Original subtitles

Where's Howard?

Is Grady Little around?

This way.

I know a lot of folks were wondering if, uh...

why I probably didn't take him out,

but he's the man we want out there in those situations.

The way, uh...

- He's pretty tough. - The way Joe kept Mariano in.

He could've tired, you know?

- He's pretty tough. - Yeah. Well, you did a great job.

Thank you very much. A pleasure. Thank you...

I think you're gonna be Manager of the Year.

I don't know about that.

After we got beat in New York that day in 2003,

if they would've had an, uh, election between me and Osama bin Laden,

I was not gonna win.

And here comes Grady Little.

Grady goes out.

But he's not gonna make the change.

That is amazing.

And when he comes off then, it's... his... his managing career is over.

I'm out.

The Yankees are going to the World Series!

Aaron Boone has hit a home run!

The Yankees go to the World Series

for the 39th time in their remarkable history!

We're gonna take 24 hours. We're gonna feel sorry for ourselves.

Totally dejected.

If I could cry on camera, I would.

Like 24 hours from now, everyone was galvanized.

We had been responsible with the budget the year before.

And that winter it was, "Do what you need to do

to, like, you know, fix the pitching, fix the bullpen."

Like, "Let's go."

Well, we're back where we started,

right here at Yankee Stadium.

The Marlins roll in after winning two of three at home.

They're up three games to two...

The weirdest thing about '03,

was the fact that we talk about '03 like the Yankees won the World Series.

And they didn't.

Posada, a slow roller, right side.

Beckett picks it up, tags Posada,

and the Florida Marlins are World Champions.

Devastating losses have devastating consequences.

The Marlins have stunned the Yankees, shocked New York.

That offseason, there was two teams, and nobody else mattered.

Free agency, Red Sox, Yankees.

Trades, Red Sox, Yankees.

It was Boston, and it was New York.

- It was an arms race. - Congratulations, Alex!

Everything good?

For the first time since 1981,

another team is popping champagne at Yankee Stadium.

That series was supposed to be a victory, and it wasn't.

George used to have a saying that,

"Winning was the most important thing in his life other than breathing." Okay?

I mean, and... And he meant it.

He couldn't tolerate losing.

You mention the name "George Steinbrenner,"

like a lightning rod.

There's no owner in sports,

be it football, basketball, hockey, or baseball,

that's gonna sit and tell me he's not in it for ego.

Because he is.

Yeah, he has knowledge of the game.

The only thing George doesn't have is the patience.

George, it... it was never enough.

You know, you're... you're supposed to win, and you need to win again.

I'm gonna use everything I can to deliver a winning team for New York.

That's my business.

When I don't want to do that, I'll get out of the sport.

Every single year,

they seemed to have the money to pick up the big free agent.

The big bat. The big player.

We were just literally doing enough to stay by,

but not to overtake the Yankees.

We needed that extra Pedro out there.

We needed more pitching.

A true ace is the guy who you give the ball to

in the win-or-go-home game.

And I... I always aspired to be that guy.

Schilling, should be said, that velocity will go up

later in a game.

Schilling got the job done all the time.

Swung on and missed.

He never saw a big game that he didn't command.

The buzz in the media

was Arizona would be open to moving on from Curt Schilling.

Schilling would be a perfect fit for us.

The winter of '03,

if I was a gambling man, day one of winter, I would've said

I'm absolutely gonna play for the New York Yankees next year.

Boston wasn't even on my radar. I wasn't gonna go to Boston.

I wanna have a chance to win a World Series for the rest of my career.

With the Yankees, it would be joining a long line,

and a tremendous heritage and the prestige of being a Yankee...

Of course, Curt Schilling wants to be a Yankee,

like, you know, where all the focus and attention is.

Makes perfect sense.

But maybe too dumb to know any better or, like, being bold,

we just said, "Well, you know, it doesn't hurt to try."

It's a couple days before Thanksgiving.

I called Schilling, and I said, "How about coming to Boston?"

He's like, "No. How about you coming out here?"

Get off my driveway.

The next morning, we fly out to Schilling's.

We negotiate all day.

And then, the end of that first night,

Schill says, "What are you guys doing tomorrow for Thanksgiving?"

We're like, "I don't know, nothing. Going to Boston Chicken?" I don't know.

He's like, "No, you're coming over here."

Oh my God.

I have the worst food poisoning of my life, to this day.

And almost undoubtedly from the turkey at the Schillings' house.

Jed's, like, pale as a ghost.

He's sweating, he's clammy,

he's like keeled over, he's like rocking back and forth.

And we couldn't leave, because we hadn't gotten him to agree yet.

Like, it's no surprise, Curt Schilling has a healthy ego.

And we're world champs.

We're like, all right, the chance to be a big part of the team that ends The Curse

and goes up with the Yankees would really appeal to him.

I said, "Hey, listen. You know, I'm interested."

So we finished up the Schilling signing.

The minute I left the house, I started throwing up again.

The Yankee-Red Sox rivalry transcends sports.

Being a part of that was certainly an attraction to all of this.

I don't have a problem with the expectations.

