Final Thoughts: Part II

September 26, 2008 by Joseph Gallo
Filed under Major League Baseball, Yankees

I said in my last blog entry that this post was going up yesterday. Unfortunately, or fortunately I should say I got caught up in the craziness of the September pennant races last night. Even without the Yankees for me to enjoy, last night was one of the most exciting nights for baseball that I can remember in a long time. 3 walk-off victories, all within 1 hour of each other! Now if that doesn’t get you excited then you really aren’t a big baseball fan.

Anyways if I can get back on track for a moment, I was saying good-bye to the 2008 Yankee season and good-bye to the House that Ruth Built. Whether you like the Yankees or not, everyone seems to have at least one memory of the old ballpark. Jim Mulligan was nice enough to share his memories of Reggie Jackson, and his historic homeruns in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Jim also pointed out that Reggie homered in his last at bat of Game 5 in Los Angeles, a fact most people weren’t aware of. Jim’s memory is just one of many other great moments that took place at Yankee Stadium.

It seems ever since the end of the 20th century, people have fallen in love with list. Probably had to do with all the countdowns that the media used to reflect on the passing century, so now that I have a blog I think I’ll do a list of my own. I’m going to list MY Top 10 favorite Yankee Stadium memories. I stress the “my” because you’ll notice most of these events took place within the last 18 years. I’m only 25, so I really don’t have a great memory of baseball prior to the 1991 season (first memory is the Twin’s winning the World Series in Game 7 against Atlanta). Luckily for me as a Yankee fan, that was around the time they began to become competitive again (actually 1993, definitely not 1991 or 1992). Before you call me a bandwagon fan, let me state that in the list you’ll see the two main reasons I became a Yankee fan, and neither of them happened before 1994. So hopefully some of these memories comfort my fellow Yankee fans after a long and hard season. They may not all be deemed “the best” by other list, but to me there was something special about all of them, which I’ll never forget.

#10) Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS vs. Seattle

There was so much going on in this game, which is probably why I used the actual game as the header above instead of my favorite moment itself. Game 1 of the series, which the Yankees won 9-6, was more of a celebration for Don Mattingly who finally got to make a postseason appearance. But it was also a celebration for the Yankee organization, which had not qualified for the postseason since 1981. Game 2 however, was a great baseball game. There are 3 moments that stick out in my mind from this game, and they were all homeruns. But not only were the homeruns great, but the actual homerun calls by the announcer were also excellent (sadly I don’t remember for sure who it was, but listening to them again now it sounds a lot like Gary Thorne). First came the Don Mattingly homerun: “this one by Mattingly…oh hang on to the roof, good-bye homerun, Don Mattingly!” The second was on a Paul O’Neill solo shot which tied the game in the bottom of the 7^th: “oh yeah tie game Paul O’Neill…into the night of New York!”.

But the best moment came in the bottom of the 15^th inning, when Jim Leyritz ended this marathon of a game with a homerun of Tim Belcher: “it might be, it could be…good-bye homerun…Jim Leyritz!!!” Even after 18 years of nothing by disappointment, this moment showed the Yankee mystique still lurked. Unfortunately the Yankees lost this series, but it doesn’t take away from Game 2 at all.

#9) July 1^st 2004 vs. Boston

Okay I had to list the date again instead of just the moment, but this may be my favorite regular season game of all time. Luckily I was able to attend this game in person, which just so happened to be my first Yankee-Red sox game live. To briefly set the stage, the Yankees had already won the first two games of the series, and Brad Halsey was taking the mound against Pedro Martinez hoping to give the Yankees the sweep they desperately needed to create some distance between them and Boston in the standings. The game was pretty routine through the first 8 innings, as the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Boston came back to tie it.

However from the 9^th inning til the conclusion of the game in the 13^th it was a non-stop roller coaster ride. We saw the Yankees strand runners at 3^rd with no outs twice! We saw Boston load the bases with none out in the 10^th and fail to score. We saw Jeter sacrifice his body by flying into the stands after making a running catch (sadly from my seats I couldn’t see this at all, I just knew something special happened by the roar of the crowd). We even saw Gary Sheffield attempt to play 3^rd base! And when Manny homered in the 13^th to give Boston the lead, I truly thought the Yankees were done. But with 2 outs, Ruben Sierra singled, then Cairo doubled to tie the game, and then the most unlikely hero of all, John “Flash” Flaherty hit a single down the leftfield line to give the Yankees a stunning victory. And I’m proud to say I stayed for the entire game. Sadly this is the second highlight in a row that eventually ended badly for the Yankees, as they went on to lose the first series and in 2004 Boston went on to win the World Series.

