2001 World Series: Agony and Ecstasy

The Teams
National League: Arizona Diamondbacks (92-70) - First World Series
American League: New York Yankees (95-65) - 38th World Series (Won 26 previous times) 

What Happened

Is sad

It's a heartbreaking picture. And it says everything that needs to be said. For the second straight game, Arizona closer Byung-Hyun Kim had been one out away from giving his team their third win of the 2001 World Series. And for the second straight game, he had given up a game-tying two-run home run. And it was too much to take. Kim simply didn't want to be there any more. So he crouched down as low as he could get, burying his head in his hands, trying to hide in plain site in the middle of Yankee Stadium. The picture of agony.

That image of Kim crouched on the mound had to be haunting the Diamondbacks as they entered the ninth inning of Game 7. Trailing 2-1, facing the best closer in baseball history, Arizona had to be regretting their blown chances in Games 4 and 5. They had taken a lead into the ninth inning of five of the first six games of the series, but they had only won three of those games, and now they were trailing with Mariano Rivera on the mound. They'd had every chance they could want to win it, and now they were going to lose.

But then Mark Grace led off the ninth with a single to right. And then Damien Miller laid down a bunt that Rivera fielded cleanly but, trying to get the lead runner, he threw it into center field. And the World Series winning run was on first base with nobody out. The unthinkable suddenly seemed possible.

But then Jay Bell laid down a sacrifice. Rivera fielded it cleanly. Again, he tried to get the lead runner. This time, he did, and it all seemed lost again. The Diamondbacks had thought they were on the doorstep, only to find that the door was still locked. Sure, they were a double from possibly winning the World Series, but they were also a double play from losing it.

Tony Womack hit the double - the good kind, from Arizona's perspective - and while it didn't win the series, it tied the game and put the winning run on third base. For the third time in the series, a closer had blown the save in the ninth inning. But this one felt different. This one was heavier. It was Mariano Rivera, after all, the unflappable, unhittable legend. And it was Game 7, the ultimate stakes. Most of all, it was the Yankees, the three-time defending champions and 26-time World Champions, who were throwing it away.

Runners on second and third, one-run game, first base open. It would normally be an automatic intentional walk situation, but the weak-hitting Craig Counsell was up and the powerful Luis Gonzalez was on deck, so Rivera pitched on. The decision became moot when Rivera hit Counsell, loading the bases and bringing up the Diamondbacks' best hitter.

Is happy

Here Yankee manager Joe Torre did something curious. He told the infield to come in, to cut off the run at the plate. It was strange move considering a double play would get the game to the 10th inning, but it was especially strange because of Rivera's cutter. The most famous and devastating pitch in baseball, the cutter had made Rivera what he was. Everybody knew it was coming, yet few could hit it. When it was at its best, it looked like it would be right over the plate before breaking hard in toward left handed batters. If a righty hit it, the best he could hope for was a soft dribbler to the right side. If a lefty hit it, the best he could hope for was ...

... well, exactly what Luis Gonzalez got: a broken bat blooper to medium-deep shortstop. Only Derek Jeter wasn't playing medium-deep. He was playing in. The ball drifted over his head, landing almost exactly where Jeter would have been standing had he been playing at double-play depth. And Gonzalez started jumping up and down and waiving his arms in the air, and Bell threw his arms in the air as he crossed home plate, and Arizona celebrated its first World Championship, the first championship of any kind for the city of Phoenix. The picture of ecstasy.


MVP
For the second time, there were multiple MVPs, but this time it made sense. Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson had carried Arizona all season, and they were the primary - possibly sole - reason Arizona won. Schilling started three times, winning Game 1 9-1, handing the ball over to Kim with a 2-0 lead in Game 4, then pitching into the eighth inning of Game 7 before giving up the Alfonso Soriano home run that almost became the series winner. Johnson was just as good, pitching a shutout in Game 2, completely controlling the Yankees in Game 6, then dramatically coming in to relieve in Game 7. Schilling started three games, Johnson won three games, and they were equally brilliant.

