A fresh take on Boston's 20-year-old classic

This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BOSTON -- Twenty Octobers ago, I had the privilege of chronicling one of the most historic baseball stories of all time. Not only did the Red Sox become the first -- and still only -- MLB team to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a postseason series, but they beat their forever rival Yankees in the process.

After pulling off the miracle against the Yankees in the ALCS, those 2004 Sox went on to sweep a 105-win Cardinals team in the World Series, marking the first World Series title for Boston in 86 years.

With a compelling, three-part docuseries aptly named “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox” dropping on Netflix on Wednesday, memories have come flooding back to me. In honor of the 20-year anniversary, here are some reflections of what I witnessed from my seat in the press box.

? Down 3-0 to the rival Yankees in the best-of-seven series, the Red Sox were toast, and I knew it. Or I thought I knew it. Nobody had ever come back from that deficit in MLB, so why would this be any different? Right around the time Mariano Rivera came on for the final six outs of what seemed a sure pennant for the Yankees, my mom -- never a night owl -- called me to ask if she should stay up for the rest of the game. I told her to go to sleep.

The Red Sox were only down, 4-3, but it felt like more. They were facing the weight of history, not to mention the future unanimous Hall of Famer Rivera, and he breezed through the eighth. Then came the history-altering ninth. Kevin Millar walked; Dave Roberts pinch ran and stole second; Bill Mueller drove him in. David Ortiz sent everyone home with a two-run homer in the 12th inning. Maybe I should have told mom to stay awake.

? Game 5 isn’t remembered as much as Game 4, for whatever reason. But it was the best game of the series, going 14 innings and lasting five hours and 49 minutes. The plays made by Trot Nixon in right field shouldn’t be forgotten. Nixon made a diving catch on the warning track to take extra bases away from Alex Rodriguez in the third. Three innings later, Nixon dove again and snared a sinking liner to right off the bat of Hideki Matsui. The Red Sox likely would have been trailing, 6-2, had Nixon not come up with that second one. Instead, they stayed within range, just two runs down.

? Tim Wakefield deserved a big moment in this series. The knuckleballer sacrificed his start for Game 4 by volunteering to mop up the 19-8 blowout loss in Game 3. Wakefield, the ultimate teammate, got his chance to be a hero in Game 5 when he pitched innings 12-14 to get the win, allowing one hit. Most memorable was the white-knuckle, 13th inning when Jason Varitek -- who hardly ever caught Wakefield -- committed three passed balls. One more passed ball would have put the Yankees in the lead. Instead, Varitek squeezed strike three against Ruben Sierra as if he was hanging on for dear life, and Wakefield dramatically pumped his fist on his way back to the dugout.

? This series never even gets to Game 7 without Keith Foulke. His efforts have somehow gone underrated over the course of time. While the image of him fielding the final out in the World Series is indelible, his performance in the ALCS is what was most impressive. From Games 4-6, with no days off in between, Foulke threw 100 pitches. The breakdown was 50 in Game 4, 22 in Game 5 and 28 in Game 6. Runs allowed? Zero.

? After Curt Schilling gutted through Game 6 while bleeding through his right sock, the stage was set for Game 7. The most underrated storyline in Game 7 was Derek Lowe starting on two days' rest to save a spent pitching staff. Lowe needed just 69 pitches to hold the Yankees to one run and one hit over six innings. He wound up earning the win in all three of Boston’s postseason clinchers.

? This was my third year on the beat, and at age 32, I was then one of the youngest of Boston’s press crew. What struck me is that after the last out, all these gentlemen and ladies who had covered the team much longer than me just stood up from their seats in the press box and took a few minutes watching the celebration on the field after the last out, almost having to see it to believe it. I can imagine many of them were thinking of relatives who never saw the Red Sox win the World Series. At the time, I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to cover a bigger story. I’m still wondering.