It Was 20 Years Ago Today

Well, using Beatles lyrics is a Shank staple, isn't it?

20 years later, the Red Sox’ 2004 World Series win remains New England’s greatest sports story

It was biblical. It always will be New England’s greatest sports story. And 20 subsequent seasons have done nothing to diminish the magnitude of the moment.

My favorite photo of the 2004 Red Sox championship euphoria is one of a still-anonymous young man wearing a Red Sox jersey wading into the Charles River, arms raised in utter exultation. It was shot by the Globe’s Stan Grossfeld while he was riding in a duck boat three days after the World Series was won in St. Louis.

Grossfeld stood next to a surprisingly nervous David Ortiz as the Sox’ flotilla motored west on the Charles. Big Papi wore a tiny life preserver around his thick neck, telling Grossfeld, “I can’t swim and we got too many people on this boat!”