The Biggest Choke in MLB History 

Kenny Lofton was a part of three straight epic playoff collapses: 2002 Giants - 5-0 lead in an elimination game, choke 2003 Cubs - 3-0 lead in an elimination game, choke 2004 Yankees - lose 4 straight elimination games, becoming the first team (and still the only) to blow a 3-0 series lead

The Angels losing their grip over the AL West in ‘95 was pretty insane and the implications were massive. If they held onto the division the Mariners probably wouldn’t even be in Seattle still. They had two separate nine game losing streaks in the second half. Brutal.

If 2009 didn’t happen this would have been much worse

One extra thing to note about game one was that Mussina was actually perfect for 6 and a third. Mark Bellhorn broke it up with a double. Guy had a crazy clutch series as Boston doesn't win game 6 without him and arguably the world series as well.

The Red Sox had appeared in the World Series in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986.

I find it awesome that the greatest Red Sox moment of all time happened in Yankee Stadium. I still get goosebumps thinking about that night. What a time to be alive in Boston.

My 4th Grade teacher had us do like three different projects on this as it happened when we just started our year. She had a life size cut out of Derek Jeter in the classroom she fawned over and then it disappeared as soon as the series was over. She was in complete shock it happened and must have made us do all of those projects to get over the feeling of disbelief as the Red Sox won. And then it got even worse that offseason when the Yankees missed out on Carlos Beltran and the Mets got him and Pedro Martinez. I hope she's doing good. She was far and away my favorite Elementary School teacher

Couple of moments that I feel were forgotten in this video was in Game 6 with A-Rod trying to slap the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove in the eighth inning and for a brief moment it looked like the Yankees would come back in that game because Jeter had scored and A-Rod was on second before the umpires called them both back. Then there was Game 7 and while the end result was a blowout, Pedro pitched relief in the 7th and it looked like the door might be open for the Yankees just a smidge because even Pedro had publicly admitted the Yankees were his "daddies", including his role is the Sox losing the ALCS the year before. While Pedro did end up allowing a couple of runs in that inning, it's mostly forgotten because the end result didn't change but it was also probably the closest thing to hope the Yankees fans had for this game after the 2nd inning.

To my mind the '04 ALCS was the greatest World Series ever played.

"It ain't over til it's over." Appropriately quoted and most ironically, from a Yankee. 😁

The biggest choke in AMERICAN SPORTS history

Or if you’re a Red Sox fan, THE GREATEST THING EVER

11:43 - Was the first time the Red Sox WON the World Series since 1918, but they went in 1986 & 1975 as well as 1967 & 1946. So they'd BEEN, but not WON Making 2004 all that much sweeter!

Now this is cinema.

If RU-vid existed back then, the entire world, save NYC, would be speaking with a Boston accent. I used to work PR/Media Relations for the Padres in the early Petco days(04-08). I got to meet everyone that came through; Players, staff, management, etc. I met Dave Roberts during his Padres stint(post-2004). We bonded over our high schools being rival schools. I asked about 'The Steal'. He *_knew_* he was going to make it. Such a cool dude. Bummer he's a Dodger now. I'm glad I got to talk about such an important sports moment with the one who made it happen.

The Yankees starting pitching IMO was the reason for the collapse. Javier Vazquez and Kevin Brown absolutely shat the bed in the second half of the year and continued in the playoffs. While Mussina and Lieber did do better in second half it didn't make up for their terrible first half. Thus led to the Yankees relievers to be over worked. Combined with a Yankee lineup that was hot n cold in the playoffs, it was the perfect disaster.

Quick fact check - The last time the Sox had been IN the World Series was 1986, 18 years before 2004. I always thought it was funny that 1986 was 18 years and 1918 was 86 years. Queue the conspiracy music.

It wasn’t there first WS trip since 1918. But god do I hate reliving this shit 😢

The Red Sox winning 8 games in a row after being down 3-0 is the greatest 8 game stretch in baseball history

Rivera also blew the 2001 World Series for the Yankees. Putting so much hope on one player to be invincible is impossible.

Ouch. Right in the childhood depression. I became a baseball fan in 2004 at the age of 10 as a Yankee fan. Thanks for making me relive this trauma.

As a redsox fan you just have to love watching the Yankees choke

i was a 12 year old kid watching, being so invested tho i didn’t care for either team. the red sox never felt out of of it even when they were down.

To be honest evertime and I MEAN EVERYTIME, Fico does an ad read with the Bally on, i can’t stop laughing.

