Eighteen Years Ago, It Began

October 17, 2004: the Greatest Comeback Ever began… and there was no sleep for the next four days. #RedSoxpic.twitter.com/YaF99fdXB7

— Red (@SurvivingGrady) October 17, 2022

From Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History Of The 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run:

Chapter 13 — After Game Three

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe:

The Yankees stripped the Red Sox of all dignity last night, pummeling six Boston pitchers en route to a hideous 19-8 victory, which gives them a 3-0 lead.

So there. For the 86th consecutive autumn, the Red Sox are not going to win the World Series.

Eric Wilbur, Boston Globe:

This series is over. Baseball in Boston is over for another season. If you headed to the game this evening [for Game Four], you're forgiven for leaving in the seventh. Not to avoid traffic. To avoid watching the Yankees celebrate on your team's home turf. . . .

This Red Sox team, the vanilla Red Sox for nearly half a season, choked at the wrong moment. The Yankees are their Daddy for reasons unknown. . . . [E]njoy your last chance this year to watch what was admittedly a fun Boston team.

Tony Massarotti, Boston Herald:

They are doing more than just losing now. They are disgracing the game and embarrassing themselves, and they are doing a disservice to the paying customers who blindly and faithfully stream through their doors.

Shame, shame, shame on the Red Sox. . . . What a joke.

Sean McAdam, Providence Journal:

Let the record show that, for the second straight season, the beginning of the end of the Red Sox season came on October 16.

Bob Ryan, Boston Globe:

Soon it will be over, and we will spend another dreary winter lamenting this and lamenting that. Sure, you can root for the National League team to defeat the Yankees, but just exactly how satisfying is that going to be? . . .

August seems a long time ago. The Anaheim series seems a long time ago. The idea that the Red Sox accomplished anything good at all this season seems inconceivable.

Jackie MacMullan, Boston Globe:

So now the Sox are down, 3-0, and it's over, and everyone knows it, even the resilient Boston players who have never said die all season.

Jim Donaldson, Providence Journal:

Johnny Damon may look like a prophet, but his words have proven false.

It is not, as he said, the Red Sox who are a bunch of idiots. What they are is a bunch of chokes.

The idiots are all those fools who truly believed this would be the year . . . Only a bunch of idiots would continue to put their faith in this chronically overpaid and underachieving aggregation of ill-kempt characters . . . Sure, they're loose. They're also losers.

Jeff Jacobs, Hartford Courant:

Never did the Yankees look more professional. Never did the Red Sox look more amateurish. Never did the Yankees' hitting machine look more relentless. Never did the Red Sox' pitching staff look sillier. . . . This baby is over. It was supposed to be the best series in history. Instead it was just another cheap Fox sitcom.

Selena Roberts, New York Times:

Torre emanates calm; Francona reflects desperation. Torre manages against the reservoir of his own greatness; Francona manages against the ghost of Grady Little. . . .

Perception is fluid. If the Red Sox fight their way back against the Yankees in this series - though no team has come back from an 0-3 deficit – Francona could go from being a pushover for his rebellious team of latent teenagers to a man who understood the value of a carefree clubhouse for a franchise miserable since 1918. He could, but he won't. . . .

John Harper, New York Daily News:

So much for another epic series between these teams. The Sox are done, not only because no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit but because Derek Lowe is all they have left to throw at a Yankee lineup that is salivating at the sight of fastballs, curveballs, knuckleballs, you name it. . . .

"I believe we can do it," Damon said. "I do." He sounded like, what else? An idiot.

George King, New York Post:

The victory gives the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series going into tonight's Game Four. No team in baseball has flushed such a bulge. That means the Yankees are a lock for their 40th flag, and their second straight World Series appearance.

Ian O'Connor, USAToday:

This had nothing to do with a curse and plenty to do with a hoax. The Boston Red Sox, the 2004 edition, had everyone good and duped. They will go down as an Enron-sized monument to consumer fraud. . . . April Fool's Day came to a mid-October night, when the Red Sox exposed themselves as counterfeit postseason goods.

Peter Schmuck, Baltimore Sun:

The Yankees squashed the Sox like so many bugs around a drain, leaving little doubt who would be the eventual American League participant in the World Series. The only thing haunting the Red Sox were those horrible hairdos, which don't look quite so rakish and charming when somebody's smacking you across the face. The Red Sox were so overmatched that fans were waxing nostalgic for Bill Buckner and Grady Little. At least they provided some drama.

Steve Politi, Newark Star-Ledger:

Eighty-five years from now, when the Red Sox fans are sitting around in their spaceships and discussing the missed opportunities during the 17 decades without a world championship, they will certainly remember the collapse of 2004.

The Curse lives. Long live The Curse!

Dewey Defeats Truman!