ESPN: Four Days In October

On October 5, ESPN presents Four Days In October:

When the night of October 16, 2004 came to a merciful end ... the vaunted Yankee lineup, led by A-Rod, Jeter, and Sheffield, had just extended their ALCS lead to three games to none, pounding out 19 runs against their hated rivals. The next night, in Game 4, the Yankees took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera, the best relief pitcher in postseason history, to secure yet another trip to the World Series. But ...

Over four consecutive days and nights, this unlikely group of Red Sox miraculously won four straight games ... [this film] takes an in-depth look at the 96 hours that brought salvation to Red Sox Nation and made baseball history in the process. ...

"We just don't make it easy on ourselves.

Down and out and then ... POW!!!"

Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, October 21, 2004:

[T]heir generations-old inferiority complex to the Yankees is over. Now, the single biggest postseason flop in baseball history does not belong to some Red Sox team ... Instead, the new and uncontested champions of the October gag are the New York Yankees. And the greatest, gutsiest, most nearly impossible comeback to steal a pennant in all the annals of baseball now belongs to the self-proclaimed "idiots" of the '04 Red Sox. ...

For generations, the Yankees have assiduously cultivated a quasi-religious form of self-worship that leaves its pinstripe players with a conviction of their superiority and all other teams with vague issues surrounding their own inadequacies. ... Now, at least one team sees through it.

Thomas Boswell, Washington Post, October 22, 2004:

[T]he Red Sox [stole] the pennant from the Yankees not once but four times within 72 heart-stopping hours ...

The true distinction of this fabulous week was that this ALCS was the most fun -- the most unadulterated, disbelieving, decades-overdue fun -- that baseball has experienced in our time. And maybe, if you like a pinch of malice with your meat, ever.

Watch a trailer at the link above.