Some of the greatest swan dives, and greatest triumphs, have come during the month-and-a-half on the calendar known as “the stretch drive,” when teams gain separation from their peers in pennant races all over the land.
A few memorable ones have involved the Red Sox in one way or another.
In 1948, The Red Sox, Indians and Yankees were all bunched together through most of September, with Boston and Cleveland finishing in a tie. This race involved the Red Sox clawing their way to a first-place tie on the final day of the season.
With the Red Sox having better pitching, they were the favorites to win the one-game playoff and the American League pennant – until manager Joe McCarthy pitched Dennis Galehouse, who got rocked. Final score: 8-3 Cleveland. This could have been an all-Boston subway series too. Cleveland ended up winning the whole thing – disappointing Boston fans twice.
The following year, the Red Sox were counted out as lost around this time of the season, but got hot again, and ended up needing to win just one of two against the Yankees. The Bronx Bombers had to sweep.
Of course, the Sox got swept.
That was really the last Sox-Yankees playoff race until 1977. The next time the Red Sox got close was 1967, when they overcame 100-1 odds to win the pennant, with Carl Yastrzemski staging one of the great stretch drives in Major League history, going 7-for-8 in a two-game series against the Twins.
In the few years after that, the Red Sox would find some reason to fail. The best came in 1974, when the team was pretty comfortably ahead in the AL East until getting swept by the Twins in a doubleheader and staging a complete faceplant.
The following year, the Red Sox survived a few late-season surges by contenders, won the pennant, and played one of the classic World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.
For the next three years, it was just like old times: Sox-Yankees with New York finishing ahead.
The Red Sox had a couple of skirmishes against Oakland – during one of them, Roger Clemens mouthed off to Gerry Cooney and got tossed – and the Sox were swept in both series.
The next few times the Red Sox got a good whiff of the playoffs were 1995 and 1999 (Cleveland). Then came 2003, perhaps the most hideous loss of them all – the Aaron Boone bottom-of-the-12th home run in game 7.
Yes, it was awful.
All was forgiven, of course, the following year when the Sox spotted the Yankees three games to none before roaring back to win the pennant and then the World Series. It was the most historic comeback in the history of pro sports (at the time).
Events from the past ensure that one team will take a swan dive off a third-floor balcony; one will come out of nowhere to creep into the race; one team that appears to be in a great position will fall off the wagon, and by some fluke, the team everyone has overlooked will find itself in the hunt. (Look up the 1964 Cardinals to see how that goes.)
There’s a long way to go, folks.
