The Everlasting Legacy of October 2004

For the 29th time in baseball history, a team has a 3-0 lead in a seven-game playoff series, as the Tigers and Kenny Rogers shut out the A's, 3-0 in Detroit yesterday. One more victory and the Tigers will open the World Series at home next Saturday night.

It made me smile when I saw video of Oakland manager Ken Macha being interviewed after yesterday's loss. He's was asked the predictable questions about being in an 0-3 hole, and one of his responses was classic. It began with: "My buddy Francona in Boston was in this same situation two years ago..."

I absolutely love it. Since October 2004, whenever a team (in not just baseball, but basketball and hockey as well) is an 0-3 hole and all looks bleak, will invoke the memory of events that occurred from October 17-20, 2004. It is the enduring legacy of the 2004 Red Sox that will live forever. I even remember last year during the NBA playoffs, a player on the Washington Wizards, who were down 0-2 to the Chicago Bulls in their series, said after the Wizards won Game 3: "We had to win this game, otherwise we'd have to pull out the Red Sox tapes." (The Wizards won the next three straight and the series in six games.)

So even when a team is down 0-2, they invoke the 2004 Sox. Simply beautiful.

This is what the Oakland A's are up against:

In 103 years of MLB postseason baseball, 28 teams have been down 0-3 (not including the 2006 A's). 22 lost Game 4 and the series. Six teams won Game 4. But three of them lost Game 5, and two others lost Game 6. And one came all the way back to win it all.

It took 101 years for it to happen. And it may never happen again.

God bless Dave Roberts and the 2004 Red Sox.

Their legacy will forever endure.