Scores 
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	1	0	2	4 (10)	3 (12)	2	2
Arizona	9	3	1	3	2	15	3

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

4. 2001 - Arizona (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
5. 2011 - St. Louis (N) def. Texas (A) 4-3
6. 1912 - Boston (A) def. New York (N) 4-3 (1 tie)
7. 1992 - Toronto (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-2
8. 1947 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
9. 1972 - Oakland (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-3
Numbers 10-19
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

2. 2001: Arizona 3, New York (A) 2
3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
6. 1912: Boston (A) 3, New York (N) 2 (game 8)
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
10. 1926: St. Louis (N) 3, New York (A) 2
11. 1962: New York (A) 1, San Francisco 0
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
17. 1972: Oakland 3, Cincinnati 2
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
20. 1986: New York (N) 8, Boston 5 
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
25. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
26. 1947: New York (A) 5, Brooklyn 2
27. 2011: St. Louis 6, Texas 2
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

Elimination games in 2011

Carlos Gomez flying around third and sliding into home. Chris Carpenter completely shutting down the heavily favored Phillies. Detroit being completely unimpressed by Yankee mystique. The 2011 postseason was, from start to finish, one of the best in many years. What helped that was that three of the four first-round series went the full five games.

I recently finished a countdown of the best early playoff elimination games, and I feel a divine obligation to add this year's three ALDS Game 5s to the list. Specifically, Milwaukee over Arizona, Detroit over New York, and St. Louis over Philadelphia. The problem is, where? How do I shoehorn three games into a list that's already 31 games long?

First, I ranked the three teams against each other, which was pretty easy to do. Milwaukee beating Arizona was a great game, easily the best of the three. Carpenter's masterpiece over Philadelphia was pretty easy to rank ahead of Detroit's win over the Yankees. So there's the ranking:

1. Milwaukee 3, Arizona 2
2. St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0
3. Detroit 3, New York 2

Now, where to put them in the list? I decided to answer this question by simply comparing the Milwaukee game against all the top games, in order, until I found a spot where it fit.

Like, the number 1 game, the Shot Heard Round the World. Since Milwaukee's win over Arizona was not the single most memorable game in Major League history, it has to rank below that one. Minnesota-Detroit game 163? Nope, sorry. They both ended the same way - with Gomez flying around third to score the winning run in extra innings - but that Twins game featured so many twists and turns and changes in momentum that the Milwaukee game just doesn't compare.

The Brewers win doesn't quite add up to the Seattle-New York game of '95 or the Colorado-San Diego game of '07, either, again because of the changing fortunes part of it. Sure, there was a blown save in the ninth, but when Arizona didn't take the
lead that inning, it felt - at least to a neutral observer - that it was only a matter of time before Milwaukee finished it off.

But then? I think we found our spot for the Brewers. Sure, Bucky Dent's home run was a famous moment in baseball history, the fact that it happened in the seventh inning gives the Brewers their opening here. The Red Sox had three innings to recover from that disaster, and they almost did. But since the '78 game didn't have the added drama of a sudden death, it wasn't as good as the Brewers win. So the Brewers get ranked fifth. Not too shabby.

So next, Carpenter's 1-0 victory over his good buddy Roy Halladay. On the surface, it looks like it should have been a great game, as 1-0 games have the potential to be. But ... it wasn't. Rafael Furcal led off the game with a triple, scored one batter later, and that was it. The Phillies only challenged once, when Raul Ibanez flew out to deep right with two on in the 4th. After that, nothing. It's telling that if you look at the Win Probability Chart for that game, the biggest play of the game was Furcal's hit. When the game's biggest momentum shift comes on the fourth pitch thrown, you kind of have a dud.

But still, it was 1-0, so those always have a bit of tension. So I decided to rank this one right behind another 1-0 game, the White Sox-Twins Game 163 of 2008. That one actually had big plays that occurred after the first inning, allowing it to stay just barely ahead of the Carpenter-Halladay duel.

