They will be standing alongside one another at Fenway Park on Sunday, basking in the glory of their triumph on a baseball field, but also fighting back tears and the raw emotions of that horrific afternoon still searing their souls.
The Boston Red Sox are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of their improbable 2013 World Series championship, but the reality is that baseball will only be the backdrop, with everyone recognizing just what their achievement meant to a shaken community.
It was 10 years ago on Patriots Day, April 15, 2013, that two bombs went off, 14 seconds apart at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed. Seventeen people lost limbs. Nearly 300 people were injured.
It was the largest terrorist attack in America since 9/11.
“It’s something that will stay with me, for all of us, forever,’’ Jonny Gomes, one of the leaders of that World Series team told USA TODAY Sports. “We are going to be celebrating a World Series championship season, but at the same time, there’s a very sobering event that happened.
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“I’m not sure it’s a celebration, but a remembrance.’’
The Red Sox have won four World Series titles in the last 20 years, including the 2004 World Series that broke their 86-year curse, but none will ever have the impact of that 2013 season.
“With all respect to the different championship teams,’’ said Red Sox president Sam Kennedy, who was born and raised in Boston, “that team is the most important team in our time here given the magnitude of what happened here at the finish line.
“Patriots Day is so important in the ethos of New Englanders, with kids not having school, the Marathon, our [11 a.m.] Patriots Day Game. It’s the greatest sports day in Boston. This whole region was robbed of that innocence. Our lives have never been the same.”
The Red Sox just finished playing their early baseball game that day, winning 3-2 over Tampa Bay on Mike Napoli’s walk-off double, They quickly showered, trying to beat the traffic, and boarded the bus headed to Logan Airport for Cleveland.
The first bomb went off at 2:49 p.m., 39 minutes after their game ended.
Then, a second bomb.
They had no idea what happened until they were on the bus and started seeing the horrifying images on their cell phones.
“I remember we thought there was an electric transformer explosion,’’ Gomes said, “and then you start seeing these gruesome photos, blood all over the place, body parts all over. Then, you see all of these firetrucks, ambulances, police cars all pouring into the city from the other side of the freeway. And we’re hauling ass away from town.
“We’re supposed to be these heroes that play for the Red Sox, and we’re leaving. It didn’t sit right with me. It was a sobering moment.’’
The Red Sox landed in Cleveland and quickly organized a team dinner at the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. No one talked about baseball. They instead talked about life. They talked about rallying around the city. They talked about winning the World Series.
“I remember when I got traded over there at the deadline,’’ pitcher Jake Peavy said, “I go into the clubhouse early and run into Jonny Gomes. He says, ‘Glad to have you, we’re one day closer to the parade.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about. I walked over to Salty [Jarrod Saltalamacchia], and I said, “Hey, my family is coming to town, and Gomes said something about a parade. Is there something going on for the kids?’
“He says, ‘Man, he’s talking about the World Series parade.
“Yeah, we’re going to win the World Series.’’
The truth is the Red Sox, a team mostly filled with veterans on short-term contracts, were talking about the World Series back in spring training. Gomes told his teammates he was not going to shave until after the World Series “so when the playoffs start, this thing is going to look majestic.’’ Dustin Pedroia told Red Sox president Larry Lucchino before they played a single spring-training game that the team was going to go all of the way. Lucchino laughed at him, and then told them if that happened, he’d buy him a car.
The Red Sox returned to Boston after their three-game series in Cleveland and this time, their buses were the only vehicles on the highway. The city was on lockdown searching for the bombers.
“I remember being on the phone with city hall officials, Mayor [Thomas] Menino,’’ Kennedy said. “He kept insisting that we were playing. He said, ‘We’re not letting these guys shut us down.'”
The first game of their series on Friday was canceled. That evening, the terrorists were found. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout. His brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured inside a boat in the suburb of Watertown and today is on death row.
The city, finally able to breathe again, slowly filtered out to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox and Royals play Saturday afternoon, April 20, in perhaps the most emotional game of their lives. The Red Sox invited all of the first responders, doctors, nurses, hospital workers, FBI officials, marathon workers, government officials and everyone who played a role in the healing of the city.
“There must have been 250 people in that clubhouse,’’ Kennedy said, “hugging each other, crying together. It was just this outpouring of emotion.’’
They gathered together on the field for a 25-minute ceremony, and David Ortiz, who had been on the injured list to open the season and was at Triple-A Pawtucket when the bombings occurred, was suddenly asked if he could say a few words to the crowd. Ortiz, unprepared, slowly walked out, and stepped up to the mic with the American flag draped across the Green Monster, thanked everyone, and then uttered the line that will live forever in Boston history.
