Pungent onions and spicy peppers filled Yawkey Way. Expectation was in the air, and it smelled good.
The Sox were up two games and coming home. On the front pages and the airwaves and the Green Line trains, there was brave talk about the most perfect route to the World Series.
In the gorgeous sunshine outside Fenway Park yesterday, four workmates debated the philosophical question of the day: did the Red Sox have to slay their ancient tormentors to avenge all the past wrongs, or was it sufficient to step around the Yankees' carcass on the way to the World Series?
"I don't care who they play," said Tim Baker, one of the four taking their lunch hour from Blue Cross Blue Shield, just down the block.
Anthony Martin and Karen Martin, unrelated colleagues, disagreed with Baker.
"This is the team that's been keeping you down," Anthony Martin said, speaking of historic suffering by the entire Red Sox Nation. He was afraid the Yankees and their fans would never respect the Red Sox if they won a World Series without going through the Bronx.
"I don't care," Baker said. "We'll beat the Twins, who beat the Yankees."
There is a saying: Be careful what you wish for. You can jump up and down and shout, "Bring it on." But then they bring it on. And it is called Derek Jeter.
There is also the issue of whether one should discuss the opponents for the second round before the first round is technically over. Still, how wonderful it was, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, to be dreaming of eternal sunshine and afternoon games and a pennant and a World Series and exoneration for all the horrors of the past.
A popcorn vendor moved his cart into Yawkey Way, now closed to traffic. The El Tiante grill was firing up Cuban sandwiches. The souvenir stand was offering Red Sox shirts in red or black, including the Garciaparra 5 item, which was not doing a brisk business.
Under the eaves of the old ballpark, Terry Francona, the current Boston manager, was asked what it was like to be two games ahead in a division series.
Francona knows. Last year he was the bench coach in Oakland, which was two games ahead of the Red Sox, but then the Athletics forgot how to run the bases and lost three straight. Francona has blamed the base-running coach, that is to say himself.
"But we also were coming to Fenway as a visitor, which is a big difference in coming home to Fenway as the home team," Francona quickly noted.
Boston remembers that stirring comeback. But that was last year. Now Francona occupies the office once held by unfortunates like Darrell Johnson, Don Zimmer, John McNamara and Grady Little.
"Well, the games are great," Francona said, but he quickly added:
"You get late in the game and your stomach is in your throat. You know you're going to win, you're just not sure how, and that doesn't always come true, either. But it's a great feeling."
Before they played the game, there was another Boston moment, a moment of silence for Johnny Kelley, who ran the Boston Marathon 61 times and died Wednesday at age 97.
Then the crowd cheered this year's fad rally song, a live performance by the Dropkick Murphys of "Tessie," an updated show tune that was all the rage during the Red Sox' first world championship in 1903.
With anticipation in the air, the Sox took a 6-1 lead. With one of those nouveau franchises, a five-run lead would have sent the locals into joyous exultation.
In the genetic makeup of Boston fans, however, there is the memory of 1986, when the Red Sox' subs were on the top step of the dugout with two outs in the 10th, then kept edging downward into the shadow of the dugout. Nobody gets too giddy in Boston.
This time the gruesome blow happened early. The Angels stunned the Sox for five runs, four on a grand slam by Vladimir Guerrero, who never got to play in vital games in Montreal. Now it was tied. And it was dark in Boston. The echoes of the old-time rally song from 1903 had vanished, hours ago.
The Boston players are not foolish. They knew the consequences of letting this game totally get away.
"It's an early game tomorrow," Johnny Damon said later. "We cannot let that team back in."
Instead, in the 10th inning, David Ortiz lofted a two-run homer above the Green Monster in left field, giving the Red Sox an 8-6 victory.
That means the Sox play somewhere Tuesday. ("Let them beat each other up," Damon said of the Twins and the Yankees, once again proving to be the wisest man in all of Red Sox nation.) The Sox know they play here next weekend. Nobody can guarantee warm October sunshine, but the onions and the peppers will smell good.
By George Vecsey.
From The New York Times of October 9, 2004.