Remembering the Impossible Dream

Today's Boston Globe has a story on arguably the most important Red Sox team in the post-World War II era, and possibly in franchise history. In 1967 the Sox, who up to that point in the 1960s had been dwelled in the second division, had a magical run to the pennant. Led by Yaz, who had an MVP season, and Jim Lonborg the Sox defied expectations, won the American League in a tight four-team battle that came down to the final pitches of the regular season.
The season was tinged with tragedy, as Tony C had his legend foreshortened by a Jack Hamilton fastball to the eye, but the Sox still scripted what will forever be known as the Impossible Dream, one of the great slogans ever to be attached to a sports team. The Red Sox lost the World Series in seven games to the Cardinals and their incomparable Bob Gibson, but in reviving the Red Sox they also revived Boston's commitment to being a baseball city.

2004 obviously stands as the franchise high point, but without 1967 none of it may have mattered quite as much. With their win and a Tigers loss yesterday, the Red Sox again qualified for the postseason, though they have much bigger goals in mind for the next week and the next month-and-a-half. The fortieth anniversary of the Sox' Quixotean quest for a title seems as good a time as any for another magical run.