"You're coming here to break The C..." Well, all right, fuck The Curse.

It was a curse of talent.

They were just never talented enough to win it.

This is an epic quest here. We're on a quest to beat the Yankees.

We're on a quest for a World Series.

We were doing everything we could

to have a payroll that would match the Yankees.

The Red Sox are winning the offseason arms race.

Boston signs free agent closer Keith Foulke to a three-year deal.

Foulke saved 43 games for the A's last season.

It's like the biggest rivalry in sports.

There's a part of me, at that point in my career,

where I wanted to taste victory.

Told the wife at the time, like, "Pack your shit. We're going to Boston."

We welcome to the Yankee family Gary Sheffield.

I know the pitchers in our league

are not too excited to have to face this man.

I don't strike out. I drive in runs when they matter,

and I'm gonna be that guy

that's gonna be the difference-maker in this lineup.

I'm a hired gun.

George, the Red Sox threw a punch, but you threw a counterpunch.

Is it... Is it all about beating the Red Sox?

No, it has nothing to do with beating the Red Sox.

You got two prizefighters here that are gonna continue to...

to duke it out,

and, uh, I don't know how long I can take it.

The Red Sox actually decided to compete.

Player for player, dollar for dollar.

Now it's win, win, win, win.

What's next?

What else is gonna happen?

Okay, we're rolling.

- Yeah. Quiet, please! - Quiet, please!

"This is Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers."

"It's better at the ballpark."

"This is Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers,

and it's better at the ballpark."

"Hey, it's better at the ballpark."

Wearing number three, Alex Rodriguez!

A-Rod to his left,

flipped from the glove in time for the putout.

A-Rod has done it again!

Alex Rodriguez is the best player in baseball of '03-'04.

Young, handsome, coveted.

Hall of Fame résumé.

He is, in fact, the greatest shortstop who ever played.

The Rangers and Alex Rodriguez

will officially announce his signing with Texas.

The terms... Are you sitting down?

Ten years, $252 million,

making him by far the highest-paid player in the history of team sports.

But there wasn't a lot of winning attached to that.

Three straight last-place finishes,

and the championship aspirations have come to a screeching halt

for Rodriguez and the Rangers.

He wanted out of Texas.

They weren't winning, and they wanted to move on.

We had to start thinking about, like, "Okay, well, we have Manny."

He had had a difficult time during the '03 season

embracing his place with the Red Sox.

I mean, he would just disappear on his teammates.

In 2003, we're playing the Yankees.

Every game's so important for the Red Sox.

But the Red Sox don't need any contro... controversy.

There's controversy surrounding Manny.

In there for called strike. He was not here during batting practice.

Where's Manny? No one knew where he went.

He wouldn't answer the phone. Like, what happened?

He's at the hotel bar of the Yankees with Enrique Wilson.

Huh?

Dudes were not happy.

Guys wanted to maybe fight him.

"What were you thinking?"

Manny would come to me all the time.

"Papi, you gotta get me out of Boston. You gotta trade me."

So, that winter we're talking to the Rangers about Manny for Alex.

This is all secret. No one knows what's going on.

The Texas owner, Tom Hicks,

asked me to meet with A-Rod.

I agreed to do that, very reluctantly,

because I thought our shortstop would get very upset.

A-Rod seemed like a really personable, good guy,

but, um, as soon as we met, Tom Hicks leaked it to the media.

Joining us on the line, the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox,

Nomar Garciaparra.

Nomar, do you believe

that this talk is a slap in the face to you?

What if you guys woke up one day, you're, you know...

and you start reading in the paper

that your station was interviewing people to take your spot?

To replace you guys?

How would you guys feel about that? How would you guys take it?

Nomar's got a target on his back.

And he's not just a guy, he's Nomar Garciaparra.

You're messing with one of your giants.

Without championships, all Boston had was its superstars.

You had Williams.

You had Yaz.

Jim Rice.

Nomar. He was that dude. This was his town.

You don't trade superstars in Boston.

I'm calling today

because a lot of things I'm reading is that I'm unhappy.

As far as my desire to still continue to wear that Boston uniform,

it's there and it's always been there.

You know, his contract was up after '04.

We made an offer for a long-term contract extension.

It wasn't accepted.

It was deemed kind of, like, low and maybe, like, far too low,

and therefore a little bit insulting.

We'd come to look at him as a great, great player,

but defensively, wasn't necessarily where we wanted to be.

Come on, Nomar!

When you talk about Alex, who's hands-down the best player

in the league,

offensive powerhouse, who also was a legitimate shortstop,

that was a swap that we were willing to make.

Talking on the phone to Alex, texting him, he was like,

"Come... Come meet me... Come meet me in New York."

Jed and I fly out to New York, flight's delayed, we get in real late.

I... I just said, "Hey, I'll get you tomorrow morning."

He texted me right back, 2:00 in the morning,

he's like, "No, come up to the room."

I'm like, "We're really doing this tonight? Okay."

Thirty-seventh floor or whatever, go... go upstairs.

A-Rod opens the door, he's wearing, like, a three-piece suit.

He's, like, totally put together.

