McAdam: For a new generation of Red Sox, Yankee Stadium no longer haunting

NEW YORK -- Once, it was their own personal house of horrors, where leads disappeared, championship dreams went to die and the Red Sox seemed incapable of victory -- especially when they needed one most.

Yankee Stadium was the franchise's seventh circle of hell. Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here.

The 2003 ALCS was the low point, a refresher course no one in New England needs or wants. There are gruesome slasher movies with more uplifting endings.

But beginning in 2004, it began to turn. When the Red Sox came storming back from being down three games to none, the ugly past was exorcized for good.

Which doesn't mean it's an easy ballpark in which to win, especially when the home team has the firepower in the lineup and a seemingly endless supply of hard-throwers on retainer in the bullpen. Tuesday night was a stark reminder of that.

The Sox survived, alright, but with zero margin for error. What looked like a comfortable three-run cushion heading into the bottom of the ninth became a perilous slog through the final three outs. How narrow a win was their 4-3, ALDS clinching triumph? It ended with the potential tying run on second, the potential winning run on first and uncertainty over whether the 27th out had been recorded. Let's go to the videotape.

Special assistant Tony La Russa, who has seen his share of these, sat in an office off the main clubhouse, with a satisfied smile on his face, perhaps unable to still process the harrowing ninth.

"It's never easy,'' he said in a voice borne of experience, "but that one was hard.''

Hard, yes. Impossible, no. That was pre-2004.

That doesn't mean the big wins get handed to you here. You have to earn them, and the Red Sox did -- with clutch hitting (they hit .400 with runners in scoring position), pressurized baserunning, stout starting pitching, and just enough outs from their bullpen.

And it doesn't mean the Yankees won't try to drag the Red Sox into the past. They had Bucky Dent, whose moment in the sun happened 40 years ago this month, throw out the first pitch Tuesday night, to incite the crowd and maybe spook the Sox.

It didn't work. The Red Sox aren't shackled by their past anymore. That's over.

"We definitely had a monkey on our back (here) for a lot of decades,'' said principal owner John Henry.

The new generation of Red Sox players barely know about the dark past. And why should they? As Dennis Eckersley famously exclaimed: "That's history, pal!'' And ancient history at that.

Think of it: in two of the last three years, the Red Sox have clinched the American League East title here. Two years ago, it was hugely awkward as the Red Sox celebrated only after backing in, having lost the game with the Yankees on a walk-off grand slam.

This September, there was nothing to apologize for: they won it on their own, led the division every day from July 2 on, and won on merit, by eliminating the Yankees from the division race themselves.

And finally, there was Tuesday night, when the Red Sox capped the Division Series by winning two in a row on the Yankees' home turf. Some Red Sox were incredulous that many people expected them to fold after Sunday's loss.

"How can we have 108 wins and they're like, 'Yankees gonna win in four?''' said Xander Bogaerts. "I don't understand.''

Maybe old storylines die hard. Maybe some regard 2004 as an outlier.

But these Red Sox players aren't interested in how things used to be. They came in, put it to the Yankees over two nights and emerged with a ticket to the ALCS.

"Every time you win, it just adds to the history of your own organization,'' said Jason Varitek, who experienced life from sides here in 2003 and 2004. "And once you break (the futility streak), you're good because it doesn't loom over you anymore. But for these guys, they don't think a lot about that. It didn't matter if (we won it) here or (back home). They don't really care.''

Many of the stars of the 2018 Red Sox were in grade school when the Sox were last taunted about their inability to win here.

They don't wear that shame. Instead, they bathed themselves in champagne and celebrated madly. To them, it could have happened in Cleveland or Oakland or anywhere.

As Varitek, standing back and soaking in the scene, observed: "It just happened to be here.''

It could have been anywhere. But it wasn't. It was Yankee Stadium, a scene that would have been unthinkable 15 years ago.

When the Sox took care of business in St. Louis in 2004, Theo Epstein stood in a jubilant clubhouse and shouted to anyone who would listen: "Now, 1918 is just another year in which we won the World Series.''

And now, Yankee Stadium is just another ballpark where they clinched the American League Division Series.