2003 ALCS Game 7: Yankees vs. Red Sox
GROUP DISCUSSION
October 17, 2003

Michael Walls: Babe Ruth. Bucky Dent. Bill Buckner. And now – Aaron Boone. All in the history books, and all known in the hearts of Red Sox fans as "dream killers."

Just like 25 years ago, as Bucky Dent, snuffed out the dreams of Sox fans everywhere, by clubbing a homerun over the Green Monster – Aaron Boone snuffed those dreams again with a walk-off shot in the bottom of the 11th of the ALCS’ game 7.

Aaron Boone. Aaron fucking Boone. In a long line of baseball Boone’s, Aaron is the runt of the litter – with no substantial accomplishments to speak of. A nobody. Without that homerun, he most likely would have completed his career in relative obscurity. His best claim to fame would be brother of Brett, son of Bob, and grandson of Ray.

When Bucky hit his famous homerun, people said, "Bucky who?" Then proceeded to immortalize him in baseball lore. Aaron Boone is destined to be immortalized the same way. Boone is now the modern Red Sox generation’s "Bucky Dent." In 25 years, when the Red Sox make another run for the World Series, Boone’s "11th inning walk-off" will be shown over and over again, as a reminder of what can happen when you believe too much.

If you think about it, Dent’s homerun wasn’t nearly as devastating as Boone’s blast. Dent hit his homerun in a one-game playoff at the end of the 1978 regular season. The winner went to the playoffs. The homerun came in the 7th inning. Not a dramatic, game-winning, walk-off. The Sox still had two innings to come back, but Yaz popped up in Boston’s final at-bat.

Aaron Boone hit a game-winning, walk-off homer, in the 11th inning of game 7 of the American League Championship Series. The only thing more dramatic would be if it were the World Series.

I don’t believe in curses, but I’ll be damned if I can explain what happened this playoff season as the world watched with unbridled anticipation of a possible Cubs-Red Sox World Series. With only 10 cumulative outs left between both teams in order to advance to the World Series, and as the world prepared for the ultimate baseball match-up, the baseball Gods reached down and pulled the rugs out. They teased us, toyed with us, made us doubt the power of curses, they made us believe in the unbelievable – and gave us the ultimate ride in probably the most memorable baseball playoffs this generation of baseball fans has ever seen. But like most rides, they end. And depending on which team you’re rooting for, or your tolerance for motion sickness, that end is either a triumph or a tragedy.

David Brown: I have been a Yankee fan since I could first understand the concept of rooting for one team. I can remember watching Graig Nettles catch the final out in the Bucky Dent game in 1978, when I was six years old. Twenty-five years later, I just watched the greatest game I have ever seen. No victory meant more to any Yankee fan in the last 25 years than this one.

You see, the Yanks have their own version of The Curse. It involves losing in the playoffs to the Sox. It can never be allowed to happen. It is our biggest fear. Despite all the years of success, all the championships, all the glory, the thought of having to watch the Red Sox celebrate a pennant victory over the Yanks was sickening. This was our World Series. I could even stomach a Marlins championship at this point, painful as it would be.

Grady Little will take a lot of heat for this loss, as he has all season. It's tough to blame the guy for letting his best pitcher, the best in the league, stay in the game. The problem is that Little was never in control of this team (fortunately for him, this team was so close and so good it didn't matter for most of the season). He was afraid to pull the trigger on Pedro. It was obvious he wanted to, but the fact that he jogged out to the mound showed that he had no intention of yanking him unless Pedro asked him to, which would never happen in any circumstance.

The play of the game was Matsui scoring on the blooper by Posada. He must have had a perfect angle on it. I still don't know how he scored. You can't take a chance in that situation. Either he did or he could tell for sure that the ball was going to drop.

What vindication for Posada, for Garcia, for Mussina, for Boone (now and forever, Aaron Fucking Boone – a guy who I have been blasting since the day he came over from Cincy), for Zimmer and for Clemens. Nothing was sweeter for Yankee fans than watching Pedro walk off the mound after blowing the season in front of a hostile New York crowd.

One last thought: after watching this series, is there anyone who would take Nomar over Jeter if you were starting a baseball team? I'll take DJ every time.

