The rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox has entered another comparatively dormant phase. It was tense from 1946 to 1951, really tense from 1973 to 1978, somewhat tense from 1986 to 1988, and, by 1999, had gotten not only tense again, but truly ugly.
In 2002, the Fenway Sports Group, led by John W. Henry, bought the Red Sox from the Yawkey Trust, and was determined to win the team's 1st World Series since 1918. The Yankees won the American League Eastern Division in 2003, but the Red Sox won the League's lone Wild Card berth. In the AL Division Series, the Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, and the Sox beat the Oakland Athletics. The AL Championship Series would be another showdown.
October 8, 2003: Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. David Ortiz (later exposed as a steroid cheat), Manny Ramirez (ditto) and Todd Walker (clean, as far as I know) hit home runs, all off Mike Mussina, and the Red Sox beat the Yankees 5-2.
October 9, 2003: Game 2. The Yankees ride the pitching of Andy Pettitte and a home run by Nick Johnson to beat the Red Sox 6-2. The series goes to Fenway Park in Boston tied.
Games 1 and 2 were not particularly memorable. That will not be the case with Game 3, which remains the ugliest game in the 123-season history of this rivalry.
October 11, 2003: Pedro Martinez commits 3 felonies, all witnessed by 34,209 people at Fenway, and by millions of people on live national television: Assault with a deadly weapon on Karim Garcia, by hitting him with a pitch, and it would have hit him in the head had he not ducked; conspiracy to commit murder against Yankee Jorge Posada, by pointing to his head, as if to say, "You're next"; and assault (and possibly attempted murder) on Yankee coach Don Zimmer, by grabbing a 72-year-old man by the head and throwing him to the ground.
The Pedro vs. Zim incident came after Roger Clemens threw a pitch at the level of Manny's head -- but over the plate. Obviously, not a strike. But neither was it a pitch meant to hit him. Manny, not right in the head even at the best of times, walked toward the mound, bat still in hand, and pointed at Clemens.
The benches cleared, and Zimmer, who had nearly been killed by being hit in the head with a pitch as a minor-league player in 1953, ran up to Pedro to give him a piece of his mind. Red Sox fans, who still remember Zim as their manager from 1976 to 1978, and blame him for losing the 1978 Division title to the Yankees, say that Zim "attacked" Pedro, and that Pedro was justified in defending himself. They are lying: Zimmer didn't attack anybody. He was the one acting in defense, and never even raised a hand. Pedro was a thug: The New York State institution he belongs in isn't Cooperstown, it's Attica.
In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.
The umpires restored order, Roger struck Manny out, and the Yankees won, 3-2, and took a 2-games-to-1 lead. The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk. Ever since, he has been the opposing athlete I have loathed the most. Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one that Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- which turned out to be Pedro's last game in the major leagues.
In spite of this, he is not arrested. The felonies, after all, occurred at Fenway Park, not Yankee Stadium.
The umpires restored order, Roger struck Manny out, and the Yankees won, 3-2, and took a 2-games-to-1 lead. The New York Post, in one of the rare instances in which I agree with it, labeled Pedro the Fenway Punk. Ever since, he has been the opposing athlete I have loathed the most. Which is why my favorite home run of all time is no longer the one that Aaron Boone hit 5 days later, but the one Hideki Matsui hit off Pedro to clinch the 2009 World Series -- which turned out to be Pedro's last game in the major leagues.
October 12, 2003: The best possible thing that could happen in the Yanks-Red Sox ALCS does happen: Rain. An extra 24 hours gives everyone a chance to cool off a little.
October 13, 2003: Game 4 is played at Fenway. Tim Wakefield knuckleballs his way to 3-2 win over the Yankees, and the Red Sox tie the series at 2 games apiece. Wakefield, who died a few days before I wrote this piece, had also won Game 1. If he had gotten Aaron Boone out in the bottom of the 11th of Game 7, chances are pretty good that the Sox would have won that game, and Wakefield would have been named the Most Valuable Player of that series.
October 14, 2003: Game 5. David Wells hurls the Yankees to a 4-2 win, and a 3-games-to-2 lead. Karim Garcia delivers the key hit with a 2-run single in the 3rd.
