For those Boston Red Sox baseball fans who have been glued to their television sets throughout the regular season and during an amazing postseason, the team’s success is easily summed up as nothing short of marvelous. Whether staking claim in arguably the greatest comeback in sports history in its victory against the New York Yankees or its start in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the 2004 Red Sox franchise has etched out a season in baseball history to be remembered by all fans of the game.

For Gary Vincent, owner of Fat Face Fenner’s Fishack in downtown Hermosa Beach, the Red Sox’s accomplishments this year are especially heart-warming being that he’s a Boston native and a lifetime fan of the team.

Connecticut native Brian Kochanowicz, 33, who moved out to the South Bay five years ago because of his work, now lives in Redondo Beach. He is actually a Yankees fan with many friends who are Red Sox fans.

“I am rooting for the Red Sox just because they are in the American League and if they win it makes my Yankees look a little bit better,” he said. “Fenner’s is a great place and it ends up being a small world inside there.”

Since moving to the South Bay in the early 1980s, Vincent by way of the Fishack, has established a home away from home for those Boston natives transplanted to the area or those visiting town, which has become the South Bay headquarters for both Red Sox and New England Patriots fans.

Mike Dante grew up in Maine and moved to Boston after gradating from college. He lived there for six years. Dante has been a lifelong Red Sox fan. The computer technology company Dante works for moved him out here a couple of years ago.

“My first year watching the team was when I was 7 years old in about 1982. It was the first year I watched every single game and started to become a maniac fan,” recalled Dante. “Being a Red Sox fan, it’s a lifestyle. Fenner’s is a great place to go and watch the games with people who are from the same part of the country you’re from. So, when the team does well you can celebrate together and when the team does poorly you can commiserate together.”

Vincent was born and raised near Boston in the city of Medford, and migrated to the South Bay with his family in 1982. Vincent’s father moved the family out to the West Coast to help with the construction of the subways in Los Angeles. Vincent was 19.

“It was a huge adjustment. I spent the first four years in California in the San Fernando Valley. It was diametrically opposite from Boston in every aspect,” recalled Vincent. “If you think about what the Valley was like in the early 1980s – the whole stereotypical Valley Girl scene – and I showed up in a pair of green Levi’s corduroys and a Boston Celtics T-shirt. Everyone else was in spandex.”

Vincent, who graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a double major in sound engineering and music theory composition, relocated to the South Bay in 1987.

“I was writing music at the time. I actually wanted to get into sound design for the movies and soundtracks for movies,” said Vincent. ” I loved it. It’s kind of ironic how I ended up where I am now.”

Vincent has been a professional DJ for 20 years and went to work for his brother who relocated his Boston-based DJ company to California. It was then that he learned the tricks of the trade while attending college, which paid the bills while in school.

Vincent became a DJ at a former bar/ restaurant on the pier plaza called the End Zone for about five years. The End Zone once stood in the spot now occupied by Dragon.

So how did a music enthusiast and recent college graduate become the owner of a bar and restaurant on the pier plaza?

Vincent became an associate with the owners of Fat Face Fenner’s Faloon and worked his way into a partner position within the establishment. In 1997, Vincent became majority owner of Fat Face Fenner’s Fishack that at the time was still an organization. The actual bar and restaurant opened in 1999. Vincent is no longer an owner of Patrick Malloy’s – a business venture he desisted from upon becoming a partner in the Fishack. Vincent’s other primary business partner in the Fishack is Conn Flatley, who is also the vice chair of economic development and tourism for the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Since its grand opening, the Fishack has become the South Bay home to New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox fans.

Peter Dengenis, who is also a Red Sox fan, is originally from Connecticut and became a fan through his father. Dengenis’ career in sales also brought him out to the West Coast.

“It’s great to go to Fenner’s to absorb the atmosphere and cheer with other people for the same team,” he said. “Any Red Sox fan will tell you, though, that the Sox are capable are blowing a lead but I’m starting to feel good about it. We do have the curse, right?”

Originally, the Fishack opened as a seafood bar and grill and Vincent became president of the company in 2000. He gradually altered the direction of the establishment’s theme.

“I think my being from Boston rubbed off on it. It was one of those things that New England seafood just has a ring to it and people associate quality seafood with New England seafood,” said Vincent. “I grew up working in a small seafood shop. I actually worked in a place called Sea Castle and made cole slaw as a summer job. I learned how to cook and prepare seafood from working in places like that.”

