1996 Yankees Silver Anniversary, Part I: A Special Season Begins

May 14, 1996, 25 years ago: The Yankees took the field at the old Yankee Stadium on a Tuesday night, to face the Seattle Mariners. At the time, there was no feeling that this season, or this game in particular, was going to be anything special.

Because... well, let's take a step back:

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October 8, 1995: Thanks to a 2-run double off Jack McDowell by Edgar Martinez, the Seattle Mariners become only the 4th team in major league history to overcome a 2-game deficit to win a 5-game series, when they dramatically come from behind to beat the Yankees in 11 innings, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

This, of course, was the last game as Yankee manager for Buck Showalter, mainly because he let starting pitcher David Cone throw 147 pitches, rather than trust a reliever warming up, a young Panamanian named Mariano Rivera.

It was also the last game as a major league player for Don Mattingly: Although he only said he was taking the 1996 season off, we knew he wouldn't be back for 1997. George Steinbrenner subsequently moved general manager Michael to an oversight role, replaced him with Bob Watson, and hired Joe Torre as field manager.

Watson soon made the trades to bring Mariners Tino Martinez and Jeff Nelson, and Chicago Cub catcher Joe Girardi, to New York. When starting shortstop Tony Fernandez went down with an injury in Spring Training 1996, the Yankees nearly traded Rivera to the Mariners for Felix Fermin. Instead, they decided to try a rookie, who had barely played in 1995, and wouldn't turn 22 until June.

His name was Derek Jeter.

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April 2, 1996: The Yankees open a new season at Jacobs (now Progressive) Field in Cleveland, after a day's postponement due to snow. It was the team's 1st regular-season game with Torre as manager. With Mattingly having retired, it felt like a new era, one where the glory days had passed. Except the glory days never actually happened with Mattingly.

Nobody knew it yet, but they were about to begin, including with a home run by Jeter. As it turned out, Fernandez missed the entire season due to injury, and never played for the Yankees again. He would be a key figure on a future Pennant winnner, but that would be in Cleveland.

Bernie Williams also hits a home run, and the Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians 7-1. David Cone outpitches Dennis Martinez.

April 9, 1996: The home opener is played a week later, and snow strikes again. "It's the only time I've ever played 'Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow' at Yankee Stadium," organist Eddie Layton said. Nevertheless, the Yankees got all 9 innings in, and beat the Kansas City Royals 7-3.

In shades of things to come, Andy Pettitte was taken out after 84 pitches, but did end up as the winning pitcher. Jim Leyritz, the hero of the last game that counted at Yankee Stadium (hitting a walkoff home run in the 15th inning of Game 2 of the ALDS, on October 4, 1995), went 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

Tino Martinez, coming off his 1st All-Star Game berth, had replaced Mattingly at 1st base, and was certainly not yet embraced by the Bronx faithful. The 2nd baseman was Mariano Duncan, a former All-Star who had previously won the World Series with the 1990 Cincinnati Reds, and a Pennant with the 1993 Philadelphia Phillies. The shortstop, as stated, was the rookie Jeter. And the 3rd baseman was Wade Boggs, a 5-time batting champion while with the Boston Red Sox.

Left field was not exactly settled, as former Met superstar Darryl Strawberry, former Montreal Expos speedster Tim Raines, former Texas Rangers slugger Ruben Sierra, a few others were tried there. Rising star Bernie Williams was in center field, and Paul O'Neill in right field. O'Neill had been the AL's batting champion in 1994, and had won the World Series with the 1990 Reds, along with Duncan, managed by former Yankee Lou Piniella. Girardi had succeeded Mike Stanley as the starting catcher. Strawberry and Sierra were used as the lefthanded designated hitters, Leyritz as the righthanded one. 

The starting rotation was Cone, Pettitte, Jimmy Key, and Dwight Gooden, with Kenny Rogers as the spot starter. All but Pettitte, who had a fine rookie season the year before, were veterans. Cone and Key had won the 1992 World Series with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gooden, like Cone and Strawberry, had been with the crosstown Mets. Torre had played for them, and managed them, before any of those players arrived. Cone had not yet arrived when they won the 1986 World Series. By that point, Gooden and Strawberry had become huge stars, but were also already addicted to cocaine.

