The Boston Red Sox broke their 86-year World Series drought in 2004 despite the New York Yankees’ best efforts on the field — and, allegedly, off of it, too.
According to Red Sox legends Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling in a new Netflix documentary, “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox,” the Yankees bugged the visitor’s clubhouse before Game 2 of the AL Championship Series. This is the first time these claims have been made public, 20 years after the series.
“Something was going on…,” Martinez said in Episode 3, per Mass Live. “I remember before the game, getting up to the ceiling of the clubhouse and pulling out a microphone and I guess, a little device, that was relaying our conversations.”
“I know the difference between a microphone and not a microphone and this was like a lapel mic,” Schilling continued. “It was attached to a little box with the red light on.”
The Red Sox won the ALCS in seven games, but they lost Games 1 and 2 in New York. Martinez was the losing pitcher in Game 2 against Jon Lieber, the 3-1 win giving the Yankees their second series victory as they jumped out to a 3-0 series lead before blowing it all.
Colin Barnicle, a former Red Sox intern and diehard fan, was the series director. He told The Boston Globe that these allegations “came up organically.”
Joe Torre, the Yankees’ manager at the time, wholeheartedly denied the accusations in the series.
“(Expletive). I say it didn’t happen,” Torre said, per Boston.com. “And if it did happen, we didn’t get the benefit of a microphone, someone else did.”
The three-part series that lasts around three hours required 12-14 hours of work per day for six months, according to Barnicle in Mass Live’s podcast, “Fenway Rundown,” that released Tuesday.
He told Mass Live that Martinez and Schilling weren’t the only people with the accusations. (For what it’s worth, ex-shortstop Nomar Garciaparra did not participate in the documentary.)
“Pedro was the last to be interviewed (in June), so originally, that section had several players in it,” Barnicle said on the podcast. “We heard from Bronson Arroyo and Doug Mirabelli and Curt Schilling and most of the pitchers. They were like, ‘Yeah, no, that happened. We pulled a microphone down.’ Then they had their team meetings — the pitcher team meetings, on the team bus. They would walk outside and have it on the team bus. …
“The proof’s kind of in the pudding that maybe that didn’t really lead to anything. Maybe it did. All the Yankees said, ‘No, I had never heard of that before.’ …”
Barnicle said that Maribelli was the one who took it down.
Martinez declined to provide more specifics to The Boston Globe.
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