“This is our [bleeping] city, and nobody gonna dictate our freedom.
“Stay strong.’’
“It was like a shock at first,’’ Gomes said. “Like, did he really say [bleep]? Come on, I think he said [bleep]. The place just went nuts.’’
It was perfect, with even Mayor Menino giving Ortiz a high-five as he walked off the field.
“I didn’t even know that I said that,’’ Ortiz would later say.
The Red Sox won that game, 4-2, on Daniel Nava’s three-run homer. They were moved by the resiliency of the city and spent the next few weeks and months privately visiting victims in hospitals. They went to local fire stations and police departments. They were all in this together now.
“People say that the fans jumped on our back that year,’’ Peavy said. “That’s wrong. We rode on their back. They carried us. We had to win the World Series that year.
“We knew what it meant.’’
This was one of the most unique teams in baseball history, a team that came off a last-place, 69-93 season, their worst in 47 years. They fired manager Bobby Valentine and brought in John Farrell. They overhauled the makeup of the clubhouse. GM Ben Cherington brought in gritty veterans on short-term deals who had winning pedigrees.
They nearly went wire-to-wire, in first place all but 14 days, running away with the AL East and having the time of their lives.
“There will never be another team like it again,’’ Peavy said. “It was truly a team where the prisoners ran the prison. We knew how to win. We knew what it would take. And nobody was going to stop us.
“I mean, the things we did, let me tell you, we had some crazy characters.’’
There was that time in Tampa when they lost their third consecutive game. They called a closed-door, players-only team meeting, and posted signs throughout the clubhouse, making sure the media was aware of it.
They kicked the media out and spent the time talking about playoff shares and postseason plans.
It was mid-May.
There was the August night in Toronto when the players hung out at a local bar, perhaps a bit overserved, headed back to the hotel at 2 in the morning, when someone came up with the idea of waking up beloved third base coach Brian Butterfield.
They knew Butterfield went to bed early so Pedroia tiptoed down the hotel hallway, knocked on Butterfield’s door, and told him that he really needed to talk to him. Butterfield groggily opened the door, and as soon as it cracked open, there were about 15 Red Sox players barging through the door.
Recalled Peavy: “We told Butter, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but we’re winning the World Series. We got to know, Game 7 on the line – you ready to call a squeeze play? You ready to call a steal?’
“So there’s Butter, actually calling signs in his underwear, when we’re all liquored up.’’
Said Gomes: “We even had him practicing shaking guys’ hands after rounding third base when we hit World Series home runs. It was outrageous.’’
Well, maybe not quite as ludicrous as the day before the playoffs when Farrell called a team meeting. The players thought it was pointless. They had been winning the whole year doing things their own way, so why change now?
Well, with the entire team gathered in the weight room, pitcher Ryan Dempster bursts through the door 30 seconds into the meeting, wearing nothing but a jock strap, eye-black on his face, his mouth filled with chewing tobacco, holding a bottle of Captain Morgan.
Dempster, as his alter-ego “Jack Hammer,” told Farrell the team just needs to concentrate on the three F’s:
Fundamentals.
Foul tips: “Catchers, you got catch those foul tips so we can have strikeouts.’’
Four-run homers: “Boys, load the bases up so when we hit those homers, we’ll get more runs out of it.’’
Meeting over.
In six games, so was the World Series, with the Red Sox beating the St. Louis Cardinals and winning their first championship at home since 1918.
The party lasted for days, right through the parade, when they rode in duck boats (with Peavy actually purchasing one) and stopping just before the finish line of the Marathon on Boylston Street.
Gomes climbed out of the duck boat, clutching the World Series trophy, placed it at the finish line, draped a Boston Strong jersey over it, and stepped back.
“I put the World Series trophy down,’’ Gomes said, “and I’m thinking, ‘Damn, this is right where the bombs went a couple of months ago.’ It was pretty emotional.’’
“I’ll never forget that moment, I’ll never forget that team,’’ David Ross said. “It changed my life.’’
Says Pedroia: “The toughest baseball team I’ve ever seen. That team would have won in any era.’’
And, yes, just in case anyone wonders, Pedroia did get that car.
Pedroia reminded Kennedy after they clinched a playoff berth in mid-September about the offer, slapped the picture of a Ford Raptor car on his desk, and told him: “Make sure Lucchino doesn’t forget.’’
