Andy Hawkins, July 1, 1990
These are my choices for the Top 15 Craziest Games In Yankee History. I decided that I couldn't limit it to 10. As you can see, 2 of them fell on this day of the year, July 1. And it won't surprise anyone that 6 of the 15 are against the Boston Red Sox.
I am listing these in chronological order, rather than in order of craziness.
1. September 3, 1906, Hilltop Park, Manhattan: The Yankees, still known as the New York Highlanders, are in a 3-way battle for the American League Pennant, with the Chicago White Stockings (later the White Sox) and the Cleveland Naps (so named for their star and manager, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, later to become the Indians).
The defending Pennant winners, the Philadelphia Athletics, are not yet out of the race, and are the opposition on this day. It is a doubleheader, and the Highlanders win the 1st game, 4-3, but not before shortstop Norman "Kid" Elberfeld is so angry at an umpire's decision that he chases him around the field. The home crowd of 20,000, basically all that could fit in the single-decked wooden firetrap at 165th & Broadway, where Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center would be built, boos him.
The 2nd game sees a pair of future Hall-of-Famers go at it, Jack Chesbro for New York and Rube Waddell for Philadelphia. The A's lead 3-1 going to the bottom of the 9th. The Yankees tie it up, and have the winning run on base.
But the A's allege baserunner interference on the part of Hall-of-Famer Willie Keeler. Their manager, Connie Mack, a former major league catcher -- and, at age 43, hardly the "Grand Old Man of Baseball" that he would become -- pulls his team off the field, and the umpires forfeit the game to the Highlanders.
2. October 1, 1932, Wrigley Field, Chicago: Game 3 of the World Series. There was bad blood between the Yankees and the Chicago Cubs, because the Cubs had acquired former Yankee shortstop Mark Koenig late in the season, he'd helped them win the Pennant, and had announced that, whatever their individual players' shares of the World Series money would be, he would get only half as much.
The Yankees, including Babe Ruth himself, publicly called the Cubs cheap, and there was some rough stuff in the 1st 2 games at Yankee Stadium. When Ruth and his wife Claire got off the train at Union Station in Chicago, Cub fans were waiting for them, throwing garbage at them, and spitting on them. Neither was naive: The Babe had been treated badly before, and Mrs. Ruth, under her maiden name of Claire Hodgson, was an actress and used to rough customers. But this was over the line.
The Yankees took a 4-1 lead, including home runs by Ruth and Lou Gehrig. But the Cubs tied it up in the bottom of the 4th. Ruth led off the top of the 5th, and the Cub fans were abusing him like crazy. In the Cubs dugout, the "bench jockeying" was nasty as well.
Ruth was no stranger to this. Because of his large, wide nose and big lips, there had been suggestions that he was part black. Research into his family history showed him to be almost completely German -- in fact, because his grandparents were born in Pennsylvania, before moving to Baltimore, they were "Pennsylvania Dutch" -- ethnically Amish, if practicing Catholics.
But that didn't stop people from indulging in rumors, and one of the names he was sometimes called was "(N-word) Lips." On one memorable occasion, which may be apocryphal, he heard this particular insult, walked over to the opposing dugout, and said, "Listen, you guys, call me 'bastard' or 'cocksucker,' or whatever you want, but lay off the personal stuff, would ya?"
Charlie Root was pitching for the Cubs, and he threw a called strike. The Babe didn't like the pitch, and the Cubs' bench jockeying got worse. A home movie -- sadly, silent, and with all the crowd noise, we probably wouldn't be able to hear what the players were saying anyway -- shows Ruth waving he hand at the Cub dugout, a classic "Ah, go on, ya bum" gesture.
Legend has it that there were only 3 pitches in this at-bat. In fact, Root's next 2 pitches were out of the strike zone, and called balls. His 4th pitch was called a strike. The home movie shows Ruth pointing directly at Root -- twice. His arm is not extended. Contrary to legend, he is not pointing at a spot beyond the outfield fence, as if to say, "I'm going to hit the next pitch
there."
But he is sending a message. Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett claimed Ruth said, "It only takes one." Another source said Ruth said, "You got one more, kid!" (To the Babe, who was terrible with names, if you were a young guy, you were "Kid"; if you were older, you were "Doc"; and if he didn't like you, or sometimes even if he did, you were "You son of a bitch!") Gehrig, in the on-deck circle, told a reporter that what Ruth yelled at Root was, "I'm gonna hit the next pitch right down your goddamned throat!"
So, yes, Babe Ruth called his shot.
