SOX RETURN TO SOUTHERN HOME
By PATRICK WHITTLE
patrick.whittle@heraldtribune.com
FORT MYERS -- If Babe Ruth's ghost winters in Florida, Monday was a bleak day in a forgettable year.
For about 3,000 fans of baseball's Boston Red Sox, it was a day to celebrate the end of 86 years of torment by the Bambino's specter.
The world champion Red Sox, World Series trophy in hand, hosted a victory rally at their spring training complex at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers on Monday.
As all Red Sox fans know, baseball mythologists once held that the team cursed itself to never again win the World Series when then-owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth to the arch-rival New York Yankees before the 1920 season.
Red Sox fans in Boston, Florida and around the country rejoiced when the Sox put the Babe to bed forever with a victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in October's Fall Classic, the team's first championship since 1918.
Still, Lehigh Acres Sox fan Walter Sturgeon, 38, speculated that Ruth, who died in 1948, would have been in good spirits at the rally.
"He's gotta feel good for them. I don't think there was anything personal, just a business decision," Sturgeon said. "New York was more a party town, too, for him."
Red Sox broadcaster and former second baseman Jerry Remy emceed the rally. Melbourne's Tim Wakefield, the veteran Sox knuckle-baller who surrendered a series-losing home run in the 2003 playoffs, also made an appearance.
Wakefield made amends in this year's playoffs with a win over the Yankees in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, part of a dramatic come-from-behind series victory for the Sox.
"To be able to come back and beat them the way we did was even more special," Wakefield said.
On Monday, the Red Sox treated the fans to fireworks, speeches from Lee County officials and Sox brass and highlights from the 2004 season shown on a big screen in center field. Fans bought shirts emblazoned with slogans like "From cursed to first," "The drought is over, let the reign begin," and simply "Finally."
The only other player to make an appearance was relief pitcher Mike Timlin, who called the fans "the 26th man."
Fort Myers resident Derek Lowe, whose contract with the team ran out at the end of the season, did not attend.
Remy told the audience that the City of Palms played a role in reversing the curse. Before the start of the 2004 playoffs, Red Sox officials sprinkled dirt from Fort Myers on the field at Boston's Fenway Park for good luck, he said.
Every team that has played its spring training games in Lee County has gone on to win the World Series, Remy said.
"Up North, we like to call this Red Sox Nation South," he said. "Today is the day when the journey returns to where this magical run began."
Les Newton, 81, of Bonita Springs and Holyoke, Mass., was one of many New England snowbirds in the audience. Newton, who began following the team in the 1930s, said he was glad to see them finally win one -- especially after beating the Yankees, baseball's all-time winningest franchise.
"I was starting to worry that they weren't gonna do it in my lifetime," Newton said. "I don't know if I'm more of a Red Sox fan or anti-Yankee."
Monday's rally, which began with cars parking three hours before the 6 p.m. start, was the latest in a string of Sox celebrations.
More than 3 million people attended a "rolling rally" parade for the world champions in Boston on Oct. 30.
More than 2,000 celebrated with pitcher Bronson Arroyo, a Hernando County resident, on the steps of the Rhode Island statehouse in Providence on Nov. 11.
Another 4,000 came to see backup third baseman Kevin Youkilis and Sox brass hoist the World Series trophy at rallies in the Connecticut cities of New Haven and Hartford on Nov. 17.
An estimated 4,000 fans turned out to a chilly Red Sox rally in Manchester, N.H., on Nov. 30. Fire-balling relief pitcher Alan Embree led that rally.
The World Series trophy has made about 100 appearances and will make 400 more before the end of 2005, said Red Sox Chief Operating Officer Mike Dee.
Monday's rally was the first in a series of Sox events in Fort Myers this week. On Friday, fans will be able to take five batting practice swings at City of Palms Park for $5.
Estero Sox fan Larry Scott said he plans on taking the five swings. Scott, a Rhode Island native who went to his first game at Boston's Fenway Park in 1987, said it's going to be a week Sox fans will remember.
"I've only been alive for 26 years, but I've waited all my life to do this," Scott said.
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Victory tour hits Florida
By Patrick Whittle, Globe Correspondent | December 7, 2004
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- About 3,000 Floridian Red Sox fans joined Tim Wakefield and Mike Timlin at the team's spring training complex last night to celebrate the 2004 World Series championship.
The fans heard speeches from Timlin and Wakefield, who walked the bases at City of Palms Park with the World Series trophy, and watched fireworks and highlights from the 2004 season.
Red Sox broadcaster Jerry Remy, who emceed the rally, told the crowd that the Red Sox sprinkled dirt from City of Palms Park on the Fenway Park field before the start of the playoffs for good luck. Every team that has played its spring training games in Lee County has gone on to win the World Series, he said.
"Up north we like to call this `Red Sox Nation South,' " he said. "Today is the day when the journey returns to where this magical run began."
The rally was the latest stop for the World Series trophy. Red Sox chief operating officer Mike Dee said the trophy has appeared at about 100 events, and will go to 400 more before the end of 2005.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