The car was delivered a few months later.
Even now, 10 years later, Red Sox players are stopped on the streets.
“That just resonated with so many people,’’ Ross said.
“We were just doing our job, and feeding off all of the love we received.’’
The Red Sox visited the Marathon finish line Saturday for the ringing of the bells. They’ll be honored at Fenway on Sunday with Marathon victims and their families in attendance. And Monday, Ortiz will be the Grand Marshal of the 127th Boston Marathon, with Dempster and former Red Sox infielder Brock Holt running the marathon.
“This will be as emotional a moment as time is standing still,’’ Peavy said, “honoring victims, and making sure they get their day of remembrance along with all of the first responders. We can celebrate who this team was. What this city meant to us. And tell the story how we unified and pulled something off larger than life.
“We are Boston Strong.’’
Longo loving life
Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Evan Longoria is showing he can still play.
Longoria planned to retire this winter unless Arizona or the Tampa Bay Rays called, and the D-backs jumped on him, valuing his leadership skills in a clubhouse filled with kids.
Well, he is delivering on the field too, hitting .333 with a 1.074 OPS this season.
“I want to produce on the field first and foremost,” Longoria says. “I’m still putting on a uniform to go out and play the game. I don’t want to go out there and go 0-for-4 and be the guy who guys ask questions on the bench about how it was 15 years ago. That’s not the only thing I want to do.
“When you have results, it makes it easier to have those conversations when you help the team win.”
And although there are players barely old enough to drink in the clubhouse, and some don’t have to shave, Longoria says their maturity level is as if they have been around the game for 20 years.
“These kids now already are experienced with the way they handled themselves,’’ Longoria said. “I think kids now, freshmen in high school, are being videotaped and put on the internet and talked about as a prospect in the scouting world. It has a certain way of taking the youth away from you. You have to become more mature. I see kids now 14, 15, 16 years old, doing the media stuff.
“The first time I ever did an interview with the media was probably when I got drafted. These kids are having to learn all of those things a lot earlier, and it makes for a more mature player once they get to the big leagues.
“Younger players now are definitely more mature and more ready to handle the challenges of the big leagues when they get here.”
Numbers to know
– There have been only seven teams in history who have started a season 10-0, with the Rays tying the modern-day record with a 13-0 start. How has that translated into October?
1987 Brewers (13-0): 91-71, missed playoffs.
1982 Atlanta (13-0) 89-73, lost in the NLCS.
1981 Athletics (11-0): 64-45, lost in the ALCS.
1966 Cleveland (10-0): 81-81, missed playoffs.
1962 Pirates (10-0): 93-68, missed playoffs.
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers (10-0): Won the World Series.
– Shohei Ohtani entered Saturday having reached base in 35 consecutive games, hitting .315 with a .383 on-base percentage and .488 slugging percentage during the streak, while also going 5-1 with a 0.82 ERA in seven starts on the mound. He has given up just 15 hits and no homers in 44 innings in the stretch. He hasn’t given up more than four hits in any of those starts while pitching at least five innings.
The only pitcher in major-league history with a longer streak is Jacob DeGrom, who did it eight times in 2021 with the Mets.
– Pardon the Giants if they don’t want to see Dodgers infielder Max Muncy again any time soon. Muncy hit four homers and drove in 11 runs in their series this past week. He has now hit 25 homers in his first 75 games against the Giants, the second-most by any player in his first 75 games against them, trailing only Gary Sheffield (26).
– Interestingly, right-handed hitters have benefited much more than left-handed hitters with the ban of shifts.
Right-handed hitters have seen their batting average on ground balls increase from .250 a year ago to .264 this year, while lefties have increased their batting average from .226 to .230.
Overall, batting averages are up 16 points, stolen bases have increased by 30% and the average game time is down 31 minutes to 2:37, which would be the lowest since 1984.
– Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic certainly is looking like the star everyone envisioned when he burst on the scene two years ago, entering Saturday hitting .366 with four homers, seven RBI and a 1.202 OPS.
The last Mariners player 23 years old or younger to homer in four consecutive games?
Yep, Ken Griffey Jr.
– How stunning was it to see the Twins score nine runs in the first inning against the New York Yankees on Thursday, winning 11-2, and again on Friday in their first two games of the series at Yankee Stadium?
It was the Twins’ biggest inning at Yankee Stadium in the 62-year history of the franchise and their largest margin of victory over the Yankees in 32 years. This is a team that was 2-16 at Yankee Stadium since 2017, 38-98 since 2003, and has lost 13 consecutive postseason games to the Yankees.