So then came the Detroit-Yankees game. After the Tigers took a 3-0 lead, the drama became about whether the Yankees would have enough time to get those runs back. There was plenty of drama in this one, with the Yankees leading the bases loaded twice, including in the seventh when they had cut the score to 3-2.

But, the Yankees never took the lead. In fact, there was never a lead change in this game, as Detroit took the lead in the top of the first. That fact hurts it in these rankings. I decided to rank it 12th, nestled between the Arizona-St. Louis game of 2001 and the Merkle's Boner Cubs-Giants game of 1908.

So, the final list (at least until next year):

1. N.Y. Giants 5, Brooklyn 4 (1951 National League playoff)
2. Minnesota 6, Detroit 5 (2009 AL Central tiebreaker)
3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. Milwaukee 3, Arizona 2 (2011 NLDS)
6. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
7. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
8. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
9. St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0 (2011 NLDS)
10. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
11. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
12. Detroit 3, New York 2 (2011 ALDS)
13. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
14. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
15. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
16. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
17. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
18. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
19. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
20. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
21. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
22. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
23. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
24. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
26. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
27. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
28. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
29. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
30. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
31. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
32. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
33. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
34. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

2001 NLDS: Instant vindication

Pregame
It was the heart of the steroid era in baseball. Seven National League hitters hit 40 or more home runs, led by Barry Bonds and his stunning 73. It seemed impossible that someone could hit that many, and with the excitement of Bonds chasing Mark McGwire's single-season record of 70, combined with the national mourning coming after the Sept. 11 attacks, few seemed willing to point out what should have been obvious.

Lost among the headlines of Bonds' march and the nation's recovery was the season of St. Louis Cardinals rookie sensation Albert Pujols. In his first year in the Majors, Pujols hit 37 home runs, which in most years would be a sensational number, but didn't even get him into the top 10 in his league in 2001. But Pujols also drove in 130 runs and batted .329, all while playing four positions, and was the spark the Cardinals needed to get into the National League playoffs as the wild card team.

Their first-round opponent was the Arizona Diamondbacks. In only the fourth year of their existence, the Diamondbacks were proving everybody wrong about the traditional path to team building taken by most expansion teams. Instead of building for the future and taking a few lumps along the way, Arizona loaded up on free agents and went for it all right away. In 1999, in just their second season, they won 100 games. After failing in the playoffs that year, they looked around for another ace pitcher to match up with Randy Johnson, finally finding one in Curt Schilling. With Johnson and Schilling providing a 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, the Diamondbacks had enough firepower to hold back Bonds' Giants at the end to win the NL West.

The acquisition of Schilling paid dividends for Arizona immediately in the playoffs, as he shut out the Cardinals on three hits, giving Arizona a 1-0 victory. St. Louis bounced back in Game 2, beating Johnson to even the series, but Arizona's four-run rally in the seventh inning gave them the Game 3 win. St. Louis won Game 4 to force the series back to Arizona, but they would have to go up against Schilling again.

The Game
Reliever Steve Kline was coming into the game in the ninth inning, St. Louis' second pitching change of the inning. They had started the inning by going to their closer, Dave Veres, who replaced starter Matt Morris after 8 innings and 130 near-flawless pitches. It was a tie game, 1-1, so it wasn't a save situation, but Morris had struggled to escape the eighth with no damage, and Tony LaRussa didn't want to risk anything in the ninth, when a single mistake could ruin their season.

Arizona didn't want to see any more of Morris. They were happy to see Veres. Matt Williams' leadoff double was proof of that. Arizona sent Midre Cummings in to run for him, then promptly bunted him over to third. After an intentional walk, in came Kline, the lefty.

Here's what St. Louis was thinking: "Arizona has four straight lefties coming up, so we need to get a lefty in there to face them."

Here's what Arizona was thinking: "Well, a lefty has his back to third base when he's in the stretch, and Tony Womack's a good bunter, so ..."

