The Red Sox are in the throes of a comeback.

That’s really all they have. After consecutively finishing in last place, Wally and Tessie are still drunk on Chocolate Yoo-Hoo after Boston finishes third in 2024. The future doesn’t offer much beyond the forest of the mundane.

Competitive Balance Tax on Jersey Street has joined Cap Space in Foxboro as the city’s 2 most valuable players not named Tatum or Brown.

2004 is all the rage these days for the Red Sox.

There’s a score, the Red Sox became the first and – so far – only MLB team to erase a 3-0 playoff deficit. They then swept the Cardinals to win their first World Series since World War I.

This victory lap is well deserved.

“The Comeback” is a home run. This Netflix documentary delivers all the feels. State Run Media has never been more informative and moving. The joy of Game 4 at Fenway is accompanied by a bittersweet and poignant tribute to Tim Wakefield. Even Curt Schilling made an appearance. Talk about causing a furore.

John Henry came out of his crypt into the light of day to talk with the Sons of Barnicle about everything that happened in 2003 and 2004. No one plagiarized or fabricated a single word. Fiction could never be so compelling. Or remarkable.

Boston, in addition to the 2004 Duck Boat Parade, has a set of flashing blue lights in its rearview mirror. There, the objects are closer than they appear. And no one is closer to ruining the Red Sox offseason than Mookie Betts.

Newspapers no longer have a 1 a.m. printing deadline. By the time you read this, Betts may have already won his third World Series ring since 2018. It would be his second in 5 years after being shipped to the Dodgers in a salary dump disguised as a trade.

And this one would have been deserved in the Bronx. Inside Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees, at least before Game 4, still suck. Aaron Judge traded his hammer for a pool noodle in the playoffs. He hit .091 in the first 3 games against the Dodgers and .196 in the postseason.

David Ortiz sat between Alex Rodriguez and Deter Jeter Monday night after Los Angeles’ Game 3 victory, happily singing about how the 2024 Yankees are not and will not be the 2004 Red Sox.

“They are not like us. They are not like us. They are not like us. Captain. 0-3. Hmm.”

Making fun of the Dodgers 2020 World Series. But someone had to win. If you’re looking for asterisks, add the seasons affected by the strikes of 1981 and 1972. Not to mention the MLB titles won during World War II, Boston’s World Series victory in 1918 (that’s another story) and Houston in 2017. Astros.

Just as the story of 2004 has been told and retold, it’s time to remember Betts’ story. And what a disastrous decision for the Red Sox to move him (and David Price) for 3 runs and credits to Fenway Sports Group’s balance sheet as well.

The Red Sox failed Betts well before the big salary dump of 2020. Boston, inexplicably, took Betts to arbitration before his 2018 MVP season. Betts earned a $10.5 million salary. The Red Sox had offered $7.5 million. So, for just $3 million, the Red Sox poisoned the well with their best homegrown outfielder since Jim Rice. John Henry and this third wife have more money stuck in the furniture of their homes in Boca Raton and Nantucket.

The Red Sox could have kept Betts for another decade if they wanted. But baseball players are expensive.

Red Sox ownership continued its intransigence with Betts for the next 2 seasons while he remained arbitration eligible. The final one-year, $27 million deal on January 10, 2020, was presented as a way to buy time for a long-term deal. He simply greased the skids of his exit.

Betts’ exit ushered in a zone of austerity in which the Red Sox withdrew from baseball’s salary arms race and settled for a brief playoff run and 3 last places in the last 5 years.

Since the Red Sox traded Betts, Boston is 359-360 (.499), including the postseason. It is mathematically impossible to get close to mediocrity given the odd number of matches played during this time.

Baseball isn’t boring. But the Red Sox certainly are.

“If we hadn’t made this deal, I don’t think we’d make it to the ALCS in 2021,” Chaim Bloom told the Boston Herald in 2023.

This 2021 playoff run has been fun – especially the Wild Card Game win against New York.

But it wasn’t worth losing Betts.

Most arguments defending the big 2020 pay dump use Henry’s bank account as an excuse. Henry doesn’t care about your finances. You should worry even less about his.

The best argument players made for not keeping Betts was that if the Red Sox had kept him (and Price), they would have been pushed over the luxury tax threshold and lost a compensatory pick used to take the Roman Anthony phenomenon.

Meanwhile, Red Sox ownership continues to fiddle as Rome burns. Betts’ return was weak. Conner Wong is a reliable receiver. But Alex Verdugo plays for the Yankees. Jeter Downs was last seen stocking shelves at Home Depot.

Edwin Starr asked: “War. What is it for? » Mookie has the highest WAR in MLB since 2025. Betts posted a whopping 1.182 OPS in the 2024 NLCS. He had an RBI single Monday night after a clinical 9-pitch strike that gave the Dodgers a 3-point lead -0 and silenced 57,000 people in the Bronx.

There’s always “The Comeback” to ease the pain.

Bill Speros (@RealOBF and @BillSperos on X) can be reached at [email protected].