• FROM LOSING TO WINNING STREAKS The 2004 Sox became the first major league baseball team to win eight straight postseason games in the same year on their way to ending the third-longest World Series drought at 86 years. They were also the first team in baseball history to come back from a 0–3 playoff deficit when they won the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.

• MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS! All four professional sports teams in Boston have come up big against St. Louis, including: The 1970 Bruins, who won their first Stanley Cup since 1941 against the St. Louis Blues; the New England Patriots, who won their first-ever Super Bowl against the heavily favored St. Louis Rams in 2001; and the Boston Celtics, who won their first NBA title in 1957 against the St. Louis Hawks.

• GOOD KARMA? Before playing and winning Game 7 of the ALCS against the Yankees, the Red Sox opted to skip batting practice in lieu of watching Miracle, the feature film about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team who accomplished what was considered impossible when they defeated the Soviet Union on the way to winning the gold. During Game 5 of the ALCS, the Sox asked Massachusetts native Mike Eruzione, the captain of that winning hockey team, to deliver the game ball.

• BAD KARMA? Before Game 7 of the ALCS, the Yankees asked Bucky Dent to throw out the first pitch. Sox fans remember Dent for his walk-off home run for the Yankees in a one-game playoff held between the two teams to determine who would advance to the playoffs in 1978. Dent was less than lucky this time around: The Sox won 10–3, thus ending the Yankees’ season and handing them their most crushing defeat to date.

• FROM THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY TO THE ONE THAT TRIED TO GET AWAY WITH IT. Before the season started, the Sox placed left fielder Manny Ramirez on waivers and had their sights on superstar shortstop Alex Rodriguez. As things turned out, Manny Ramirez remained in Boston and was named MVP of the World Series. A-Rod ended up signing with the Yankees as their third baseman. Not only did he fail to live up to his reputation during the post season, he will likely go down in infamy for his illegal swat at the ball held by Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo in a desperate attempt to reach first base.

• WHAT CURSE? Whether you believe in them or not, there seemed to be some heavenly forces at play when the Sox beat the Cardinals in the clinching Game 4: most notably, a full lunar eclipse that produced a blood red moon.