Root threw him one more pitch. The Babe crushed it to dead center field. Longtime Cub observers said it was the longest home run ever hit in Wrigley Field to that point. The now-familiar center field scoreboard wouldn't go up until 1937, and no player has ever hit it with a home run. Had it been there in 1932, the Babe's blast might have hit it.
The crowd knew that the Babe had made his point, and, like the Russian fans turning from Drago to Balboa in
Rocky IV, switched sides, and cheered him.
The next batter was Gehrig, and he also hit his 2nd home run of the game. The Yankees hung on to win, 7-5, and completed the sweep the next day.
3. September 3, 1939, Fenway Park, Boston: On the anniversary of the 1st game on this list, a similar deal. Another Sunday doubleheader. The Sox won the opener 12-11. In the nightcap, the Sox got 2 home runs from rookie Ted Williams, and 1 from their shortstop and manager, Joe Cronin. The Yankees got homers from Joe DiMaggio and Joe Gordon.
It was tied 5-5 after 7 innings. At the time, Massachusetts law had a 6:30 PM curfew for Sunday sporting events. In the top of the 8th, the Yankees take a 7-5 lead. Knowing that the curfew is coming up fast, they want to get the game in. So they start making dumb outs, including bad attempts to steal home plate. The Red Sox do what they can to prolong the game.
Finally, Cronin goes to the home plate umpire, Cal Hubbard -- also a lineman who will make the Pro Football, as well as the Baseball, Hall of Fame, the only man to be in both -- and says that the game should be forfeited to the Red Sox, because what the Yankees are doing is illegal. Except Hubbard knows that this isn't true. Ordinarily, making outs on purpose would be trying to lose on purpose, thus "fixing" the game, possibly for the benefit of gamblers. But, this time, they're doing it to try to win the game, so it's allowed.
The angry Red Sox fans start throwing garbage onto the field. Hubbard realizes that the field can't be cleared before 6:30, and orders the game forfeited to the Yankees. It didn't matter in the standings: While the Sox were in 2nd place, the Yankees were running away with the Pennant. Still, it was another wild chapter in baseball's nastiest rivalry.
4. October 3, 1947, Ebbets Field, Brooklyn: Game 4 of the World Series. Against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bill Bevens has a no-hitter going into the 9th inning. No pitcher had ever thrown a no-hitter in a World Series game. But he'd been shaky: He'd walked 8 batters going into the 9th, so it wasn't going to be "a no-hit, no-run game." The Yankee lead was 2-1, not 2-0. So the game was already rather unusual.
Bruce Edwards leads off the bottom of the 9th, and flies to left. Two outs to go. But Bevens issues his 9th walk of the game, to Carl Furillo. Johnny "Spider" Jorgensen pops up to 1st. One out to go. The pitcher's spot in the order is up. The pitcher is Hugh Casey, he of the pitch that led to Mickey Owen's passed ball in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 4 of the 1941 World Series, between these same teams -- a game that was another contender for this list.
Dodger manager Burt Shotton sends Pete Reiser to the plate. A 3-time All-Star, a 2-time National League stolen base champion, and a former batting champion, injuries have left Reiser a shell of his former self. He had been playing on a badly injured ankle. But Shotton still has confidence in him.
Shotton also sends Al Gionfriddo in to pinch-run for Furillo, who, though a great right fielder with an arm that got him nicknamed "The Reading Rifle," was not fleet of foot. Gionfriddo does what Shotton expects of him, and steals 2nd base successfully. That leaves 1st base open. Two of baseball's "unwritten rules" have come into conflict here: You want to set up the force play at any base, but you don't want to put the winning run on base.
Yankee manager Bucky Harris, figuring Reiser's bad ankle makes him a baserunning liability, decides to walk him intentionally -- Bevens' 10th walk. Except Shotton is already a move ahead of Harris, and replaces him with speedy Eddie Miksis.
The next batter was supposed to be Eddie Stanky. Earlier in the year, Ewell Blackwell of the Cincinnati Reds had won 16 straight games. The 8th was a no-hitter. The 9th was against the Dodgers, and he was 2 outs away from matching his former Reds teammate Johnny Vander Meer with back-to-back no-hitters -- and against the same team Vander Meer completed his against in 1938, the Dodgers. But Stankey hit one up the middle, through Blackwell's legs, and the tall pitcher couldn't bend down in time to get it.
But Shotton plays another hunch, and replaces Stanky with Harry "Cookie" Lavagetto. A 4-time All-Star, Lavagetto was also nearing the end of the line. But he has enough left to smack a Bevens delivery to the opposite field, off the weirdly angled right field wall, and Tommy Henrich can't get to it in time. Henrich throws the ball back to the infield, but it is too late: Not only is the no-hitter gone, but Gionfriddo has scored the tying run, and Miksis has scored the winning run. Dodgers 3, Yankees 2. The Series is tied.
