Theo: Parts Of 2004 Were As Contentious As End Of 2011

Theo Epstein, WEEI:

There were periods in 2004 that were just as unproductive and contentious in the clubhouse. But guess what? We were 2.5 games out of the wild card in mid-August of 2004 and we got hot and we went 45-11 down the stretch instead of 11-45 or whatever it was this year [7-20 in September; 18-29 after August 9], and we ended up toasting those idiosyncrasies and the personalities and the extra-curricular activities and became a great bunch of guys. I know the salacious details are good fodder to talk about, and, don't get me wrong, there were a lot of things that happen and never should happen in the clubhouse, but don't look past the losing [as] the prime driver of all of this. If we had won a couple more games and gotten hot in the playoffs and won the World Series it would have been such a fun-loving group, all these personalities that came together in the end. It would have read a lot more like 2004. The difference was that we lost our last game and in 2004 we won it.