He's got his briefcase. He's like, "Welcome."

He's impressive, but he's also kind of full of shit.

Like, Alex is always, like, a little bit full of shit.

I'm full of shit a lot of the time too.

We just show up and we start talking to him about joining the Red Sox.

We didn't feel like we could take on all of Alex's contract.

And so we had to negotiate.

If you're gonna rework a contract and walk away from guaranteed dollars,

there has to be an equal exchange of benefits.

It got very complicated.

But to Alex's credit, he wanted to be a Red Sock.

We end up trading Manny Ramirez and Jon Lester to Texas

for Alex Rodriguez.

But now we gotta trade Nomar.

We trade Nomar to the White Sox for Magglio Ordóñez and Brandon McCarthy.

And we write out the lineup that we're gonna have.

It was incredible.

But the one last step in the deal was we had to get

the Players Association to sign off on it.

Now playing shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, Alex Rodriguez.

Well, it could happen over the next 24 hours...

While that's happening, while the deal's still in limbo,

the key moment was fricking Millar opening his big mouth again.

Never one to shy away from a tough question,

we bring back Kevin Millar, the Red Sox first baseman.

Back by popular demand...

Highlights are kickin'. The hair's coming back.

A-Rod is maybe coming to the Boston Red Sox.

Has met with ownership.

I'm on a satellite looking at a camera, kind of like this right now.

Dan Patrick's on the headset.

Now some audio perhaps with Kevin. And Kevin, you gotta choose.

You can have Alex Rodriguez

or you can have Manny and Nomar. Who you taking?

Dan Patrick asked me,

"Who do you think's gonna throw you the baseball across the infield?"

Seemed like it was gonna be a done deal, I answered the question.

We'll take A-Rod.

Get in my car, and Nomar calls me.

Pissed off.

"How the fuck do you say that you... How? What the...?"

And we're yelling, so I pull over, I'm yelling back.

"Hey, dude, I answered a question I was asked."

The question was, "Who do you want?"

"Who do... "Oh, was it, "Who do you want?"

Wow.

Okay. Well, then he has a right to be mad.

Now, it's like not only is Nomar justifiably pissed at the front office,

but probably the most influential teammate that he has in the clubhouse

has openly betrayed him in public.

We'll take A-Rod.

We thought we were gonna pull it off. It was.

We got it down to the one-yard line.

And then it just kind of blew up.

The baseball players' union rejected the changes that Boston proposed

to restructure the contract of shortstop Alex Rodriguez.

Larry Lucchino issued a statement, "The proposed trade

between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers is dead."

All this stuff's happening in warp speed.

They're reinventing the team.

And then, "Oh, wait. It's not happening."

He's back on the market.

Len's here with the latest bad news for the Yankees.

It is, Linda. Yankee third baseman Aaron Boone

hurt his left knee playing basketball.

He could be out the entire season.

He gets hurt. Now the Yankees are in on A-Rod.

When the Yankees found out that A-Rod was willing to move from shortstop,

where he might be the best player of all time,

and move to third base just to play on a winner,

it was a very simple deal.

Alex Rodriguez going to the Yankees,

thus continuing their legacy of success over the Red Sox.

Yeah, I was just as surprised as the Yankee fans

and the Boston Red Sox fans when I opened up my paper today.

It, obviously, is a big deal.

The day we're leaving for spring training, the Yankees trade for him.

We were crushed.

We have many things to do.

Fellas, hold on.

Guys, this way. Down here, please.

What a reception. Um...

Just obviously overwhelmed. Very, very happy to be here.

Um... I still feel like, uh, someone's gonna pinch me and wake me up.

Enough, enough, enough! Okay? Enough! Knock it off.

A-Rod... brought, obviously, great talent.

But there was this uneasiness.

First of all, it was widely known throughout baseball

that A-Rod was a better shortstop than Jeter.

Okay? But now he has to play third base.

You know, when you're in, uh... When you're in New York,

Derek Jeter's the shortstop, and... and that's... that's it.

You know, any time you get a chance to have a player of Alex's caliber,

you... you gotta jump on it.

- Why give up shortstop? - I think winning's that important.

I think having an opportunity to win and win consistently

and, uh, have an opportunity to play in October...

And when we brought him in, I felt like, automatically,

"The next three to four years while I'm here,

we're gonna win championships."

Isn't it kinda ironic

that Aaron Boone kinda gave it to the Red Sox twice this year?

Oliver... Might be an Oliver Stone conspiracy, I don't know.

That just adds more insult to injury right now.

That we once again beat the Red Sox.

- Boston sucks. - You're going down.

You're going down, Boston.

- We're gonna win it all this year. - I hope that couch feels nice.

'Cause you're gonna be sitting on it next October.

How could the Sox screw this up any more?

Not to mention the hurt feelings

about having traded two of your best players,

who are now back. "Oh, hi, come on back."

That's like the plane's going down, you start insulting people,

then you land safely, you gotta be at baggage like,

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to say you were the worst person I ever knew."

Oh shit.

Yeah, so a lot went on, right?

Manny had the trade scene from that offseason.

