Eight Years ago the Boston Red Sox wiped away 86 years of pain

The Red Sox hosted the St. Louis Cardinals for the first two games of the 2004 World Series, because the American League team had won the All-Star Game in July. The Sox had come back from Yankee Stadium, giddy over winning four games in a row over New York to take the A. L. pennant. They had momentum on their side. But the Cardinals weren’t going to be any pushover. They’d had the best record of any team in all of baseball: 105-75, finishing 13 games ahead of the second-place Houston Astros –who were so strong they won the Wild Card. The Cards had fairly easily set aside the Dodgers in the Division Series, with scores of 8-3, 8-3, and 6-2, around the one game they lost, a 4-0 shutout. In the NLCS, they prevailed in a hard-fought series against the Astros – and they’d been down three games to two. It took them 12 innings to win Game Six, and they were down 2-0 in Game Seven before rallying to win. It was the firm time St. Louis had won the pennant since 1987. So they were in fightin...