... so Cummings started for home on the 1-1 pitch, coming to the plate on a suicide squeeze attempt. Womack squared around, and .... missed. Completely. Cummings was easily tagged out for the second out, a play that went in the books as a caught stealing home but which was really all Womack's fault. Instead of having runners on first and third with one out, Arizona now had a runner on second with two outs. They had completely given away their big advantage. Thus the name "suicide squeeze."

It was somewhat surprising that the game even needed ninth inning dramatics. Game 5 was Schilling's sixth career postseason start, and as he had shown before, he knew how to rise to the occasion. When Reggie Sanders hit a home run to lead off the bottom of the fourth, Schilling looked to be in complete control. The Cardinals' only threat had come in the first, when Pujols grounded out with two runners on base. Since then, it had been next to nothing for St. Louis, and that 1-0 deficit looked awfully foreboding.

That's why the home run J.D. Drew hit in the eighth seemed so shocking. Schilling was completely in control, was four outs from getting Arizona to the next round, and had showed no signs of letting down. But Drew's blast changed all that, turning it into a tie game and making fans wonder just how long it would last.

Schilling got into a little bit of trouble in the ninth, as Jim Edmonds led off with a single, followed by a Kerry Robinson sacrifice to move him to second. (As an aside, Robinson was pinch-hitting for none other than McGwire. Think of it - a man with almost 600 career home runs being pinch-hit for with the game-winning run on base in the ninth inning of a playoff game. McGwire, understandably, took the hint and retired after the season). Facing his first true trouble in several innings, Schilling got two straight strikeouts to end the inning.

And then it went to the bottom of the ninth. And there stood Womack, standing at home plate, the loneliest man in the ballpark. Sure, there was a runner on second, and the Diamondbacks were a single away from winning the series. But you couldn't blame Womack if he was thinking, even a little bit, that he had already blown the series.

But failure on the biggest stage can do strange things to players. Many players don't get a chance to atone for their mistake, but Womack was in the unusual position of still being at the plate immediately after his screwup. He could make things right on the very next pitch.

It wasn't the next pitch. It took four more, including a pair of two-strike fouls, but Womack came through, slapping a single to the opposite field. Danny Bautista got a great jump off second and stormed into home with the series-winning run.

The Diamondbacks first greeted Bautista as he scored the winning run. Then they ran toward second base, where Womack was standing, tears rolling down his face. Tears of joy. He had been given a rare chance to make up for his mistake, and he had come through.

Postgame
The Game 5 win gave Arizona their first postseason series victory; they continued their inspired play with a five-game beat-down of the Braves in the NLCS, a series in which Schilling and Johnson gave up a combined three runs in 25 innings. To the World Series, where Arizona faced a Yankees squad who had the advantage of being the three-time defending World Series champion and had the extra inspiration of playing for the memory of the 9/11 victims. The Yankees had the pedigree and the emotional advantage, but Arizona had Schilling and Johnson, and their twin aces helped Arizona win one of the greatest World Series ever played in seven games.

The Rundown

9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 AL tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

November 4, 2001: The Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty

PHOENIX - It was over. Not officially yet, but for all intents and purposes, it was over.

The New York Yankees, winners of three straight World Series, had a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the ninth. Mariano Rivera, who was probably more responsible for those three championships than any player on the team, was on the mound. He was only the most feared and successful reliever in postseason history. Coming back against him was a hopeless proposition.

So it was over. All the heroics of the Diamondbacks pitchers would be for naught. Curt Schilling had pitched a masterpiece, his third great game of the series, but that pitch he hung to Alfonso Soriano in the eighth was going to end up deciding things. Even Randy Johnson's dramatic relief appearance, coming the day after he went seven innings in a game 6 win, wasn't going to be enough. Arizona needed a run, and they had to get through Rivera to do it. The fat lady got warmed up by the pool out in right field.