Alex goes to the New York Yankees.

Nomar Garciaparra's the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox.

Grady gets fired, still a little bit sad for him. Great man.

So Terry Francona's our manager.

Who's Terry Francona? I had no idea.

I've seen celebrities, politicians,

walk into a Major League clubhouse and you can tell they're nervous.

For me, you get in your underwear, put some tobacco in or whatever,

and I'm good to go.

It's... It's just a place where I'm more comfortable

than any place in the whole world.

Holy cow.

What a dude.

Look what kind of model we have here, dude.

He was a player in a manager's body.

One of the funniest dudes you can ever imagine to play for.

Seriously, they told me if I don't start stretching,

when I get older I'll look like you. So I'm trying...

Oh my God. Tito, man. I love Tito, man.

I wanted to hire someone with experience.

Tito, he had some experience using analytics and data

to inform decision-making.

He was gonna be the right guy for that group of players.

Nice.

I remember thinking when I came there,

I was excited, thought "I'm prepared."

I see ya.

Nobody's prepared to go there till you live through it.

Okay, anything else?

There's a fire to put out every day in Boston.

There's only so much I can tell you after a second day

of pitchers and catchers.

Manny!

The first spring training, I walked up to Manny when he got there,

and I remember him looking at me, and he said, "Hey." He goes,

"I know you gonna try to get me to like you."

Manny!

"Keep your distance."

Big Papi.

And I remember him walking through the clubhouse,

proclaiming to anybody that could hear, "They put me on eBay!"

I'm like, "Oh boy. This is good."

You gotta back off. You gotta back off totally.

Thanks, Manny.

- Hey, hold on. - You okay?

Yeah, I'm good.

Nomar!

Nomar and I were close,

but it turned into, like, kind of an uncomfortable relationship.

I almost pulled into handicapped, you see that?

But you got here at 9:30, so it's cool.

I think he felt that I'd betrayed him or something.

I knew Nomar before he got called up to Boston,

so I had a history, a good history with him.

So it was a little easier for me to talk to him.

Like, I mean, "Hey, man. You know, this is... Let's deal with it."

Like, you know, you can't go in a room and pout.

You know, "Go play, man. You're a really good player."

Are you still mad?

Am I pissed? Am I still mad?

Uh, pissed, mad, all that stuff?

Well, I don't know if I'm all those things.

I was definitely hurt by a lot of it. Um...

I probably feel like anyone else would feel

after, uh, spending their whole career in, uh... in one organization

and giving and doing what you do

and then having to find out that, uh, you've been traded

or you're pretty much gone over the television.

And then, you know, the spring training,

uh, Achilles injury happened, and we were without him for the first...

first couple months-plus of the season.

Was it a practice ball that hit you?

Just during BP. You know, balls flying around,

walking off and I just got hit.

Didn't think much of it.

No one ever saw it happen.

And, you know, I think that there was definitely some questions

of when he hurt it.

Did he hurt it before he ever got there and that was a cover story?

You know, I remember thinking,

"This isn't gonna help anybody if it goes the wrong way."

And you try to remind players,

"Hey, are you coming in because of the team or you?"

Just did with him like I do with everybody, was honest.

You know, sometimes, you can't tell somebody

something they wanna hear.

- Good morning. - Another beautiful day. Good luck!

I think what's really crazy about that is we talk about how big Nomar was.

Let's not forget how big Pedro was.

Pedro was in the last year of his deal.

I think we knew he was gonna ask

for an amount of money that we were not gonna give him.

I actually was hoping, based on my pedigree with Boston,

my... you know, my success in Boston,

that I was gonna be, uh, considered a little bit more.

But deep inside of me,

I... I kind of knew

that the only dark part that baseball never shows

is the business part of it.

And the business part of it has no friends,

has no loyalty.

His arm angle was dropping a little bit,

the velocity was dropping a little bit.

Giving him, like, a top-of-the-market contract

for '05, '06, '07,

I didn't think was... was good business.

It's not up to me. I tried.

I said it, and I... I still say it. I wanna finish in Boston.

I'm a Bostonian.

You don't even re-up Pedro,

which is your way of saying,

"You're going to the Hall of Fame, but you're also not the same player."

And certainly when you bring in a guy like Schilling,

you really think Pedro's gonna say,

"Yeah, come on in. I didn't get the job done. Maybe you can help"?

Schilling and Pedro were natural rivals, right?

Both alpha male aces.

And there was this much-publicized relationship

between Schilling and Tito.

I started Tito's first game as a manager.

So we became very close in Philly.

I think Pedro reacted to that initially.

No, no. There was never a rivalry between me and Schilling.

He was a number one.

I was a number one.

Any sort of... No? No discussion...

No, I mean, it's not... it's not something you talk about.

You're going out and pitching opening day, you're obviously the opening-day starter.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is.

The Red Sox are again filled with high hopes

and a lot of expectations for this season.

First of all, Jon, there's nothing like opening night.

And this is the night

that the Red Sox fans and the players have been looking to

since Game 7 of last year's ALCS championship.

There's an old saying in baseball, "Wait till next year."