6:45 I’ve NEVER heard anyone refer to a home run as a “swamp donkey” but that is what I’ll be calling them from henceforth 🤣

This was and still remains the greatest professional sports comeback in history. There was no ‘the Yankees are probably thinking about winning the World Series’ or ‘most people probably thought the Red Sox weren’t going to come back.’ There wasn’t a single person alive over the age of 5 who believed the Sox could pull off what they did. As a Rangers fan, I rooted HARD for the Red Sox back then. They were easily my second favorite team because of the fascination I had with the curse. I was heartbroken when Boone hit the walk-off the year before and had given up on watching Game 4. I ended up at a bar in Dallas with the game on in the background and saw the Robert’s steal of second and Papi’s homer to send it to Game 5. I still had no hope for what was to come. Just incredible.

As an official yankee hater, this series was sooo satisfying lol

I never thought of this series as a choke by the Yankees. It looked to me like the better team simply started playing like it. And apparently just in time. This series also started the postseason legend of David Ortiz. That guy was so clutch...

I remembered this series my Dad is a Red Sox fanatic, I was 14 the whole fan was glued to the tv great moment. This was the greatest comeback give them credit.

Wow. That is a pretty darn big choke

As the great David Ortiz once said…. DAAAAAAAAA JANKEEEEES LOSEEEEEEE!!!

Yankees & Red Sox. An obscure rivalry often overlooked by the national sports zeitgeist.

The great comic Steven Wright (apparently a diehard Sox fan) had the best comment about this series, “If this series was a movie, it would’ve been a BAD movie…”

Every time I see a video about 2004, I stop what I am doing and watch it

I live in Connecticut where we are kinda split between Red Sox and Yankee fans. My Yankee friends just refuse to acknowledge 2004 happened. They say Rivera never gave up a hard hit ball and I say what about the ones against the red Sox, they get a faraway look in their eyes and ignore it

At least Mussina won the first game. His playoff ERA was very Jekyll and Hyde for both the O's and the Spanks.

Umm....any team who loses a 3-0 series lead by definition is a monumental choke.

There were soooo many interesting details to that series that would take like an hour to go over. -The Kevin Millar saying “dont let us win tonight” before game 4 because how they got Pedro than Schilling and anything can happen game 7. - Or how the Yankees didnt test Schillings ankle with bunts or anything when he was CLEARLY hurt and couldnt run. - The 2 overturned calls at Yankee Stadium that went against the Sox at first but were overturned and the umps made the right call after they huddled up (no replay back then so this was kind of crazy and easily couldnt not have happened). - A-rod slapping the ball out of Arroyo’s glove like an old lady would try to slap away someone trying to steal her purse that was clearly illegal - The Yankees fans throwing beer bottles and baseballs all over the field and at the Sox players while the game was still happening and they had to line the stadium with like 100 police officers to finish the game. - The at bat Kevin Millar had against Mariano game 4 botton 9 to pinch Dave Roberts. - The Dave Roberts steal when EVERYONE in the world knew he was stealing - The epic collapse by Mariano (who I actually have a ton of respect for) in game 4 and 5 - The absolute brutal beat down of the Sox in game 3 for the Yanks to go up 3-0 games leaving little to no hope for many. - How even Denis Leary for the intro to game 4 even said how the Sox weren’t going to win the series and it was a good run - How in 1st inning of game 7 Damon got thrown out at home which would have been the 1st run but that made Sox fans go “oh sh*t” and Yanks fans think game 7 would go there way. Because every play was so intense, every run every pitch. - The Bill Mueller at bat - The whole A-rod was basically on Sox in 03 but went to Yanks - How the 03 Yanks/Sox ALCS ended in game 7 with Aaron f*cking Boone - How Wakefield gave up the pitch in game 7 in 03 but redeemed himself in 04 and didnt have to redeem himself anyway because it wasnt his fault in 03 I could go on and on and I know I forgetting a ton of crucial important details

I was only 2 years old when this choke happened, and looking at the Yankees' loser mentality since then is disheartening and sickening. Tbh, the 2022 ALCS sweep felt even worse to me, considering I watched every game live. Cashman and Boone need to be sent to Mars.

Although the Yankees won the World Series in 2009, their dominance over the MLB was never the same. The Red Sox on the other hand may not have been relevant every year, but they’ve had more success than the Yankees since then with three titles now that the Curse was over.

That Lost tie in was brilliant. Just brilliant.

I remember reading an article discussing just how much this affected George Steinbrenner. You thought he was obsessed before? This collapse pushed him so far over the edge that those within his inner circle were worried for his own health. His basic attitude was "come hell or high water, I will _not_ let Boston humiliate us _ever_ again." He became entirely consumed by a desire for total revenge.

