Drew Silva, 22, contributes to Rotoworld.com, MLBTradeRumors.com and FanGraphs. Check him out on Twitter. Silva takes a look back at 2004, the season of salvation for the BoSox and revisits where the seminal players on the World Series teams are now…
Let’s get this out of the way: I’m a Cardinals fan. Most of you are Red Sox fans. I don’t like you, and you don’t like me.
OK, maybe you don’t care about me or my Cardinals. But back in October of 2004, the last time our squads met in a meaningful series of baseball games, there was reason to care. The Boston Red Sox broke an 86-year drought and won the World Series with a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals. Blah, blah, blah. I sat through all four of those miserable contests, even attended Game 3 in St. Louis. My Redbirds never led in that game and didn’t hold a lead at any point in the best-of-seven series. It was all absolutely terrible. Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, pretending to be Red Sox fans, did “snow angels” on the dirt at Busch Stadium after Boston wrapped up the sweep in Game 4. I can’t express to you how sick that still makes me feel, and I’m upset I wasn’t around to clothesline both of them as they made their way out of the stands and onto the field.
As much as this might hurt my soul, I thought it’d be interesting to take a look back at the 2004 World Series offensive starters on both clubs and provide a bit of where-are-they-now commentary. Here goes nothing:
Cardinals 1B — Albert Pujols Still the best player in baseball, Pujols enjoyed one of his finest seasons in 2004. He hit 46 ho
mers during the regular season, drove in 123 runs, finished with a 1.072 OPS and was one of the few Cardinals hitters that didn’t completely slump in the fall classic. Here in 2009, he’s about to pick up his third NL MVP.
Red Sox 1B — David Ortiz
I know, Doug Mientkiewicz was the main first baseman on the World Series roster. But the DH is stupid so I’m not even going to mention it. Ortiz hit .301/.380/.603 in the 2004 regular season with 41 dingers and 139 RBI. He went 4-for-13 in the World Series and hit a home run in Game 1. Big Papi has lost some pop, but you can’t be too disappointed with the 16 homers and 52 RBI he produced after the All-Star break this season.
Cardinals 2B — Tony Womack
Womack somehow hit .307 during the 2004 regular season and scored 91 runs. He went 2-for-11 (.181) in the series and retired after being released from the Nationals in the spring of 2007.
Red Sox 2B — Mark Bellhorn
Bellhorn had a pretty solid 2004 season, posting a .264/.373/.444 batting line with 17 homers and 81 RBI in 620 plate appearances. He even hit a homer in Game 1 of the World Series. Alas, he was released from the team after a slow start to 2005 and is currently stuck in the Rockies’ minor league system.
Cardinals SS — Edgar Renteria
Remember this guy? I’m sure not nearly as fondly as I do. Renteria hit .287/.327/.401 with 10 home runs and 72 RBI during the 2004 regular season and went 5-for-15 in the World Series. Months later, he signed a $40 million contract with your Red Sox. He committed a league-leading 30 errors in 2005 with “Boston” draped across his chest and batted just .276. The Sawx traded him in the offseason to the Braves for infield prospect Andy Marte.
Red Sox SS — Orlando Cabrera
Cabrera was brought on board the day Nomar Garciaparra was traded. He did pretty well for the Red Sox during the regular season and drove in three runs during the World Series. He’ll enter free agency this winter after a fine season with the AL Central champion Twins.
Cardinals 3B — Scott Rolen
Rolen had an outstanding 2004 regular season. He hit a career-high .314 and posted a career-high 1.007 OPS, finishing fourth in NL MVP voting and taking home a Gold Glove. It doesn’t get much better, but his World Series showing couldn’t have been much worse. Rolen didn’t manage a hit in 15 at-bats during the fall classic. In 2010, you’ll be able to find him wasting away with the Cincinnati Reds.