The Yankees won Game 5. The Dodgers won Game 6, with Gionfriddo making a spectacular catch off a drive by DiMaggio. The Yankees won Game 7, and Bevens was one of the pitchers they used. Neither Bevens, nor Gionfriddo, nor Lavagetto ever appeared in another major league game.
The Yankees had won. However, like 1948 (Game 1, Braves over Indians), 1975 (Game 6, Red Sox over Reds), and arguably 2001 (Games 4 and 5, Yankees over Diamondbacks), this World Series would be remembered most for a game won by the team that ultimately lost the Series.
5. October 13, 1960, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh: Game 7 of the World Series. We are approaching the 60th Anniversary of this epic. The way it ended sometimes obscures how wild the game, and the entire Series, was. The Yankees won Game 2 16-3, Game 3 10-0, and Game 6 12-0. But the Pittsburgh Pirates won Game 1 6-4, Game 4 3-2, and Game 5 5-2. In other words, the games the Yankees won, the average score was Yankees 13, Pirates 1; the games the Pirates won, the average score was Pirates 4, Yankees 3.
But they all counted the same, setting up a Game 7 that is sometimes called the greatest game in baseball history.
The Pirates take a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning, on a home run by Rocky Nelson. They make it 4-0 in the 2nd. Bill "Moose" Skowron leads off the top of the 5th with a home run to make it 4-1. The Yankees take a 5-4 lead in the top of the 6th, highlighted by a Yogi Berra home run, and make it 7-4 in the top of the 8th.
Now comes the bottom of the 8th, which renders this game not just a seesaw affair, but a crazy one. Gino Cimoli leads off with a single. Bill Virdon hits a ground ball that hits a pebble in the infamously bad Forbes Field infield. Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek seems to be perfectly placed to field it and turn a double play, erasing Cimoli and Virdon. But, after hitting the pebble, the ball jumps up and hits Kubek in the throat. He does down, and Virdon reaches 1st safely. Yankee manager Casey Stengel has to send Joe DeMaestri in to play shortstop.
Dick Groat singles Cimoli home. Stengel makes a pitching change, replacing Bobby Shantz with Jim Coates. Bob Skinner bunts the runners over. Coates gets Nelson to fly to left, and, with Forbes having dimensions very similar to the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium, Virdon has to stay on 3rd, Groat on 2nd. Roberto Clemente singles Virdon home. And then Hal Smith hits a home run to make it 9-7 Pirates.
But the Yankees have 1 more chance. Bobby Richardson leads off the top of the 9th with a single off Bob Friend. Dale Long, himself a former Pirate, also singles. Pirate manager Danny Murtaugh replaces Friend with Harvey Haddix. Roger Maris pops up for the 1st out. Mickey Mantle beats out a grounder to 2nd, and Richardson scores to make it 9-8. Long gets to 3rd. Gil McDougald is sent in to run for Long.
Yogi hits a sharp grounder to 1st. Nelson takes it and runs to 1st. Two out. No more force play. Mantle realizes that if he goes back to 1st, or if he runs to 2nd, it's a double play. Somehow, he quickly figures out what he can do: He fakes running toward 2nd, and Nelson begins the process of throwing to 2nd. This allows Mickey to dive back to 1st base safely. While this is happening, McDougald scores the tying run.
And Mickey is still on 1st, with the run that could win the World Series. But Skowron grounds to short, and Mickey ends up out at 2nd anyway. So it stays 9-9.
Stengel brings Ralph Terry in to pitch the bottom of the 9th. Bill Mazeroski leads off. If this at-bat had ended any other way, the 1st thing anyone would remember about Maz would be "best-fielding 2nd baseman of his generation, maybe of all time." Instead, he becomes the only man, to this day, after to win a World Series with a home run in the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 7. Pirates 10, Yankees 9.
The Yankees had outscored the Pirates 55-27. But it's not the most runs, it's the most wins. Mantle later said not only that he cried on the entire flight back to New York, but also that, of the 12 World Series he played in, this was the only one in which he thought the team that played better didn't win.
6. October 2, 1978, Fenway Park: American League Eastern Division Playoff. Another one on the short list for the title of "Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played." With the possible exception of the 1951 Giant-Dodger Playoff that ended with the Bobby Thomson home run, no single game has been written about more than this one.
The story is familiar. The Yankees were defending World Champions, but fell into dissension and injuries, while the Red Sox were running away with the AL East. The Yankees changed managers and got healthy, the Sox developed their own injuries, and the Yankees completed a comeback from 14 games back with a 4-game sweep at Fenway. The race came down to the end, and both teams finished with 99 wins, requiring the Playoff.