#8) My first ever game at Yankee Stadium

You probably won’t care much about this so I’ll be brief. In fact, I really can’t go into much detail because honestly I don’t remember a whole lot about it. I can’t even find the ticket stub, which can tell me exactly when the game was. But thank god for www.baseball-almanac.com (a great website) I was able to find out that the game took place on July 6^th in 1991 against the Baltimore Orioles. I don’t even know why my dad had tickets for this game, since our family mainly went to Met games back in those days since they are all Met fans. But it was my first ever live ballgame, as I’ve been hooked to the game ever since. Two memories stand out, the first was walking through the tunnel and seeing the field for the first time; it’s still burned in my memory to this day. And the second memory was Yankee catcher Matt Nokes (of all people) hitting not 1 but 2 homeruns in a game the Yankees won 13-5. Hopefully the Yankees are able to keep their ticket prices affordable in the future so other young kids between the ages of 5-10 can also create memories like I did of their first ever visit to Yankee Stadium.

#7) Final Game at Yankee Stadium

Obviously this just accorded last week and if you talk to anyone who was in attendance I’m sure they will tell you it was probably one of their favorite moments of all time. I already covered this in my last blog, so I’m not going to go into great detail again, but the highlights were the return of Bernie Williams, seeing all the Yankee greats in person one last time and Derek Jeter’s thank you speech after the game. Just a perfect ending, and I can’t believe I’m going to say this but it was probably better off that the Yankees missed the postseason this year, since it allowed us to celebrate on Sunday instead of saying good-bye after a tough playoff loss.

#6) Game 5 of the 2001 ALDS vs. Oakland

I was debating between this and Game 3 of the 2001 World Series when George Bush threw out the first pitch. Every American (and to a degree even Canadian’s I presume) felt the impact of September 11^th, but none more so than New Yorkers. I don’t feel this is the time or place to get overly sentimental and talk about how the Yankees gave New Yorkers hope, but I will say that baseball was never more important than it was that October. Truth be told the Yankees looked done in September of 2001. Sure they were about to make the playoffs, but it was obvious they were going to be playing Oakland again, and after barely squeaking by them in 2000, I didn’t figure they had a chance in the world to beat them in 2001 with a seemingly older team. And after dropping games 1 & 2 at home, it seemed constant pressure of winning and the grief of 9/11, not to mention a very good Oakland A’s team, had finally proved to be too much for the Yankees. But then “the flip” happened in game 3, followed by a 9-2 clubbing of Cory Lidle in game 4, and the Yankees were suddenly heading home for Game 5 with all the momentum in New York behind their backs.

There was absolutely no chance the Yankees were losing that game, even after Oakland jumped out to a 2-0 lead. And after Rivera recorded the final out, the scene on the field would have you believe the Yankees had just won the World Series. It was such an outpouring of emotion you couldn’t help but get sucked in. Jeter did his fist pump, Torre hugged Guliani, and the Yankees toasted the city of NY before the party finally begun. Even if the Yankees had loss to the Seattle Mariners in the ALCS, it really wouldn’t have mattered. Coming back from down 2-0 against a great team (what a stacked team they had, Tejada, Giambi, Chavez, Damon, Mulder, Zito, Hudson & Isringhausen, all in their prime) after everyone declared them dead, was reason enough to celebrate. They say baseball isn’t meant to be played with emotion, and momentum is more important in football than it is in baseball. But in the 2001 postseason the Yankees put that theory to rest, at least for one month.

- Well there’s a shock, I’ve turned a simple countdown into a novel, and I’m only through 5 of 10. What can I say I’m long winded, forgive me. Anyways I’m going to break this up and post my remaining top 5 memories tomorrow (unless we get another night of walk-offs). Hope you’ve enjoyed this so far, stay tuned for the rest. Thoughts and comments can be sent to josephgallo@sportstalkbuzz.com. Later!

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