Red Sox 3B — Bill Mueller
The St. Louis boy out of DeSmet Jesuit High School batted .283/.365/.446 during the 2004 regular season and went 6-for-14 (.429) in the World Series. Does anyone have anything bad to say about Bill Mueller? I sure don’t. He’s currently a front office member in the Dodgers organization and may eventually get into coaching.
Cardinals C — Mike Matheny
I’m not sure if Boston is the same way, but here in St. Louis our fans tend to fall in love with underdog, offensively inept players like Matheny. There’s been a long line of these folks — David Eckstein, So Taguchi, Stubby Clapp — but Matheny trumps them all. He hit .247 during the 2004 regular season with a .292 on-base percentage and went 2-for-8 with three strikeouts in the World Series. Thankfully he moved on to San Francisco after the season and Yadier Molina took over. He’s now serving as an on-again, off-again catching instructor while Molina is instilling fear in all NL base runners. Oh, and actually driving in runs.
Red Sox C — Jason Varitek
Varitek hit .296/.390/.482 in the regular season and collected two RBI in the World Series. He posted another solid set of numbers in 2005, but is now being paid millions of dollars to suck. How do you give a player a $5 million contract just months after he craps out a .220/.313/.359 batting line? I think Theo Epstein is excellent, but you can’t let a player whine his way to millions of dollars. I’ll go ahead and assume you’re all hoping he’ll take his “leadership” and his beard to another club next season.
Cardinals OF — Reggie Sanders, Jim Edmonds, Larry Walker
I love Larry Walker, so I’m going to leave him out of this. But the other two — Sanders and Edmonds — went a combined 1-for-24 during the World Series with 11 strikeouts. They were both excellent during the regular season, when the Cardinals won 105 games, but that kind of drought on baseball’s biggest stage is nearly inexcusable.
Red Sox OF — Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon
What smells like steroids? Just kidding. I know you can’t put together a roster breakdown from 2004 and call out only one guy for juicing. Plus, I’m pretty sure you fellas dislike Manny as much as I do at this point. Let’s skip to a story I have about Trot Nixon, the bastard. When I was eight, maybe nine years old, I was living in the Washington D.C. area and ran into Nixon at a Class A game in Frederick, Maryland. He was a promising prospect and my two older brothers decided to approach him for an autograph as he was finishing batting practice. The Frederick Keys had given out noise makers to every member of the home crowd and Nixon, as a member of the opposing team, wanted my brothers to collect 100 of these things before he gave up his signature. They employed me to help them, and we spent the next seven innings collecting over 150. When we peered into the dugout and showed him our haul of treasure, he simply laughed and told the rest of his teammates what we had done. No autograph was ever given. As you can tell from this post’s intro, I tend to hold grudges. Trot, your selfishness will never be forgotten. May you rot in hell.
That wasn’t so painful. In fact, it was kind of like therapy. Boston, you can have your beautiful city, and your NBA team, and the Patriots, and Cape Cod, and Ben Affleck, and your stupid accents, and your happiness. I don’t want ‘em. I don’t want any of it. I’ll get by just fine with my Arch, and my characterless stadium, and my corn-fed women. But here’s to hoping we meet again.
Entertaining. Loved it. Good writing. Still curious about what happened to Cards OF??? The Sox still have 4 players from '04 (and I quick counted 14 from '07). How many of the '04 boys are still with the Cards in any capacity? You have Julio. Do the Sox have a Cardinal anywhere in the system?
Trot Nixon is a great man. I do not believe he would have done such a thing. Nice try though. Your still bitter about the '04 world series,GET OVER IT!
I don't know if I'd call Doug Mientkiewicz the primary first baseman on the roster. Kevin Millar anyone? Yes, Dougie was brought in as a defensive substitution later in all four of the games, and Ortiz did start start at first in the two games in St. Louis, but Millar did start at first at both Fenway games and he was the primary bat brought off the bench to pinch hit in St. Louis. Personally, I'd quantify Millar as the starting first baseman for the '04 team if not one of the crucial components in the clubhouse, at the very least he deserves some sort of mention.
2004… The best year in the history of baseball!