What year is your favorite Red Sox season?

[Dewy4PrezII]

I grew up a sox fan solely because of my best friend when I was just a kid. They were Irish Catholic from Boston complete with thick Boston accents and we lived 3 doors apart in Connecticut. My father died when I was 8 and 2 years later Boston was on a run.

1978 cemented me a sox fan for life. I was ten when Bucky killed our hopes. 8 years later I was in high school when Calvin Schiraldi couldn't close the door. I loved both of those teams but 2004 exorcized their demons. Nothing comes close for me.

I was crushed after Aaron Boones home run (though to this day I have still never seen it. After Grady refused to pull a gassed Pedro I walked out of the bar and went home.

The 19 to 8 drubbing was more heartache than I could take. The next morning I played golf. The grounds keeper was a huge sox fan and had cut a B into the fairway of the Par 5 18 and I felt an odd ray of hope after seeing that.

After the game 4 victory I told my boss, a yankee fan, that if Boston won game 5 that Curt Schilling would have his Kirk Gibson moment in game 6 and when we won game 6 that we would beat the yanks in game 7.

I carried my wife around the bar in a victory lap after Foulke underhanded to first and I traveled to Boston for the Parade which brought everything together.

2007 was great and 2013 was tremendously unexpected and a special group of guys but that 2004 team was special.

 

[Sampo Gida]

Has to be 2004 for me. Followed by 1967 and 1975. 1978 could have topped all 3 if not for he who shall not be named . 1999 and 2003 were pretty close too. Not sure why I don't appreciate 2007 and 2013 more.

 

[Al Zarilla]

Has to be 2004 for me. Followed by 1967 and 1975. 1978 could have topped all 3 if not for he who shall not be named . 1999 and 2003 were pretty close too. Not sure why I don't appreciate 2007 and 2013 more.

I'm not sure why you don't either. Maybe something else personal going on to detract? 2003 was great until the four inning H-bomb at the end of the last game, which, to me, wiped out the whole thing as H-bombs tend to do. Sorry, like brainstorming, not supposed to question the first round of ideas.

 

[InsideTheParker]

SG, think back to the entire year of 2013, how the Sox won games in bunches from the get-go, how much the teammates seemed to appreciate each other. 2013 was greatly enhanced by the WS win, but it was fun all season long.

 

[aminahyaquin]

I picked 2004 because it was a toboggan ride of pure joy. Fast, furious, exhilarating Also, at the end of the season, my Thanksgiving and happiness was so complete, because the ending was so perfect, I seriously felt, okay now I can die happy any time after this, thank you God. There has been no better season for me, and I just cannot imagine one for any Sox fan whose life has covered so many searching seasons. But however, there have been wonderful years before.

1967, I can still recite the lineup. I vividly remember Expo 67 and the cheers of the Canadians yelling and applauding along with New Englanders to the scores being announced on the ubiquitous newfangled transistor radios at the monorail stops. and, Captain Carl wins the Triple Crown.
1976, all so wonderful, Carlton Fisk's home run blast and that newsreel sports sublime moment for all time......1996 Mo Vaughn wins the AL MVP. So many years he was to me he the brightest spot on the team and a community legend too. 1986 was great, too, but for me Bill Buckner's heroism was unfairly overshadowed by management's failure to take the man out as he physically crumbled in the last two innings. Sigh. But still, what memories since I first became a fan, as a 3 year old from Middleboro, Massachusetts, who spent 32 years in NYC and was an affiliate of the Fan club that used to meet in the old Gulf Western building and take a bus to Boston for the Yankee away games. The BLOHARDS. Those were great years too. When I was a bartender at McManus Cafe in NYC (which job put me through Fordham U) , I can still remember my boss having a fit because he came in one summer day and a bunch of my male customers were sitting at the bar topless. That is because I would not serve them until they removed their Red Sox S--k tee shirts. LOL. WHATTA TEAM. The epitome of sports loyalty. Every year is still a good one for me to love the Sox.

 

[Darnell's Son]

Bernie Carbohydrate wrote about his favorite season at the .com.

Spoiler: What year?

1989

 

[j44thor]

"Back to Foulke" will forever be etched in my memory banks.

 

[EllisTheRimMan]

This is so tough, but it does remind me how lucky I am that my dad and my uncles made me a Red Sox fan even though I grew up near Philly. After falling completely in love with the laundry in '67, '75 and '78 (I remember running home from school to catch the one game play-in), I came to school here in the '80's and and stayed to work after. Got season tix (night package/bleachers right behind Sox pen) for $5/6 a pop and went to 3 playoffs and one WS in that time before moving away for Med School. Those years were special in so many ways especially the home win streak under Morgan Magic, but they ended badly or even horribly - '86. Like others nothing tops 2004, and for 2007 I went to game 1 of the ALDS sitting right at the LF jut-out dropping peanut shells on the foul line. I was living in California but was here on business and getting ready to move back in 2009. That all said, there is nothing that tops 2013 in terms of sheer joy for me as a sports fan. I can't even count the number of times I said to myself, out loud or wrote on this site, "I really like this team". They were the most likeable group of athletes I ever cheered on. I went to game 2 of the ALCS and was euphoric after Papi's Slam. However, my favorite game that year was Aug 1 against Seattle and King Felix. Down 7-1 early I was with my son, daughter and a neighbor and her daughter. We were 3rd row behind the Sox dugout. If it weren't for the fact that my neighbor hadn't been to Sox game in more than a decade, I would have likely left early.... But we stayed and saw this: http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_08_01_seamlb_bosmlb_1&c_id=bos#game=2013_08_01_seamlb_bosmlb_1,game_state=Wrapup,game_tab=box

 

[TheoShmeo]

If you remove 2004 from the equation, I would choose 2013, too.

