Red Sox History: Reviving bad memories of Red Sox – Yankees duels
Yankees take Red Sox to the woodshed too often
The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees will face off with a three-game set. If a home-field advantage exists, it goes to Boston as the lyrical ballyard will be bustling with the games. Let’s juice up the hyperbole. A step back to darker days.
The Red Sox are in Red Barber’s famed catbird seat regarding the Wild Card. A thin lead over Toronto and New York as the season will soon finish off. They control their destiny, but this harkens back to the past when a New York series was met with as much trepidation as a colonoscopy exam.
The bully boys from the Bronx had sand kicked in their face in 2004 with an outrageous and historic comeback by the Red Sox. That catapulted Boston into extinguishing an 86 year curse. This has been Boston’s century with four championships.
Now take a trip back to less fortuitous times when New York took the Hub boys to the baseball woodshed in important games. This may or may not be a revisit to those more painful times in Red Sox history.
Red Sox miss Braves in crosstown clash
A positive is a delightful way to start, but it did become negative. Boston and Cleveland tussled in 1948 for the American League title. The Red Sox were in somewhat of a Golden Age, winning in 1946, flopping in 1947, and recovering in 1948.
The battle lines for Cleveland and Boston came down to the end of the season. Cleveland lost two of three to the Tigers, and the Yankees were in Boston for a pair. Boston won the first game, and the second was necessary to the Sox.
The Yankees were in the mix all season; were out of it at his point but could give Boston a nose bleed. Boston hammered four New York hurlers for 15 hits and ten runs, resulting in Cleveland and Boston going cleat to cleat in a one-game playoff.
Boston started journeyman Denny Galehouse in a bizarre move. Galehouse and later Elis Kinder got pounded, and Cleveland got the flag. That put the kibosh on a subway series as the Braves won the National League pennant.
Still, it did represent a necessary beat down of the Yankees when needed most. That set the stage for a similar situation in 1949.
Red Sox comeback is all for naught
The 1949 Red Sox won 96 games, but the New York Yankees won 97. That was all due to the final two games of the season. Two games to be played at Yankee Stadium, with Boston holding a slim one-game lead. A place few expected them to be in.
On July 4th, the Red Sox were in fifth place and dragging 12 games out. Slowly they chipped away until New York came to Fenway Park for three games in late September. Boston pushed aside the Bombers and took over first place. Then came the last two games of the season. Just win one in New York.
The first game was a heartbreaker for Boston when Johnny Lindell – a .239 hitter – slammed an eighth-inning home run to break a 4-4 tie. Joe Page hurled 6.2 innings of one-hit ball to pick up the win.
The final game was another loss. New York scored a run in the first and added four more in the eighth. Boston in the ninth finally got to the Yankees Vic Raschi with three runs, but that was it.
What is often passed over in Red Sox lore is the excellent second-half comeback. The real issue is Boston had far too many teams built for Fenway Park, and this one was typical, playing just .455 on the road. Still, they did sweep New York in a crucial series but then blew it all in the final two against the Yankees.
Yankees “Dent” Red Sox hopes once again
The 1978 season was a runaway for the Red Sox. By mid-May, they were in first place and eventually built up a ten-game lead only to squander it slowly. This was reminiscent of 1949 only in reverse.
Boston was not dead towards the end of the season and went on nine wins in a ten-game streak to set up a dramatic one-game playoff against the Yankees. To get there, Boston needed Luis Tiant at the end of the season. Louie tossed a shutout against Toronto as the Yankees lost at home against Cleveland.
That playoff game was Boston’s until the seventh when Bucky Dent lofted a soft fly ball to left field. Fenway Park can give and take with the Green Monster, and this “shot” would have been an out in just about every park in baseball.
Boston did keep hopes alive in the eighth with a pair of runs, but the life had been sucked out of the Red Sox with Dent’s home run. For this fan, Boston never should have been in that position as manager Don Zimmer made far too many bonehead moves during the season. If only El Tiant had been available for the playoff game?
Grady gives Red Sox fans a historic blunder
In 2003 the Red Sox had new ownership, and baseball had an expanded opportunity for reaching the pennant with a playoff system. Boston won 95 games, but the Evil Empire won 101 games. Both teams were solid. Playoff time and, of course, drama – high drama.
In Boston, Pedro Martinez was against Roger Clemens for game three, and the dustings started. Benches cleared, and Zimmer thought he was young again and charged after Pedro. Pedro showing no respect to the elderly, pushed Zimmer aside. Still, the Yankees won.
The series came down to game seven, and Boston grabbed a lead in New York. That evaporated in the eighth when manager Grady Little didn’t pull a tiring Martinez. New York ties it up, and on it goes.
In a memory far too fresh in many dark corners of Red Sox minds is Aaron Boone in the bottom of the eleventh. Boone takes Tim Wakefield deep, and the Curse of the Babino continues, but only for one more year.
Little’s patience with his ace resulted in his firing. Some of the hits were cheesy, but maybe a fresh arm would have had better luck? That is all an unknown, and this was quite similar to having Galehouse start that 1948 playoff game.
dark. Next. Five players that will carry the Red Sox to postseason