and 3000 miles away in 2004. I personally experience sports far differently now than before I had kids. These are among the reasons someone might not just pick 2004 because it was so awesome (which it was, of course, but that's a pretty boring poll).

 

[brs3]

As weird as it is, I'm a nicer person to be around during baseball games than I was pre-2004. I get gripped by just about every season's incarnation of the Red Sox, but it was different. The lingering effects of a lost game or lost series or lost season dissipate faster. Not that I care less, but I guess I compare whatever current team's failures are against what the successful Sox teams did(or didn't do). That probably doesn't explain it, but I've felt like I'm playing with house money since 2004. 2013 was epic because of how it happened and what led to it, and how hugely important it was to the city of Boston, so I can see some people picking it. Finding excitement in young players helps ease the burden of a crap season. 
 
1997 was the year I really was gripped with the Red Sox, so following the path of Nomar and then Pedro made 2004 all the more special from the standpoint of 'growing up' with those hotshot yet flawed '98-'99 teams and then the good-but-not-great teams that immediately followed before 2003. Also, I was 23 in 2004, when going to work tired and/or hungover from the postseason was way, way, way easier.

 

[InsideTheParker]

It seems to me that one's vote has a lot to do with one's personality. I voted 2013 because it was so much fun, so much beyond expectations, and relatively stress-free. 2003 nearly led to our divorce, and 2004 was uncertain until the end. Those who chose 2004 might be to some extent adrenaline junkies. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Moondog, the variety of answers has more to do with where people were in life and the extent to which they could enjoy it. I was at Fenway in '75 and '86, and 3000 miles away in 2004. I personally experience sports far differently now than before I had kids. These are among the reasons someone might not just pick 2004 because it was so awesome (which it was, of course, but that's a pretty boring poll).

 
This is a great point.  I moved to a new state, took a new job, and lived in three different places (including crashing on a friends couch for a month) in 2004.  I was working long hours and didn't have cable for most of the summer (so no NESN), so the best I could do to follow the team was listening to the local sports radio show in the mornings and catch snippets of the games on the radio on my drive home from work at night.  Once I finally got cable in late September, I was able to watch more games and all of the post-season.
 
So while I unconditionally love that team and that post-season for what it was, I never felt as attached or involved that year as I have in the past or have since.  Which is why I chose 1986 as my favorite season despite the ending.  I was emotionally attached and far more intimately involved watching that team night in and night out.  '86 was more fun for me as a fan, even if they ripped my heart out in the end.

 

[GaryPeters71]

2004.
 
Made up for the heartache from 1972, 1975, 1978, 1986, 2003 etc.

 

[glasspusher]

2004 would have been my favorite if it didn't occur during my mother in law's wake and funeral, in NJ. The first game I missed was game 4 (I know, I know- last night of her wake). Since that was the first one they won, I vowed to not watch until the end of the ALCS. Not an easy task, where I was. It seemed to work. Loved the World Series, although I was a nervous wreck.
 
2013 allowed me to be a nervous wreck and love it without being a nervous wreck and hating it.
 
Edit: also, I fell in love with the sox in 1978, growing up in NJ(and I was rooting for them in The Toilet that summer!). Since I moved to California in 2002, their fortunes have...changed.

 

[NoXInNixon]

My favorite season is and has always been the next one.

 

[SoxinSeattle]

It's weird not picking '04 but in 86 I was an impressionable 12 year old. That season really defined how I view sports even today. Hendu's Homer (still my favorite sports moment) showed me sports could be magical and losing the WS taught me sports could be so painful and define a fan base for generations.

 

[smastroyin]

95 is definitely my favorite non championship year, for 3 primary reasons.

1) I guess people don't remember how miserable the decay from the 1990 team was. By 93 they were overpaid, boring, and had. In 94 they were on a similar path until the strike. 95 they were immediately relevant again.

2) winning with the island of misfit toys roster. Most of the team was not highly sought free agents or anything.

3) being able to answer the self important "I'm done with baseball after the strike" people with "I thought you were done with baseball" when they asked about the team. I'm a douche, ok? But man did that crowd annoy me.

 

[chrisfont9]

95 is definitely my favorite non championship year, for 3 primary reasons.

1) I guess people don't remember how miserable the decay from the 1990 team was. By 93 they were overpaid, boring, and had. In 94 they were on a similar path until the strike. 95 they were immediately relevant again.

