I'm speaking at thinkLA's "Think Tuesday" panel on sports marketing tomorrow night. It should be a fun event and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and learning from the panelists and attendees. The panel's moderator, Justin Manfredi (@jwmanfredi), sent some ideas to the panelists to help us prepare. One of Justin's suggestions was that we share our favorite sports moment as an introduction. What's mine? There is no question....It's when Dave Roberts stole second in the bottom of the ninth during game four of the 2004 ALCS.
I thought the Red Sox were letting us down once again. I thought the season was over (probably most Sox fans thought it was over) when Kevin Millar came to the plate as the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the 9th with the Yankees leading 4-3. But the game wasn't over...Millar drew the walk off Rivera. Then Dave Roberts came in to pinch run for Millar. Rivera tried to pick off Roberts several times but failed. Everyone knew it was coming but the Yankees simply could not stop it. On the first pitch Rivera sent to Billy Mueller... ROBERTS TOOK OFF AND GOT IT. HE STOLE SECOND!!! This was a massively important moment for Boston. It was the moment when hope returned to the team and to the fans. Mueller singled to bring Roberts home and the game was forced to extra innings. Both teams were scoreless until the bottom of the 12th when Manny Ramirez led off with a single off Paul Quantrill and Big Papi followed with a walk off Home Run to score two and keep Boston alive for another game. The rest is history. Boston became the only team ever to come back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS and went on to win the 2004 World Series by sweeping the Cardinals 4-0. In my mind, the ALCS was almost better than the World Series because of the way Boston beat the Yankees in the most unbelievable and demoralizing way possible. Millar's single plus Roberts' steal is what started the comeback.
I can't single out Dave Roberts' Red Sox Hall of Fame worthy play in Game 4 without referencing another iconic play from the 2004 ALCS. In Game 6, Alex Rodriguez hit to Arroyo in the 8th. Bronson ran to first and went for the tag. A-Rod slapped the ball out of Arroyo's glove. A-Rod advanced to 2nd and Jeter scored. The umpires discussed the play at length, called interference on A-Rod wiping out Jeter's score. The photo of this play is an iconic image for me. I have a framed photo of the moment signed by Bronson Arroyo in my Red Sox collection. Sports Illustrated included the play as the cover image for "A-Rod's most embarassing moments" feature. I love it...
