October 27, 1999: The Yankees Close Out as the Team of the Century

"Past Tense," a two-part episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, aired on December 31, 1994 and January 7, 1995. It was a time-travel episode set in 2024, and when the subject of the greatest baseball team ever came up, one of the characters who belonged to that time said it was the 1999 New York Yankees. Another said it was the 2015 London Kings, and Captain Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, agreed with him.

In real life, at the dawn of 1995, the Yankees hadn't won the World Series since 1978. But they won in 1996, and put together an all-time great season in 1998, before winning it all again in 1999 and 2000. The '96 team is remembered as the one that ended a drought, the '98 team is often held up as one of the best ever, and the 2000 team is remembered as winning a "Subway Series" against the crosstown New York Mets. But the '99 Yankees kind of got lost in the shuffle. So they got more respect before they played than after!

October 27, 1999: The Yankees defeat the Atlanta Braves‚ 4-1 at Yankee Stadium‚ to win their 25th World Championship. Roger Clemens gets the win‚ hurling 4-hit ball before leaving the game in the 8th inning, to finally get his first World Series ring, 13 years after his only previous appearance, with the ill-fated '86 Red Sox.

Mariano Rivera gets the save‚ his 2nd of the Series. Jim Leyritz hits a solo homer in the 8th, the last home run, and the last run, in baseball in the 20th Century. The last out is Keith Lockhart flying out to left field, where the ball is caught by Game 3's hero, Chad Curtis. Rivera wins the Series' Most Valuable Player award.

It is also the last major league game for New York baseball legend -- if not quite "hero" -- Darryl Strawberry, who goes 1-for-3 as the Yankees' designated hitter, his last hit a single off John Smoltz in the 2nd inning.

Four years earlier, as the final out was registered of the 1995 World Series, NBC's Bob Costas called the Braves "The Team of the Nineties." That label made sense at the time. Going into this Series, in the decade, the Braves had won 8 Division Titles and 5 Pennants, but just that 1 World Series; the Yankees had won 3 Division Titles (4 counting the strike-shortened 1994), 3 Pennants and 2 World Series.

This Series decided it, and in indisputable fashion, as the Yanks were now 2-0 over the Braves in Series play in the decade. This time, after the final out, Costas got it right: "The New York Yankees. World Champions. Team of the Decade. Most successful franchise of the Century."

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October 27, 1999 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 6 days later. There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders lost to the Florida Panthers, 6-3 at the National Car Rental Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The New Jersey Devils beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the Continental Airlines Arena at the Meadowlands.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 1-0 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 4-0 at the Air Canada Centre (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Marine Midland Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center). Teemu Selänne scored the winning goal with 1:22 left in overtime.

Among the games played that night in the Group Stage of European soccer's UEFA Champions League, AFC Fiorentina, the team in Florence, Italy, beat Arsenal, 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in London. This defeat essentially knocked Arsenal out of the competition, "relegating" them to that season's UEFA Cup (the tournament now known as the UEFA Europa League), in which they reached the Final before losing.

With the recent expansion of the CL to include teams that hadn't won their country's national league the season before, the team's ownership decided that their North London stadium, the 38,000-seat Highbury, was too small to meet the demand for tickets, so they moved their home CL games to the old Wembley, where crowds exceeded 73,000.

But that stadium was badly in need of replacement, and closed a year later, to be torn down and replaced by a new stadium that opened in 2007. That forced Arsenal to hold future CL games at Highbury, which led them to decide to build a larger stadium. The 60,000-seat Emirates Stadium opened in 2006.

October 23, 1996: The Jim Leyritz Game II

October 23, 1996: Game 4 of the World Series, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The Atlanta Braves rock New York Yankees starter Kenny Rogers, and lead 6-0. The Yankees close to within 6-3, but in the top of the 8th, they are 4 outs away from being down 3 games to 1 in the Series, their great season coming to a very disappointing close.

But they get 2 runners on, and backup catcher Jim Leyritz comes to bat against Braves closer Mark Wohlers. After throwing 98- and 99-mile-per-hour fastballs that Leyritz can only foul off, Wohlers hangs an 86-mile-per-hour slider. Leyritz, a postseason hero for the Yankees a year earlier with his 15th-inning walkoff homer in the Division Series against Seattle, knocks it over the left-field fence to tie the game.

The Yankees load the bases in the 10th, and Hall of Fame 3rd baseman Wade Boggs, whom Torre had benched in favor of Charlie Hayes due to his usual magnificent hitting having failed him, is sent up to pinch-hit. Boggs draws one of the most important walks in baseball history, and it's 7-6 Yanks. An error makes the final score 8-6 Yanks.

Not since the 1929 Cubs, going from 8-0 up to 10-8 down in the 7th inning of Game 4, had a team blown a 6-run lead in a Series game. The Yankees were in serious trouble, but now the Series is tied, and anything can happen. In this 1996 season, lots of "anythings" have already happened for the Yankees.

The next night, Game 5 was, regardless of result, the last event at Fulton County Stadium, as the Braves were moving into the next-door Turner Field the next season. The Yankees won, 1-0. Two nights later, they won Game 6 at Yankee Stadium, 3-2, completing their remarkable comeback, and winning their 23rd World Series.

