3 – Middleweight Felix Trinidad comes back to the ring in grand style, becoming the first man to put Ricardo Mayorga on the canvas with a devastating eight-round body shot. Two more knockdowns in the round finished the fight.

5 – In a ceremony attended by 100 guests, including Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods weds Swedish model and former nanny Elin Nordegren at a resort in Barbados. The couple honeymoon on the new yacht Woods has purchased for the occasion.

10­ - Ken Caminiti, 41, former major league third baseman and MVP dies of a heart attack, apparently induced by drug use. Caminiti had confessed to using steroids when he was one of the best hitters in the game.

12 - Curt Schilling, pitching on an ankle with a torn tendon, gives up six runs in three innings and the Red Sox are down 8-0 to the Yankees before rallying to make a contest of Game 1 of the ALCS. Yanks win it, 10-7.

16 – After a one-day delay caused by rain, the Red Sox react to the challenge of being down 0-2 to the Yankees by getting crushed, 19-8 to go down 0-3 in the ALCS. Red Sox fans start looking to next year.

17 – The Yankees have a 4-3 ninth-inning lead, Mariano Rivera on the mound, and a trip to the World Series apparently wrapped up. But Rivera blows the save, thanks to a crucial steal of second by pinch runner Dave Roberts, the Red Sox tie the game, then win it in the 12th on David Ortiz’ two-run walk-off homer. At 5:20, it is the longest game in LCS history. But the Sox are still down 1-3.

17 - Ray Boone, former major league infielder and founder of a line of ballplayers that reaches down to grandsons Bret and Aaron Boone, dies after a long illness at the age of 81.

19 – Curt Schilling gets his ankle stitched together, Frankenpitcher-style, and gives up one run in seven innings as the Red Sox win, 4-2, to bring the ALCS to an improbable Game 7.

19 – NASCAR’s new playoff system begins as the top 10 drivers from the regular season begin a new, 10-race tournament in New Hampshire to determine the winner of the Nextel Cup. Kurt Busch takes the race and an early lead in the competition to end the year at number one.

Mike Segar / Reuters No baseball team had ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit until the Boston Red Sox did it against the New York Yankees in the ALCS.

20 – Behind maligned and neglected Derek Lowe and fueled by a team shot of Jack Daniels before the game, the Red Sox bury the Curse of the Bambino as far as it relates to the Yankees, and become the first team in 100 years of playoff baseball to win a series after being down 0-3. The final score in Yankee Stadium is a 10-3 blowout.

20 - Tragedy accompanies the celebration in Boston over the Red Sox win as a supposedly non-lethal pepper-spray projectile kills Victoria Snelgrove, an Emerson College student, who had gone to Fenway Park to watch the celebration.

23 – The Red Sox open up an early five-run lead against the Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series, then let the Cards tie it in the top of the eighth. But Mark Bellhorn hits a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning and Boston wins, 11-9.

25 – Florida fires head football coach Ron Zook. Former coach Steve Spurrier denies any interest in the job, saying that his 12 years there were enough.

27 - After a 10-day auction, the top bid for Barry Bonds’ 700th home run ball is $804,129. Steve Williams, the man who ended up with the ball, had put the ball up for auction with the permission of a judge, but still faces a legal battle over the proceeds with Timothy Murphy, who claimed that he originally had the ball stuck behind his knee before Williams grabbed it in the scramble for the historic artifact.

27 – After Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez shut down the Cards in Games 2 and 3, Derek Lowe finishes the deal with seven innings of three-hit shutout ball, as the Red Sox annihilate the Cards, the Curse, and 85 years of misery with a 3-0 win and a four-game sweep of the World Series, their first championship since 1918. David Ortiz is named MVP.

30 – Ghostzapper wins the Breeder’s Cup Classic, outdueling Roses in May at Lone Star Park in Texas.

31 – The Patriots lose to the Steelers, 34-20, to end an NFL-record 21-game winning streak, including 18 consecutive regular-season games. The Pats had last lost on Sept. 28, 2003 to the Redskins.

Month-by-month look at 2004 January February March April May June July August September October November December