Chris Orcutt : The way I see it is The Red Sox and their fans have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of and they can forget about attributing this one to "The Curse." It's not like there was a humiliating Bill Buckner-like error that cost them the game or that they completely fell apart at the end – they played some incredible baseball. The decision to keep Pedro in is going to be seen as the critical factor but, at the time, it was the right decision. His pitches were in the 90s - faster than he had thrown all night – and he still completely had his control. Everyone watching knew that the teams were evenly matched and that it could go either way at any moment. It just happened to be the Yankees that belted the game-winning homer. No fate, no Curse – just two great teams playing great baseball.

Of course it would have been great for everyone if the Sox (and/or Cubs) had won. I mean, really, who wants to see a World Series with the Yanks and the Marlins when we've been treated to so much drama in the playoffs because of two legendary underdog teams? I'm betting Fox's ratings are going to crash during the Series.

And even though my team lost, it is good to see that Clemens will not go out of baseball so pathetically shaken up. He's an awesome pitcher and competitor, and he deserves to go out with dignity. I just won't stick
around to watch.

Mike Spinney: When Grady Little failed to lift Pedro, I knew it was all gonna come crashing down. I've been hearing all year that Grady Little's management "skills" cost the Sox games all year, but I was always willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. No more. Grady could have gone to Embree or Timlin with a two run lead and, the way those guys have been pitching, likely escaped with a 5-4 lead going into the 8th – enough to win the game.

I cannot believe the idiocy that guy displayed in the most clutch game of the year, and I cannot see Theo extending that moron's contract after demonstrating he is not fit to manage a high payroll team. Besides, he capitulated his managerial responsibilities to Pedro Martinez, so he clearly doesn't want the job anymore anyway.

I am in such a funk right now I can't even tell you.

Stephan Finch: First, I really mean this – congratulations to the Yankee fans, who clearly had the tiny little bit extra that the Red Sox didn't have. But let me take issue with the self-congratulatory fantasy that cheering for "the Evil Empire" brings thee closer to God on this occassion because the Yankees were weilding their $170 million sword against wicked-souled destroyers of good you call Pedro and the Sox.

How easily you all forget that you've been bad bad bad for a very long time, Yankee friends. Don't wrap yourselves in white now. It's dishonest.

I don't wish to excuse Pedro's inexplicable pitch this weekend. (I even feel a little bit bad about his well-justified throw-down of that chubby reptile Don Zimmer.) I certainly won't try to brush aside Grady Little's appalling lack of leadership, on grounds moral or otherwise. But every year as far back as I can remember (okay, okay, so that's pretty much only back to 1975) the Sox have been pretty classy, respectable humble bunch of guys. Yaz, Flynn, Hobson... These were gentle souls with giant talent.

By contrast, pre-1996 (that is, in the years before the humble and inspiring Joe Torre arrived) the Yankees absolutely reveled in being a thuggish, whining bunch of overpaid crybaby bullies. Nettles? Puhleeze. I believe he and a couple of other 1970s and 1980s Yankees were boasting at the tops of their lungs on ESPN.com that they would have beaten Pedro to DEATH for that pitch. (Remarkable to give a death sentence to a guy for merely grazing a batter's shoulder with a pitch.) If these violence loving jerks ever get to heaven, they'll be lucky to get work shining Ted Williams' spikes.

And yet, though the Red Sox were the "good guys" for all those years, did Yankee fans hold back even the slightest bit in cheering for the Sox downfall? No. And did they recoil in horror when that hyperventalating asshole Martin ran out every other inning to kick dirt at the umps? No. And did they turn away when their team ran weekly onto the grass for a bench clearing brawl with whoever was unlucky enough to be the current visitor to the South Bronx? I'm afraid not.

I'll admit: Even though I was ashamed of Pedro's pitch and Manny's overreaction Saturday, I felt bad seeing the Sox blow it last night. I cheered, not sheepishly but proudly, for the bad guys. But since when did being lilly-white win a baseball game? Either way, Yankees friends, you know good behavior doesn't mean a wit to you. Only winning does.

A word on Nomar v. Jeter: Jeter is the greatest. And I expect that the minute he shows signs of being less than so, National League Central fans will enjoy seeing him in sparkling in his St. Louis Cardinals uniform, standing on deck with Tino Martinez and Bernie Williams to follow.