4 Days in October

This post is triggered by my watching the ESPN 30for30 Documentary "4 Days in October," highlighting the four days of games 4-7 in the 2004 ALCS.

It's well established I'm a Red Sox fan. I think it's also been well established that my Red Sox obsession was borderline insane. The level that you've heard about but didn't believe those type of people existed unless you had seen it. Jimmy Fallon in Fever Pitch, without the girl. That was me.

I wrote over a month ago how I feel like I lost my interest in my teams; that I wasn't invested as much as I was. That's still true. You grow up, your life changes, you do things differently, whatever. I still think the best way I can describe it was that we accomplished what we intended - to win a championship. It's not like the relationships over, but it's not as special as it used to be. It's like when you're not trying to impress your job/girlfriend/baseball team (because I was trying to impress an baseball team). The comfort zone. Whatever. There was nothing I wanted more than to beat the Yankees and win a ring. I was also 16. Needless to say, I have a few other priorities. Beating the Yankees isn't as high as it used to be, but it still feels great.


2004 was the height of my obsession. I think we peaked. I remember every day of October. Every single day. How many days do you remember from six years ago?


There was so much built up into the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry that 2003-2004 was truly special. It may never happen again. The entire series of events took place so fast that you easily lose sight of how special/rare/unbelievable those four days were. It was a blur. Like a dream that never seemed it would ever come true.


It really hit me why I love sports; because it's real. It's uncontrollable, unpredictable, yet a perfect chaos. Most of the time it's nothing out of the ordinary. It feels good if it's your team. If it's not, it's just another let down. Take any movie or television show or novel. They aren't real. Real stories rarely have a happy ending. That's what makes the story of the 2004 ALCS real drama. Exciting drama. Once-in-a-lifetime drama. It's not just that the Sox beat the Yankees, it was the way they did it. No other team has ever come back from three games down to win (well until the Flyers did it in the 2010 ECF [what's up Flyers!]) The World Series didn't even matter because it was a boring sweep. Beating the Yankees was better than the World Series. The World Series was just the icing on the cake. And really, this story caught the entire nation. Red Sox Nation was the sportsman of the year for Sports Illustrated, and it was everyone's feel good story of 2004. Or my life.

I was glad to watch the 30for30 documentary. It was a little cheezy, but I loved it. The Simmons/Clarke part was stupid. Kevin Millar milked his 15 minutes. But the images and audio gave me 45 minutes of goosebumps. It reminded me of how happy I was for those 11 days. I would argue it's the happiest streak in my life. A natural high. Isn't that pathetic? Whatever, this was my past. I wouldn't of had it any other way.

Keep the Faith.