By this point, they were trying to come back from drug use and rehab. And Yankee team owner George Steinbrenner was a sucker for, among other things, comeback stories and trying to put one over on the Mets. So he signed them both, as well as Cone and Torre.

Another former Met: Torre's bench coach, Don Zimmer, who had been an original Met player in 1962, and had also been the ill-fated Red Sox manager when the Yankees beat them out in 1978. Another former Met: Mel Stottlemyre, who had been an All-Star Yankee pitcher and then the Mets' pitching coach.

But on May 7, Cone was diagnosed with an aneurysm in his pitching shoulder. Never mind his career: His life was in danger. It was surgically removed, but he wouldn't be back until September.

So now, the rotation would be Pettitte, Key, Gooden and Rogers. This did not fill Yankee Fans with confidence. Scott Kamieniecki took Rogers' place as the spot starter.

The bullpen was anchored by John Wetteland, who had starred with the Montreal Expos, with Rivera as the 7th and 8th inning man. That part seemed to be fairly consistent. But the Yankees had to get there first.

April 27, 1996: The Yankees lose to the Minnesota Twins, 8-6 in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium. Only 20,025 came out. The Yankees fall to 11-10.

But they go on a 9-1 run, and start looking promising. Then they lose 3 straight, before winning on May 12, to rise to 21-14.

On the 14th, a Tuesday night, I had the time and the money to go to the game. But I didn't want to mess with rush hour traffic in New York, and decided to go to the game on the following Saturday -- which the Yankees ended up losing to the Milwaukee Brewers. I should have gone to the Tuesday night game. I would have been on hand, rather than watching on TV, for one hell of a story...

May 14, 1996, 25 years ago: Only 20,786 fans came to Yankee Stadium on a Tuesday night, to see Gooden start against the Mariners, the team that had knocked the Yankees out of the Playoffs the season before.

When he debuted with the Mets in 1984, only 19 years old, Gooden was a sensation, striking out everybody who came to the plate and his dog. He became known as "Doctor K," or "Doc" for short. He set a new National League record for strikeouts by a rookie, and won the NL's Rookie of the Year award.

In 1985, he went 24-4, falling 1 win short of the team record for wins in a season (Tom Seaver went 25-7 in 1969), and won the NL's Cy Young Award. That year, the side of the Holland Hotel at 351 West 42nd Street was festooned with a giant photo of Gooden, as an ad for Sports Illustrated. (According to Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, it was 95 feet tall by 42 feet wide. Another source I saw said it was 102 feet tall.) So anyone taking a bus into the Port Authority Bus Terminal -- including visitors from New Jersey, such as myself -- had to look at it every time they came in, whether they liked the Mets or (such as myself) not.

In 1986, Gooden was very good, but not quite as great as he was the 2 years before. Cocaine, alcohol, and late nights were catching up with him. He was the losing pitcher in Game 2 of the World Series, and again in Game 5. For all intents and purposes, the Mets won that World Series without him. Not since 1948, when the Cleveland Indians won it despite Bob Feller losing Games 1 and 5 (despite pitching better than Gooden did both times), had a team had such a heralded pitcher and won a World Series without said pitcher winning a game. (Denny McLain went 31-6 for the 1968 Detroit Tigers, but only 1-2 in the World Series.)

The morning of the team's ticker-tape parade for winning the Series, Gooden didn't show up. He was at his drug dealer's apartment. At the end of Spring Training in 1987, he was sent to rehab, and missed the 1st month of the season. He had run-ins with police in his native Tampa Bay region. And he missed time for reasons that had nothing to do with substance abuse, but rather with injuries.

In 1993, SI ran a cover story on him, with the cover caption being "From Phenom to Phantom." In 1994, just before the season-ending strike, his drug problems got him suspended for the rest of the season (which was all but meaningless), and for all of the 1995 season (which did have some meaning). On July 16, 1995, the 42nd Street mural came down, replaced with one of Knicks star Charles Oakley. (The 1927 building has since been refitted as apartments with balconies, so a mural is no longer possible.)