The game is relatively calm for 6 innings, with the Sox ahead 2-0. But the Fenway wind, which aided a Carl Yastrzemski drive that became a home run down the right field line, shifted. In the top of the 7th, the Yankees get 2 runners on. Bucky Dent breaks his bat and fouls a ball off his foot. He gets a replacement bat and, despite being the least likely home run hitter in the starting lineup, hits one to make it 3-2.
Sox fans like to talk about how Dent's replacement bat was corked, but they have no credibility when talking about other teams cheating.
The Yankees make it 5-2 in the 8th, but the Sox make it 5-4 in their half. The bottom of the 9th begins benignly when Dwight Evans flies to left. But Rick Burleson works Goose Gossage for a walk.
Jerry Remy hits a fly to right field. Today, this would be an easy out for Lou Piniella. But, back then, Fenway didn't have that big press box and luxury seating section behind home plate, which blocks out the Sun. This time, the Sun was in Lou's eyes. He can't see.
Desperate, he sticks his arms out like a hockey goalie, hoping the ball hits one of them. At the last instant, he sees the ball land in front of him, and he leans to his left and snatches it. Burleson, representing the tying run, doesn't know whether he's going to catch it, so has to hold up, and can only advance to 2nd, not 3rd.
Jim Rice flies to right, advancing Burelson to 3rd. Yastrzemski, one of the great clutch hitters of all time, comes up, but the Goose gets him to pop up to 3rd. As a Boston newspaper headline put it, "Desinty 5, Red Sox 4." The Yankees went on to win the World Series.
7. July 24, 1983, Yankee Stadium I, Bronx: The Pine Tar Game. This is not a crazy game for the 1st 8 innings. The Kansas City Royals score a run in the top of the 2nd. Dave Winfield ties it in the bottom half with a home run. The Royals make it 2-1 in the 4th, and 3-1 in the 6th. But the Yankees make it 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th.
With 2 outs in the top of the 9th, U L Washington (that's how his name is written, no periods) singles, and George Brett takes the Goose deep, to make it 5-4 Royals. But manager Billy Martin comes out to talk to the umpires, and, this time, Billy is in full control. He points out that Brett has pine tar on his bat, surpassing the legal limit.
The umpires measure it, and he's called out, restoring the 4-3 Yankee lead and ending the game. Brett has a fit, and has to be held back by his teammates, but there's nothing he can do.
His team files an appeal. Despite being a former Yankee general manager (and the son of another), AL President Lee MacPhail does something no League President had ever done before, or has since: He overruled his umpires. Unofficially, we have since seen, many times, that the baseball establishment considers it okay to cheat if you do it against the Yankees. This may be the only time when it's actually been made official.
MacPhail rules that the game must be resumed, with 2 outs in the top of the 9th and the Royals leading 5-4. An open date for both teams is found, August 18, and the game is resumed. Although an angry George Steinbrenner decided to let anybody with a ticket to the original version of the game into Yankee Stadium free of charge, since Yankee Fans have been screwed over by this as much as their team has, only about 1,200 people take him up on the offer.
Billy, a master of spite, decides that the game is already a farce, so he decides to deepen the point. He puts pitcher Ron Guidry in center field, and 1st baseman Don Mattingly at 2nd base -- making Mattingly one of the very few lefthanded-fielding 2nd basemen ever.
He then appeals at each base, suggesting that the runners hadn't touched them, and should be called out on that basis. But the umpire has a notarized affidavit signed by all the umpires from the original game, stating that all bases had been touched.
Brett was not in the game, either, because his ejection from the game was allowed to stand. Which makes no sense: In a real court of law, any crime committed by someone in response to a false charge gets thrown out. At any rate, he did not even show up for the resumption, instead going on to Baltimore, the Royals' next stop.
George Frazier strikes Hal McRae out to end the top of the 9th. Dan Quisenberry pitches the bottom of the 9th for the Royals. He gets Mattingly to fly to center, Roy Smalley to fly to left, and Oscar Gamble to ground to 2nd.
The game did have meaning in the standings: The Yankees were only 2 games behind Toronto in the AL East on July 24, while the Royals were 1 game behind the Texas Rangers in the AL West. As it turned out, though, none of those 4 teams won their Division: The Baltimore Orioles won the East, and the White Sox won the West, with the Orioles winning the Pennant, and then beating the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
8. August 29, 1986, Kingdome, Seattle: The Yankees are in another dogfight with the Red Sox for the AL East, and in another injury crisis. And the last thing they need is a Pacific Coast roadtrip. The Yankees always had trouble with the Kingdome, its awful artificial turf, its gray roof, and its lousy atmosphere.