But despite the implications of a Yankees-Red Sox postseason game, and everything that happened in Game 3 of that series, today's action at Fenway Park pales in comparison to what happens at Major League Baseball's other surviving pre-World War I ballpark, Wrigley Field in Chicago.
October 15, 2003: Game 6 is played at Yankee Stadium, as the Hundred-Year War builds toward a crescendo. The Red Sox rally for 3 runs in the 7th inning to come from behind, and pull out a 9-6 victory over the Yankees to send it to a Game 7. Boston slugs 16 hits‚ including 4 by Nomar Garciaparra‚ and gets HRs from Jason Varitek and Trot Nixon.
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October 16, 2003, 20 years ago: Game 7. Pedro Martinez vs. Roger Clemens. In his 1st game at Yankee Stadium since he tried to kill Don Zimmer, Pedro gets the hell booed out of him – and that's a lot of hell. But the Sox take a 4-0 lead over the Yankees in the 4th, before Joe Torre lifts Clemens and brings in Mike Mussina. Making the 1st relief appearance of his career, Mussina stops the bleeding.
Jason Giambi hits 2 home runs to make it 4-2 in the 7th, but David Ortiz – not for the first time, and certainly not for the last (cough-steroids-cough) – hurts the Yankees by blasting a home run, off David Wells. It's 5-2 Red Sox. On the replay, Wells can be seen yelling, "Fuuuuck!" He thought he had put the final nail in the coffin.''
Jason Giambi hits 2 home runs to make it 4-2 in the 7th, but David Ortiz – not for the first time, and certainly not for the last (cough-steroids-cough) – hurts the Yankees by blasting a home run, off David Wells. It's 5-2 Red Sox. On the replay, Wells can be seen yelling, "Fuuuuck!" He thought he had put the final nail in the coffin.''
Pedro gets the 1st out in the bottom of the 8th, but then… Derek Jeter doubles. Then Bernie Williams singles, scoring Jeter to make it 5-3. Pedro is over the 100-pitch mark. From pitches 1 through 99, he throws like Sandy Koufax; from pitch 100 onward, he throws like Sandy Duncan.
Lefthanded pitcher Alan Embree is warming up in the bullpen. Bringing him in would have put him up against the next 2 batters: Hideki Matsui, making a lefty-on-lefty matchup; and Jorge Posada, a switch-hitter but not as good from the right side.
Red Sox manager Grady Little goes to the mound, but Pedro talks him out of making a change. He decides to leave Pedro in.
Big mistake. And I knew it immediately, pumping my fist and yelling, "We got him! We got the son of a bitch!" Sure enough, Hideki Matsui hits a ground-rule double down the right-field line, moving Bernie to third. Still, Little does not pull Pedro. Jorge Posada hits a looper into short center, scoring the tying runs. Just 5 outs from the Pennant, and the greatest victory the Red Sox would have since, oh, 1918, and they have choked yet again.
Mariano Rivera pitches the 9th, 10th and 11th for the Yankees. He pitches the top of the 11th pretty much on courage alone. The Yankees need to win it in the bottom of the 11th, because the bullpen situation doesn't look good.
Tim Wakefield is on the mound. Leading off the inning is Aaron Boone, the Yankee 3rd baseman.
You know where I was at this moment? I was going from place to place watching the game, and I decided to get on the Subway and head up to The Stadium. Win or lose, I felt I had to be there. But the Subway was crawling, seeming to take forever. I forgot that it was after midnight. Frustrated, I
got off at the 50th Street station of the A train.
Next thing I know, I’m standing in front of 220 West 48th Street, the Longacre Theatre. Do you know who built (in 1912) and owned this theater? Harry Frazee. The very man who broke up the Red Sox and sold off so many of their players to the Yankees, including Babe Ruth. What a place to be standing in as the Yankees and Red Sox battled for the Pennant.
In 1935, Clifford Odets' play Waiting for Lefty debuted at the Longacre. Sox fans were still waiting for Alan Embree, the lefty that Little refused to bring in for Pedro.
It was 12:16 AM, actually October 17, 2003, but since the game started on the 16th, it goes down in history as October 16.
