This will be long.
The last time there was a baseball game on November 4, it was because the season had been pushed back due to a national tragedy. It was the 2001 World Series, between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks. The Yankees had dropped the first two games in Arizona - Game 1 was a blowout where Mike Mussina was not good at all, and in Game 2, they were shut out by Randy Johnson - only to return to New York and win all three games in beyond dramatic fashion. The first was a 2-1 nailbiter where I think the two runs were unearned... and the other two are practically legend. Two nights in a row, with two out in the bottom of the ninth and trailing by two runs, the Yankees shocked Arizona's closer Byung-Hyun Kim by homering off of him to tie the score, then won in extra innings. Even though the Yankees had a pathetic overall batting average in the Series (I think I read somewhere that it was like .163! This is what happens when you face prime Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling about 45 times.), it was incredible how we rallied. After those wins, there was just this feeling that we could do anything, especially after 9/11. For maybe the only time in history, you felt like everyone was rooting for the Yankees.
In the first game back in Arizona, the potential clinching game for the Yankees, Andy Pettitte pitched poorly and didn't last two innings, and Arizona devoured the Yankee bullpen, forcing a Game 7.
I'll provide Wikipedia's summary of the end of that game, because... yeah:
In the first game back in Arizona, the potential clinching game for the Yankees, Andy Pettitte pitched poorly and didn't last two innings, and Arizona devoured the Yankee bullpen, forcing a Game 7.
I'll provide Wikipedia's summary of the end of that game, because... yeah:
With the Yankees ahead 2–1 in the bottom of the eighth, manager Joe Torre turned the game over to his ace closer Mariano Rivera for a two-inning save. Rivera was one of the strongest closers in the game, and had pitched brilliantly throughout the postseason up to that point. Rivera struck out the side in the eighth, including Arizona's sluggers Luis Gonzalez, Matt Williams, and Danny Bautista, which lowered his ERA in the postseason to a major league-best of 0.70. Although he was sharp in the eighth, this game would end in the third ninth-inning comeback of the Series.
Mark Grace led off the inning with a single to center on a 1–0 pitch. The real turning point was Rivera's errant throw to second base on a bunt attempt by Damian Miller on an 0–1 pitch, putting runners on first and second. Derek Jeter tried to reach for the ball, but got tangled in the legs of pinch-runner David Dellucci, who was sliding in an attempt to break up the double play. Rivera appeared to regain control when he fielded Jay Bell's bunt and threw out Dellucci at third base, but third baseman Scott Brosius decided to hold the ball instead of throwing to first to attempt to complete the double play. Midre Cummings was sent in to pinch-run for Damien Miller. With Cummings at second and Bell at first, the next batter, Tony Womack, drove a double down the right-field line on a 2–2 pitch that evened the score and blew the save. Bell went to third and the Yankees pulled the infield and the outfield in as the potential winning run stood at third with less than two outs. After Rivera hit Craig Counsell with an 0–1 pitch, the bases were loaded. The winning run would be batted in with a gentle tap over the drawn-in infield. On an 0–1 pitch, Luis Gonzalez lofted a soft single over Derek Jeter that barely reached the outfield grass, plating Jay Bell with the winning run. This ended New York's bid for a fourth consecutive title and brought Arizona its first championship in just its fourth year of existence...
As an objective baseball fan, the 2001 World Series was, without a doubt, one of the greatest World Series of all time. Believe me, I know. Books have been written about it, and documentaries made. I think ESPN declared it the second or third best World Series of all time, and again - objectively, it totally was. But... as a Yankee fan and a New Yorker less than two months after 9/11, it fucking sucked. It wasn't just that we lost, it was HOW we lost and the other circumstances involved. Maybe it was karma for those walkoffs in the Bronx, but man, I would have much rather lost via a blowout like Game 1 or Game 6 than with a heartbreaker like that. I'll fully admit I cried over it, as did many others I know. It was silly and stupid to cry over baseball, but it was the way to cement the catharsis we got 99% of.