They score 3 runs on the Seattle Mariners in the 1st inning, on a Mattingly homer, and a Rickey Henderson homer makes it 5-0 in the 2nd. But the normally reliable Guidry has an absolute meltdown in the bottom of the 2nd: Single, double, single, home run, groundout, single. Piniella is now the manager, and he replaces Guidry with Brian Fisher, who is no better: Single, single, walk, single, RBI groundout, single, flyout. Mariners 8, Yankees 5. After 2 innings.
Bob Shirley makes it worse in the 4th, 12-5 Seattle. Finally, the Yankees have had enough in the top of the 5th: Henderson leads off with another home run. Willie Randolph grounds out, but Mattingly and Dave Winfield work Mark Langston, normally a Yankee Killer, for a walk. Ron Kittle doubles Mattingly home. After a pitching change, Dan Pasqua singles home Winfield and Kittle. Wayne Tolleson reaches on an error. Claudell Washington grounds out, but Mike Easler reaches on another error, which scores Pasqua. 12-11 Seattle.
But Piniella has pinch-hit himself into a corner. Washington had batted for catcher Joel Skinner. Easler had pinch-hit for Mike Fischlin, who was already a backup shortstop. And Pasqua had pinch-hit for left fielder Gary Roenicke.
So rookie Juan Espino is sent behind the plate. Easler is left in the game to replace Roenicke. Tolleson is moved from 3rd base to shortstop. Pasqua is installed at 1st base. And, with the football mentality of "the best athlete," Piniella moves Mattingly to 3rd base. Mattingly is lefthanded, and because a lefty 3rd baseman would have to turn around to field a grounder and throw to 1st, there have been very few. But Lou guesses that Mattingly is his best remaining choice.
Sure enough, in the bottom of the 5th, Jim Presley hits a grounder right at Mattingly. Unfazed, he starts an inning-ending double play. In the 6th, Danny Tartabull and Ray Quinones hit grounders to 3rd, and Mattingly handles them. In the 8th, Phil Bradley and Presley both ground to 3rd, and Mattingly properly handles those.
Pasqua leads off the 7th with a game-tying home run. Winfield leads off the top of the 9th with a walk. Kittle flies out. Pasqua walks, sending Winfield to 2nd. Tolleson flies out. And Espino doubles to center, making it 13-12 Yankees, and putting Tim Stoddard in position to be the winning pitcher.
Bottom of the 9th. Dave Righetti on to close it out. Alvin Davis grounds to Mattingly, who fields his 6th chance at 3rd base without an error. I thought I remembered a Mariner bunting to test Mattingly, but none did. Bob Kearney flies to left. Quinones singles to center, and now, in the homer-happy Kingdome, the Mariners have the tying run on and the winning run on base. But the batter is Steve Yeager, once a catcher who played in 3 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Yankees, but now playing out the string in Seattle. He flies to right, and it was over.
It was the 32nd of 46 saves Righetti would notch that year, a single-season MLB record that he didn't hold for long. But it was the wildest game of a weird season for the Yankees, who ended up finishing 2nd to the Red Sox. This time, unlike 1949 and 1978, they could not overcome their injuries and the Red Sox.
9. July 1, 1990, 30 years ago today, Comiskey Park, Chicago: Now, I come to the reason behind this post, because this might be the craziest one of all. Imagine pitching a no-hitter, and losing 4-0. Andy Hawkins doesn't have to imagine it: He did it.
This is the Yankees' last game at Comiskey, which was closing after 80 years as home of the White Sox. They were in the middle of their worst season of my lifetime, one in which they would finish last for the 1st time since 1966 -- the only other times in their history being 1908 and 1912. George Steinbrenner had just been suspended from operating the team. This allowed Gene Michael to begin the process of rebuilding.
One of the guys who is part of that was Jim Leyritz, a catcher who had made his major league debut the day before, in a Yankee win. He played out of position, at 3rd base, and hit 2 home runs. But today, manager Carl "Stump" Merrill starts Leyritz in left field, a position he has literally never played before, at any level.
Both Hawkins and White Sox starter Greg Hibbard get through the 1st 4 innings without allowing a baserunner. But in a foreshadowing of what was to come, Hawkins walks 2 batters in the 5th. He gets out of it, though, and pitches a perfect 6th. He walks a batter in the 7th, but still doesn't allow a hit. And now, we could talk about it.