Well, this is next year.

as Pedro Martínez makes his seventh opening day start

in as many seasons with the Red Sox.

He ties Roger Clemens

for most consecutive opening starts in club history.

Pedro, it wasn't a bad appearance or anything.

Pedro Martínez leaves after six innings,

and despite a shaky second inning,

Pedro gave the Red Sox a fine effort tonight.

Six innings, three runs, two earned.

But he left the clubhouse early.

He didn't stay, and that's a rule. They all know.

Petey left the game early, which is a no-no.

And I caught wind of it, and I knew.

I'm getting tested two hours into the season.

I did not leave the clubhouse. I was in the family room.

That's not the type of person I am and the type of player I was.

The only ones that didn't probably know everything about me at that point

were Schilling and Tito.

They made the adjustment to me.

I wanted to get to know him, and the thing that I got from him

was the thing that eventually ended up hurting my ankle.

I would go down and watch him throw his bullpen,

and I noticed that when he... he did his rotation on the rubber,

he put his cleat half on and half off the rubber.

And he did that for leverage, it allowed him to throw a little bit harder.

And I thought, "That's different."

And I tried it, and it bumped my velocity up a little.

The problem was when I rotated my ankle on the rubber, uh,

there was compression on the bone in my ankle,

and it... I had a bone bruise.

But it did give me better velocity, and so I was okay with the tradeoff.

Lined into center field, a base hit.

There was a game early on in the year.

We were playing the Blue Jays in Toronto.

And for the first time, it was bothering me significantly.

Pitch to Hudson.

Outside, ball four, bases are loaded.

In the eighth inning, I loaded the bases with two outs

and Chris Gomez came up, and got him into a 3-2 count,

and I threw a split that didn't split.

One-one is lined to left,

deep down towards the corner, and that is gone!

A grand slam off Curt Schilling by the number nine hitter Chris Gomez.

From that start on, it was something I dealt with the rest of the year.

It went from, "Hey, we can win" in '03, to expecting to win ballgames in '04.

Funny thing is we didn't play like that for the first half of the year.

And the Indians hold on to win 2-1,

in another frustrating affair for the Red Sox

as they drop their fourth in a row.

When you suck, you suck. You can't sugarcoat it, you know what I mean?

To win a lot, you gotta beat teams you're supposed to.

And line to center field and... dropped! Dropped by Damon!

We just kind of muddled around for, like, two and a half, three months.

With the same old pattern.

Lose one, win one. Lose one, win one. Lose one.

This... This ball club has not shown me any consistency

other than being inconsistent.

Meanwhile, the Yankees are great, and they're pulling away from us.

Yankees win! The Yankees win!

We couldn't catch our footing.

The Oakland A's on top, six to nothing.

I remember stopping at red lights, man.

People were not hesitating to give me their two cents.

Many Red Sox fans have talked about and worry about

these intangible issues,

the possible fallout from the Mannys and Nomars of the world.

Like, what is wrong with this group?

Our defense was a big part of it,

and then you had, you know, Nomar's absence with the Achilles injury,

and then his return. He wasn't always available.

If I'm not there, I'm not sticking it to the Red Sox,

I wanna be out there with my teammates.

I wanna be out there and I wanna be playing.

He was fighting this injury, and I think he sensed

people questioning how come he couldn't be in the lineup more.

There's been suggestions that you were selfish.

You know who said that?

When you give me a name, I'll address it.

Tied at two, bottom eighth.

The right-hander deals, hit on the ground toward the shortstop,

oh, backhanded, Garciaparra, throws low, and it gets by Ortiz in the stands.

That's another error for Garciaparra.

He made two last night, and now he has one tonight.

Sheffield grounds it out of the reach of Bellhorn!

Lofton will come from third with the go-ahead run,

and the Yankees lead it 3-2.

Into second goes Sheffield.

And the Captain is digging it.

I went in after that game, said "Nomie, I know you're supposed

to have tomorrow off." He goes, "Yeah, I need it."

I go, "Okay." I didn't really think that much of it.

Again, I'm still pretty new up there.

I didn't realize

quite how, you know, disastrous or inflammable that could be.

I think it's a real gut check for the Red Sox.

This is a game that... to... to turn this team around.

I remember, you know, somebody saying to me,

"Hey, if he doesn't play, man, he's gonna catch a lot of hell."

You know, one thing worth mentioning early on here,

is that... is we noticed in the Red Sox lineup,

Garciaparra's not there.

And, uh, he just said he couldn't play today,

wasn't feeling well. I mean...

Terry Francona gave him an opportunity to play,

and I... once again, I think from a teammate standpoint,

well, you gotta take the field and try... try to help your ball club.

I don't think that's a very popular move.

At the time, I didn't like Pedro.

Bernie Williams told me, "Gary, you wanna piss Pedro off?"

He said, "Step out of the box when he's on the mound."

And time is called for a moment.

Now, he didn't tell me what was gonna happen.

I'm not afraid to say it.

I was a sharpshooter.

Two outs, no one on, no score, bottom of the first.

And Pedro Martínez has hit Gary Sheffield.