But there went Mark Grace's single. That was nice. After all the years of toiling for the Cubs, having great seasons on not-so-great teams, he finally ended up in a World Series this year, near the end of his career. Good for him to be able to get that clutch hit, in the at bat he was waiting for his whole life. Too bad it won't mean anything - if you get a hit off Rivera, it just makes him angry.

There was the bunt. No surprise there. What was surprising was River panicking, rushing, and throwing the ball into center field. That was really unlike the Yankees, and Rivera in particular. And what was he doing throwing it to second, anyway? Arizona was giving them an out - a precious out, considering there were only three outs left in their season. Take the out!

Arizona gave them the out again with another bunt. Rivera again threw to the lead base instead of getting the easy out at first, but this time it worked. That was extra painful for Arizona. They certainly couldn't afford any unproductive outs at this point. One down now. A double-play ball gives the Yankees the championship.

Tony Womack was up next, Arizona's speedy leadoff hitter. He would definitely be a tough one to double up, probably the toughest player on either team to get to ground into a double play. But, he had only batted about .230 in the series up to that point, so Rivera could pitch to him without too much fear. A quick 2-0 advantage for Womack turned into a 2-2 count. Down to the last strike. You never wanted to be down to two strikes with Rivera.

................

It's stunning how quickly some things can change, how swiftly the perceptions you have about a team can be shattered. From the start of the 1998 season up until that point, the Yankees seemed invincible. Even with the World Series-winning run sitting on first base, it seemed completely implausible that Arizona would win. Even the most imaginative of baseball fans would have had trouble wrapping their minds around the idea that Mariano Rivera could blow a save in a game 7. With two strikes on Womack, things seemed hopeless. Rivera was going to throw that cutter, and Womack was going to either swing through it or break his bat while hitting it, leading to the season-ending double play. Four straight championships in the books.

.......

Except Womack didn't miss the cutter. He didn't break his bat, either. Instead, he laced it down the right field line, the first truly hard-hit ball of the inning. The tying run came around to score, the series-winning run stopped at third, and Womack ended up at second, clapping his hands, then pointing to the sky. And who can blame him? He had just gotten the most shocking World Series double in years, maybe decades. Arizona had scored on the great Rivera.

Now the stadium was rocking. Where the pitch before it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Yankees were dancing on the field, it now seemed inevitable that the Diamondbacks were going to win. The Yankees dynasty, their aura of invincibility, was shattered on one pitch. There was no way Arizona was losing now.

The Yankees still had a slim chance. They could get weak-hitting Craig Counsell out, then walk Luis Gonzalez, who was easily Arizona's best hitter, and take their chances with Matt Williams with two outs. That plan was quickly ruined, though, when Rivera's second pitch hit Counsell in the back. There was no walking Gonzalez now.

New York played the infield in to try to cut off the run at home plate. A controversial decision, as it made turning a double play that much more difficult. Plus, many a player had taken a full swing a Rivera's cutter, watched as his bat shattered on impact, and the ball floated harmlessly into the hands of a waiting infielder. With the infield in, a broken-bat hit would win it.

Gonzalez, he of the 50 home run season in 2001, did something he had never done before in his life, even back in little league: he choked up on his bat. On the 0-1 pitch, Rivera threw the cutter. Gonzalez broke his bat. The ball blooped into left field, over the head of Derek Jeter, who would have been in perfect position to catch it if he hadn't been drawn in. Playing where he was, though, he was helpless. The winning run came in. The Diamondbacks went ballistic. They had won their city's first championship.

Mariano Rivera walked off the mound with his head down. For the first and still only time in his career, he was the losing pitcher in a playoff game. The great Rivera had been beaten. And the Yankee dynasty was over.

November 1, 2001: Déjà vu

BRONX, N.Y. - Byung-Hyun Kim crouched on the mound, sitting on his heels, his head down. He couldn't believe he had done it again. Seeing him, his teammates quickly surrounded him, trying everything they could to pump him up, keep his spirits up, but it was to no avail. He was completely defeated.