2) winning with the island of misfit toys roster. Most of the team was not highly sought free agents or anything.

3) being able to answer the self important "I'm done with baseball after the strike" people with "I thought you were done with baseball" when they asked about the team. I'm a douche, ok? But man did that crowd annoy me.

That was quite a season. John Valentin was an 8-win player (bWAR)?!?!

 

[reggiecleveland]

The Yankees know they must beat us, or lose the war, if we can win tonight, all the world can return to broad sunlit uplands, but if we lose the whole world, will fall into a new dark age, made worse and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted fans, but if we win tonight, and If the Red Sox nation lasts 1000 years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.

 

[montoursvillefan]

All of the listed years. Dad told me as a young boy Sox are your team. 1967 sixth grade sports writer for elementary school paper. Dad said Yaz could go for triple crown that season so wrote a story about the potato farmer for final June publication. 75 was thrilling. 78 was confident until the end. 86 was bothersome fuck Clemens. 99 brought Pedro. 03 set the table. All the victories followed. Difficult to choose just one.

 

[Papo The Snow Tiger]

I've been giving this question a lot of thought and I'm still torn about my answer:
 
I became a Red Sox fan in 1967, basically because I was a seven year old and when I got home from school that October my Mom would have the World Series games on, and she was rooting for the Red Sox. And like most seven year olds, I rooted for the team my Mom did. A very pleasant memory. I remember most of the players from the subsequent years,  but I don't remember much of the games. The next spring my parents bought me my first Red Sox hat, and I've been onboard ever since.
 
1975 was the year I started following closely. I expected them to win all summer, and I remember thinking Bernie Carbo's homerun in Game 6 was an omen of their invincibility. Even though the outcome of the World Series was less than desirable, I found out that following a team closely can be fun, and that alone makes that team one of my favorites.
 
Even though the end of 1978 sucked balls, I can still look back at that year with some fondness. That lineup was stacked, and watching homeruns being hit by your team is lots of fun. They seemed invincible during that summer and when I went off to Pennsylvania that fall as a college freshman they had what I thought was a safe lead. Now, with three World Championships in during my lifetime in the bank, I can even look back at that 1978 playoff game with some fondness. Speaking baseball wise, it was a great game. And personally it was around that time I was getting over some homesickness and was getting used to living away at college. Just like that game marked the end of a period for the Red Sox, it kind of marked the end of a period in my life.
 
1986 was great because it marked the beginning of a period of contending Red Sox teams again, That was the first time in a while that the team was fun to watch again, and a few guys from the 1970's   Jim Rice, Dwight Evans and Bob Stanley were even on that team. Some redemption from 1978 was still possible.The ending really, really sucked though. Go Royals!
 
It was a little different watching the 2007 team. They were very, very good, and they were the first time in my lifetime that they finished with the best record in the league. But 2004 eliminated a lot of the angst. I kind of look at 2007 as like the second night of my honeymoon.
 
2013 was kind of like getting a really cool and really unexpected Christmas present.
 
But if I absolutely had to pick a favorite, it would be the 2004 team. It's been said by many different posters in many different ways, but in terms of shear joy, the moment Doug Mintkiewicz caught Keith Foulke's toss to first is the happiest moment of my life.

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

That was quite a season. John Valentin was an 8-win player (bWAR)?!?!

 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Valentin in his prime was probably the most underrated Sox player of the past half-century, at least--underrated because he played in the shadow of fellow Seton Hall alum Mo Vaughn (even though Val was the better player of the two), because he was immediately followed by the even better Nomar, and because there wasn't any one thing that stood out about him; he was good at everything. Injuries led to a swift decline after age 30, but before that, he was easily the best shortstop the Sox had between Petrocelli and Garciaparra--and you could make a case that he was better than Petrocelli; they were a close match offensively in their prime, but Valentin was probably the better defensive player of the two.
 
In 1995, he did it all: hit for contact, discipline and power, provided consistent, efficient SS defense, and ran the bases well. A solid defensive shortstop providing 20/20 power/speed, walking more than he struck out, and slashing .298/.399/.533--before steroids. It was a huge year--but he finished ninth in the MVP balloting. 
 
And though 1995 was certainly a career year, it wasn't a fluke: from 1993 to 1998, he averaged just over 5 bWAR per year. He slashed .288/.370/.475 for that stretch, with 17 HR and 37 doubles a year. 

