Looking forward to my return to Fenway

There probably isn’t a better way to enter this blogging world than talking about the memories I have from that historical run I shared with the Red Sox had on the way to the 2004 World Series title  Here we are five years later and when I go back with the Braves for this weekend’s series at Fenway, it will be the first time I’ve been in Boston since I came back to get my championship ring in 2005.  

It was amazing how much media flack I got for returning that year to get my ring.   Because I was with the Dodgers that year, some people didn’t think it was right that I came back, put my Red Sox jersey back on and shared a great moment with a lot of good guys that I’d been around for a long time there.

Really I didn’t even know that we were going to be wearing the jerseys.  It was one of those things when we were walking on the field, somebody basically just tossed me a jersey and said, “here, wear this.”
We didn’t think anything of it.  But it was amazing how people saw that as a slap in the Dodgers face.  But I would definitely do it again.  

It was just a great way for all of us to get back together and reminisce about what was truly a historical run.   The Dodgers had the day off that day.  So everything set up perfect and I definitely wanted to be there.

If I had been a first-year  player, I might have thought about skipping it.  But since I spent eight years with the Red Sox and it was a team that had been together for so long, I wanted to be there with the guys.

I’m really looking forward to heading back to Boston to pitch this weekend.  When I think of my career pretty much all my memories are in Boston.   There were some good times in Los Angeles, especially last year when we were winning playoff games.  But I think any time you win a World Series in any city, that’s where your fondest memories are going to be.  

Boston is a great city and that’s basically where I started my career in 1998.  When I was there I was able to do a little bit of everything, start, setup and close.  That’s where I experienced all of my growing pains.

When I tell people that the 2003 and 2004 Red Sox teams were the funnest that I’ve ever been a part of, they just say, “yeah, that’s because you were winning.”

But it was because we all had a chance to be together for a long time and that’s something you don’t see too often in this game any more.  Plus it was also the most laid-back, check-your-ego-at-the-door team that I’ve ever seen.

There wasn’t one guy that wasn’t up for ridiculing and there wasn’t one guy that was bigger than the team.  You don’t see that every day.  But I think that came because we had been together so long and we respected everybody.
 
It was a unique group of guys and I think that’s why we were able to come back from being down three games-to-none to the Yanks in the 2004 ALCS.  That team had an unbelievable ability to forget yesterday’s game.  Good, bad or indifferent, we always felt like we had a chance to win.  We just felt like we needed to get through Game 4 because we had Schilling and Pedro going in Games 5 and 6.

I definitely wanted to come back to Boston after the 2004 season.  But as it came to a close, it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen.

I really don’t know how I’ll be received when I’m pitching on Saturday.    When I was there it seemed like they cheered most of the guys when they came back.

It will be interesting.   Either way you take it with a grain of salt.  I’m not looking for a standing ovation to make you feel like your time there was appreciated.  And if they boo you, you can’t take that to heart either.