Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, December 31, 2004, Washington Post

The Sports Story of the Year

The year 2004 in sports always will be remembered as the year the Boston Red Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino."

I know the year also included swimmer Michael Phelps winning six gold medals in the Olympics, Lance Armstrong's sixth straight Tour de France victory and the final season of soccer legend Mia Hamm. Those were remarkable events, but they were not as big a deal as the Red Sox winning their first World Series in 86 years.

The Red Sox victory was not only a great story, it was a great lesson. The team was winless and three games down to the mighty New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. The Yanks had clobbered the Sox 19-8 in the third game. In Game 4, the Sox trailed going into the bottom of the ninth inning, and Yankees' ace reliever Mariano Rivera was on the mound ready to put the Sox away for good.

Things certainly did not look promising for the Boston nine right then.

But the Sox did not give up, and because of that, they made baseball history. Boston went on to win four straight (including two heart-pounding, extra-inning games) to stun the Yankees, and then took four in a row from the St. Louis Cardinals to sweep the World Series.

And that's the lesson.

Often coaches and parents tell kids, when things are going against them in a game or at school, "Keep trying. Don't give up. Everything will be okay." Many times, that isn't true. Kids try really hard and still don't win the game or make the honor roll. So, once in a while, it is important to see an amazing comeback such as the Red Sox's 2004 World Series win.

It's true you may not come back every time, but it is absolutely true that you will never come back if you quit. You may not be on the first team to go from three games down to win the World Series. You may just want to make a team, improve at a new sport or score a goal. But none of those things can happen if you stop trying.

And what about the Red Sox fans? They didn't give up either. For 86 years, the Sox came oh-so-close so many times, only to break their fans' hearts. The Sox lost the seventh game in the World Series four times -- in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986. And last year Boston lost to the Yankees in another seventh-game heartbreaker.

It would have been easy for these fans (myself included) to say: "I give up. They'll never win. Maybe I'll root for some other team." But those fans who stayed true to their team were rewarded with the most wonderful of wins.

So there you have it. When things get tough, remember the Red Sox. Don't give up. And stick with your team.