 

[bankshot1]

I'm really confused as to how anyone can pick any season other than 2004, and the fact that someone has fonder memories of a losing year than 2004? Different strokes I guess.

2004 was spectacular for the obvious reasons, mostly delivering the first championship in 86 years and it took away a lot of disappointment for a lot of people. Depending upon when you became a Sox fan it eased the pain of (for me) '72, '75, '78 (81-the Fisk fuck-up) '86, '99 and the searing torture that was of '03.  And even in easing the pain, we were inflicted one last time by going down 0-3, to the MFY. So yes '04 was spectacular. but I still have it ranked an easy 2nd to 1967.
 
But in 1967 that pain wasn't there. My experience in 1967 as a Sox fan since the late 1950's was watching mostly a bad/mediocre team, with a few very good/good players, (aging Ted, Jensen, Runnels, Radatz-Yaz on the come) but by the mid '60s the Sox were pretty bad. The turn around from a 9th place team in '66 to a pennant winner in '67, was pure fun. PURE FUN. I was 16 there was no baggage for me to lug around. There was no curse, that stupid shit came later. and as already posted, the pennant race that summer was spectacular, maybe the best AL pennant race there will ever be. There was no Wild Card, its was a best of 10 teams, it was win the pennant or go home,
 
And lastly viewing the season in '67 with a 16 YO kid's perspective, versus viewing 2004 with a somewhat jaded 53 YO perspective is a tough comparison.
 
Don't get me wrong i was over the top happy when we finally won in '04, but for me it was as much very much needed relief as happy.
 
1967 was JOY.
 
It was that unique a season

 

[Al Zarilla]

 
 
But if I absolutely had to pick a favorite, it would be the 2004 team. It's been said by many different posters in many different ways, but in terms of shear joy, the moment Doug Mintkiewicz caught Keith Foulke's toss to first is the happiest moment of my life.

People often cite the birth of a child, or getting married as happiest moment, even hero ballplayers or died in the wool sports fans. But, when I think of those events, the first, you worry about whether the kid is going to be OK. Sure, he has 10 fingers and toes (what the nurse said when I asked about one of my kids), but how is every other aspect going to be, mental and physical, as he grows up? Big responsibility ahead, too. As for the wedding day, it's, gee, should I really be getting married at this stage in my life; is she the right one? She's asking the same stuff to herself, of course. When the Red Sox won in 2004 though, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. The curse was gone; I won't die w/o seeing the Sox do it all. So, you may be right. It might not have been the most important moment, but happiest, I can go along with that.

 

[Hagios]

2007
 
I used to live in Boston and had Fenway-Kenmore parking sticker. I used to park on the side of the street that went to Jillians. Someone smashed the windshield of my car after 2003 game 7. Boston plates, Fenway parking sticker, ten year old Subaru, and they smashed it. I got away from being a serious sports fan after a while after that. Besides, I kind of felt like the team needed (A) a core of home-grown talent, and (B) to win the division, in order to really wipe away every last vestige of the curse. And I just have a lot more fun when I can follow players from the minors to the big leagues. Dustin Pedroia, Dreamboat's free taco, Lester's dominance, and Papelbon was awesome back then.
 
edit: or was the free taco the following year? Memories.

 

[bankshot1]

Tacoby's stolen base was in 2007

 

[Joe Shlabotnick]

It was close for me. 1967 was the year I came of age as a Sox fan, but 2004 beats them all because of its cathartic nature.

 

[Rasputin]

The Yankees know they must beat us, or lose the war, if we can win tonight, all the world can return to broad sunlit uplands, but if we lose the whole world, will fall into a new dark age, made worse and perhaps more protracted by the likes of perverted fans, but if we win tonight, and If the Red Sox nation lasts 1000 years, men will still say, this was their finest hour.

 
From that day to the end of the world, we can know that we've been in a worse spot and come out ahead.
 
Our finest hour, indeed.

 

[Greg Blosser]

2004, of course, even though I can't really separate '03 and '04 in the sense that it was a constant psychodrama from Opening Day '03 straight through to 10/27/04.  Even that offseason was more exciting than most regular seasons I can remember.
 
Regardless, that was the pinnacle and thank God we'll never have to go through something like that again.
 
