Not Tasting the Champagne

The Boston Red Sox is one of the great franchises in baseball. The team had tremendous success in the first 20 years of the 20th century, but, quite literally, were unable to 'pop the champagne' between 1918, which was the last time that they won the World Series, and 2004.

This bottle of champagne was in the Red Sox locker room during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, waiting to be used to celebrate the end of 68 years of frustrating futility in the World Series. The Red Sox had lost three World Series contests (1946, 1967 and 1975) in Game 7.

For the Red Sox in 1986, one strike away from victory was one strike too many as the Mets rallied, taking Game 6 and Game 7. It took another 18 years for a bottle of champagne to finally be opened, as the Red Sox of 2004 finally won it all.