While I’ve been lucky to attend a World Series game, Stanley Cup Finals game and numerous postseason contests, a warm Boston night in August 2008 stands alone in my memory.
I can’t speak for other sports fans, but at least for myself, a huge part of what makes going to games such an enjoyable experience is the anticipation that you may see something you, or maybe no one else, has ever seen before.
Though that mindset is certainly the most prevalent in baseball, it applies to all sports – history is made during unsuspecting games more than many fans might think, and it is ultimately true that you never know what you’re going to see when you head to the ballpark or arena for a game.
As I near my 30th birthday next year, I consider myself to be incredibly spoiled when it comes to sporting events attended during my life. I’ve attended well over 200 major sporting events, including a Stanley Cup Finals game, Game 5 of the 2016 World Series and the 2014 SEC Championship Game. Many of my core memories have occurred at sporting events, and I treasure the times I get to take in history that people talk about for years.
Getting to see the Cubs win a game at Wrigley Field in the World Series, as well as getting to attend an unbelievable Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS with my father that same year, will forever be my favorite memories taken in at games. Feeling the weight of the emotion of millions of Cubs fans over the preceding century inside Wrigley Field was an experience I’ll forever cherish and consider myself eternally grateful for.
The beauty of sports is that as memorable as the extremely important postseason game is for entire fanbases and cities, sometimes crazy shit just happens. And it certainly did at Fenway Park in Boston on Aug. 12, 2008.
For some quick context, I was raised a Cubs fan and always have been a Cubs fan – but 2004 marked a bit of a detour from the whole show. After a heartbreaking September collapse from a Cubs team that was better on paper than the team that was five outs away from the World Series just a year before, my father implored me to join him in cheering on the Red Sox as the postseason began.
Beyond the feeling of shared misery between the Cubs and Red Sox fanbases at the time, my dad briefly lived in the Boston area and long had an affinity for the BoSox as his top AL team. As we watched the Red Sox miraculously come back against the New York Yankees in the ALCS en route to their first World Series title in 86 years, I was hooked on Boston baseball for quite a bit.
I never stopped being a Cubs fan, but there was a lengthy time in my baseball fandom where I considered the Red Sox to be my favorite team – which made it incredible when my dad surprised me with a trip to Boston in 2008, after having me convinced that I was joining him on a work trip to South Carolina. Strangely enough, I still have never been to South Carolina.
The trip was truly a magical surprise for a 12-year-old kid hooked on baseball, and we were treated with a game for the ages on the same day we flew from O’Hare to Logan.
The Red Sox were defending champions in 2008, having just won their second World Series in four seasons the year prior following a dominant 96-66 campaign. The 2008 team was still incredibly strong with two of the AL’s best hitters that season in Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, and were matched up against the high-octane Texas Rangers for my first game at Fenway Park.
Already figuring to be a game stacked with offense, my dad noted the one real wild card with the game while we were at lunch that day – the starting pitcher for Boston was rookie knuckleballer Charlie Zink, who was making his MLB debut.
If you want to guess how my father’s prediction fared, just know that his Aug. 12, 2008 start against Texas was the only MLB appearance in his career.
While the game certainly became a disaster for Zink, the mayhem initially came out of the Texas bullpen, with starter Scott Feldman getting absolutely shelled in the first inning. Though Feldman eventually made his way through the frame, it didn’t come before he allowed two three-run home runs to David Ortiz as part of an insane 10-run inning from the Red Sox.
At this point, it felt like I was walking on water – to wake up thinking I was going to South Carolina and to see Big Papi make history at Fenway Park merely hours later. Yet this game had seen less than a third of the run production by the end of that 10-run frame.
A two-run single from a young Chris Davis got two runs back for Texas in the top of the second, though this was erased by a Mike Lowell bases-loaded walk and Jason Bay RBI single to put the Red Sox back up 10 in the bottom of the third inning, leaving the score at 12-2.
What had begun as a stellar debut for Zink turned into an unmitigated disaster by the top of the fifth inning, with Josh Hamilton, Marlon Byrd and Frank Catalanotto all knocking RBI hits off of Zink to bring the Boston lead down to 12-6. Zink was then replaced by southpaw sidearmer Javier López, who gave up an RBI single to Davis that cut the Red Sox’s lead to five. Following a strikeout for the second out of the inning, López was replaced by righty David Aardsma, who allowed an absolute dagger of a three-run home run to Ian Kinsler to definitively put Texas right back in the game at a 12-10 score.
This greatly increased the tension inside the ballpark, which was temporarily eased the following half-inning thanks to a two-run shot from Youkilis – though it would be no smooth ride from there. The Rangers’ offense picked up right where they left off in the sixth inning, absolutely pounding Aardsma and fellow righty Manny Delcarmen to put up five runs on five separate plays to take an unthinkable 15-14 lead.
This advantage was extended by Texas in the top of the seventh inning after holding Boston scoreless in their half of the sixth, with a one-out RBI single from Marlon Byrd giving the Rangers a 16-14 lead. Boston clawed a run back in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a Texas error, but still trailed by 16-15 in a deficit that held until there were two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Made possible by a scoreless eighth inning from lefty reliever Hideki Okajima, eventual AL MVP Dustin Pedroia knocked a game-tying RBI double to knot the game at 16 apiece. After an intentional walk to Ortiz, Youkilis delivered a stadium-shattering three-run blast off Frank Francisco that soared well over Fenway Park’s Green Monster, putting Boston back in the lead by a score of 19-16.
What initially looked to be a potentially historic blowout with a 10-0 lead transformed into a 16-14 deficit and then 19-16 lead – I knew I would be in for a special experience, but I certainly didn’t expect an NFL score at the end of nine innings.
“I’m Shipping Up to Boston” then blared through the Fenway Park speakers as closer Jonathan Papelbon entered the game, though the Rangers weren’t quite finished yet. After a Youkilis error at third base allowed Marlon Byrd to reach, a Brandon Boggs RBI double brought home another Texas run and put the tying run at the plate with one out in the inning, making the score 19-17.
Though forced to face the home run-capable Gerald Laird and Chris Davis, Papelbon retired both hitters in order to close out what was an incredibly wild night in Boston.
When it comes to overall meaningfulness and impact, this game ultimately gets left behind in my memories for the postseason games I’ve gotten to experience in person – but no other game I’ve witnessed has displayed the sheer craziness and unpredictability baseball can offer than what was seen on that night in Boston.
More than 17 years later after an unforgettable game and trip, I continue to look back on this game as both an irreplaceable memory and a perfect example of why I love baseball so much.
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