The Yankees traded Leyritz in 1997. He helped the San Diego Padres reach the World Series in 1998 -- against the Yankees. In 1999, the Yankees reacquired him, and he helped them with another World Series, hitting what turned out to be the last home run of the 20th Century in Game 4. This led NBC's Bob Costas to say, "You could send this guy to a resort in the spring and summer, as long as he comes back for October." His career ended in 2000 with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Leyritz has had his ups and downs since. In 2006, he admitted that he'd used amphetamines while playing -- legal at the time, and not nearly as performance-enhancing as steroids. (So if you want to invalidate the Yankees' 1996 and 1999 World Championships because of this, you shouldn't.) In 2007, he killed another driver in a drunken crash. He ended up serving 10 days in jail and a year's probation. In 2009, he was charged with domestic violence for hitting his wife, although she later dropped the charges (but also dropped him through divorce -- they had 4 children).

In 2011, he was a coach for the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League. In 2012, he worked for the Yankee front office. He lives in the Orange County suburbs of Los Angeles, with his new wife, Michelle, his 3 kids and her 2. He co-hosts a radio show in Los Angeles for SB Nation Radio.

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October 23, 1996 was a Wednesday. Football was in midweek. The NBA season started 9 days later. There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators, 5-2 at the Miami Arena.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Dallas Stars, 4-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* And the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

October 4, 1995: The Jim Leyritz Game I

October 4, 1995: Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. It begins at 8:06 PM, with Phil Rizzuto throwing out a ceremonial first ball. It includes the 1st of 44 postseason starts by Andy Pettitte; and home runs by Ken Griffey Jr. and Vince Coleman for the Seattle Mariners; and, for the Yankees, Ruben Sierra, Don Mattingly (leading ABC announcer Gary Thorne to yell: "Aw, hang onto the roof! Goodbye, home run!"), Paul O'Neill and, at 1:22 AM, in the bottom of the 15th inning, through raindrops, Jim Leyritz, off Tim Belcher. Yankees 7, Mariners 5.

It is the 1st postseason walkoff homer at Yankee Stadium since Chris Chambliss won the Pennant 19 years earlier. The Yankees lead the M's 2 games to none, and need just 1 win in Seattle to take the series. But they won't get it.

*

October 4, 1995 was a Wednesday. All 4 Division Series had their Game 2s played on this day:

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Jacobs Field (now Progressive Field) in Cleveland. Former Dodger hero Orel Hershiser pitched 7 1/3rd innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and was supported by a home run from former Baltimore Oriole hero Eddie Murray.

Also on this day, The Drew Carey Show, set in Cleveland and starring comedian Drew Carey, a Cleveland native, airs the episode "Nature Abhors a Vacuum." In it, Drew (playing a fictionalized, less successful version of himself) remarks on the Indians' having reached their 1st postseason in 41 years, "Finally, it's everyone else's team that sucks!"

In the National League, the Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies, 7-4 at Coors Field in Denver. The Rockies had done well to make the Playoffs in only their 3rd year of play, but the Braves were too strong for them.

And the Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Reds would win this series, but, through 2022, have not won a postseason series since.

July 1, 1990: The Andy Hawkins Game

Andy Hawkins, July 1, 1990

July 1, 1990: Imagine pitching a no-hitter, and losing 4-0. Andy Hawkins doesn't have to imagine it: He did it.

This was the New York Yankees' last game at Comiskey Park, which was closing after 80 years as home of the Chicago White Sox. The Yankees were in the middle of a season in which they would finish last for the 1st time since 1966 -- the only other times in their history being 1908 and 1912. So it remains the only time in this writer's lifetime that the Yankees have finished last. 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.

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, "Oh, he dropped the ball, too! 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 former Yankee 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 Wayne 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 (as Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates famously did with a 12-inning perfect game in 1959), no longer gets the credit for it, but Hawkins lost credit for the no-hitter because he pitched "only" 8 innings. In other words, he got robbed. He got credit for a complete game, because he was the only pitcher that his team used in the game, and allowed no hits in a complete game; but, because it wasn't 9 innings, he didn't get credit for a no-hitter.

The craziest game in the worst Yankee season of my lifetime -- and maybe the craziest game in any Yankee Fan's lifetime.

*

July 1, 1990 was a Sunday. In addition to the games mentioned above -- White Sox 4, Yankees 0 and Mets 3, Reds 2 -- these games were played in Major League Baseball that day:

* The Montreal Expos beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-1 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 15-4 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 8-4 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angeles, 5-3 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Kansas City royals, 9-4 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 11-10 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-5 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-5 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-5 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Matt Sinatra wins it by drawing a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Also, the World Cup was being played in Italy, and it had reached the Quarterfinal round. England beat Cameroon, 3-2 after extra time, at the Stadio San Paolo in Naples. And West Germany beat Czechoslovakia, 1-0 at the San Siro in Milan. Both winning goals were scored on penalties: Lothar Matthäus for West Germany in the 25th minute, and Gary Lineker for England in the 105th.

A weird fact: The referee for West Germany (which was about to reconsolidate with East Germany following the previous November's fall of the Berlin Wall) vs. Czechoslovakia (a country that would split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia 2 1/2 years later) was named Helmut Kohl -- the same name as the man then Chancellor of Germany. This Helmut Kohl, however, was from Austria, and thus neutral.

West Germany would beat England in the Semifinal in Turin, and then reverse their defeat in the 1986 Final by beating defending Champions Argentina in Rome.