Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 14: A New Kind of Subway Series

Game 1, 2000 World Series: New York Mets at New York Yankees

October 21, 2000, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Some teams are happy to have a stretch of a couple years at the top of their sport. Other teams get lucky to have a good decade. But only one team can claim they had a good century.

That team, of course, was the New York Yankees, who spent most of the 20th Century either dominating baseball. After struggling to compete with the Giants for their first 17 seasons, the Yankees acquired Babe Ruth, and that was that. Over the rest of the 1900s, they won 36 American League pennants and 26 championships. 

Almost as common as the Yankees winning the pennant was the Yankees meeting one of their New York neighbors in the World Series. Of those 36 World Series appearances, 13 were against either the Giants or the Dodgers.

The Giants and Dodgers left New York in 1958, of course, and were replaced by the Mets in 1962. And the Mets spent the rest of the century trying to escape the shadow cast by their neighbors to the northwest. Despite the Yankees' continued success - and a couple of seasons of greatness for the Mets - the Subway Series didn't return to New York in the 1900s

But then the calendar switch to 2000. New century, new traditions. Sure the Yankees were back in the World Series, looking for their third straight title, but now the Mets were there, too. After 38 years as a team, they'd get their crack at the Yankees.

Anyway, we looked at a century's worth of back story because the first five innings of Game 1 were scoreless and we needed something to talk about, right? Lefties Al Leiter and Andy Pettitte were dealing and the hitters were flailing. That is until Todd Zeile blasted a two-out double off the very top of the wall in the top of the 6th. Had the ball been hit literally one inch farther, it would have been a two-run home run. Timo Perez thought it was gone and ran at less-than-full speed to second; once he realized it stayed in the park, he turned up the speed, but it was too late. He was thrown out at home, and the Mets got nothing. 

And like any good team, the Yankees took advantage of an opponents' mistake. Give them an inch, they'll take a mile. David Justice was the one who took advantage, blasting a two-run double to the deepest part of the ballpark in the bottom of the 6th.

The Mets got it right back in the top of the 7th. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for Bubba Trammell with one out, and Trammell tied it with a single. One batter later, facing reliever Jeff Nelson, Edgardo Alfonzo beat out a slow roller by a half-step to give the Mets the lead.

Skip ahead to the 9th, and the Mets had a chance to extend the lead against Mariano Rivera, getting two on with only one out. They failed to get the job done, and naturally the Yankees made them pay, with Chuck Knoblauch hitting a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.

The Mets didn't do anything in the top of the 10th, and the Yankees did everything they could to end things in the bottom of the 10th. The first two batters reached, moving to second and third on a wild pitch. Tino Martinez hit a ball so shallow that left fielder Joe McEwing caught the ball just a couple of steps away from the infield dirt. After an intentional walk, Paul O'Neill had a chance to finish things off, but his double play ball sent the game to the 11th.

The Mets didn't do anything in the top of the 11th, while the Yankees put together another rally that fell just short. The Mets also didn't do anything in the top of the 12th. It's like they were waiting for the Yankees to finish things off for them.

An example of the face you might make if
you get the game-winning hit in a World
Series game.

And the Yankees were happy to oblige. After three innings of coming up just short, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 12th. Luis Sojo didn't get the job done, popping out to the catcher. But Jose Vizcaino ended things on the first pitch of his at bat, hitting a single to left and cueing up "New York, New York," which seems weird, since New York lost.

Anyway, the Yankees won Game 2, as well, and ended up winning the World Series 4 games to 1, their third straight title. New century, same old champions, right? Well, maybe not. The Yankees have only one won other championship since; most teams would take two championships in 21 years, but for the Yankees, that qualifies as a dry spell. 

Game 1, 2000 World Series Overall Rank: 14 Top 10 Swing: 209 Top play: Paul O'Neill grounds into a double play with the bases loaded and one out, B10 (WPA of 34% for the Mets)* Loser's largest WE: 89 T9, 1 out, runners on second and third, Mets up 3-2 Average LI: 2.01 Highest leverage moment: 8.46 (Mets up 3-2, B9, bases loaded, 1 out, Chuck Knoblauch up) *Yes, the top play was one that benefitted the loser. That happens sometimes. The Yankees' top play was the game-winning single (WPA of 33%)