Of course, you can't say the word "no-hitter" while one is in progress, because that jinxes it. It is "the other N-word." Of course, lots of people say it, and the achievement ends up being completed anyway. And, according to baseball historian John Thorn, for some reason, the words "perfect game" can be spoken aloud without jinxing the achievement.
The Yankees got 2 singles in the top of the 6th, 2 more in the top of the 7th, and a player reached on an error in the top of the 8th. But the game is still scoreless when the bottom of the 8th began. And now, it is getting later in the day, and the Sun is right over Comiskey's roof, making it tough for the outfielders to see, not unlike the conditions in the 9th inning at Fenway during the Bucky Dent Game.
Hawkins gets first Ron Karkovice, then Scott Fletcher, to pop up to 2nd base, and it looks like the inning will end benignly, and give the Yankees the chance to win the game in the top of the 9th. What follows is one of the most shocking baseball sequences I've ever seen on WPIX-Channel 11, and I still have the videotape in my basement.
The batter is Sammy Sosa, not yet the steroid-riddled slugger who would thrill people under false pretenses across town at Wrigley Field. He hits a sharp grounder to 3rd, and Mike Blowers can't handle it. He picks it up and throws to 1st. Sosa dives headfirst, and beats the throw. There is no immediate decision from the official scorer, but it is ruled an error.
Sosa steals 2nd. Ozzie Guillen, later to manage the Pale Hose to their 2005 World Championship, draws a walk. Lance Johnson also works Hawkins for a walk, and now the bases are loaded with nobody out in a tie game -- despite Hawkins still having a no-hitter.
The batter is Robin Ventura, who would eventually make his mark in postseason play for both New York teams. This time, he hits a lazy fly ball to left field. But the Sun is making the ball hard to see. And Leyritz has never played the position before. He can't see the ball, even with sunglasses. He gets right under it, but closes his glove too early, and the ball bounces off his fingers and rolls away. All 3 runners score, and Ventura ends up on 2nd base.
And Hawkins still has the no-hitter. But he's losing 3-0. In the visiting team TV broadcast booth, Phil Rizzuto is "Holy cow"ing away, and George Grande, better known as an announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, tells the Scooter, "There isn't a hole deep enough that you want to crawl into." "You," of course, meaning Leyritz.
The batter is
Iván Calderón. He hits the ball to right field, where Jesse Barfield is one of the best fielders at the position. But the Sun bothers him, too, and the far more experienced outfielder makes the exact same mistake as the rookie Leyritz: He closes his mitt too early, and the ball hits it and rolls away. Ventura scores. It's 4-0 Chicago.
Rizzuto yells, "Holy cow, what's comin' off here?" Grande asks him if, in 50 seasons' involvement with the Yankees, he's ever seen anything like this before. He admits he hasn't. Finally, the inning ends when one of the heroes of the 1986 game in Seattle, Dan Pasqua, bats for the White Sox, and pops up to short.
I switch over to WOR-Channel 9, where the Mets are about to finish off the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Their announcers bring up what's happening at Comiskey. Ralph Kiner mentions that only 1 other pitcher has ever pitched a complete game no-hitter and lost, and says, "I think it was Ken Johnson." Tim McCarver, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and helping them win the World Series that year of 1964, confirms that it was the pitcher for the team then known as the Houston Colt .45's, becoming the Astros the next year: "It is Ken."
I switch back to Channel 11, and I see that the fight has gone out of the Yankees. Mattingly flies deep to center. Steve Balboni, a one-dimensional player (a slugger who struck out too much to justify it) who had no speed, reaches on an error, with some irony. Merrill sends Tolleson in to pinch-run for him. But Barfield, who certainly had power, doesn't help, grounding into a game-ending double play.
After the game, for WPIX, Hawkins is interviewed by, of all people, Tom Seaver. Now broadcasting for the Yankees, Seaver was "The Franchise" for the Mets, but pitched the only no-hitter of his career for the Reds. But even he, who has seen some remarkable things in his baseball life -- some good, some not -- finds this one, to borrow a Met adjective, amazing.
Hawkins is circumspect, accepting responsibility for walking batters and putting himself in position to lose, but knowing that now, he is a part of baseball history.
A year later, Major League Baseball convenes a committee to re-examine rules, and one of their decisions is that a game can only be defined as a "no-hitter" if the game is a complete game with no hits allowed. Not only does this mean that a player who pitches 9 no-hit innings, then loses the no-hitter in extra innings, no longer gets the credit for it, but Hawkins, who got credit for a complete game, lost credit for the no-hitter because he pitched "only" 8 innings. In other words, he got robbed.
The craziest game in the worst Yankee season of my lifetime -- and maybe the craziest game in any Yankee Fan's lifetime.