If I knew you was trying to hit me on purpose, I'm coming.

He's taking it personally as he heads down to first base.

And I kept staring at him to say something,

but he wouldn't say anything.

Backhand stop. A-Rod to his feet, fires, got him!

Oh, what a play!

That one's hit deep to center field.

Going back, Lofton. On the track, at the wall, see you!

I don't know what's more electric in sports

other than the Red Sox and the Yankees rivalry,

and the way the fans get into these games.

That was one of the most intense games I've ever been a part of.

We head to the 12th. Red Sox three, Yankees three.

One-two.

He loops that to left field, gonna be a tough play.

Jeter on the run, makes the play!

- Wow! - And flies into the stands! Oh!

Talking about a ball that goes down the left field line

that, really, you think nobody has a chance to catch. And then he,

being Jeter,

doesn't give up on the ball.

Risking life and limb, okay?

Going in there, let's be honest, into the seats headfirst.

And he could've got really hurt.

Oh, what a play by Jeter!

You can't believe it! He raced, he caught it.

And boy, did he get beat up.

He is beat up and bloody in his face.

Derek Jeter, what a player.

You can't say enough about him.

What is he? He's a winner, that's what he is.

The catch was okay, right? The catch was a catch.

And he dove, like, full momentum, drills his chin.

But, like, there's a statement there.

Where's the camera go? Right to Nomar in the dugout.

When your star player hasn't been on the field

and you have to go to battle without him, these are... You know, they lift you up.

You say, "Okay, you don't want to play? We'll win without you."

- Everybody else on the top step. - Yeah.

At some point during the game, Nomar, who had said he was totally unavailable,

had gone up to Tito when the game got so dramatic.

Told him he was available to pinch hit.

And I'm like, "Oh, man." You know? Like...

I was in a tough spot.

So, stayed away.

Flaherty hits it, in the air to left field, back, up,

and it'll one hop the wall,

and the Yankees will win it in 13 innings.

A crushing defeat tonight for the Red Sox,

and the sweep by the New York Yankees.

They win it 5-4 in 13 innings.

Yeah!

Whoo!

- Yeah, suck on that! - Suck my cock!

Then we end up losing the game, and it's a shit storm.

We go to Atlanta the next day, and Theo showed up.

You know, you wanna show your face when times are tough.

Get a deep fly, wins the game anyway.

And there is a deep fly, and the Braves are gonna win it.

Another excruciating loss.

So I go down there, and, you know,

I talk to a bunch of players,

got sort of an understanding for the feeling in the clubhouse

and the pulse of things, and talked to Nomar, and...

You know, it wasn't... There was some tension.

His situation was a bit of a burden.

Like, it was part of why

things weren't flowing as well in the clubhouse.

We weren't playing well. We weren't gelling well.

There was just stuff going on.

There starts becoming a lot of, like, noise.

Were you pissed? Are you still mad?

You know, we were dealing with the Nomar stuff from spring training,

um, which was tiring.

There's been suggestions that you were selfish.

I kinda told him, I said, "You know, maybe it's just time to think about..."

"You know, let's..." And... And, you know, he was kinda...

I think that's where he was.

- Think about moving on? - Yeah.

They had too much talent.

They were too good.

Curt Schilling, Foulke, Pedro, Manny, David, all these guys.

And they're playing .500 ball for three months.

That's a long time.

More of the same for the Red Sox and the Yankees

in this 2004 season.

New York takes Game 1 of this three-game series.

Their lead now nine and a half games over the Red Sox.

Frustration comes to mind, the word frustration,

because this club has so much talent but hasn't been able to get on that roll.

Yeah, there's that missing element,

missing part of the chemistry that, uh, hasn't... hasn't developed yet.

You know, sometimes it just takes one catalytic event to get things going.

We're trying everything we can, and has to happen soon.

Really don't like the... the tone of things right now,

and the way we're playing is, uh, not acceptable.

Forecast was awful.

We were down to, you know, a very thin bullpen.

We might not be able to get this thing in. Do we just bang it early?

You know, and we could probably use a day off anyway.

I remember riding with Varitek in.

He was pissed off already, coming to the game.

Like, he was already... He just was...

He was wound up.

Just like every, I think, day game after a night game, uh,

you're probably cranky in the morning.

I think we stopped and got a coffee.

Lost a tough one, you know, the night before.

Next day, you show up and the field's a mess.

We go out to walk the field,

and Joe Torre's out there and one of the umpires,

and we're gonna cancel this game.

I get back into the clubhouse, and our players are adamant.

"We're playing."

Varitek, I mean, myself, I don't know, Billy Mueller...

There was just a group of dudes that were, like, irritated.

And like, "We're playing."

We wanted to play, like...

we've gotta get the wheels spinning.

We gotta get the wheels churning in the right direction.

Like, "We need a win. We need to start this going now."

That man, when Tek gets to talk?

I was like, "Oh shit."

You know?

Like, he don't say much,

but when he say something, you better pay attention. You know?

That's why we call him the captain.

So I called Joe, and I said, "Joe, hang on."

I said, "I might have been a little premature out there."

