NEW YORK -- There was the realization of the Impossible Dream when Jim Lonborg beat the Twins on the final day in 1967. There was Carlton Fisk's Game 6 moonshot off the foul pole in the 1975 World Series. There was Dave Henderson's playoff homer that catapulted the Red Sox into the World Series in 1986. These are the immortal October moments of Boston baseball in the last half-century.
And now there is the miracle comeback in the Bronx in 2003.
Trailing the Yankees, 6-4, in the seventh inning last night -- on the very brink of elimination in the ballyard in which so many Sox hopes have been dashed -- the Red Sox rallied for three runs in the seventh and two more in the ninth to beat the Yankees, 9-6, in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.
So now, after 25 meetings since May (Sox 12, Yankees 13) -- including six soul-sapping playoff games over the last eight days -- it all comes down to one game tonight at Yankee Stadium: Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens, Red Sox vs. Yankees, Athens vs. Sparta for the right to represent the American League in the World Series.
This is hardball heaven in the Hub, potentially the greatest sports event in the long history of our city. It is as if the drama of the quarter-century-old Bucky Dent playoff game has been stretched over a full season and a seven-game series. And the Sox seem to have the Yankees on the run.
Tonight features a matchup of two of the three greatest Red Sox pitchers of all time (Cy Young is the third), future Hall of Famers who have won nine Cy Young Awards. It is also a rematch of Saturday's chaotic contest at Fenway that was lowlighted when 72-year-old Yankee coach (and former Sox manager) Don Zimmer charged at Martinez after Martinez hit one Yankee and threatened others. There'll be a combustible climate for tonight's ultimate game. All parties are hoping that the Yankee fans and ballplayers from both teams behave.
The '03 Red Sox have been telling us they are different for a couple of months now. They fought off the wild-card challenge from the Mariners. Then they came back from an 0-2 deficit against Oakland in the Division Series and won three straight. And now they have rebounded from overwhelming odds in the very House That Ruth Built. Reverse the Curse has a chance to be more than a T-shirt.
"I've never been around a club quite like this," said Sox manager Grady Little. "But tonight, the way that game went down out there, it typified our whole season. The majority of our season was played just like that."
