The Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series title since 2004 on Sunday night and in the process became the 11th Boston team to win a title since 2001.
Holy city of champions.
So let’s have some fun and rank all 11 championship teams. Disclaimer – I’m from Boston and have lived through all these moments. I also lived through the years when the Patriots were so bad their home games were often not on local TV, I remember watching Bill Buckner having that ball go through his legs, and I watched a Celtics team win 15 games in the 1996-97 season. So there have definitely been some dark days in Boston sports.
11. 2007 Red Sox
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
Boston only had to wait three years for its second World Series title of the 2000s, which proved to be a lot better than the 86-year wait that it went through before finally winning it all in 2004. The 2007 team came close to losing to the Indians in the ALCS before rolling to big wins in Game 6 and 7 at home to advance to the World Series. The Red Sox opened that up with a 13-1 over the Colorado Rockies and wrapped up the sweep in Denver with a 4-3 win in Game 4. Suddenly the Red Sox winning a World Series didn’t feel all that foreign of an experience.
10. 2003 Patriots
(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Tom Brady and the Patriots went 14-2 in 2003 and capped off the season with a 32-29 victory over the Panthers in the Super Bowl, which ended in familiar fashion as Adam Vinatieri’s 41-yard FG in the closing seconds gave them their second title in three years. This proved that the 2001 season was not a fluke at all and maybe, just maybe, Brady could lead them to a few more of these things.
9. 2014 Patriots
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
Just when it looked like the Patriots were going to lose another Super Bowl in dramatic fashion, something incredible happened – Pete Carroll and the Seahawks decided not to handoff the ball to Marshawn Lynch at the 2-yard line. Instead, Russell Wilson had a pass picked off by Malcolm Butler at the goal line and the Patriots danced around the field in celebration. It had been 10 long years since they had won a Super Bowl, which is hard to believe considering how many good teams they had during that time. And boy did they find a dramatic way to get it done.
8. 2004 Patriots
(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
This one, which culminated with a win over Donovan McNabb, Terrell Owens and the Eagles stands out for a few reasons. First, it’s the last time a team has won back-to-back Super Bowls. Second, it was their third Super Bowl win in four years, which pushed them into dynasty territory. Little did they know that it would take 10 years to win their next championship.
7. 2011 Bruins
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
By this time in 2011 three of the four major pro teams in Boston had won a championship. The only one that hadn’t? The Boston Bruins. Hockey is huge in Boston and the history of the Bruins, an Original Six team, is rich. And in 2011 they finally won their first Stanley Cup since 1972. Three of their four playoff series went seven games, including the Stanley Cup Final in which they beat Vancouver on the road, 4-0. Boston teams love to give their fans heart attacks on the road to championships, and the Bruins were no different.
6. 2016 Patriots
(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
28-3. It’s a score that will always be remembered by Boston sports fans (and Atlanta fans, too). That, of course, was what the score the Patriots trailed the Falcons by late in the third quarter of the Super Bowl. What happened next is still hard to believe – the Patriots rallied to force overtime where they won it with a TD on the first drive of OT. The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history gave the greatest quarterback in NFL history his fifth Super Bowl ring. Tom Brady officially became a God on that night in Houston.
5. 2013 Red Sox
(Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
For all the things David Ortiz did with a bat in his hands, it’s what he did with a mic at Fenway on Saturday, April 20th of 2013 that will forever be remembered by Red Sox fans. During a pregame ceremony paying tribute to the victims, and paying respects to the first responders, of the Boston Marathon bombing just five days before, Ortiz finished a brief speech to a city still very much in mourning by saying, “This is our f——- city. And nobody’s going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong.” It’s one of the most Boston things ever said and it seemed to power a team, which had gone 69-93, to unbelievable heights as they finished first in the AL East and beat the Cardinals in six games to win the World Series. The run lifted the spirits of a city that really needed something good to happen.
4. 2018 Red Sox
(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
Even after a franchise-best 108 wins in the regular season, fans went into the playoffs feeling nervous. All that success wouldn’t mean a thing if they couldn’t win it all. The bullpen seemed to be dicey, they would have to face the hated Yankees and defending-champion Astros, both 100-plus win teams, just to get to the World Series. There was a collective concern that things wouldn’t turn out well for the Red Sox. But then the team went out and showed everyone that those 108 wins were no fluke at all and they were far and away the best team in baseball. They dropped just one game in each of the three playoff series, won seven games on the road, and showed so much heart in rallying late in Game 4 of the World Series before then wrapping it up with a dominant performance in Game 5 in Los Angeles. A special team, indeed.
3. 2008 Celtics
(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images)
The Celtics are special in Boston. It’s a franchise that has delivered some of the most memorable moments in sports over the years, while winning 16 titles before the 2008. Legends played for the Celtics. And before this season Danny Ainge brought in two more – Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett – to join Paul Pierce with one goal in mind – win a NBA title. The new “Big Three” did just that in their first year together and it couldn’t have been scripted any better as they beat Kobe Bryant and the hated Lakers in the NBA Finals. Moments after winning title No. 17, Kevin Garnett yelled into an ESPN mic, “ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!!!” and Celtics fans every pumped their fist and yelled, “HECK YEAH IT IS!!!”
2. 2001 Patriots
(JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images)
This Super Bowl team really came out of nowhere and might not have happened if Drew Bledsoe didn’t suffer a brutal injury in Week 2. That’s when an untested, second-year QB by the name of Tom Brady became the starter, a move that would change the history of the franchise and the game. The Patriots finished 11-5, survived a controversial call in a snowy playoff game, then went into the Super Bowl as gigantic underdogs against “The Greatest Show on Turf” Rams. We all know what happened on the special night in New Orleans – Brady, instead of playing for OT, led the Patriots down the field in the final minutes and got them within FG distance. Adam Vinatieri then walked out and kicked a 48-yard FG that sent all of New England into hysterics.
1. 2004 Red Sox
(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Boston has long been a baseball town. A baseball town full of pain and brutal heartache. That all changed in the fall of 2004 when the Red Sox made history. First, they came back from a 3-0 deficit against the hated Yankees, winning both Game 6 and 7 in the Bronx. They then faced the Cardinals in a highly anticipated World Series that ended in four games. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4, Edgar Renteria’s comebacker to the mound bounced into the glove of closer Keith Foulke and time seemed to stop as he turned and took a few steps toward first base. All those heartbreaking losses, all those chants of 1918, all those doubts of whether we’d ever see this moment happen came to a glorious end as Foulke flipped the ball to first for a win that will never be forgotten. The Boston Red Sox had done it. Finally. And the city, with a huge weight lifted off its shoulders, could celebrate a World Series title that eluded them for far too long.
