Dave Roberts of the Boston Red Sox steals second base while shortstop Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees applies the tag in the ninth inning during game four of the American League Championship Series on October 17, 2004 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dave Roberts’s ninth-inning steal in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS set up the game-tying run against the New York Yankees – and kept Boston’s season alive. In the 12th, David Ortiz’s two-run walk-off home run won it for the Sox. Boston had averted a series sweep. The following night, Ortiz did it again, this time in the 14th-inning with a game-winning hit that sent the series back to New York, and gave the Sox a chance to make history. No team had ever won a seven-game series after facing a 3-0 deficit. Boston took the two games in the Bronx, and the Red Sox swept St. Louis in the World Series.
Finally, for the first time in 86 years, the Curse of the Bambino was erased. Throughout New England, families headed to gravesites, to tell lost loved ones that they’d witnessed the impossible – and that they wished these relatives were still around to share the moment. Thus far, Fenway has hosted nine World Series, eight American League Championship Series, three MLB All-Star Games and has been home to the longest regular-season sellout streak in baseball history. Here’s to the next 100 years!