Red Sox win 2013 World Series
This was the most unexpected championship in Red Sox history. After finishing in last place in 2012 and enduring the insufferable Bobby Valentine, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett, the Red Sox front office and then-GM Ben Cherington looked at the 2013 season as a way to reset and rebuild.
After firing Valentine and suckering the Dodgers into taking on the massive salaries of Gonzalez, Beckett, and Crawford, Cherington brought back former pitching coach John Farrell to manage the team. He then set about filling out the roster with lower cost veterans and journeymen in an effort to rebuild the character and leadership in the clubhouse and on the field.
In no one’s wildest dreams was this team expected to go 97-65 and win the division, but it was the perfect mix of players for that city in that year. With the Boston Marathon bombings shocking the city and the country, New England rallied around the Red Sox as the team helped heal the wounds with a season nobody saw coming.
It didn’t hurt that the new veterans and journeymen all had the best seasons of their careers at the same time. If ever a Red Sox team caught lightning in a bottle, it was the 2013 squad. They overcame a tough Detroit Tigers team in the ALCS to win the pennant and advanced to the World Series. They then defeated an excellent St. Louis Cardinals squad to win the unlikeliest World Series in their history.
In any other year, the 2013 Red Sox would’ve simply been a nice story, a fluke occurrence. But in 2013, they were exactly what the city of Boston and all of New England needed and for that, they’ll always hold a special place in the hearts of Red Sox fans.