The Red Sox Documentary on Netflix Was Even Better Than Expected, And Must Watch For Any Baseball Fan - "The Comeback" Review.

Remember when there was hope and excitement surrounding the Boston Red Sox? 

Ahh, if you're a miserable Red Sox fan, longing for the days of meaningful fall baseball, then I guess Netflix' documentary which dropped a couple weeks ago is the next best thing. 

The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox, as it's officially titled, isn't just another retelling of the greatest comeback in baseball history; it’s a heartfelt ode to a team that redefined what it means to be an underdog, a city that refused to lose hope, and a fanbase that endured 86 years of agony before being rewarded with a slice of baseball immortality.

This is a three-part docuseries about the greatest comeback in sports history, and I’ll say it right now- you need to watch it. Yes, even you Yankee fans. I know it’ll sting, but just like we made it through watching The Captain, you can survive this.

I know we've been here before. We’ve seen Four Days in October, we’ve watched the old MLB World Series films, we’ve even sat through that rom-com dumpster fire Fever Pitch. So why bother with yet another retelling of the 2004 Red Sox? Because this one actually finds a way to make it feel brand new. The Barnicle brothers (yes, sons of that Mike Barnicle from The Boston Globe produced this) dug deep, unearthing never-before-seen footage and getting fresh interviews that breathe new life into this classic tale.

Plus it features Big Papi, Pedro, Millar, Varitek, Theo Epstein, Terry Francona, and even Roger Clemens. 

The first episode kicks off with a brutal reminder of what it used to be like to be a Red Sox fan. We’re talking about the "Curse of the Bambino", 86 years of heartbreak, and enough Game 7 losses to make a grown man cry. It’s endless punches to the gut, even if you already know how it ends. The Sox were basically a baseball version of Charlie Brown trying to kick that football- and the Yankees were the smug, evil Lucy yanking it away every damn time.

But then the ownership changes, Theo Epstein takes the reins, and suddenly the Sox are no longer the lovable losers. They’re building a roster of guys who don’t give a fuck about curses, and the drama between them and the Yankees is like something out of WWE. It’s Nomar getting traded, A-Rod getting punched in the face, and Pedro Martinez slamming Don Zimmer to the turf like he’s trying out for WWE Raw. Absolute chaos, and it’s amazing.

They go in depth on the 2003 ALCS and Aaron Boone's walk off. I honestly forgot just how crushing that entire series and sequence was. Rewatching it was a reminder of how unbelievably dominant Tim Wakefield was that entire season, and series, and how badly Grady Little cost them.

Speaking of which, the Barnicle brothers somehow got Grady Little (still alive, still a horrible accent) to appear in this doc. He gives his "take" on the situation and it's about what you'd expect. I won't spoil it. 

Episode 2 is all about the turning point. You get the full rundown of the Nomar trade, which, let’s be real, was a move that felt like Epstein was putting his cojones on the table and saying, “We’re all in.”

Then there's the A-rod and Varitek brawl, which this doc covers like they're breaking down the Zapruder film. We get all the Sox players breaking down what happened, how it happened, and throwing in their two cents. It's worth watching for this alone. 

And it turns out Epstein doesn’t buy the whole “That fight turned our season around” narrative- he points out they didn’t actually get hot until that August.

The final episode is a straight-up adrenaline shot to the heart. It’s everything you love about baseball, sports, and life itself packed into 60 minutes. It’s Dave Roberts’ steal, Bill Mueller’s clutch RBI, Ortiz’s back-to-back walk-offs, and Curt Schilling’s bloody sock. Yeah, they debunk the ketchup conspiracy once and for all- that was real blood, folks, and it’s disgusting how doctors somehow took his tendon and stapled it to his bone to "band-aid" the thing and give Schilling some push off the mound. Just until he could have proper surgery. 

Watching the Yankees collapse game by game was another reminder. I completely forgot just how over that series really was. Multiple times.. The Sox just kept punching, and New York was left standing there like they’d seen a ghost. By the time Johnny Damon launches that grand slam in Game 7, you can still hear Yankees fans crying, and asking themselves what the fuck happened?

From there, the Red Sox roll into the World Series and steamroll the Cardinals in four games. No drama, no stress- just a swift ass-kicking that ends 86 years of misery.

The doc doesn’t just end on a high note. It takes a moment to remember Tim Wakefield, who passed away in 2023. The tribute is raw, emotional, and hits you right in the gut. 

There are tough pieces with Varitek and Millar tearing up, and it’s a reminder that this team was more than just a group of baseball players. It was a brotherhood, and Wakefield was the heart and soul of it. They don’t make them like him anymore.

The Comeback is everything you want in a sports documentary. It’s got the drama, the humor, the heart, and the behind-the-scenes moments and never before seen footage that makes this worth watching alone for. It’s a time machine back to when the Red Sox were scrappy underdogs, not the borderline dynasty they’ve become. It’s a love letter to baseball, to Boston, and to a team that shocked the world. It also has a few juicy parts in it that had never been mentioned before, that should have been much bigger deals. 

Here were my favorite takeaways from it -

- Joe Castiglione still looks and sounds GREAT for his age

- Trot Nixon is hilarious.

- I totally forgot about Bronson Arroyo somehow

- Pedro taking 100% credit for bring David Ortiz to Boston (to this day) is hilarious

- Jeremy Giambi starting over Ortiz for most of that season was crazy to be reminded of

- Pedro is still the fucking best interview in sports. I could listen to that guy talk for hours. Days. Months. No joke. Him saying he wanted to send Jeter and Soriano "to the hospital in the same ambulance" was hilarious.

- my boy Blackie's bar, "Baseball Tavern" gets plenty of mentions and shout outs. 

- Again, the Grady Little interview is WILD. Just put it this way, nothing has changed.

- Schilling looked rough. 

- I have ZERO idea why scumbag Howard Bryant was involved in this and gave his opinion so much. Made zero sense. 

- The Manny for A-Rod shit was crazy.

- To this day I still cannot believe they traded Nomar. 

- It's not fully clear, but did Terry Francona push Theo to trade Nomar?

- I think they made the 2004 Sox pre-Nomar trade seem worse than they actually were. The Yankees were scorching hot right out the gates. It wasn't like they were losing in a shit division 

- The revelation from Pedro that him and Millar found a lapel pin microphone and transmittor in the ceiling tiles in their clubhouse at Yankee Stadium was nuts. Of course Joe Torre shrugged it off. Pedro and Schilling both confirmed it. If it wasn't true they wouldn't both randomly have had the same exact story. 

- I couldn't believe they kept the comment from Millar to Francona about painkillers in this. Yikes.

- Joe Torre gave possibly the worst explanation in the history of explanations as to why he didn't bunt against Schilling all game

- Again, the Tim Wakefield part was incredibly sad.

- The fact Theo built this team based on camaraderie and not analytics says so much. What happened to this way of thinking and why is it so foreign today? 

Give this a watch if you haven't. It is excellent!