by Phil Pepe
Johnson was not his usual overpowering self in Game 6 (he allowed two runs and six hits and struck out seven in seven innings), but he didn’t have to be. The Diamondbacks beat up on Pettitte and crushed the Yankees 15–2.
So it would all come down to one final game, in Phoenix’s Bank One Ballpark on Sunday night, November 4, Roger Clemens squaring off against Curt Schilling, a matchup of pitching heavyweights. The Yankees had one consolation. They wouldn’t have to worry about facing Randy Johnson again. Or would they?
As advertised, Clemens and Schilling were at the top of their game as they dueled through five scoreless innings. The Diamondbacks pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth on a single by Steve Finley and an RBI double by Danny Bautista, and the Yankees tied it in the top of the seventh when Jeter singled to start a rally, went to second on O’Neill’s single, to third on a ground-out, and scored on a Martinez single.
When Tony Womack singled with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Mike Stanton replaced Clemens, who left having allowed one run and seven hits with 10 strikeouts but with no chance to get a win. Posada threw Womack out attempting to steal second and Stanton retired Craig Counsell on a foul pop to first.
Soriano led off the top of the eighth with a home run off Schilling to give the Yankees a 2–1 lead. Schilling left on the losing end, replaced by Miguel Batista, who got Jeter to hit into a force play. With the left-handed hitting O’Neill due up, Brenly removed Batista and brought in Johnson, pitching for the second straight day. Torre countered by replacing O’Neill with the right-handed hitting Knoblauch, who flied to right to end the inning.
Johnson would face four batters and retire each one, but with a one-run lead, the Yankees were in great shape. They had Mariano Rivera, and Joe Torre called on him to nail down another world championship for the Yankees with a two-inning save.
In the eighth Rivera struck out Gonzalez, Williams, and Bautista around a single by Finley. With one more scoreless inning by the incomparable Rivera, the Yankees would win their fourth straight World Series.
Even when Mark Grace opened the bottom of the ninth with a single, there was no reason for concern. But what happened next might have been viewed as a bad omen for the Yankees. Asked to sacrifice the tying run to second, Damian Miller dropped an ineffectual bunt that was fielded by Rivera, as deft a fielder as he is dominant a pitcher. With a chance to force David Dellucci, pinch-running for Grace, Rivera fired wildly past Jeter at second for a rare error and the DBacks had the tying run on second and the winning run on first with no outs.
Jay Bell, pinch-hitting for Johnson, was called on to bunt the runners along. Like Miller, he bunted back to Rivera and this time Mariano threw a perfect strike to third baseman Brosius to force Dellucci, leaving runners on first and second but now with one out. A double play would end it and give the Yankees the Series, but Womack shockingly drove a pitch into the right field corner for a double. Midre Cummings, running for Miller, scored the tying run and Bell raced to third with the winning run.
Craig Counsell, the next batter, was hit by a pitch (was the usually composed Rivera coming unglued?) to load the bases and that brought up the Diamondbacks’ leading hitter and biggest threat, Luis Gonzalez. With no place to put him, Rivera had to pitch to the Diamondbacks most dangerous hitter.
Because a long fly would score the winning run, the outfield was drawn in, but so, too, was the infield, the objective obviously being to cut the winning run off at the plate. Rivera went to work on Gonzalez and threw him his signature cut fastball, which had the usual result of breaking the hitter’s bat. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Gonzalez was strong enough to muscle the ball to center field, too far out for the drawn in infield to reach it and not out far enough for the drawn in outfield to reach it.
Jay Bell scored from third as the Diamondbacks won their first World Series and the Yankees were denied their 27th World Series title.
As the jubilant Diamondbacks and their joyous fans celebrated this unprecedented and unexpected triumph, a disheartened, lonely figure could be seen walking disconsolately off the field at the conclusion of the World Series. For Mariano Rivera it was something he had never before experienced.
