A Miracle?
The Boston Red Sox won the 2005 World Series. Because they hadn't won it since 1918 and because a few years ago some fans realized that fact and thought it would be nice to constantly remind Red Sox fans of their situation, the significance of the event was magnified when it finally occurred.
No team has ever been down three games to none and come back to win the World Series. None, not even the Red Sox. A few years ago, in 1985, the playoff series to determine the pennant winner was expanded from a best three out of five to a best four out of seven. In 2004, the Red Sox became the first team to overcome a three game deficit to win a playoff series (there was no playoff series in 1994, which is conveniently overlooked), and they accomplished it against the Yankees, the team reputed to be the greatest clutch organization in baseball history.
The World Series winner is awarded a trophy to commemorate its great achievement. Ever since the day after the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to become World Champions, the World Series trophy has been touring New England, attracting throngs of loyalists who never really believed they would ever get the chance to touch such a treasure and who still don't believe it happened after it happened.
Dr. Charles Steinberg (he is a doctor a dentist, not a doctor a doctor), the Red Sox vice president, usually accompanied the trophy. The good doctor believes and he believes that the Red Sox championship was a religious miracle, like Chanukah, when one day's supply of oil burned for eight days.
In front of an overflow congregation at Temple Emanuel in Marblehead, Massachusetts, Dr. Steinberg declared that the Red Sox never stopped believing (in the predestined outcome of the series?). The candle would have been extinguished. The oil would have run out but it didn't. The Red Sox would have lost but they didn't. Then the clincher. "It could only have come from above."
No one disputed the claims. After all, the congregation consisted of the converted who had seen a miracle. Was it predestined? Did the Yankees really have a chance? Was it in their power to win the playoff series or were they helpless no matter what they did? Good questions. No easy answers but the facts remain. Even Yankees' manager Joe Torre was uneasy when the Yankees couldn't increase their two run lead in Game 4. He sensed something that was not good for the Yankees might happen.
Latest Articles