Pedro Martinez claims that the Yankees occupied the Sox clubhouse with a microphone in the 2004 ALCS

Red Sox

“I remember before the game just climbing to the ceiling of the clubhouse and pulling out a microphone.”

The new Netflix documentary “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox” offers a cathartic look back at the most impressive comeback in baseball history.

But the three-part series also brings to light many new talking points and storylines from the Red Sox's epic seven-game battle with the Yankees two decades ago.

Leading these new narratives is the claim by Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling and several other Red Sox players that Boston found a microphone in the visitors' clubhouse at Yankee Stadium before Game 2 of the 2004 ALCS.

“I remember before the game I just climbed up to the ceiling of the clubhouse and pulled out a microphone and probably a little device that relayed our conversations,” Martinez noted in the series, transcribed by Michael Silverman The Boston Globe.

“I know the difference between a microphone and no microphone,” Schilling added in the documentary. “And it was like a lapel microphone and it was attached to…a little box that had the red light on.”

“Something was going on,” added Martinez, who started Game 2 and took the loss in a 3-1 pitching duel between himself and Jon Lieber.

Then-Yankees manager Joe Torre didn't mince his words when asked in the documentary about Martinez's suggestion that New York was listening to the Red Sox's talking strategy.

“(Expletive). I say it didn't happen,” Torre said. “And if it did happen, we didn't get the benefit of a microphone, someone else did.”

While both Martinez and Schilling addressed the topic of the microphone during the series, Colin Barnicle – the director of the documentary – admitted on the MassLive podcast “Fenway Rundown” that several other Red Sox players mentioned the discovery of the microphone before Martinez, who it was one of the last players interviewed during the recording process.

“We had heard about it,” Barnicle told MassLive’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo. “Pedro was the last to be interviewed, so there were initially several players in this department. We heard from Bronson Arroyo and Doug Mirabelli and Curt Schilling and most of the pitchers. They said, 'Yeah, no, that's what happened.' 'We pulled down a microphone.' Then their team meetings, the pitchers' team meetings, took place on the team bus. They went outside and ate it on the team bus.

“I think it’s more due to the paranoia of these teams at this moment. Apparently they didn't disturb their own clubhouse for the next game in which they gave up 19 runs. The evidence is pretty much obvious that this may not have really led to anything. Maybe it was like that. All the Yankees said, “No, I'd never heard of that.” But it's strange. It’s totally weird that there was a microphone.”

Whether or not there was any snooping during this heated series between the Red Sox and Yankees, Boston finally got the last laugh when it punched its ticket to the World Series in Game 7 at Yankee Stadium.

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Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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