After that year, many lynchpins of the dynasty years left. Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez were both absolutely BELOVED, and they left. In 2002, for the first time since 1997, the Yankees failed to make the World Series. At the time, it was pretty damn shocking, but they were beaten by the Angels, who won the World Series themselves. So we lost to the champs. No big deal. The Yankees would be back next year. Right?
2003. A lot of people like to joke that the Yankees won "the real World Series" this year with the 2003 ALCS, and it's, in a way, true. Aaron Boone hitting that home run and Mo collapsed on the pitchers' mound in disbelief and joy are pretty much everyone's favorite memories from these "drought" years (or they should be!). That said, we did lose the World Series to a team that was probably inferior to ours, and, honestly, that Series was probably the beginning of the end for Torre (thanks for bringing in Weaver with Mo sitting in the bullpen!!!!). Oh, and the game where the Marlins won the Series was a complete game shut-out at Yankee Stadium by Josh Beckett. This sucked for so many reasons.
After that year, many lynchpins of the dynasty years left. Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez were both absolutely BELOVED, and they left. In 2002, for the first time since 1997, the Yankees failed to make the World Series. At the time, it was pretty damn shocking, but they were beaten by the Angels, who won the World Series themselves. So we lost to the champs. No big deal. The Yankees would be back next year. Right?
2003. A lot of people like to joke that the Yankees won "the real World Series" this year with the 2003 ALCS, and it's, in a way, true. Aaron Boone hitting that home run and Mo collapsed on the pitchers' mound in disbelief and joy are pretty much everyone's favorite memories from these "drought" years (or they should be!). That said, we did lose the World Series to a team that was probably inferior to ours, and, honestly, that Series was probably the beginning of the end for Torre (thanks for bringing in Weaver with Mo sitting in the bullpen!!!!). Oh, and the game where the Marlins won the Series was a complete game shut-out at Yankee Stadium by Josh Beckett. This sucked for so many reasons.
2004. Everyone knows about this. It's not THE WORST COLLAPSE IN BASEBALL HISTORY! like everyone likes to paint it as, but it was a really, really, really bad and conspicuous collapse. There were many reasons it happened, such as Tom Gordon sucking in the postseason that year, poor Mo probably being distracted by the fact that his hometown and family were, like, underwater (seriously, three blown saves in one postseason? I don't blame Mo for Game 5's blown save at all, but that's more than he has in all his other postseason series combined!), Torre making some truly terrible decisions including being ~too classy~ to bunt and steal bases on a supposedly HORRIBLY INJURED Curt Schilling but not being too classy to write a book once he left the Yankees trashing several of his former players, and the fact that Boston was ZOMG SO SCRAPPY!!!! COWBOY UP!!!! NO TEAM HAS EVER HAD THAT KIND OF CHEMISTRY AND NO TEAM EVER WILL AGAIN!!!! HEROIC BLOODY SOCKS!!!!! AKA David Ortiz and probably like 20 other guys on that team were on steroids (oh, get over it, it was almost certainly true for the Yankees as well but I will take my jabs where I can get them).
Was 2004 as gut-wrenchingly painful as 2001? To me, it wasn't. There was just so much about 2001 that just viscerally hurt. 2004 was really humiliating and it stung Yankee fans until this win, but I thought the Red Sox were honestly a better team than the Yankees in 2004 (their starting pitching was significantly better, especially for a short series; letting Pettitte walk was horrible). I was amazed that the Yankees went up 3-0 to begin with, and once Game 4 went into extra innings, I had a terrible feeling about the series; when Game 5 went into extra innings, I was pretty sure the Red Sox did, in fact, have this one in the bag. That said, the fact that we're still the only team to blow a 3-0 lead in a 7-game series still hurts and, again, it freaked out our fanbase and enabled our haters for years - witness the "ZOMG IT'S 2004!!!!!" panic by both casual Yankee fans and the media (there was an ESPN/SI article about the WS, I know for sure) after the Yankees didn't win Game 5 in the ALCS and World Series, even though the situations were not in any way similar - and the fact that it was against the Red Sox really, really, really sucked. Oh, and A-Rod slapping the ball? Yeah, that was terrible.