Scott Brosius
An average player in seven seasons with the Oakland Athletics, Scott Brosius was traded to the Yankees after the 1997 season and elbowed himself into the team’s lore with one season and one home run. In 1998, his first year as a Yankee, he improved his batting average from .203 to .300, his home runs shot up from 11 to 19, and his RBIs from 41 to 98. He then followed that up by batting .471 in the World Series against the San Diego Padres, with two home runs and six runs batted in, for which he was voted the Series’ Most Valuable Player.
Three years later, Brosius hit one of the most famous home runs in World Series history: Game 5 between the Yankees and Arizona Diamondbacks, bottom of the ninth, two outs, the Yankees down by two runs, a runner on base and Brosius batting against Diamondbacks’ closer Byung-Hyun Kim. The night before, Tino Martinez had come to bat in a similar situation—two outs, bottom of the ninth, runner on base, the Yanks down by two runs, Byung-Hyun Kim on the mound—and hit a game-tying home run. And it happened again: same situation, same pitcher, different hitter. A two-run home run that sent the game into extra innings.
Brosius would quit while he was ahead. He retired after the World Series and returned to his Oregon home, where he is presently the baseball coach at his alma mater, Linfield College.
13. Oh Captain, My Captain
For more than 100 years the stereotype for the major league shortstop was an undersized, speedy, agile singles hitter—with one notable exception, Honus Wagner the legendary “Flying Dutchman of the Pittsburgh Pirates—such as Hall of Famers Phil Rizzuto (5'6", 150 pounds), Luis Aparicio (5'9", 155), Ozzie Smith (5'11", 150), Pee Wee Reese (5'9½", 165), Rabbit Maranville (5'5", 155), Joe Sewell (5'7", 160), Davey Bancroft (5'9", 160), and Joe Tinker (5'9", 175).
By the 1990s, major league shortstops, like people everywhere, were growing bigger and stronger. The first acknowledged superstar shortstop to break the mold, and the stereotype, was the Baltimore Orioles’ Iron Man, Cal Ripken Jr., who, at an imposing 6'4" and 225 pounds, was built more like a home run–hitting third baseman, first baseman, or outfielder. A few years later, in the mid-1990s, a cadre of talented young shortstops arrived in the American League, the likes of which had never before been seen.
In 1996, in his third major league season (his first full season), 20-year-old Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners, 6'3" and 225 pounds, hit 36 home runs, drove in 123 runs, batted an American League–leading .358, made the All-Star team and was second in Most Valuable Player voting.
That same season, 22-year-old Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees, 6'3" and 195 pounds, batted .314, hit 10 home runs, knocked in 78 runs, and was voted American League Rookie of the Year.
In 1997, 23-year-old Nomar Garciaparra of the Boston Red Sox, 6' and 165 pounds, in his second major league season (he had played in 24 games the previous year) hit 30 home runs, drove in 98 runs, made the All-Star team, and was voted American League Rookie of the Year.
In 1999, 25-year-old Miguel Tejada of the Oakland Athletics, 5'9" and 220 pounds, belted 21 homers and drove in 84 runs.
No longer was the shortstop the runt of the major league litter.
To be sure, people living at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, by virtue of improved diet, better health care, greater knowledge of the body, and a conscious effort to live healthier lives, are bigger, stronger, and more physically active than their forebears, yet it is difficult to conjure up the fact that Jeter is taller than Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Bill Dickey, and Yogi Berra, and heavier than DiMaggio, Mattingly, and Berra.1
In his first eight full major league seasons, Jeter played in six World Series, four
of them on the winning side, made the All-Star team five times, batted over .300 six times, and became established as one of baseball’s best players and true leaders.
In recognition of his leadership, his competitiveness, his dependability, the respect he had from teammates and opponents, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, seeking a solution to a malaise that had seen his team lose 12 of 15 games and fall into second place the previous month, announced on June 3, 2003, that Jeter was being named the 11th captain in the Yankees history. It’s an honor for a Yankee almost as great as having one’s number per-manently retired, and a distinction that had been held by an imposing list of Yankees heroes of the past, including Hal Chase, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, and Don Mattingly. The Yankees captaincy had been vacant since Mattingly retired eight years earlier.
