As the Philadelphia Flyers were completing a comeback from a 0-3 deficit in Game 7 while simultaneously rebounding from a 0-3 quagmire in the NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals, there had to be a twinge of satisfaction among New York sports fans in watching the city of Boston lower their collective heads in shame.
After all, less than six years ago, the Boston Red Sox were directly responsible for preventing the New York Yankees from participating in their 5th World Series in seven years by doing exactly what the Flyers did to the Boston Bruins.
With the 86-year-old ‘Curse of the Bambino’ looming over their heads like an ever present ominous storm cloud, the Red Sox proceeded to lose the first three games of the 2004 American League Championship Series (ACLS) to the team that was held most accountable for keeping this notorious superstition alive through the decades.
But in a rally of epic proportions, fueled by daring base running, timely hitting and clutch pitching performances, Boston rose from the smoldering ashes of another crushing season-ending defeat to the Bronx Bombers.
Two walk-off game-winning hits by ‘Big Papi’ David Ortiz in Game 4 and Game 5 respectively followed by a courageous effort on the mound by Curt Schilling at Yankee Stadium in Game 6 set the stage for what would become an anti-climactic Game 7; which saw the Red Sox jump all over Yankees pitching in the first four innings on the way to a 10-3 series-clinching victory.
This would mark the first time in Major League Baseball (MLB) history that a team would surrender a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 series and the third such time it happened in the history of professional sports. An embarrassing distinction, to say the least, for the most storied franchise in baseball.
And the Yankees would have always be known as the last team to fold like a piece of origami until the Bruins came along this year to give new meaning to the term ‘choke artists’.
So now, including the historic collapse of the Bruins, the Yankees’ 27th World Series Championship victory last year, and the New York Giants upset Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots in 2008, it appears New York has a slight edge over Boston when it comes to bragging rights and trash talk in the world of sports.
However, what can and will never be forgotten is that Boston and New York, two proud sports cities, comprise half of the worst collapses in sports playoff history. And they will always be a conversation piece or footnote whenever any team goes up 3-0 in a best-of-7 series, giving hope to the team on the losing end and fair warning to the team on the verge of clinching.
Oh what a pity; these losing tales of two cities.
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