2005. Oh hey again, Angels. Losing on a stupid error is awesome.
2006. Heavily favored to win the ALDS against the Tigers, who had blown a big divisional lead and had to settle for the Wild Card and were horribly scuffling in the last weeks of the season, the Yankees instead lose in an embarrassing fashion as the offense feels the need to take the series off against pitching that frankly wasn't that good (except Verlander. Notice the Tigers' pitchers all rolled over and died in the World Series.). Does this sound familiar? Oh, and thanks for being awesome for us after dominating us in the past, Randy Johnson! We really appreciate it!!!!! (I still kinda hate that guy.)
2007. We fight tooth and nail to get into the postseason, after starting off cellar dwellars in the AL East. Then, Wang falls apart and Joba is eaten alive by bugs. A team as streaky as the 2007 Yankees needed to get all the breaks going for them in the playoffs to go far, and everything went against them. As an extra kick in the crotch, the mega-douchey version of the Red Sox win the World Series (Seriously, though, Papelbon, Schilling, Varitek, Beckett, Manny, Ortiz, Youkilis, Pedroia, and Ellsbury on one team?). When the season is fully over, Torre leaves (I love what Joe Torre did for the Yankees in his early years with the team and it's still totally weird and frankly wrong to see him fist-bumping with Manny in Dodger blue, but this was more than likely overdue), A-Rod opts out of his contract and causes a total mess, and it seems unsure and unlikely Mo and Jorge will return and... God only knows. I'm pretty sure I've said "humiliating" a lot here, but... it still applies. (I actually wasn't in the US for this, but my mom called me in Spain to yell about the whole situation a lot.)
(I use parenthesis a lot)
2008. We don't even make the playoffs as the new manager doesn't quite seem like he knows what he's doing and our pitchers - minus one grumpy old guy - suck and Jeter has a terrible year and everyone is injured and/or dead. We say goodbye to old Yankee Stadium and are left to wonder if the ghosts will travel across the street. Based on the last few seasons, I know quite a few fans felt like maybe they wouldn't.
2009 seemed like it would be much the same. Before the season, our best player - who has never been uncontroversial - admitted to using steroids, then had to go through surgery, with his return uncertain. We'd made some huge free-agent signings, but early on it seemed like they all struggled. The guy who had been our ace of the staff in 2006 and 2007 had an ERA over 30. We were 0-8 against the Red Sox and we ended the first half by being swept by the Angels in pretty degrading fashion... as is usually the case when we play in that goddamn Stadium.
And then... and then... and then... something happened. Actually, many things happened, and most of them were just awesome. After the All-Star break, we went on an absolute tear. We beat the Red Sox, and we didn't just beat them, we beat them in some of the most humiliating ways possible (and it's really nice to use "humiliating" in a way that involves us doing it to other teams and not vice-versa). We won a series in friggin' Anaheim. We'd come to love pie in the first half of the season, and that continued in the second. Derek and Mo made history. Mystique and Aura came back, and they brought Kate Hudson with them! We swept our way through the ALDS, shook off the demons of the Angels in the ALCS, and dethroned the reigning champions to finally, finally, finally get that 27th ring... and yes, I realize it's a totally whiny, spoiled Yankee fan thing to say that after only nine years between titles. For so many reasons, the championship was absolutely perfect.
What happened on November 4, 2001 still hurts. I suspect it will pretty much any time I think about it. 2004 is still awful, as are all the other too-early playoff exits. But thanks to November 4, 2009, both of these hurt a lot less. Now, the last image of the Yankees in the World Series isn't Josh Beckett tagging out Jorge Posada in 2003 (and the last time Mariano was on the mound with the chance to close out a series, it didn't end like 2001 did). It's this, and it's awesome. And then, we celebrated. You did me good, boys. You did me good.
I think I'll write more on the season later because HELLO I need a highlights post. But for now, I am just enjoying this.
(And for a little levity, to prove how bad this decade was for the Yankees - in 2000, we lost a World Series game to the METS! The ultimate humiliation.)