Once before, Steinbrenner had shown the esteem he had for the position. At the start of the 1976 season, he announced that Munson was being named captain, filling a position that had been vacant for 36 years, following the death of Gehrig. When it was pointed out to Steinbrenner that at the time of Gehrig’s death manager Joe McCarthy said out of respect for Gehrig the Yankees would never have another captain, the Boss replied, “If Joe McCarthy knew Thurman Munson, he’d agree this was the right guy and the right time.”
But why Derek Jeter? And why now? Again, Steinbrenner had an answer.
“I think he can hopefully pull them together. I think he can give them a little spark. I just feel it’s the right time to do it. People may say, ‘What a time to pick.’ Well, why not? He represents all that is good about a leader. I’m a great believer in history, and I look at all the other leaders down through Yankee history, and Jeter is right there with them.”
To Jeter, the honor was appreciated, but he made certain to emphasize that the role was not going to change him; it was not going to make him more motivated, more determined, or more focused.
“He just says he wants me to be a leader, like I have been,” Jeter said. “The impression I got is just continue to do the things I have been doing.”
It was also significant that the announcement came just a few months after Jeter clashed with the Boss, who questioned the shortstop’s off-field lifestyle, of all things. Steinbrenner mentioned that Jeter had been out at a birthday party until 3:00 am during the 2002 season and wondered if Jeter might have lost his focus and if his lifestyle was suspect. It was a shocking accusation because Jeter had never had even the hint of a scandal of any sort in almost a decade with the Yankees.
Instead of pulling apart the owner and his best player, it served to bring them closer together. Jeter heard what Steinbrenner was saying, got the message, and made a concerted effort not to do anything that would call his lifestyle into question. Jeter and Steinbrenner even got together to film an amusing and award-winning commercial for Visa that alluded to the shortstop’s off-field activities.
A decade has passed since Steinbrenner’s rant against Jeter without the slightest hint that Jeter’s decorum off the field is anything but above reproach.
Almost two decades have passed since the Fabulous Four shortstops arrived on the scene in the American League. Of the four, Garciaparra and Tejada are retired and Rodriguez has moved to another position.
Only Jeter remains at the same old stand, adding each year to his monumental list of achievements. For instance, as of the end of the 2012 season:
He has hit more home runs as a Yankee than Graig Nettles, Don Mattingly, Roger Maris, Bill Dickey, Tino Martinez, Paul O’Neill, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich, and Bobby Murcer.
He has a higher lifetime batting average as a Yankee than Bob Meusel, Don Mattingly, Ben Chapman, Mickey Mantle, Bernie Williams, Lou Piniella, and Willie (“Hit ’em where they ain’t”) Keeler.
He has more doubles as a Yankee than every other player except Gehrig.
He has more triples as a Yankee than Phil Rizzuto.
He has scored more runs as a Yankee than every other player except Ruth and Gehrig.
He has driven in more runs as a Yankee than Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri, Roy White, and Elston Howard.
He has played in more games, had more hits, more at-bats, and stolen more bases as a Yankee than any other player.
1 Weights and measures courtesy of BaseballReference.com.
14. Boone or Bust
Winning five consecutive division championships would be enough to cause most major league teams to rejoice.
Not the New York Yankees!
For them, no season could be a success unless they won the World Series.
So consider the years 2002 through 2006 failures for the Yankees, even though they won 497 games and lost 312 for a winning percentage of .614 in that five-year stretch.
Losing the 2001 World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks—and to have done it with the incomparable Mariano Rivera on the mound—was a bitter disappointment. The Yankees don’t suffer disappointments graciously, so in the off-season they went to work in an effort to ensure that such a stain on their record would not recur. Their top priority was to improve an already potent offense, which they achieved by breaking the bank and shelling out $120 million to sign free agent Jason Giambi to a seven-year deal just two years after he had been voted the American League’s Most Valuable Player, and by getting together in a rare trade with their crosstown rivals, the Mets, sending outfielder David Justice to Flushing in exchange for Robin Ventura.