10. October 17, 1999, Fenway Park: Game 4 of the AL Championship Series is a similar story to that 1939 game at Fenway. This one was relatively quiet for 8 innings, after which the Yankees led 3-2. But Boston's bullpen and defense both collapsed. And 2nd base umpire Tim Tschida called Jose Offerman out when Chuck Knoblauch never touched him.
Sox fans were furious, and when the inning was capped by a home run by Ricky Ledee, making the score 9-2, the Fenway Faithful threw garbage onto the field. It took 12 minutes to get it all off. There was no threat of forfeiting the game to the Yankees, though.
There are few things that Yankee Fans and Red Sox fans can agree on. One is that Tschida was a lousy umpire. I saw him cost the Yankees a few games over the years, but never one as big as this. The Yankees clinched the next night, and Sox fans still believe the umpires screwed them. This is not true: The Sox made 10 errors in the 5 games. If New Englanders want to blame anyone for the Sox losing the Pennant to the Yankees, blame the Sox themselves.
11. October 16, 2003, Yankee Stadium I: Game 7 of the ALCS. Maybe I should make this a dual entry, with Game 3 of this series, at Fenway. Pedro Martinez, Karim Garcia, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Don Zimmer. I didn't think any postseason series, even Yankees vs. Red Sox, could top the 1999 ALCS for craziness, but by the end of Game 3, this one already had.
So the Yankees fall behind 4-0 to the cheating Red Scum in the 4th inning, Joe Torre gambles by taking Clemens out and replacing him with Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi hits 2 home runs to make it 4-2, and the David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, takes David Wells deep to make it 5-2, and the Sox are 5 outs away in the bottom of the 8th.
And that's when Pedro gets tired. Derek Jeter doubles to right. Bernie Williams singles him home. Sox manager Grady Little goes out to talk to Pedro, but instead of bringing the lefthanded Alan Embree in to pitch to the lefthanded Hideki Matsui and the switch-hitting, but not as good from the right side, Jorge Posada, leaves the righthanded Pedro in. Matsui hits a ground-rule double to right, and Posada doubles to center. Tie game.
Mariano Rivera gives it all he has for 3 innings. Tim Wakefield throws Aaron Boone a knuckleball to lead off the bottom of the 11th, and the Yankees win the Pennant.
12. July 1, 2004, 16 years ago today, Yankee Stadium I: "The Curse of the Bambino," if it ever existed, has one last gasp in it. Unfortunately, it doesn't save that for the postseason. It saved it for this regular-season clash at the big ballyard in The Bronx.
The Yankees enter the top of the 6th with a 3-1 lead, aided by home runs off Pedro by Tony Clark and Posada. But the Sox tie it in the top of the 7th, including a home run by Manny. The Yankees strand men on 1st and 2nd in the 7th, and the bases loaded with 1 out in the 9th, sending the game to extra innings.
Mariano only pitches 2 innings this time, holding the Sox scoreless. The Yankees strand men on 2nd and 3rd in the 10th. The Sox get men on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 12th, and Trot Nixon sends a ball foul toward left field. Derek Jeter races over, catches it, and seems to fly into the stands.
There had been occasions when people had called Jeter "Superman." This time, he actually seemed to fly. But he landed face-first onto a seat, and was bleeding. Maybe he wasn't Superman. Maybe he was Batman.
Miguel Cairo leads off the bottom of the 12th with a triple, and the Yankees ended up loading the bases with 1 out again, but couldn't get a run home. In the top of the 13th, Manny leads off the top of the 13th with another home run, and the Sox lead 4-3. Curtis Leskanic gets the 1st 2 outs in the bottom of the 13th, and it looks like this crazy game will end quietly.
It doesn't. Ruben Sierra singles up the middle. Cairo doubles him home to tie it. And John Flaherty hits a long fly ball into the left-field corner, and Cairo scores. Yankees 5, Red Sox 4, completing a sweep.
Flaherty has built his broadcasting career on this one hit. Then again, Fran Healy was a backup catcher who built a broadcasting career on less than that.
The Red Sox used all their nonpitchers, except for their alleged best player, Nomar Garciaparra. Soon, they traded him. And their World Championship * was on.
Were the games in the 2004 ALCS crazy? Yes. Would they have been less so had the Sox not cheated? Almost certainly.
13. May 16, 2006, Yankee Stadium I: Going into the bottom of the 2nd inning, it is Texas Rangers 9, Yankees 0. There is no hope. Well, according to
Baseball-Reference.com, there was a 2 percent chance of the Yankees winning the game. As the meme goes, "So, you're saying, there's a chance."