There was so much to love.

First and foremost, the palpable sense that the team was profoundly affected and driven by the marathon tragedy. I'm not going to to some mystical force type thing. But I do think it served as a tremendous motivation and unifying feature. Quantifying it is impossible. But something was there and that was pretty special in my mind. If nothing else, what the Sox were doing was an elixir, albeit a substantially lesser one for those directly affected (I assume but don't know, of course).

Then there was the many comeback wins. It got to a point when it was no longer surprising and you just sort of expected it. I called the shot on one of Gomes' mid season walk off homers. "He's going to win it right here." And then he did. Of course he did. I was also at that Seattle game you mentioned, Ellis. My three work colleagues all left as they live in the burbs and it looked bleak. Given that I was staying in a hotel near Fenway, I had no reason to leave and proceeded to taunt them with texts as the victory unfolded. What an amazing night.

Another feature was the many incredible characters on that team. Jonny Gomes. Koji. David. Victorino and the Three Little Birds. Playoffs insert Xander. What a lovable bunch of Red Sox.

And last was the amazing playoff run. A somewhat overlooked play was the grounder to short that Victorino beat out for the clinching game, game winning RBI in the Tampa series. Pure Shane. And the amazing pitching that matched the Tigers' aces in the ALCS. Of course, Papi's slam (on the same day that Brady lead a redunkulous comeback over the Saints; best Papi Brady Day ever). I was lucky enough to be at that one, too, and I'll never forget my then 13-year old son going from total dejection to total joy with one swing of the bat. And of course the World Series, with that final dominant performance by Lackey in Game 6, which removed any possibility of a Halloween Night Game 7, which would have seemed more than ominous. That the Sox won their ONLY WS in Boston since near the turn of the century cannot be overlooked either. As glorious as 2004 was, only a relative handful of Sox fans got to experience the clincher in person.

Note: Very late edit to the last line, for clarity.

 

[m0ckduck]

On a counterfactual note, my favorite year is the 2001 season that was supposed to happen. The one where Manny Ramirez— he of the 1.154 OPS in CLE over 118 games— was inserted into the lineup behind Nomar and Carl Everett (an All-star in 2000 with a .956 OPS who bounced back seamlessly after that weird head-butting incident) to give opposing pitchers fits all summer. The one where Pedro (coming off the 291 ERA+ season) again anchored a top pitching staff, bolstered by Jimy Williams' bullpen management and our shrewd GM adding a few key pieces off the scrap heap. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[alydar]

My dark horse candidate would be 1995, a fun little ride of a year featuring signature performances by two of my all-time favorite Sox players, Valentin and Wakefield.

+1 on this. I remember, in mid-August, a debate on Baseball Tonight if Wakefield could pitch games 1, 3, 5, and 7 of a series, as by that point he was something ridiculous like 9 - 1. League started to figure him out a bit by September, and he wasn't an unstoppable force come the playoffs. I believe that season also saw Erik Hanson delivering a really solid season for the Sox, especially considering he hurt his elow midway and basically couldn't throw a curveball or slider and had to rely exclusively on the location of his change and fastball.

 

[MiracleOfO2704]

+1 on this. I remember, in mid-August, a debate on Baseball Tonight if Wakefield could pitch games 1, 3, 5, and 7 of a series, as by that point he was something ridiculous like 9 - 1. League started to figure him out a bit by September, and he wasn't an unstoppable force come the playoffs. I believe that season also saw Erik Hanson delivering a really solid season for the Sox, especially considering he hurt his elow midway and basically couldn't throw a curveball or slider and had to rely exclusively on the location of his change and fastball.

I remember the game when it started to happen against Wakefield. They were in the Kingdome for an August West Coast road trip, and he started the game 14-2 with a 1.65 ERA. That night, he was done by the 3rd inning, having given up a grand slam AND a 3-run home run to Mike Blowers. Including that game, he went 2-6 down the stretch, raising his ERA a full run in that time.

Here it is: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA199508180.shtml

And I guess his slide was worse than I remembered. That 2-6 was after this game, not including.

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

I remember the game when it started to happen against Wakefield. They were in the Kingdome for an August West Coast road trip, and he started the game 14-2 with a 1.65 ERA. That night, he was done by the 3rd inning, having given up a grand slam AND a 3-run home run to Mike Blowers. Including that game, he went 2-6 down the stretch, raising his ERA a full run in that time.

Here it is: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA199508180.shtml

And I guess his slide was worse than I remembered. That 2-6 was after this game, not including.

One could argue it started in the 9th inning of his previous start against the Orioles. He took a NoNo into the seventh before Palmeiro broke it up with a HR. But in the 9th he went BB,K,Triple,BB,BB before getting pulled.

I had the privilidge of sitting right behind home plate about 7 or 8 rows up .. Incredible seats to watch a knuckleball pitcher.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS199508130.shtml

 

[AbbyNoho]

2004 was the best because of all it meant, but it was super angsty and there were multiple points where I was just screaming at the television/radio in disgust. 2013 was pure fun (on the field).

 

[Snodgrass'Muff]

Can I change my answer to "next year."? Pitchers and catchers can't report soon enough...