2004 Red Sox: A Graveyard Visit in October

The Collins gravestone at the Brewster Cemetery in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. (Courtesy of Cynthia Doutrich)

 

Christopher Collins was a lifelong Red Sox who died of cancer in 1995 at just 41 years old. As the Cape Cod Times told it, “Weeks before succumbing to the disease, Collins insisted his family etch the phrase ‘Never lived long enough to see the Red Sox win it all!’ into his headstone.”1

Collins had been a police officer in Harwich, and a Little League coach.

His son, Chris Jr., visited his grave at the Brewster cemetery on Cape Cod just hours after the 2004 Red Sox finally won it all. Chris Jr. was 23 at the time. He said, “He had such a great spirit. He wanted to put something on his tombstone that would make people chuckle a bit as they walked by.”

He told the reporter of the 2004 graveside visit: “I was like a little boy who rushes to show his parents what Santa brought for Christmas. To be able to share this incredible win with him was one of the best experiences of my life.” In a whisper, he told his dad, “They finally did it.”

Collins’s wife, Jane, had visited the grave a week earlier, after the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the League Championship Series. She and the family had decorated the grave with “Red Sox balloons, banners, a Sox cap and a miniature scarecrow doll with a Red Sox batting helmet.”

She said, “I wish he was still here to enjoy this great moment with all of us, especially his kids whom he loved very much. But I know he’s partying with Babe Ruth now and smiling.”

 

Acknowledgments

Thanks to SABR member Paul Doutrich and his wife, Cynthia Doutrich, who took the photograph in June 2023. 

 

Notes

1 Jason Kolnos, “Departed Sox Fans Can Rest in Peace,” Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Massachusetts), October 30, 2004. Updated January 6, 2011. https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2004/10/30/departed-sox-fans-can-rest/50927108007/. Accessed June 14, 2023. All quotations come from this article.