– The New York Mets on Friday became the first team in baseball history to draw at least 17 walks and score at least 17 runs on the road in their 17-6 victory over the pitiful Oakland A’s, including four walks with the bases loaded.
– The sad-sack Athletics entered Saturday still without a victory from a starting pitcher, the longest drought in franchise history to open a season.
– How would you like to face the middle of Atlanta’s order these days?
Ronald Acuña: .390 batting average, 1.056 OPS, three homers, 11 RBIs.
Matt Olson: .304, 1.070, five homers, 14 RBIs.
Austin Riley: .327, .967, three homers, eight RBIs.
Around the basepaths
– MLB owners are keeping a close eye on the three-year-old lawsuit filed by three minority partners of the Arizona Diamondbacks against managing partner Ken Kendrick that’s now scheduled for trial May 1.
The three minority owners – Jim Weber, Alfredo Molina and Chuck Carlisle – accused Kendrick of illegal tactics to force them from their partnership unless they dramatically increased their investments. Kendrick settled with 17 of the 22 minority partners who owned less than 1% of the team, two agreed to increase their investment, and the other three are fighting to receive their fair value.
If the case goes to trial in two weeks, attorneys are expected to have Kendrick open the Diamondbacks’ financial records, which could cause plenty of discomfort among owners.
– Salt Lake City officials may be lobbying MLB to be considered as an expansion city, but realistically, they have no prayer. Their only hope for an MLB team would be if the Oakland A’s attempt to move to Las Vegas stalls, and the A’s instead relocate to Salt Lake.
Nashville remains the clear-cut favorite for an expansion franchise with Montreal, Charlotte and Portland in the running to be the second expansion team.
– The San Diego Padres, who have struggled just to be a .500 team in the early-going, could get a huge boost on Thursday when Fernando Tatis Jr. is eligible to return after his PED suspension. Tatis, who has not played in a major-league game in 18 months, has put on a show at Triple-A El Paso in his rehab assignment, hitting .478 with four homers and 11 RBI in his first six games.
“Based on what we saw in spring training and who he is, there’s obviously a high expectation level,” Padres manager Bob Melvin told reporters. “But you do have to temper it knowing that he has not played in basically a year and a half. … He is also a very special talent, so nothing would surprise me.
“To ask a 1.000 OPS at the end of the season, I don’t know, but man, he looked good in spring training.”
– Now that the Chicago Cubs locked up outfielder Ian Happ to a three-year, $61 million extension, this winter’s free-agent class is even thinner. The class is led by Shohei Ohtani, of course, with Blue Jays third baseman Matt Chapman being the second-best hitter on the market followed by perhaps Mariners right fielder Teoscar Hernandez.
The others include Yankees center fielder Harrison Bader, Angels infielder Gio Urshela, Diamondbacks outfielder Lourdes Gurriel and perhaps San Francisco Giants outfielder Michael Conforto, who has an opt-out in his two-year deal.
The best pitchers on the market outside of Ohtani are Dodgers ace Julio Urias, Aaron Nola of the Phillies and Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Marcus Stroman of the Cubs and Max Scherzer of the Mets also have opt-out clauses.
– The New York Mets have to be ecstatic that the Detroit Tigers outbid them by $20 million for shortstop Javier Baez when he was a free agent two years ago and signed a six-year, $140 million contract. He has been a disaster, hitting .159 this season with only two extra-base hits, and was benched this past week for his mental errors.
He has an opt-out after this season, but who in their right mind would pay him remotely close to the four years, $98 million still left on his contract after the season?
– The Diamondbacks are trying to decide how much longer they can stay patient with veteran starter Madison Bumgarner, whose struggles continue. He is 0-2 with a 7.90 ERA this season, yielding 18 hits and 11 walks in just 13 ⅔ innings. He has a 7.28 ERA dating back to last July.
The trouble is that he’s also their highest-paid player, and is owed $37 million the next two seasons on a team that has the smallest payroll in the NL West.
– The Marlins’ marketing department is displaying awful taste celebrating the Cubs’ arrival April 28-30 as Steve Bartman Appreciation weekend.
Please, all Bartman ever asked was to simply be left alone, receiving death threats after his attempt to catch a foul ball at Wrigley Field may have prevented Moises Alou from catching it during the 2003 NLCS.
Can’t the Marlins just celebrate the fact they beat the Cubs that year, recovering from a 3-1 deficit to advance and win the World Series over the Yankees?
