Open Mic: 2001 World Series

Game 6 proved to be woefully anticlimactic as the series moved back to Arizona. With the Yankees already down 4-0 at the top of the 3rd, Andy Pettite gave up a walk and a double and was subsequently pulled for Jay Witasick. This is where things become a little blurry, and all video evidence of the rest of the inning has been destroyed by Yankees officials. I myself may have been drugged. All I know is a box score I found in a sealed envelope the next day says that 8 runs were given up that inning, en route to a 15-2 thumping. Even putting Byun-Hyun Kim in the game for a few innings of batting practice would not have been enough to save the game for the Yankees. The game could not have gone worse if it were played on Three Mile Island. With the series tied, all that remained was the pivotal Game 7.

With Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling set to trade punches, the day was set up for an epic winner-takes-all baseball contest. Clemens struck out 10 in 6 and 1/3 innings, while Schilling struck out 9 in 7 and 1/3 innings. When Bautista doubled in Steve Finley in the bottom of the 6th, it looked like that would be enough to win the game. Hope spread across the five boroughs when Tino Martinez singled in Jeter to tie the score. Later, in the top of the 8th, Schilling's last inning, Alfonso Soriano hit what could have been his most famous home run to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Home runs only make you famous if your team ends up winning the game, and the Diamondbacks, deciding their best relief pitchers were also their battle tested starters, sent Miguel Bautista to get one out, and finally Randy Johnson to finish the inning. Mariano Rivera struck out three of the four batters he faced in the bottom of the 8th, and Johnson shut the Yankees down in the top of the 9th. All that was left was for the best closer in the history of baseball to go out and give one final inning.

Mark Grace led off with a single to center field and was immediately pinch run for by David Dellucci. Damien Miller, the Diamondback's catcher attempted a bunt to move Dellucci into scoring position. The bunt rolled slowly to Rivera, who had a quick decision to make. He could go all-or-nothing-at-all, and attempt a double play by throwing perfectly to second and getting a quick turn to first for the second out, or he could throw to first for the sure out. Rivera chose the first option, but his throw was off. Both runners were safe, and the Yankees still had yet to record an out. Randy Johnson was scheduled to hit next, but veteran Jay Bell came in to hit in his place. Bell also grounded to Rivera, who chose to get the lead runner at third base. Midre Cummings then came in to pinch run for Damien Miller, who now found himself in scoring position. Tony Womack slapped a line drive to right, easily scoring Cummings. Bell remained at third instead of risking a close play at the plate, knowing that they had already tied the game, and a hit or sac fly would score him anyways. After Craig Counsell was hit by a pitch to load the bases, fate was beginning to reveal itself. The next play would see Jay Bell join a list of players that include his teammate Craig Counsell, Mike Davis, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor, and Ray Knight as answers to the trivia question "Who scored the winning run or was on base when the winning home run was hit in fill-in-the-famous-play?" The next play would see a piece of gum suddenly be worth $10,000. The next play would figuratively end the pinnacle of what had been the Yankee Dynasty. Luis Gonzalez's bloop single over the head of Derek Jeter.

Never has a World Series twisted my emotions in such a way. Never before in a sports event have I been pushed so hard at so many angles. Elation and devastation poured together in the same cup have left a taste that I have never had before or since. This was perhaps not the greatest disappointment in the history of sports. It cannot compare to the Dodgers giving up what was a 13 1/2 game lead on August 11th to the Giants, or last season's Patriots Super Bowl, or the NHL strike, because no matter how bad I felt, there was always the thrilling come-from-behinds that the Yankees had created out of nowhere, and being able to appreciate the game for how incredible it was, and how great the series had been. But I did feel like the Yankees deserved to win this one.

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