The biggest choke of all time.

what's black and white and gray all over? The Yankees after the ALCS!

I'd love a video about Yutaka Fukumoto, NPB's all-time leader in stolen bases with 1065 and the former world record holder before he was passed by Rickey Henderson.

That 2004 season was simply unbelievable. There were a lot of other memorable things that happened: Varitek stuffing his catcher's mitt to A-Rod's face, A-Rod slapping the ball off Arroyo's hand at 1st base, Damon coming up with the team nickname of the "Idiots", Dave Roberts stealing a base even though "everybody expected him to do that", Kevin Millar's "don't let us win tonight" quote (he also had a quote about shocking the world, but the verbatim quote escapes me at this time!). Heck, I'll even include the pure coincidence of Jimmy Fallon shooting "Fever Pitch" right at the time the Sox were winning that they had to rewrite the ending of the movie to include the actual title clinching Game 4 of the World Series.

Great video. I wish you added some of Joe buck’s calls into the video - even though I hate the guy, “he can keep on running to New York” is just iconic at this point. Maybe not tho, I am a Sox fan

Heading into this Game 4, the Yankees were 49-16 against American League teams in the playoffs since 1996. They were just utterly dominant in the AL -- they only lost two American League playoff series between 1996 and 2004, despite being in the playoffs every single season. In fact the 2003 Red Sox were the first team to take them to 7 games in an ALCS in this stretch. What the Red Sox did was so unprecedented against such a dominant opponent that I still don't really believe that it actually happened.

Whats even crazier is the Red Sox won 4 straight on 4 straight days cause of the delayed game before game 3. Just 10 days after they were on the verge of being swept they were World Series Champions.

This hurt worse than losing to the marlins the year before tbh as a young fan

1:01 The best Yankees sign after game 3 was Yankees fan wearing a diaper and it said “same old crap since 1918”

Nothing brings me more joy than to see the Yankees and their fans in pain.

The yanks didn’t crush the sox in 03. It went to seven games and was in extra innings before boones walkoff. The sox were up by 2 until the 9th as well

Bro could not of uploaded at a better time, I literally just spent all of this week watching the whole series and no, I didn’t know who won before I watched

IDK about you but when I think of chokes involving the Sox and Yankees I'm thinking the 1978 season (Yankees were down 14 games for the division lead with 72 left to play and ended up winning the division off a clutch 3 run home run by Bucky Dent in their tiebreaker game with the Sox)

"The Biggest Choke in American Sports History" - fixed it for you.

As a cubs fan I was so happy the red sox won this series. Gave me hope for the cubs too. Though it didn't happen for another 12 years, the Cubs had their own comeback from 3-1.

Title of this is 100% right cuz it is the biggest choke ever in baseball....cuz no team had ever done what they did!!??

I remember Rivera being gassed well before game 4. Not sure he should have been out there, but...that's baseball

Hands down one of the best teams ever assembled, loaded with so much talent. Facing u guys in the 2004 Division series I knew our Angels had no chance.

A-Rod was a legend!

bro i love the lost reference lmao

Also, I forgot Jon Lieber was on the Yanks. Blast from the past.

I wish I could watch 2004 ALCS in HD

I've been waiting for another team to comeback from 0-3 for so long.. it's happened in the nhl a couple times but idk if we'll ever see it in MLB

The worst chocke job was the 64 philles hands down lost 11 straight to end the season to lose the pennet by 1 game ooooooooof

This was the only way it could’ve gone down. It’s wild the Yankees didn’t get to a World Series in the 2010s, making it the first decade since the 1910s they didn’t get to one.

11:29 Mr. Narrator, the Red Sox went to the World Series a few times between 1918 and 2003. that's why we remember who Bill Buckner is :)

I wish that you had mentioned A-Roid's slap in game six. The Yankees were in a position to rally at that point, and A-Roid's stupidity crushed that. As you can see, I really, really don't like Alex because he's a cheater on so many levels.

The thing nobody seems to talk about is that the Red Sox were quite simply the better team. Boston was 11-8 against the Yankees in the 2004 regular season, and they had much better pitching and a better offense than New York. You could actually argue it was the Red Sox who choked during the first 3 games before returning to who they really were, which was the better team. Hell, this series could have been over in 6 games had Johnny Damon not been a god awful 0-for-8 with 5 strikeouts in the first 2 games, very unrepresentative of the year he had.