– The Mets have got to be wondering what in the world happened to Darin Ruf. He hit .152 in 28 games after being traded to the Mets last August, and just .167 with a .265 on-base percentage and .233 slugging percentage this spring when he was released.
He returned to San Francisco this week, and immediately reverted back to form, promptly going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in his first game back and .333 in his first three games.
“Anywhere you struggle, fans are going to be tough on you, but in New York it’s magnified,” Ruf told The Athletic. “I think the media there really runs with what fans’ perceptions are. So you’re kind of getting crushed by two entities. Even if you’re not on social media a heck of a lot, you still have an idea and you see things.”
– Matt Chapman could certainly be in for a big payday this winter if he keeps up this torrid pace. The big-spending teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Mets and Cubs all could use him.
– While MLB wanted to speed up the games, they almost forgot about the dent it could have on beer sales.
So, teams are compensating by extending their alcohol sales through the eighth inning with the Houston Astros actually now selling throughout the entire game. No word if they’re going to offer to-go cups.
Yet, you can be assured if there’s an uptick of DWIs, accidents or simply worse behavior in the stands, MLB may have to step in and order sales to stop again after the seventh inning.
“The reason we stopped [selling alcohol in] the seventh before was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct?” Phillies reliever Matt Strahm told the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “So now with a faster pace game, and me just being a man of common sense, if the game is going to finish quicker, would we not move the beer sales back to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?”
He certainly has a point.
“When you mess with billionaires’ dollars, they find a way to make their dollars back,” Strahm says. “I think as a fan of the game, and just looking out for people, it would make more sense they stopped the sales in the sixth.”
– Crazy moment of the week: The Dodgers fans gave Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger a huge ovation in his first at-bat at Dodger Stadium, thanking him for the memories, only for him to get an automatic strike for a pitch-clock violation getting into the box too late.
– Milwaukee Brewers lefty Wade Miley, who never has to worry about a pitch clock with his quick pace, says he hates the pitch clock, and will be sick to his stomach if he sees it decide a game.
“I really hope we never see that happen, I just hate it,’’ Miley says. “But you know what, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. We were the ones dilly-dallying out there. We made the games go way too long. So now we’re paying the price for it.’’
– Kudos to Phillies All-Star Bryce Harper for volunteering to play first base when he returns with the Phillies already losing Rhys Hoskins for the season and Darick Hall until mid-summer. Harper is still recovering from his elbow ligament reconstruction and will first return as a DH before he’s cleared to play the field. He has been taking batting practice every day.
– The renovated Rogers Centre in Toronto has created a rather, well, intimate experience with the opposing bullpen and the Blue Jays fans.
They are awfully close together and at least one beer can has already tossed into the bullpen.
“The interaction with the fans is going to be really interesting to follow as the summer gets warmer and rivals come in,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I can imagine there are going to be quite a few interactions between the opposing teams and the patrons that come to the game. Heads up on that one.’’
– Bally Sports continues to televise the Twins, Guardians and D-backs games despite not paying the clubs. They owe the Guardians $55 million, the Twins $42 million and the Diamondbacks $30.8 million.
– Pretty cool for the D-backs to have Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant at their game on Monday and Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner at their game on Tuesday.
Griner and her wife spent time after the game taking pictures with Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Willy Adames.
“I love the two of them,’’ Adames says. “Just great, beautiful people. It’s so great to see Brittney finally out of Russia and home where she belongs.’’
– Yes, that was 73-year-old Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker backstage with the Red Hot Chili Peppers when the Astros were in Minneapolis last weekend. He got the tickets through former pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who played for Baker in Cincinnati.
“I needed it,” Baker said. “My spirit needed it.”
– Congratulations to Craig Counsell, who has now managed more games than anyone in Brewers history with 1,185 games and counting.
– D-backs speedy outfielder Corbin Carroll has a huge fan in Freddie Freeman: “I really like Corbin Carroll. He’s so fun to watch. He’s going to be good for a long, long time. That whole team is going to be fun to watch.’’
– Fabulous book by Kirk McKnight, “The Voices of Baseball: The Game’s Greatest Broadcasters Reflect on America’s Pastime.’’ The book includes interviews from 50 MLB broadcasters, including 11 Hall of Famers, and a tribute from 35 broadcasters to the late, great Vin Scully.
– Also, check out former Blue Jays manager John Gibbons’ entertaining book, “Gibby: Tales of a Baseball Lifer.’’
Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale