BOSTON — The Game 2 home run by David Ortiz that turned around the American League Championship Series was indelibly memorable as soon as it was hit. But now the image of Detroit’s Torii Hunter going headfirst into the Boston bullpen has become absolutely symbolic after the Red Sox, by winning the American League pennant on Saturday night at Fenway Park with a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers, reached their third World Series in 10 years.

Where something equally remarkable could still happen.

Lasting greatness typically requires a continuum of events, a chain reaction. Had the Yankees followed up Derek Jeter’s classic flip play in 2001 by losing Games 4 or 5 to the Oakland A’s in that division series, his nailing of Jeremy Giambi at the plate would have been a nice addition to Captain Jeter’s video scrapbook, not much more.

The Yankees did not win the World Series that year, but that’s not the point. Playing for a scarred city in the aftermath of 9/11, they went the distance. More amazing things happened on baseball’s biggest stage, including successive late-night comebacks at Yankee Stadium before the final-inning Game 7 victory against Mariano Rivera by the Diamondbacks in Arizona.

In the 1986 World Series, Bill Buckner could have laughed off Mookie Wilson’s Game 6-ending ground ball through the wickets had the Red Sox preserved an early lead and won Game 7 against the Mets. Instead, Buckner was consigned to infamy when Jesse Orosco closed out the Sox and thrust his arms skyward — the inverse imagery of Hunter’s futile leap over Fenway’s short fence in right-center to catch Ortiz’s grand slam off Joaquin Benoit.