Out of the Ashes Part V ("He didn't do it again did he? Yes he did")

Faith is a fickle concept. By definition, faith is the giving of one’s heart, soul, and mind for something intangible. In our world we have Religious faith, sometimes blinding in its dedication. We like dog’s that are faithful to their master, and then we have non-important faith, like that employed by the members of Red Sox Nation.

Non-important?

Game 5 began at 5:10 p.m. on the evening of Monday, October 18th, just 16 hours after Game 4 had ended the previous night. They played the game early because –believe it or not – there was a playoff series going on in the National League between the Cardinals of St. Louis and the Houston Astros, and at least 35 people wanted to watch that. So they wanted to get the Red Sox – Yankees game over so they could show the NL series in prime-time.

Mike Mussina led the Yankees against Boston's Pedro (Who’s your daddy?) Martinez. The Red Sox drew first blood this time, as Ortiz (there he is again) drove in a run and Varitek walked with the bases loaded in the first inning to give Boston a 2-0 lead. Bernie Williams homered in the second inning to close the gap to 2-1, a score which would hold up for several innings.

Despite seven strikeouts by Martinez, in the top of the sixth inning Jorge Posada and Rubén Sierra singled with one out. After Miguel Cairo was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Derek Jeter cleared the bases with a double, giving the Yankees a 4-2 lead. The Red Sox threatened in the seventh inning, but came up short. It was starting to look as if the Red Sox comeback was going to be only 1 exciting win, then the inevitable was going to happen. The Yankees brought in Tom Gordon, their excellent (and Ex-Red Sox) pitcher to hold the 2 run lead for Rivera. Even though Fenway Park was rocking and rolling, it didn’t look too good.

And thennnnnn….

David Ortiz, soon to be nominated for sainthood by all the Massachusetts-based Catholics, incredibly smashed another home run, making it a one run game. Kevin Millar followed with a walk and was again replaced by pinch runner Dave Roberts. Roberts went to third on Trot Nixon's single. Gordon was replaced by Mariano Rivera with the lead still intact, but Jason Varitek's sacrifice fly tied the game, setting up another extra-inning marathon. You could almost feel the FOX sports executives simultaneously squealing with joy about the Sox/Yankees, but moaning because of the other game they were having to put on the FX channel.

Each team got its share of base runners in scoring position in extra innings, but things just kept happening in crazy ways, ways that benefitted boston. For example, before the two teams went to extra innings a once-in-a-lifetime moment happened. In the 9th inning, with 1 out - the score tied - and a runner on first, the Yankees sent Tony Clark to the plate as a pinch hitter. Clark had played for Boston the year before, and in my opinion he was the worst player I had ever seen in a Red Sox uniform. He was terrible, and at the end of the season the Red Sox rightfully let him go. But now here he was at the plate for the enemy, and everyone who had ever been a Red Sox fan knew exactly what was going to happen.

He was going to get a hit of course, something he couldn't do when he was a member of the Red Sox. He was going to hit it, and shred our hearts.

I looked at my son as he stepped into the batters box and I said, "If this sonofabitch gets a hit, I'm commiting suicide". No sooner did the end of the last word get out of my mouth and he was cracking the ball towards the right field corner. And then something peculiar happened. Something that for 86 years had been happening to the Red Sox and for the Yankees - reversed itself. Before my disbelieving eyes, the ball hit the turf, bounded up into the right field wall - and then climbed up the wall and went into the stands. Ruben Sierra, the runner on first had scored the go-ahead run, but according to baseball rules, that batted ball was a "ground-rule double", and in being so, Sierra had to return to 3rd base. The Red Sox got out of the inning without letting Sierra score what would have been the winning run.

How did this happen? How did the ball bounce UP the wall and climb over? To be honest, I have no idea. You'd have to ask the Yankees and their fans, since in my lifetime this was the ONE SINGLE INCIDENT OF GOOD LUCK I had ever experienced as a Red Sox fan...but I'll take it. I'm sure the Yankees can tell you of hundreds of good luck moments...we only have this one, so we're not quite sure what to make of it.

Boston's Doug Mientkiewicz (Pronounced Minkykayviamich – oh hell, I don’t know) doubled in the 10th and moved to third, but couldn't score. Two Red Sox led off the 11th with two singles. The Yankees got Sox shortstop Orlando Cabrera to ground into a double play, and that ended that. Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield came out to pitch the 12th, and he got through it, but it was scary. There were 3 consecutive passed balls, as Jason Veritek – not normally the catcher for Wakefield – couldn’t find the handle of the knuckleball. Somehow though, the Yankees failed to score.

By now, the other game had reached the 6th inning – so much for getting the National League game on prime-time.

In the bottom of the 14th, Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon walked, followed by a walk to Manny Ramirez. Coming to the plate to bat? Yes, him again. On what appeared to be a an un-hittable pitch Ortiz looped a single into center field, allowing Damon to score, and setting off another frenzied celebration at Fenway Park.

In the immediate aftermath of the hit, Fox showed a replay of the swing. Ortiz’s continued heroics prompted FOX TV announcer Tim McCarver to gush shortly afterwards, "He didn't do it again, did he? Yes he did."

At 5 hours, 49 minutes it was the longest playoff game in history time-wise, and the National League game that started 2 hours later just missed finishing before this one. The Red Sox were halfway to doing the unthinkable – and what had never been done before – but they had to go back to Yankee Stadium, and they had no idea who was going to pitch game 6. Curt Shilling and the Red Sox had enlisted the help of the world famous Massachusetts General Hospital, and they were trying to find a way to make his ankle work even with the ruptured tendon. Remember that Bruce Willis movie The Sixth Sense? The kid in the movie (Haley Joel Osment) had what became an infamous line:

“I see dead people”.