Baseball Malfunction
Season 3. Episode 4: Baseball Malfunction. (Featuring Tony Massarotti) In the summer 2004, in the middle of an otherwise rational baseball season, Manny Ramirez dove to cut off a Johnny Damon throw from 20 feet away. Eventually, the Red Sox would reverse an 86 year old World Series curse after making a historic comeback to beat the Yankees. And, along the way, a 40 year old man had the greatest offensive season in the history of baseball. What the shit happened? And, moreover, did I somehow cause all of this?
In the winter of 2003, following another second place finish by the Boston Red Sox, I acted in an ESPN TV commercial bemoaning the statistical improbability of Boston’s baseball curse. This nationally run ad was yielding consistent and sizable checks for several months, an annuity I presumed would last for at least another eighty six years. But, starting in 2004, things began to get very strange.
First was the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl, which seemed to portend what was to come. Then, on a boring summer day in Boston, Manny Ramirez sprinted and dove in left field to cut off a ten yard throw from Johnny Damon, allowing an unnecessary and singular inside the park home run. This illogical play, from a supernatural hitter who had not hustled in the field in a decade, was the first major sign of a baseball malfunction.
The rest of that season is, quite literally, historic. The Red Sox would make the playoffs and come back from a three to zero deficit to beat the Yankees and then steamroll the Cards in the World Series, ending their near-century of suffering. Simultaneously, though perhaps more quietly, Barry Bonds was having the greatest offensive season in the history of baseball…at the age of forty. And the NL Cy Young award winner, Roger Clemens, was even older.
Nothing about the 2004 baseball season made sense. It defied the laws of probability and of time, as we knew them. So, left with clues but no answers, we turn to legendary Red Sox sports journalist, Tony Massarotti, to try to understand the unimaginable. Unsurprisingly, Mazz provides us with plenty of insight into the Sox’s improbable comeback, but confesses to having literally zero insight into the “Manny cutoff.”
Join Matty, Kevin and special guest, Tony Massarotti, for a look back at the year in baseball when reason malfunctioned.
Special thanks to Tony Massarotti, who has can be heard on “Felger and Mazz” on 98.5 / The Sports Hub in Boston and whose book, “A Tale of Two Cities” documents the 2004 Red Sox / Yankees rivalry. And thanks to Quincy, Matt, Gabe and the Blue Duck Media team for their production support.