That said, 1995 may have been the most purely enjoyable season I ever experienced.  I became a fan when I was 5, in '77.  I remember the Dent HR, being kind of bummed out that they got rid of the red hats, and pretty much all of my favorite players leaving over a three year span.  I'd pretty much lost interest by the time Yaz retired and, other than playoffs and a very occasional trip to Fenway, don't think I consciously went out of my way to watch a game for the next ten years.  I turned 21 in '93 and figured that a nice way to kill a summer night would be to spend it drinking beer in the bleachers.  I got more than I bargained for in that as soon as I set foot into Fenway, I instantaneously fell in love with the whole thing all over again.  From that night on, I was all-in.  Of course, these were the Butch years and they were pretty much awful, though Mo, Val, Naehring, and Sele (not to mention DD at the helm) all boded well for the future.  Finally, the strike ended and baseball was back... and for the first time in my adult life, I was watching a good Red Sox team.  And for about a two and a half month stretch that summer, Wakefield was Pedro before there was a Pedro (even though Pedro was just starting to be Pedro up in Montreal... but that's not the point).  It seemed that every time he took the mound, there was a very good chance he'd throw a no-no.  
 
They were eventually killed off by Tony Pena, Infant Manny, and co., but it still felt so good to be rooting for a Sox team that was able to maintain a hot stretch for more than a week or so at a time.  Granted, the residual good karma I felt evaporated quickly when they won, like, 5 games in April '96, but '95 was my first taste of success, I was grateful for it, and overall it was just a hell of a good time.

 

[Buckner's Boots]

1988. Morgan's Magic. Working at a boys camp in Maine, and sneaking off to the parking lot after the kids were all in bed to listen to the Red Sox on my car radio. Great stuff.

 

[GoJeff!]

I chose 1999.
 
2004 was a deeper experience. I was at ALCS game 3 and have never felt worse as a fan. Not only were they going to lose to the Yankees again, but the window was over. Nomar was gone, Pedro would be gone, Varitek was a question mark. The low made the comeback unbelievable, but 2004 was such an emotional roller coaster that it is not all joy for me.
1999 was great. I wasn't living in Boston, but I had tons of money and time, and watched lots of games. Pedro's season, even at the time, was clearly the greatest performance I'd ever see, and the team looked just good enough to make a run for a title.
I bought great seats to ALDS game 3 and 4, and then flew to Cleveland alone to go to game 5. The loss in the ALCS was the only downer, but I yelled at Roger and cheered Pedro in game 3 and didn't really expect them to win anyway. That season is like a happy fantasy, versus the epic horror and triumph of 2004.

 

[garlan5]

2013 because no way in hell did I think they were going to ride that good luck wave into a world series title. But they did. No way would we put together enough runs to beat Detroits pitching.  No way David Ortiz can muster up enough magic and blast a fucking grand slam. No way Jonny Gomes is gonna get another big hit here.  No way Victorino is gonna even muster a hit here to keep the line moving.  I kepth thinking holy shit someone is eventually gonna crush one of Kojis 88 mph fastballs.  How many walk offs that year? It seemed like it was a record amount. I kept waiting and waiting for that team to turn into pumpkins.  It just seemed like they were the biggest over achievers ever. I loved every minute of it.  My wife and I started dating shortly after the 07 season so this was our first championship together.  She's a sports fan in general and a converted Sox fan since marriage.  She really fell in love with that team and the playoffs in 2013 were really magical for her as well.  The things that transpired after the bombings gave that group and probably all the fans (at least for me) a edge that seemed near untouchable.  It was like destiny.  I felt something after the bombings. I felt such an emotional connection to the team and the city that I never felt before.  I'm from VA but I felt like such a connection after.  I remember watching the ceremony, post bombing, at Fenway when they honored Team Hoyt and losing it emotionally.  My wife had an aunt who had recently passed and suffered from ALS for over 10 years and had been paralyzed and confined into a wheel chair unable to speak or move.  Rick Hoyt's condition and wheel chair confinement appeared similar to my wife's aunt's condition. ( i realize he did not have ALS). For some reason when the crowd stood and cheered that man I lost it so fast.  A emotional person I am not but for some reason that pushed me to my emotional limit.  My wife was with me watching that.  I've only cried a couple of time around her.  Once when I heard the news of my 5yr old niece had a rare cancer, once when i recieved a phone call that a close friend died, and this.  We never spoke about that emotional event and why I broke down strangely enough.  She knows though. We both saw her aunt in that man that day.  It's a strange thing. I get emotional thinking about it now. Capping that emotional season off with a world series was just fitting.  Sorry my story was rambling about and probably didn't make a lot of sense.  I'm not even going to go and proof read this.
 
edit: clarity on ALS portion.

