In high school, a friend of mine went through a pretty bad breakup and would go out of his way to avoid his ex-girlfriend’s street, which meant that a normally short commute often turned into a long commute. I bring this up because for 20 years I avoided anything related to the 2004 World Series in which the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, that all changed with the release of The return: the 2004 Boston Red Sox, which recently debuted on the TV programming 2024.

Upon first hearing about the three-part documentary, I thought it would be another celebration of that 2004 Boston team and the “Idiots” who brought the first World Series trophy to Beantown in 86 years. And although this is certainly great baseball docuseries shows the team that left me and my fellow Cards fans on the wrong side of history celebrating an improbable victory, the 2024 Netflix original also changed the way I view the Red Sox and the World 2004 series in general.

As a Cardinals fan, the 2004 World Series has always been a touchy subject