Along with Strawberry, Gooden may have been the most talented player the Mets franchise has had in its 1st 60 seasons of play -- Willie Mays and Rickey Henderson only playing for them toward the ends of their careers -- and was more hyped then than Jacob deGrom is now. (Trust me: I was around back then.) But by the time his suspension ended, and the Yankees picked him up, he was a failure. At the ages of 19 and 20, he was one of the best there ever was. From 21 to 25, he was one of the best at the time. From 26 to 28, he was a broken-down memory. And at 29 and 30, he was a drugged-out disgrace.

At 31, he took the mound at Yankee Stadium, with that cloud over him, with the unfamiliar Pinstripes on him, the unfamiliar Number 11 on his back instead of his Mets' Number 16 (the Yankees had retired that number for Whitey Ford), and with the home fans not fully trusting him -- remembering him not just as a recovering addict, but as an oft-injured pitcher, and as one of them. The Other Team.

As if he didn't have enough on his mind, his father, Dan, 69 years old and weakened by years of illness, was going in for heart surgery the next day, in Tampa. Torre understood: His brother Frank, a former 1st baseman for the Milwaukee Braves, was suffering from heart trouble, and waiting for a transplant that everyone knew might not come in time. And Cone was already out. But Torre told Gooden that if he didn't want to pitch, and would prefer to fly to Tampa tonight, he would understand.

Gooden told Torre his father would want him to pitch, so he did. And it was against a Mariner lineup with Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and a 20-year-old rookie shortstop named Alex Rodriguez. Gooden was shaky at first: He walked 2 of the 1st 3 batters he faced, 3 of the 1st 6, and 4 of the 1st 11.

But he settled down, and the game was scoreless going to the bottom of the 6th, as Sterling Hitchcock, whom the Yankees had given up as part of the trade to bring in Tino and Jeff Nelson, was, for the moment, pitching even better.

Boggs led off the inning with a single. Girardi followed with another. O'Neill grounded back to Hitchcock, whose only play was to 1st. Sierra was walked to set up the double play. It didn't work: Tino hit a sacrifice fly to score Boggs. Leyritz, in the game as the DH, singled Girardi home. It was 2-0 Yankees.

That gave Gooden a huge boost, although, with a 2-run lead, thinking about the fact that he hadn't allowed any hits yet was still problematic, especially given the Seattle lineup. But he sent the M's down 1-2-3 in the 7th, and again in the 8th.

But he ran into trouble again in the 9th. Leadoff walks are always worrisome, and he issued one to A-Rod. Griffey grounded to 1st, and there was no way for Tino to go after the lead runner. Walking Edgar put the tying run on base, but filling an open 1st base wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. A worse thing would be a wild pitch, and he threw one, advancing the runners. Given that, Piniella, now the Mariners' manager, took out the chunky Edgar, and sent Rich Amaral in to pinch-run. So a single by Buhner could tie the game.

Gooden bore down against Buhner, whom the Yankees traded away for Ken Phelps in 1988, before he'd done much in the majors, and struck him out. The batter was Paul Sorrento. He popped up, and it was an easy play for Jeter.

The list of pitchers who had once been Mets and later threw no-hitters already included Tom Seaver and, 7 times, Nolan Ryan. Now, it included Dwight Gooden. This was one hell of a redemption story, and the crowd at Yankee Stadium accepted him as a Yankee.

The following day, Dan Gooden came through his heart surgery alive. He lived until the following January 12, long enough to see his son's redemption complete.

Dwight Gooden's no-hitter was unexpected on multiple levels. Indeed, it was the 1st no-hitter pitched by a righthanded pitcher for the Yankees since Don Larsen pitched his perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series. Dave Righetti in 1983 and Jim Abbott in 1993, lefthanders, had pitched no-hitters for the Yankees.

Gooden's gem was the 1st real sign that maybe, just maybe, 1996 could be a special season for the New York Yankees and their fans. But, to paraphrase The Hollies, the road ahead would be long, with many a winding turn.