I’m not one to apologize for the Yankees, but I don’t view this as worse than the Rangers Game 6 implosion. There was something magic about 2004. It just felt like fate after it got back to New York for Game 6. If you weren’t old enough to remember how futile it felt for Boston before that title, you just can’t fully appreciate how abnormal and beautiful this was. Heck, the 01 series loss was more of a choke job to me. Rivera with a chance to close it out in Game 7 was a freaking lock. So, yeah I imagine it sucks for Yankees fans, but this one gets an asterisk in the greatest choke discussion.

Alcs 2003 Boone walk off I cried joy. I talked so much shit I feel the gods had to humble me. Those WHOS YOUR DADDY chants were so loud that u could hear it anywhere in the Bronx. It was one of the greatest baseball moments ever. Let me also say mariano was my favorite athlete ever. I barely ever watched him play and never witnessed him blow a save until that game 4. This choking killed a dynasty. This was the most gut-wrenching lost I've ever witnessed. Congratulations to Sox fans. I look back with fond memories not hatred. I enjoyed our battles and I'm glad the Sox finally have a couple more championships for such a historically pathetic organization

Tell factor that ain’t nobody watching that infomercial 🤣

People really forget the White Sox broke a bigger drought the next year. Better regular season W/L, better post season run, less hall of famers 87 year drought, only hall of famer on the roster was frank thomas (and he was too old to play TBH)

Saying the Sox and Yanks didn't meet in the ALCS until 1999 is kind of a moot point. It would have been impossible for them to meet in the ALCS before 1995 when the Central division, wild card and ALDS were introduced

I am not emotionally equipped to watch this video. 😂😢😂😢

For one series almost all of baseball fandom was on the same side..yankees are a hated franchise for very little home grown and mostly buying up quality talent. The fact that it was their rival who did this only made it that much better.

People forget that Boston did it again vs the Indians in 07. Well they were down 3 to 1 and came back and won 7 straight

YESSS, beautiful choice! Thanks SRS!

Where the hell did you find 2003 HD MLB footage at 1:22

I recall this series very well, unfortunately. (First, Congrats to the Sox in 2004. I give credit where it is due.) Game 6...Schilling was on his game...bloody sock and all. But, the Yankees, if they were smart, could have bunted on Schilling in that game. When plan A ain't working [hitting against an ace], one goes to plan B [bunt...put pressure on the defense] and makes things happen. Joe Torre was asleep at the wheel during that game.

Mariano Rivera choked away not one but TWO of the most crucial post-season games in MLB history. He was truly a gift and a curse

Really good video

NEVER GIVE UP! this is the lesson.

One of the most creative bits Yankees fans did in Game 7 (and maybe 6) was dress up like a ghost with chains walking through the stands. Even as a Yankee hater I couldn’t help but laugh at that and appreciate it. That 10-3 Game 7 finish didn’t hurt either, lol!

So being in high school for the 04 series and being a sox fan and new England native it never felt as if we were out of it. Down 0-3 wanst anything new because we always had awful luck but as soon as millar was going nuts about not letting us get 1....it was on. The yankees always acted like they would win every series so while yes it was a collapse it just felt like they thought...well, we will win next year anyways...so what.

Watched this happening live in ny during my final year of college. Hate the Yankees and their tears and cope was legendary

The teams had to play some of the games on the SAME day because the extra innings games went after midnight.

Best ad of all time

Still the best LCS of all time despite my hatred for the American League

I like the 2023 choke better. Never before have the Rays and Orioles dusted the rich teams since the AL East established. Maybe the rich boys might realize that a team makes a team, not a bunch of lonely rich boys overpayed superstar egos wearing the same uniform. Rays and Irioles sit at virtually the bittom of payroll scale, yet for 4 months have lived in the penthouse. If you can't win games without a player like Judge, then maybe your scouting team needs a major overhaul

You forgot to mention the part about A-rod swatting the ball off Arroyo’s glove in game 6

A Swamp Donkey?

bill mueller rocks

You should cover Lance Berkman!!

No love for Manny in this? He was the mvp

Saw A-Roid and automatically read biggest Joke instead of choke

All of the metrics now show that Boston was just better than New York. Yanks overperformed all year and got lucky whereas Boston had some bad luck that held them back somewhat. I think Boston just figured out that they were the better team and took control, not much that the Yankees could do against that.

Watching the Yankees lose to the Diamondbacks and the Marlins was more disappointing to me than the Red Sox winning the ALCS

Wait... this isn't about the 2011 Braves, who blew a 10-game lead in the NL Wild Card race in late August to miss the playoffs entirely?