5 Bombshells — and a 2003 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez Sighting — from the Boston Red Sox Netflix Documentary

Mar. 15, 2025

David Ortiz as seen in Netflix’s ‘The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox’.Photo:Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix is helping Boston Red Sox fans relive the 2003 and 2004 Major League Baseball seasons with a new documentary.

On Wednesday, Oct. 23,The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Soxa three-part documentary that re-examines the team’s route to winning the 2004 World Series, began streaming on Netflix.

Barnicle, who was in attendance at Yankee Stadium as a fan on Oct. 16, 2003, when the Yankees eliminated the Red Sox from that year’s playoffs, tells PEOPLE that the series' story “started much earlier than people realize.”

“We always saw the series more about how the Red Sox in the ownership box and in the baseball operations and in the clubhouse were able to change the culture of that organization from eight decades of losing to becoming winners,” he says. “And as we set off to do that, we realize not a lot of this is a straight line.”

Here are five bombshell moments from the new documentary:

Red Sox alumni remain split over their heartbreaking loss in the 2003 MLB playoffs

Jason Varitek in ‘The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox’.Courtesy of Netflix

Then Boston manager Grady Little recounts in the series how he decided to keep star pitcher Pedro Martinez on the mound through the seventh inning of Game 7 of that year’s ALCS based solely on his own intuition. General manager Theo Epstein and the club’s front office knew that Martinez’s effectiveness had waned later in the game. The Red Sox fired Little, now 74, after they lost that game in extra innings and brought in Terry Francona as manager for the 2004 season.

“I asked [all the players] the same thing: Would you pull Pedro? And every player was like, ‘Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Absolutely not,’ " says Barnicle, who revisited that game with Red Sox alumni for the series. “And everybody in the front office was like, ‘Absolutely. Absolutely.’ You know, as a fan there you’d say, ‘Absolutely.’ And even the announcers were like, ‘This is incredible that he’s still in there.’ "

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez make a surprise cameo in footage from the 2003 season

Jennifer LopezandBen Affleckcoincidentally make a cameo appearance in the series' first episode in archival footage from a April 27, 2003 game in Anaheim, California. Affleck, now 52, grew up in Cambridge, Mass., and is alongtime Red Sox fan.

At the time of that 2003 game, the former couplewere engagedand making headlines as “Bennifer” prior to postponing their planned September 2003 wedding and ultimately breaking up in 2004. Nearly 20 years later, they rekindled their romance and married in July 2022; Lopez, now 55,filed for divorcefrom Affleck on Aug. 20.

Red Sox superstar Nomar Garciaparra was upset when the team attempted to replace him with Alex Rodriguez prior to the 2004 MLB season

Alex Rodriguez (left) and Nomar Garciaparra.Ezra Shaw/Getty; Jed Jacobsohn/Getty

Ezra Shaw/Getty; Jed Jacobsohn/Getty

Then Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein faced a major challenge attempting to improve the team and remain competitive with the Yankees after New York eliminated Boston from the 2003 MLB playoffs. Epstein, 50, and then assistant general manager Jed Hoyer recall that at one point, the Red Sox acquiredAlex Rodriguezfrom the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielder Manny Ramirez and pitcher Jon Lester. That trade would have necessitated Garciaparra’s trade to the Chicago White Sox in order to facilitate Rodriguez’s move to shortstop for Boston.

However, the Major League Baseball Players' Association ultimately vetoed the trade over issues related to Rodriguez’s contract, leaving Garciaparra and Ramirez on Boston’s roster to start the 2004 season. The Yankees subsequently acquired Rodriguez to play third base instead of shortstop. Garciaparra, who was vocally upset that the team had considered replacing him prior to the season, battled injuries through the first half of that year. Francona recalled him, and Garciaparra ultimately decided it would be best to move on.

“I kind of told him, I said, ‘Maybe it’s just time to think about [moving on],’ and I think that’s where he was,” Francona, 65, says in the documentary. The Red Sox ultimatelytradedGarciaparra to the Chicago Cubs on July 31, 2004.

Pedro Martinez alleges the New York Yankees spied on the Red Sox during the 2004 MLB playoffs

Pedro Martinez in ‘The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox’.Courtesy of Netflix

While recounting Boston’s grudge match with the Yankees in the 2004 MLB playoffs, Martinez, now 52, and former teammate Curt Schilling allege that they found a microphone placed in the ceiling of the away clubhouse at Yankee Stadium before a game. Then Yankees manager Joe Torre denied those allegations, and Barnicle says he believes the intensity of the rivalry made Red Sox players almost paranoid.

“The Yankees microphone thing was kind of interesting that the players would think they’re being [spied on],” the director tells PEOPLE. “I always thought their paranoia was so heightened, and the stakes were so heightened that they were seeing stuff like a microphone in the ceiling. They took all their pitchers' meetings on the tea bus from then on, which I didn’t know about beforehand.”

Red Sox players drank whiskey in the team’s clubhouse prior to 2004 playoff games during their famous comeback against the New York Yankees

Image from ‘The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox’.Courtesy of Netflix

The 2004 Red Sox famously became the first team in baseball history to win a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three en route to winning that year’s World Series. While recalling the iconic comeback at the center of the documentary, former Red Sox player Kevin Millar says he brought a bottle of whiskey for his teammates to share prior to at least one game in the series.

“I mean there’s a lot of myths out there about teams do this or teams do that — if you wanted to fire one down before you went, no one judged,” former pitcher Derek Lowe remembers, while Millar recalls, “Gatorade cups, we all did shots.”

The players felt their bond transcended typical relationships between teammates

Kevin Millar in The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox.Courtesy of Netflix

Players like Millar, now 53, proved instrumental in changing the public perception of the Red Sox in Boston. They went from being perpetual second-place finishers to being a team worth believing in as he helped usher in and popularize catchphrases and nicknames like “Cowboy Up” and “Idiots” through the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The documentary series ends with the 2004 team’s reunion at Fenway Park at the start of the 2024 season, showcasing a bond that endures 20 years later.

“That fatalistic kind of almost bitter approach that that Red Sox fans had up until [2004] was. . . it made the culture of the clubhouse go the other way where they’re like, ‘We’re not doing this. We’re tight. We’re not doing this. You said this in the press against me, and it’s 25 guys and 25 dads. We’re all a family now. We’re all coming together,’ " Barnicle says of the group’s attitude. “So that kind of fatalistic approach that that Red Sox fans and the media had at that time brought the team together in a way.”

The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Soxis streaming on Netflix now.

source: people.com