Former Red Sox Star Kevin Millar Reflects on 'Painful Times' Before Winning 2004 World Series (Exclusive)

05/05/2022 12:26 pm EDT

Kevin Millar played a big role on the Boston Red Sox when the team won the World Series in 2004. However, the 50-year-old former MLB player was also part of heartbreak as the Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees in the 2003 ALCS. In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Millar talked about how the 2003 loss made the 2004 Red Sox a better squad. 

 "It's funny, because you go through these painful times as an athlete, whether it's through the struggles or personal struggles or whatever it is, but then as a team, you've heard about this curse all these years and we weren't around there, right?" Millar exclusively told PopCulture. "We have these new guys in town, which is Billy Mueller and Mark Bellhorn, Orlando Cabrera, and David Ortiz, who turned into Big Papi. But in 2003, we lost game seven, the Aaron Boone home run, it was an unbelievable game."

Millar continued: "We lose our manager Grady Little, who was a great man after that game, and we were up five, two with two outs in the eighth and then ended up Yankees tied the game and we ended up losing later on. But the pain that you felt, the tears you shed, I think you have to go through those times because it made you tougher. Then what happens? We added Keith Foulke and we added Curt Schilling for that offseason."

The Red Sox lost to the Yankees in the ALCS 4-3, and it was the first time they reached the playoffs since 1999. But the loss didn't affect the team as they went on to win 98 games in the regular season and swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Millar, who hit 18 home runs and 74 RBIs in 2004, said it was the same team except there was a new man and charge. 

"Terry Francona came over and this team was basically the same group," Millar said. "And that same group went through that kind of experience. And experience, I always thought, was overrated until you get there in that post-season and that's what made Derek Jeter so good so many years is you watch the great ones, their heart rate is at a normal level, right? Your Tom Brady's and your Derek Jeter's, your Joe Montana's, whoever it is. And that's where the experience factor meant something to this squad. Here we are in 2004, same two teams, Game 7, and even though you were down 0-3 and even down in game four, but we had a chance to kind of go through those bad times in 2003 that made us stronger and tougher to go ahead and take this championship down in 2004."

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