The addition of Giambi at first base and the veteran Ventura at third base gave the Yankees two cornerstones to an infield that, with shortstop Derek Jeter’s 18 home runs and 75 RBI, and second baseman Alfonso Soriano’s 39 homers and 102 RBI, would combine for 125 homers and 392 RBI in the 2002 season. Add to the mix Bernie Williams’ 19 homers and 102 RBI, Jorge Posada’s 20 homers and 99 RBI, and a pitching staff with 19-game-winner David Wells, 18-game-winner Mike Mussina, 13-game-winners Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, backed up by 28 saves from Mariano Rivera. It’s no wonder the 2002 Yankees won 103 games, eight more than the previous season, and finished 10½ games ahead of the second-place Boston Red Sox, and why the expectations in the Bronx were that they would return to the top of baseball’s heap, and to New York’s Canyon of Heroes.
But the Yankees would soon learn that $120 million in 2002 didn’t go as far as it once did. After winning Game 1 of the League Division Series, with Rivera rebounding from his Arizona debacle with a scoreless ninth inning for his 25th postseason save in 26 chances, they were blitzed by the wild-card Anaheim Angels in three straight and knocked out of contention for another championship.
It was back to the drawing board—and another major investment—in 2003, with the signing of a three-year, $21 million contract for Hideki Matsui, a 29-year-old superstar from Japan, where his home run prowess earned him the nickname “Godzilla.” Humble, proud, hardworking, and thoroughly professional, Matsui played in every game and contributed 16 home runs and 106 runs batted in to a team that won 101 games and its sixth consecutive American League East title.
This time the Yankees breezed through the League Division Series, beating the Minnesota Twins three games to one, with Pettitte, who had led the Yankees with 21 wins during the regular season, winning Game 2, Rivera saving Games 2 and 3, and Jeter batting .429. After that came a heart-palpitating seven-game League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox. Again, Pettitte won Game 2, Rivera saved Games 3 and 5, and it came down to a sudden death seventh game in Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, October 16.
Down 5–2 in the bottom of the eighth inning to the irrepressible Pedro Martinez, the Yankees were five outs away from another early out in the postseason when, with one out, Jeter, as he has done so often throughout his illustrious career, started a rally with a double which seemed to magically energize his team. Bernie Williams singled to drive in Jeter; Matsui doubled, sending Williams to third; and Posada drove a doub
le to center field that knocked in Williams and Matsui to tie the score at 5–5.
Mariano Rivera took the mound for the ninth inning, gave up a one-out single to Jason Varitek, but retired the next two hitters.
In the 10th, David Ortiz reached Rivera for a double with two outs, but Kevin Millar popped out.
In the 11th, Rivera retired the Sox in order, striking out two. He had pitched two perfect innings against the Twins to save Game 2 of the Division Series, and come back with two more perfect innings and another save in Game 3. Against the Red Sox in the ALCS, he pitched an inning in Game 2, two perfect innings for a save in Game 3, two more innings for a save in Game 5 and now three innings in Game 7. In 15 days Rivera had pitched 12 innings under the most excruciating pressure and allowed just one run, and, with the score still tied 5–5, he said later he was ready to go out for the top of the 12th if there was one.
On the mound for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 11th was the veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who had come in to pitch the 10th inning in relief and retired the Yankees in order. Leading off for the Yankees was Aaron Boone, a third-generation major leaguer, grandson of two-time All-Star Ray Boone, the younger of two major league sons of four-time All-Star catcher Bob Boone, and brother of three-time All-Star Bret Boone. He had been obtained by the Yankees from the Cincinnati Reds for two minor leaguers and cash just seven weeks earlier. In 54 games with the Yankees covering 189 at-bats, Boone had hit only six home runs, but he would hack at Wakefield’s first pitch, a knuckleball, and drive it into the night, deep into the left-field seats, to send the Yankees to the World Series for the 39th time with one of the most dramatic and most memorable home runs in their 101-year history.
So it was on to the World Series against the Florida Marlins, a chance for the Yankees to add to their impressive string of championship trophies.
The Series began on Saturday, October 18, in Yankee Stadium, where Brad Penny out-pitched David Wells to give Florida the first game 3–2.