Championship Trivia

Some miscellany trickling in in the aftermath of last night's wonderful victory:

• The Red Sox won a clinching game at home for the second time since 1986. Two+ decades ago it was against the Angels in another 3-1 series comeback -- the Sox won that AL clincher 8-1 behind Roger Clemens, jumping to an early seven-run lead and never looking back. 
• At the '86 ALCS clincher 33,001 people attended the game at Fenway, while last night there were 37,165 in attendance.  The Sox have metamorphosed as a franchise, both economically and architecturally.
• In between October 15th, 1986 and October 21st, 2007, the Sox won clinching games at Cleveland (the Pedro six-inning no-hit masterpiece), [ED: at Oakland in '03], in Boston against the Angels ('04), at New York ('04), at St. Louis ('04), at Anaheim ('07).
• In the '99 Division Series against the Tribe, the Sox went down 2-0, the second game an 11-1 blowout at the Jake. The Sox won the final three games by an aggregate score of 44-18, a 26 run differential. The Sox outscored the Indians by a nearly identical 25 runs over the final three games, though in even more convincing fashion, 30-5.
• Two players on this '07 team played on that '99 squad, Jason Varitek and Tim Wakefield.  One of the players in that series is no longer with us, that being Rod Beck. 
• Manny Ramirez went 1-18 for Cleveland in '99, 9-22 with 10 RBI in '07.
• Last night's game ended just before midnight.  In 2004, the Sox defeated the Yankees in the ALCS just after midnight.  The calendar, though, read identically when the final out was recorded: October 21st.  Not a bad anniversary present.

Comments

[Atheose]

It's amazing how well Youk did--14 for 28, 3 HR (as many as Ortiz and Manny combined), 7 RBI, 10 runs scored. Had Beckett not pitched two gems Youk probably would have gotten the ALCS MVP.

But of course if Beckett fails to pitch two gems then we probably get swept.

[Hudson]

Wakefield had great success against the Rockies earlier this year, but that was of course first-half Wakes.

[no sleep til brooklyn SF]

Technically, Trot played in the '99 and '07 Sox/Indians series too.

[dc]

sf, i thought you guys didn't care about history :)

congrats

[Tyrel SF]

I remember the chant "Manny's hit-less" from 99. Oh, how the tables turn.

Was the '86 game 7 a sell out? I know the capacity has jumped a couple thousand, but it wasn't 33,000 back in 86, right?

[SF]

Good question, Tyrel. Game 5 of the '86 Series showed the highest attendance of that series at 34,010, leading me to believe that there were more standing room tix sold to the Series games. Fenway used to have a ton of standing room tickets, typically terrible vantage points. The capacity has certainly grown by two thousand plus, no matter what.

And thanks, dc. You were right all along!

[dc]

;) glad to oblige

[academic-SF]

Um... on the clinching games list, you forgot Oakland in 2003.

[SF]

Oh, correct A-SF. My bad.