I was pissed because they had told us the game was called.

I don't know if Theo talked the umpires out of it

or whatever the heck it was, but I didn't think it was the right thing.

We're gonna play this game.

The Yankees were... were livid.

About two o'clock, roughly, the two managers walked out on the field,

and it was deemed that this field was unplayable.

The New York Yankees went so far as to start the team buses.

Players were showering and walking out of the stadium.

At which point the Boston Red Sox overruled that earlier decision

and said "No, we're going to play."

I remember I'm in a pair of shorts, T-shirt, and no... no shoes,

and I'm sleeping inside the weight room.

And I get woken up, and they tell me that the game is on in 30 minutes.

I need an hour just to get prepared,

they said game on in 30 minutes, and I'm in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

It was a nightmare.

Arroyo in trouble, first and third, nobody out.

And Matsui into left center field. That's gonna put the Yankees on top.

You're facing one of the greatest lineups in the game,

and you feel like you're completely unprepared.

He was getting hit around a bit.

Not a whole lot of command.

Breaking ball, misses.

He's gonna strike, and Varitek says, "Bronson, calm it down a little bit."

They're leaning out over the plate,

forcing him to use his fastball more.

Strike!

Third baseman, number 13, Alex Rodriguez.

The good hitters forced you to pitch them in,

or at least show them in enough.

And you always have to go in on Alex.

And, uh, he ends up hitting him.

Alex Rodriguez is drilled.

I was disappointed in myself I hit him, 'cause I'm trying to get an out.

And he didn't see it that way, and he's... he's just screaming at me.

"Throw the mother-effing ball across the plate."

He was yelling at Bronson, yelling at Bronson.

There's a few F-words.

Then it turns into F-words to me.

And I think that's when Varitek said, "I'll let you say 'Fuck you' once."

"You're not gonna say it twice."

You're like, "Holy crap, this is gonna happen?"

You're waiting, you're waiting.

- And we know what he said. - Go.

Varitek and A-Rod going at it.

Schilling is right in the middle of it.

You kinda go out there and your... your head's on a swivel, one,

because they're big and strong

and you don't want somebody to accidentally knock the shit out of you.

Or maybe not accidentally.

Mass chaos, people pulling, pushing, getting in between.

Holding onto people's jerseys for that split second,

getting punched in the side of the head.

And now another fight off to the side.

All of a sudden, Tanyon Sturtze grabs Gabe Kapler around the neck.

Trot sees that.

Trot's now trying to choke, grab Sturtze's eye off,

pull his hair out, whatever it's gonna take.

Now we got, like, it's just, like, protecting Sturtze,

'cause Trot is trying to kill Sturtze.

I don't remember much. I don't know where I was.

I think I just saw a little bit of red.

Sturtze is bleeding from the left ear.

Kapler and Sturtze, I believe, were the two that splintered off.

That's where my attention went

after the initial fight was between Varitek and Alex Rodriguez.

I have a vivid memory

of sitting behind the plate with Theo in that game.

And when the fight started, he jumped out of his seat,

and he was, like, pumped. Like, "Ah!"

"Finally, we, like, show some energy this year."

I couldn't believe Tek put his hands in his face like that.

I have a perfect angle when he goes down to scoop him up.

I thought for sure he was gonna,

like, Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, just body slam him.

Every barroom and household

used to be, like, Cardinal Cushing, John F. Kennedy.

Now it's Jason Varitek stuffing his mitt into Alex Rodriguez's face.

Varitek hit him with his mask on, that's the thing.

That's what you think of in the moment. When you...

Play's at the plate, whatever you do.

Like, "Oh, time out. I forgot I had my mask on."

"I wear this all the time. I'm gonna go put this there."

It is what it is.

It's only Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek ejected from this game.

Yankees suck!

Now a huge ovation for Varitek.

Who is, in so many ways,

the rock and the leader of this Boston Red Sox team.

Francona gets thrown out the next inning. Arguing.

Terry Francona just got ejected.

We were kind of teetering

on whether we were gonna go south

or make it to the postseason.

Line drive for a hit for Enrique Wilson.

Two more runs will score.

We needed to win that game.

That's well hit into left field.

Off the Monster.

One run scores, and the Red Sox are right back in it.

Let's go Red Sox!

Let's go Red Sox!

The 0-2 pitch.

Garciaparra hits it to left center field, it's down for extra bases.

The Red Sox will not go quietly,

even with Rivera on the mound for New York.

Millar has three singles today.

Hit three homers last night.

A flare. It's a one-run game. And the tying run is on.

Millar with his fourth hit of the day.

You know, the Yankees are the measuring stick at the time.

In those moments when you play them, where do you see yourself?

The emotion, the rivalry.

You're trying to find how you fit in.

Either wrap your arms around it, or, you know, it's gonna eat you up.

A 1-0 to Bill Mueller. Homered last night.

- Strike! - One ball, one strike.

His best pitch was a cutter.

It was one of the later-breaking cutters you'd ever seen.

It was so difficult to, um, have success off of.

If you're ever gonna have success, it's a mistake by him.

You're only maybe gonna get one in a season, type thing.