 

[brandonchristensen]

2003 and 2004 are my favorites with 2004s ending edging it out.

 

[Al Zarilla]

2003 and 2004 are my favorites with 2004s ending edging it out.

2003? How could that possibly be?
 
Edit, I see others have voted 2003. 

 

[bschase2]

I said 1986. It's because of 1986 that I am a Red Sox fan. I remember having a cut out from the news paper on my bulletin board in my room (I was 10) that had the stat of the most consecutive wins to start a season, with Roger high up on the list of names I had never heard of. That year made me care about baseball, and the end made me a Sox fan. (I actually was looking for the stat after posting this, and found this  http://articles.latimes.com/1986-07-03/sports/sp-1065_1_roger-clemens )
 
2003 and 2004 are wrapped up into one extraordinary experience. One only needs remember the spring training games between the Sox and the MFY in 2004 to put that time into perspective.I don't think there was a better sports experience in my life, but it covered two seasons. 2003 isn't #1, and 2004 means more because of 2003. 
 
But god do I miss the way the games felt those two years. 

 

[deanx0]

1977 was my first year in little league and the first year when I built my schedule around the Red Sox.  That team was enjoyable to watch at the plate.  Except for the black hole of Burleson and Doyle, everyone else could go deep in a hurry.  Eight guys with double-digit homers, five with 20+, three with 30+.  They won 97 games and kept it interesting all year.  This game was a perfect example of how an 8YO could get hooked to the sport by that team:  
 
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197707040.shtml

 
Almost went with this one as well. The 33 HR in 10 games was incredible, particularly as many of the homers came against the Orioles and Yankees.

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

People often cite the birth of a child, or getting married as happiest moment, even hero ballplayers or died in the wool sports fans. But, when I think of those events, the first, you worry about whether the kid is going to be OK. Sure, he has 10 fingers and toes (what the nurse said when I asked about one of my kids), but how is every other aspect going to be, mental and physical, as he grows up? Big responsibility ahead, too. As for the wedding day, it's, gee, should I really be getting married at this stage in my life; is she the right one? She's asking the same stuff to herself, of course. When the Red Sox won in 2004 though, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. The curse was gone; I won't die w/o seeing the Sox do it all. So, you may be right. It might not have been the most important moment, but happiest, I can go along with that.

 
This, all of this, although for me that "happiest moment" was Damon's slam in ALCS game 7. Because at that point, I knew we had beaten the Yankees, and somehow I also knew (with irrational but complete certainty) that we would win the WS as well. It was the moment when 2004 left the realm of anguish and expiation and entered the realm of freedom and delight; it was "Three Little Birds," nine years early. There were moments of excitement and tension the rest of that game, and in the Series that followed, but for me at least, no more moments of uncertainty. The burden had been lifted; we were saved.

 

[TeddysBonefish]

Yes, 2103 was fun (and meaningful), but nothing can come close to 2004, almost in all of sports as far as I am concerned (the Miracle on Ice might be the one thing that beats it). There was so much history so much buildup over years to get to it. It still does not seem real.

 

[ookami7m]

This was closer than I thought it would be for me. My snap reaction was 2004 because it was the catharsis of 20 years as a Sox fan for me. But 2013 crept up closer and closer for me as I thought about watching the games with my then 6 year old daughter and leaving post it notes with the scores on her bed for her to find after I had left for work the next day on school days. Add in the Marathon and the stuff off the field and it's a surprisingly close vote for me. 2004 by like a foot.

 

[Flynn4ever]

2004, baby! It was my first year on SoSH and my first year as a married man, the Sox finally breaking through all the way was icing on the cake. I'm sure I posted this anecdote before but when I was at work and saw on Gameday on my computer "in play (out)" my first thought was of a little old woman in my hometown of Binghamton N.Y. who saw me wearing my Sox cap at the mall after the '86 series who told me "they'll probably never win it all in my lifetime, but they will in yours." I sure hope she lived to 2004 but I kind of doubt she did.

 

[brandonchristensen]

2003? How could that possibly be?
 
Edit, I see others have voted 2003. 

Everything up to the end was so much fun. That's when I first started reading SOSH, though I didn't have an account at the time. Cabin Mirror. All that shit. Cowboy Up.

Such a stark personality shift from the years prior where you had all stars but no TEAM (25 cabs).

It ended awfully but what a series. Oakland was incredible, too.