| 2004 World Series | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 23–27 | |||||||||
| Venue(s) | Fenway Park (Boston) Busch Memorial Stadium (St. Louis) | |||||||||
| MVP | Manny Ramírez (Boston) | |||||||||
| Umpires | Ed Montague (crew chief), Dale Scott, Brian Gorman, Chuck Meriwether, Gerry Davis, Charlie Reliford | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Red Sox: Pedro Martínez David Ortiz Cardinals: Tony La Russa (manager) Scott Rolen Larry Walker | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | Fox (United States) MLB International (International) | |||||||||
| TV announcers | Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (Fox) Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe (MLB) | |||||||||
| Radio | ||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Jon Miller and Joe Morgan (ESPN) Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano (WEEI) Mike Shannon and Wayne Hagin (KMOX) | |||||||||
| Streaming | ||||||||||
| ALCS | Boston Red Sox over New York Yankees (4–3) | |||||||||
| NLCS | St. Louis Cardinals over Houston Astros (4–3) | |||||||||
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The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals;[1] the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four games. The series was played from October 23 to 27, 2004, at Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of just under 25.5 million viewers. The Red Sox's World Series championship was their first since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino.[2][3][4][5][6]
The Cardinals earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the NL Central division title, and had the best win–loss record in the NL. The Red Sox won the AL wild card to earn theirs. The Cardinals reached the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series and the Houston Astros in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. The Red Sox defeated the Anaheim Angels in the AL Division Series. After trailing three games to none to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series, the Red Sox came back to win the series, advancing to their first World Series since 1986. The Cardinals made their first appearance in the World Series since 1987. With the New England Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVIII, the World Series victory made Boston the first city to have Super Bowl and World Series championship teams in the same year (2004) since Pittsburgh in 1979.[7] The Red Sox became the third straight wild card team to win the World Series; the Anaheim Angels won in 2002 and the Florida Marlins won in 2003.[8]
The Red Sox had home-field advantage in the World Series by virtue of the AL winning the 2004 All-Star Game. In game one, Mark Bellhorn helped the Red Sox win with a go-ahead home run in the 8th, while starter Curt Schilling led the team to a game two victory by pitching six innings and allowing just one run. The Red Sox won the first two games despite committing four errors in each. The Red Sox won game three, aided by seven shutout innings by Pedro Martínez. A leadoff home run by Johnny Damon in the first inning gave the Sox a lead they never relinquished in game four for the Red Sox to secure the series. The Cardinals did not lead in any of the games in the series; the sixth and eighth innings of the first game was the only time that the two teams were tied. Manny Ramírez was named the series' Most Valuable Player. While not a particularly competitive series, the 2004 World Series is ranked as one of the most memorable World Series of all time, and one of the most iconic professional sports moments from the 2000s due to its historical significance for Boston.[9][10][11][12] The Red Sox and Cardinals faced each other again in the 2013 World Series, which the Red Sox also won, this time 4 games to 2.
- ^ Shaughnessy 2005, pp. 212–214
- ^ O'Nan, Stewart; King, Stephen (December 2, 2004). Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season. Thorndike Press. ISBN 0-7862-7422-0. OCLC 57243165.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Wisnia, Saul (May 5, 2015). Miracle at Fenway: The Inside Story of the Boston Red Sox 2004 Championship Season. Griffin. ISBN 978-1-250-06871-2. OCLC 889523902.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Kepner, Tyler (October 28, 2004). "Red Sox Erase 86 Years of Futility in 4 Games". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Shaughnessy, Dan (October 28, 2004). "YES!!!". Boston.com. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Molski, Max (October 13, 2021). "Ranking the top 10 MLB postseason series of all time". RSN. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Pittsburghwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "How Many MLB Wild-Card Teams Have Won the World Series?". The Cheat Sheet. October 20, 2014. Archived from the original on August 27, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2017.
- ^ Depta, Laura (September 10, 2014). "Top 20 Best Sports Moments of the 2000s". Bleacher Report. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Pucin, Diane (December 27, 2009). "The best, and worst, of the 2000s". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Knapel, Robert (October 20, 2011). "Power Ranking the 25 Greatest World Series in MLB History". Bleacher Report. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
- ^ Miller, Sam (October 30, 2020). "Ranking every World Series in MLB history". ESPN.com. Retrieved August 28, 2022.