Now Mueller's sitting on a 3-1 pitch.

I got that one pitch, and... and... and I hit it.

And, uh, man, it was, you know...

Swing, and a high drive deep to right,

back goes Sheffield near the bullpen, and it is gone!

And the Red Sox have won it

on a walk-off two-run homer by Bill Mueller off Mariano Rivera!

Can you believe it?

First time I ever recall saying "Can you believe it?"

That gave that team some belief in itself.

So I ended up, uh, going down into the clubhouse.

I'm with Tek, a couple of the other guys,

and we're watching the ninth inning unfold on TV,

and all of a sudden you feel the rattle of this... the grandstand,

and you hear this roar.

Tek says, like, "No fucking way!"

And jumps up off the couch. I thought he was gonna hit his head on the ceiling.

It was just a huge moment for... for us

to come back and win that game.

We go two-and-oh that day.

We win the fight, and then we win the game.

This is when we became a team.

I remember I was in my underwear.

So I'm standing at the door, and I stood there with every pitcher,

every guy that came out of the game and high-fived everybody.

It was... It was a good day.

It's a huge win for us.

And, man, it'll be bigger if we make it bigger,

and we... we let this catapult us and we... we do something with it.

That's what'll really make it big.

We all say, like, that's the moment things turned around.

But we didn't play great after it.

Like, we still couldn't shake this malaise.

And Manny strikes out to end the ballgame.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox continue to frustrate,

just when you think they were going on a roll

at the end of the Yankees series...

We ask ourselves...

We're analyzing what's going on with the team.

We felt like our fatal flaw was our defense.

And shortstop is the most important defensive position,

it's the most obvious place to fix it.

We were trying to consider, you know, what we were gonna get

out of, kind of, an arguably disgruntled Nomar,

and diminished Nomar,

for the next couple months versus the possibility of trading him.

You're not really thinking about, like, the ramifications

of trading a franchise icon.

You're just wrapped up in making the team better.

Remember, Nomar had been unbelievable for Boston.

He was one of the best I've ever seen.

Trade deadline.

People are wondering if the Red Sox are going to do anything.

They'll get something done. I don't know how major.

I don't think it involves Nomar Garciaparra.

I doubted it'd happen 'cause it was so big, it was so bold,

and Theo was so young.

And I just said, "They won't have the stones to do this."

This has been a hectic day here at the ballpark,

and we were kinda just hovering around down in the clubhouse.

You knew something was up, you didn't know how big it was gonna be.

And when we all got ejected

from the clubhouse, we knew it was pretty big.

This, Don, has certainly been a strange day in Red Sox history.

Hey. Theo. Um, we got a deal.

My jaw nearly fell on the ground.

I went, "Nomar what? No more Nomar in Boston."

Nomar's gone! I mean, he's gone. It's hard to believe.

Hey, this is the part of the job I... I absolutely hate.

Nomar Garciaparra was going to the Cubs.

We got Cabrera and Mientkiewicz.

You got a Gold Glove shortstop, Cabrera.

Of course, Mientkiewicz coming over from Minnesota.

He's been a Gold Glove-caliber first baseman.

Uh, Nomar gets traded.

And Doug Mientkiewicz, uh, just walks over from the, uh, Minnesota Twins locker room

and just starts putting his stuff down in a locker.

We're going, "Oh my God."

I very distinctly remember the trade with Nomar.

Very... It was very jarring, very shocking. I thought Nomar was...

was obviously a staple here that wasn't gonna go anywhere.

I've always said, you know, this was a place that I, well, you know,

I started, and I always wanted to finish. You know?

That's obviously not gonna happen.

You know, wanna spend your entire career with one team.

Um, but, uh... but at the same time, you know,

they can take the shirt off my back,

but they can't take away the memories I got.

The fact that Theo made that deal showed he believed

that he knew what it was gonna take to win a championship.

He's from here. He knew the difference. He knew the implications.

I go to do the press conference.

In your opinion, this team got significantly better with this deal today?

I think we improved, yeah. I thought we had a... a decent shot

at the postseason, um, by maintaining the status quo,

but in my mind, and in the opinion of our whole baseball operations staff,

we were not gonna win the World Series as-is.

All right, thank you all very much.

Cell phone rings, it's my twin brother Paul.

He's like, "What did you do?"

"I'm listening to WEEI, and you're getting absolutely destroyed."

He's getting paid big money to make these decisions.

So let's hope that he knows what he's doing.

Sox without Nomar? Nomar's New England.

You think of Boston, you think of Nomar.

Well, see you guys.

My thought, it's a horrible trade.

Cabrera's not gonna win the World Series.

Nomar Garciaparra can win the World Series for you, absolutely.

What on earth did you guys just do?

You just traded Nomar for a couple of dudes

that aren't great hitters that you say are good defenders.

Like, that's what you got back for him?

Do the press conference,

I walk back into our basement office,

everyone's gone.

There's not a soul in there. Everyone had gone home to their families.

And, you know, your mind runs through those scenarios.

Like, "What if Nomar goes off?"

"We miss the playoffs?"

Might never live this down.