It really seemed improbable. For the second straight game, the Diamondbacks had given a two-run lead to their closer for the ninth inning. For the second straight game, he had gotten two outs in the ninth. For the second straight game, the Yankees had hit a two-out home run to tie the game.

Where the hero for the Yankees the night before was Tino Martinez, the hero for game 5 was Scott Brosius, the Yankees no. 8 hitter who had been hitting a tepid .160 in the series up to that point. But he connected on a 1-0 pitch, sending the ball into the left field bleachers and giving the Yankees another stunning comeback.

In game 4, after Kim had given up the home run to Martinez, he was allowed to stay in the game and was on the mound when Derek Jeter his the game-winning home run the next inning. That wasn't an option here. Seeing the obvious mental anguish Kim was in, the Diamondbacks replaced him immediately.

Arizona almost bounced back to save their closer, as the first two batters in the top of the 11th reached against the great Mariano Rivera. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk, the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded with one out, a golden opportunity. But Rivera wiggled out of the jam, getting a line drive to the second baseman and a groundball force out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 12th, the inevitable happened. The Yankees got a one-out single from Alfonso Soriano to win the game and take a 3 games to 2 lead in the series. They had the series lead, and with two straight dramatic comebacks, they had all the momentum. Aside from that, they also had made Arizona's closer emotionally useless - the Diamondbacks had to know that if they had a save situation in the next two games, they probably wouldn't be able to turn to Kim. But Arizona did have one advantage - their starting pitchers for the next two games were Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, the two best pitchers in baseball that year. The Yankees would have to figure out a way to beat one of those two if they were going to win the series.

October 31, 2001: Mr. November

BRONX, N.Y. - It had already been a great game. Curt Schilling, pitching on only three days' rest, and Orlando Hernandez, one of the greatest postseason pitchers of his era, had locked horns in a classic pitchers' duel in game 4 of the World Series. Both pitchers had pitched into the seventh and left with the game tied 1-1. Arizona had taken a 3-1 lead in the 8th, and were seemingly in control entering the bottom of the ninth.

With two outs and a runner on first, Tino Martinez hit the first pitch he saw from Byung-Hyun Kim for a game-tying home run, and absolutely devastating blow for Arizona. Instead of being one out from a 3-1 series lead, the Diamondbacks had instead given all the momentum in the series back to New York.

The Yankees got two more runners on base in the ninth before Kim got out of it. Mariano Rivera came in to put the Diamondbacks away 1-2-3 in the top of the 10th. A shaken Kim returned for the 10th, getting the first two outs quickly.

And then the clocks changed. Midnight came on the east coast, and with it, the first Major League pitches ever to be thrown in the month of November. The crowd stood and cheered, proud to have witnessed history. They had no idea what was coming next.

The 2001 World Series had been pushed back to November because of the 10-day layoff following the September 11 attacks. When the season resumed, the Yankees became the official team of 9/11, honoring the firefighters and policemen involved in the attacks at every opportunity and providing a needed respite for the city. New Yorkers turned to the Yankees looking for a magical ride to help them forget what happened.

After two losses in Arizona, the Yankees struck back to win game 3 2-1. Now it was game 4, and the magic had started. Tino Martinez had started the excitement with his blast. Now that the series was shifting to November, it seemed like something special was going to happen.

The next batter, the first man to ever bat in November, was Derek Jeter, the heart and soul of the Yankees. He fell behind Kim 0-2, then began a clinic in keeping at bats alive. After taking a ball, he fouled off two pitches. Two more balls came, followed by another ball. He had seen eight pitches so far in the at bat. The ninth pitch came. Jeter didn't let that one go to waste.

Jeter's line drive into the bleachers in right-center field sent Yankee Stadium into delirium. The Yankees had won a truly magical game. Despite the fact that the series was still tied 2-2, the Yankees had all the momentum. They had the dramatic win, and they had knocked Arizona's closer out with two huge blasts. And as Jeter rounded the bases and greeted his teammates at home plate, he forever earned a new nickname: Mr. November.