The Yankees score a run in the bottom of the 2nd. But the Rangers score again in the top of the 3rd. 10-1 Texas. The Yankees score 2 in the bottom of the 3rd, then 2 more in the bottom of the 5th. Then they break it open in the bottom of the 6th, including a home run by Jeter, and took an 11-10 lead. In the space of 9 at-bats, 1 go-through of the lineup, their chance of winning go from 9 percent to 72 percent.
Apparently, the Rangers don't like that math. It didn't help that Torre does something he did far too often: Bring Scott Proctor in to pitch. The 1st 2 batters he faces are Kevin Mench, who draws a walk, and Brad Wilkerson, who hits a home run. 12-11 Texas.
But singles by Johnny Damon and Jeter, and a sacrifice fly by Posada, tie the game in the bottom of the 7th. The game is still tied going into the 9th, but Mariano blows it: Single, sac bunt, walk, double. 13-12 Texas.
Bottom of the 9th. Damon leads off with a single. But Jeter grounds back to the pitcher, and Alex Rodriguez flies out to center. Now, in spite of the tying run being at 2nd and the winning run at the plate, the Yankees' chances of winning are 15 percent. Jorge Posada goes all Han Solo: "Never tell me the odds!" Here's John Sterling's call:
Swung on, and hit in the air to deep right! The ball is high! It is far! It is gone! It is a bottom of the 9th, 2-out, 2-run walkoff home run for Posada! Jorgie juiced one! He hits a 2-run home run to elevate the Yankees from a 13-12 loss to a 14-13 win! Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!
14. June 12, 2009, Yankee Stadium II, Bronx: The new Stadium is only 2 months old, and already, it needs an exterminator. Vermin are in the house. Unwanted pests. Not just the New York Mets, but their disgusting fans.
Robinson Cano opens the scoring with a home run in the 2nd. The Mets take a 2-1 lead in the top of the 3rd. In the bottom of the 3rd, Mark Teixeira hits one out to tie it up. Former Yankee Gary Sheffield homers in the top of the 5th to make it 6-3 Mets. Jeter homers in the bottom of the 5th to make it 6-4. In the bottom of the 6th, Cano singles, Posada walks, and Matsui cranks one. 7-6 Yankees.
But the Mets tie it in the top of the 7th, and take an 8-7 lead in the top of the 8th. That lead holds into the bottom of the 9th. Francisco Rodriguez, a.k.a. K-Rod, who had driven the Yankees nuts while pitching for the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels, gets Brett Gardner to pop up. Jeter singles and steals 2nd, but Damon strikes out. Teixeira is intentionally walked to set up the force play at any base (except home plate).
The batter is A-Rod, and he pops up to short right field. The least clutch player in baseball history (or so it seems) has blown it again. He knows it. He slams his bat down. Met 2nd baseman Luis Castillo drifts back. Perhaps not the easiest of plays, but it's one that a major league infielder should be able to make.
Castillo doesn't make it. He drops the ball. Jeter, running on the 2-out pitch, scores easily. Teix, not a fast runner, was running all the way, and he scores. Yankees 9, Mets 8. This is probably more of an ignominious loss for Met fans than it is a great win for Yankee Fans, but, after the way they treated us in the 1980s, and talked trash during the 1999 and 2000 postseasons, they deserve it.
15. April 21, 2012, Fenway Park: Since the Yankees had been the opponent for the Back Bay ballyard's 1st game, the schedule was set up so that they would be the opponent for its official 100th Anniversary game. That had been the day before, and, unlike that April 20, 1912 game, the Yankees won.
This time, it looks like the Sox will get revenge. They score 2 in the 1st inning, 3 in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd and 2 in the 5th, making it 9-0 Boston. As the top of the 6th opens, the Yankees have less than a 1 percent chance of winning.
They get a run in that inning. Then they roll a couple of 7s. With 1 out in the top of the 7th, they get single, single, walk, home run by Nick Swisher, double, reach on an error, home run by Teixeira. 7 runs, 6 hits, 1 walk, 1 error. Leading off the top of the 8th: Single, walk, double, intentional walk, unintentional walk, ground-rule double, intentional walk, double, double, single, stolen base, single. 7 runs, 6 hits, 4 walks, no errors.
Yankees 15, Red Sox 9. The lead is
so big (How big
is it?), even Boone Logan can't blow it. Logan gets the Sox out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th. But Joe Girardi leaves the lefty in to face the lefty Ortiz to lead off the 9th, and Big Papi singles. That's enough for Girardi: He brings Cody Eppley in to finish he game, and he gets a double play and a strikeout to put it in the books.