I had my headphones on, and on WCBS 880, I heard Charley Steiner say this:
There's a fly ball, deep to left! It’s on its way! There it goes! And the Yankees are going to the World Series! Aaron Boone has hit a home run! The Yankees go to the World Series for the 39th time in their remarkable history! Aaron Boone down the left field line, they are waiting for him at home plate, and now he dives into the scrum! The Yankees win it, 6-5!
The Longacre is at the northern end of Times Square. It sounded like a million car horns went off at once. People poured out of the restaurants and bars in the Square. People were slapping each other on the back, giving high five after high five.
By the time I finally got home, at around 2 in the morning, my hair was soaked with sweat, my eyes were aching from being up too late, my voice was shot from screaming, my hands throbbed from shaking and high-fiving, and my legs and feet throbbed from all the walking.
I've never felt better in my life.
Boone joined Tommy Henrich (1949 World Series vs. Brooklyn Dodgers), Mickey Mantle (1964 WS vs. St. Louis Cardinals), Chris Chambliss (1976 ALCS vs. Kansas City Royals), Jim Leyritz (1995 AL Division Series vs. Seattle Mariners), Bernie Williams (Game 1 of ALCS in both 1996 and 1999), Chad Curtis (1999 WS), Alfonso Soriano (2001 ALCS) and Jeter (2001 WS) as Yankees who have hit walkoff home runs in postseason play. (It's since been done by Mark Teixeira, 2009 ALDS; and Raul Ibanez, 2012 ALDS.)
And he joined Enos Slaughter (1946 Cardinals), Lou Boudreau (1948 Cleveland Indians), Bob Gibson (1967 Cardinals), Joe Morgan (1975 Cincinnati Reds), and, collectively, the 1978 Yankees (especially Bucky Dent) and the 1986 Mets as Red Sox postseason tormentors.
Jeter said, "We've got some ghosts in this Stadium."
In 2009, it sure looked like they'd made the trip across the street. Now, I'm not so sure.
Clemens, Wells, and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre walk out to the Babe Ruth Monument, and offer the Big Fella some champagne. Clemens slaps the plaque on the tablet, and says, "He's smiling! He's smiling! He's smiling, Mel!"
Grady Little was not smiling. He was fired as Sox manager within days, replaced by Terry Francona. He managed the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2006 and '07 seasons, and since 2014 has worked in the front office of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The next day's Daily News headline read, "THE CURSE LIVES." For the Sox… once again, it was "Wait Till Next Year."
No, no. Really. They meant it this time.
In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 6th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.
But in the World Series, against the Florida Marlins, it would be the Yankees who choked. They led 2 games to 1, but Joe Torre brought Jeff Weaver in to pitch the 10th inning, and in the bottom of the 11th, he gave up a walkoff home run to Álex González. (Not the player whose error was a part of the Chicago Cubs' meltdown in the Steve Bartman Game, but also a shortstop.)
Josh Beckett pitched a 3-hit shutout in Game 6, ending the World Series, and ending what turned out to be the last World Series game played at the old Yankee Stadium. It was a complete anti-climax to what had been a great season and a magnificent Pennant, and is the reason I cannot hold the Aaron Boone home run in the same esteem as the Bucky Dent home run against the Red Sox, 25 years earlier.
Boone got hurt in the off-season, leading the Yankees to trade for Alex Rodriguez. Injuries and a heart ailment ended his career after the 2009 regular season, after which he was an analyst on Fox’ postseason broadcasts as the Yankees won their 1st Pennant since his walkoff.
A lot can change in 20 years. We have now seen Aaron Boone become the Yankees' manager, taking us to the Playoffs 4 straight years, but never getting us closer to a Pennant than Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS; and now, this season, barely keeping the team above .500. And, among the less pleasant things, we have seen the Red Sox win 4 World Series, breaking the Curse of the Bambino. And we have now seen them beat the Yankees in not one, not two, but three postseason rounds (if not "series").
But we have also seen them exposed as dirty rotten cheaters, multiple times, and continue to lie about it, meaning we can no longer chant, "NINE-teen-EIGHT-teen! (Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)."
But we can still write "1918*."
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