The Fishack is famous for its clam chowder among transplants from Boston, locals and East Coast visitors. The Fishack also features items like Maine lobster, fish and chips, and weekly chef’s specials.

After all these years living in California, Vincent still maintains his Boston accent, so much so that you secretly hope he say phrases like “that ball went wicked far” or “park the car in Harvard Yard.” Vincent said he really had no idea how many people have relocated to the South Bay from Boston and the New England area who feel like Vincent has created a piece of Boston only mere yards away from the Pacific Ocean.

“When you’re 3,000 miles away from Boston, everything seems close. So when you meet someone from New England, it’s almost like finally meeting a long-lost cousin. There is an immediate connection,” said Vincent.

Vincent talks the talk and walks the walk of New England, and began to market the Fishack as a bar and grill, serving up authentic New England seafood which soon began to attract New England natives and visitors.

“Being a passionate New England sports fan, I would be sitting in the bar with a Red Sox game on and someone to the left and right of me would be cheering for the same team as me,” said Vincent. “With broken hearts we would watch them lose, but misery loves company. For the past few years, my God, we have had nothing but misery.”

Those who are fans of the Red Sox are quite familiar with the curse of the Bambino. In 1918, the Red Sox won their fifth World Series title which was the most of any club at the time. One of the team’s stars was a young pitcher by the name of George Herman Ruth, also known as The Babe or The Bambino.

In 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed to acquire some funds to finance his girlfriend’s theater play and with that he sold Ruth’s contract to Col. Jacob Ruppert, owner of the New York Yankees, for $100,000.

Since then, the Yankees over the years have won 26 World Series, an accomplishment it never could secure before The Babe’s arrival.

Prior to this year, the Red Sox have appeared in only four World Series since 1918, losing to the opposing team in the seventh game each time. Many baseball fans view the performance of the Red Sox subsequent to the departure of Ruth as being attributed to the “Curse of the Bambino.”

The Fishack soon became the headquarters during a year in baseball that could finally see the reverse in the curse. Last Wednesday, the night the Red Sox snatched the pennant championship from the New York Yankees, the Fishack was almost entirely filled with Red Sox fans donning the dark navy and red in the form of jerseys, hats and T-shirts. A few fans went as far as to wear apparel highlighting the embittered and historic rivalry between the two teams. Those who witnessed the series watched the greatest comeback in baseball history as the Red Sox came back to prevail in a seven-game series after being down 3-0 and winning four consecutive games against the Yankees, no less, a team famous for coming back late in a game and claiming victory.

“You could hear a pin drop,” said Vincent about last year’s defeat. “It was like the president got shot, everyone was solemn, the room went quiet, people closed their tabs and left the restaurant, some of whom I didn’t see for two months after that.”

City Councilman Sam Edgerton, a fellow Bostonian, showed his face at the Fishack with a smile from ear to ear. Patrons talked about the series and gave strangers and friends high-fives.

“It’s become one of those places where someone would walk in with an old beat-up Red Sox hat or a 20-year-old Patriots sweatshirt, and the next thing you know it’s six degrees of separation between that person,” said Vincent. “I think what happens when you are so far away from what you consider to be home, then you truly do represent anything that embraces it. Little by little, word got out and I think the feel of the place really reminds people of New England.”

“They are loyal to the core,” added Vincent about Red Sox fans from Boston, “almost to a fault. It’s indicative to what becomes entrenched into your entire being. With the season changes, you only have a certain amount of time to take advantage of things. The winter comes and you have to endure that and then spring rolls around. So you have a great summer, the Red Sox lose, you suck up the winter and all of a sudden you have another season with the team.”

Vincent grew up with the Red Sox and would sometimes play hooky from school with a few of his friends to watch a game. The group would skip school and travel to Fenway Park by train where they bought bleacher seats for $6 when the Red Sox would play the Yankees. Vincent grew up watching an era of players from the 1960s and 1970s that included catcher Carlton Fisk, shortstop Rick Burleson, and outfielders Fred Lynn and Jim Rice.

“There would be Reggie Jackson in the outfield and you’d be swearing at him,” remembered Vincent. “It’s amazing how young you are when the whole thing starts, it’s almost like it’s bred to the bone – ‘Go back to New York!’ He’d turn around and say something back to us. It was this incredibly passionate thing.”

The 2004 World Series continues this week and as of press time, the Sox are up 3-0. Who knows?

This year, things could be different for the loyal Red Sox fans at the Fishack.