Derek Lowe Is the Latest Member of the 2004 Red Sox to Join the Yankees

According to ESPN New York, the New York Yankees are finalizing a deal with right-hander Derek Lowe. With ace CC Sabathia heading for the disabled list, the Yankees need some depth for the rest of August. They will now hand the ball to a pitcher who could not keep his job in Cleveland.

At age 39, Lowe is having his second straight season with an ERA above five and mediocre-to-bad numbers across the board.

But he has another element attractive to the Yankees. He was a member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. And he was no small contributor either. His six innings of one-hit ball in Game Seven of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium sent the Red Sox to the World Series and helped complete the greatest comeback (and greatest collapse) in baseball playoff history.

With the addition of Lowe, almost all of the major players in that Game Seven victory would eventually come over and play with the Yankees. And a few other members of that celebration would make their way to the Bronx before long.

The Yankees have a tradition of bringing in players who helped beat them in the postseason. From manager Johnny Keane to pitcher Don Gullett, from Randy Johnson to CC Sabathia to Steve Howe, players that help sink the Yankees wind up becoming Yankees.

But no playoff humiliation was greater than 2004. And the Yankees just keep bringing the players over to help heal the wound. Here are the 2004 Red Sox who went to the other side.

Mark Bellhorn

Mark Bellhorn homered in Game 6 to give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead and then crushed an eighth inning home run in Game 7 that knocked the hope out of Yankee Stadium.

He continued his power streak into the World Series and helped the Sox clinch. But he struggled the next season and by August he was cut. The Yankees signed him in time to be on the playoff roster for 2005.

Less than a year after crushing them in the Bronx, Bellhorn was a member of the Yankees in the AL Division Series.

Johnny Damon

No player better personified the difference between the free-spirit Red Sox and the stuffy, conservative Yankees than Johnny Damon.

He showed up at spring training in 2004 looking like Jesus with his long flowing hair and beard. And he relished being a fun-loving and borderline reckless personality. Red Sox fans, especially the female ones, ate it all up and believed him when he said he would never play for the Yankees in his book "Idiot."

In Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, he crushed a grand slam and a two run shot off of Javier Vazquez that turned a nail-biter into a blowout. The biggest Idiot of them all, or at least the second biggest idiot after Kevin Millar, drove a dagger into the hearts of Yankee fans.

Then he turned around and stabbed the Red Sox fans in the heart by joining the Yankees after the 2005 season. Off came the long hair and beard and in came a new corporate-looking Damon.

His time in New York was inconsistent but he contributed greatly to the Yankees victory in the 2009 World Series. His alert baserunning helped score the winning run in Game 4.

According to WEEI in Boston, Damon later turned down a chance to rejoin the Red Sox in 2010.

Alan Embree

Many Red Sox fans over the generations had visions of their team beating the Yankees in the Bronx in the postseason. It is a safe bet that nobody could have imagined Boston doing that after being down 3-0 and facing Mariano Rivera.

As the epic 2004 ALCS wound to a close, the weary bullpen needed a final out and manager Terry Francona did not want to use exhausted closer Keith Foulke.

With two outs in the ninth, it was Alan Embree who was summoned to get the out all of New England was praying for.

Embree got pinch hitter Ruben Sierra to ground out. He would leap into Jason Varitek's arms and the celebration was on at Yankee Stadium.

Less than a year later, he was in Fenway Park, celebrating the Yankees winning the American League East title. The Red Sox had dumped him midseason and the Yankees signed him up and he finished the year in pinstripes.

Derek Lowe

Derek Lowe's career has been a bizarre series of insanely high highs and morbidly low lows. He lost his spot in the rotation in 2004 only to become the great pitching hero for the Red Sox in the postseason.

He is the first person to be credited with the clinching victory of the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series in the same season. (Andy Pettitte match the feat in 2009.)

And it is difficult to determine which Lowe victory was sweeter: The ALCS clinching Game 7 or the curse busting World Series winning Game 4 in St. Louis.

He went to Los Angeles and Atlanta where the results ranged from Cy Young contender to being a candidate for a release.

He was cut by the Indians this year and the Yankees are willing to give him a flier.

Ramiro Mendoza

Ramiro Mendoza never did look right in a Red Sox uniform. He shut down the Sox as a member of the 1999 Yankees to clinch the ALCS that year. And when he arrived in Boston for the 2003 season, he looked like a Yankee in Red Sox garb.

He had two nondescript seasons in Boston and was credited with the loss in the 19-8 thrashing in Game 3 of the ALCS. It would be his last appearance as a Red Sox pitcher and the last loss the Sox would experience in 2004.

He returned to the Yankees in 2005, but wore a Red Sox uniform when he accepted his World Series ring on opening day.

He pitched just one game for the 2005 Yankees, the last of his solid big league career that featured winning World Series titles with the Yankees and Red Sox.

Doug Mientkiewicz

The slick fielding first baseman whose name trips up Spell Check everywhere, Doug Mientkiewicz had the satisfaction of catching the final out of both the ALCS and World Series.

Virtually every locker, rec room and garage in New England featured the image of Mientkiewicz with his arms in the air celebrating. Look closely in the background of the police station scenes in The Departed. He can be seen there as well.

The Red Sox traded Mientkiewicz after the silly "who owns the last ball of the World Series" controversy, which according to MLB.com, needed to go to arbitration.

He went to the Mets at first and eventually landed in the Bronx in time to be on Joe Torre's final Yankee team. He played in the 2007 Division Series but was held hitless.

Mike Myers

The sidewinding left-hander with the famous name came over to the Red Sox from Seattle in August, 2004. He added some depth as a lefty specialist. He pitched in extra innings in both Game 4 and Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, helping hold the Yankees at bay.

He pitched in the 2005 playoffs for the Red Sox before signing with the Yankees for the 2006 season.

He spent a season and a half in the Bronx, pitching in the 2006 Division Series against Detroit before finishing his career as a member of the White Sox.