Awesome Old Song of the Week: Red Sox World Series Edition

Keith Foulke, Doug Mientkiewiecz, and the final out in '04.

The original version of "Tessie" was written for a 1902 Broadway musical called The Silver Slipper.  A group of die hard fans known as the "Royal Rooters" began singing it in the stands during Game 5 of the 1903 World Series.  Boston (known as the Americans back then) was trailing the Pirates three games to one at the time, but rallied to win that day with the song as their good luck charm.

When the series moved back to Pittsburgh legend says the Royal Rooters actually hired a band to play "Tessie" in the park during the games, which supposedly irritated the Pirates and helped Boston sweep the remainder of the series for a 5-3 victory (no, that's not a misprint, the World Series used to be a best 5 of 9; which I think is awesome).  The Royal Rooters disbanded in 1918, and Boston didn't win another championship for 86 years.

In 2004 the Dropkick Murphys recorded a new version of "Tessie," and later that year the Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the World Series.  Nine years later we get a rematch.  The lyrics to the Murphys' version actually tell the full story of the significance of the original "Tessie."





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