November 4, 2001: Game 7 of the World Series, at Bank One Ballpark (now Chase Field) in Phoenix. Although the record has been tied, this remains the latest date that a Major League Baseball game that counts has ever been played.
Arizona had never won a World Championship in any sport. But then, being such a hot place, it took them a while to get untracked. While the 48th State had been a Spring Training site since the 1920s, it wasn't until the NBA expanded in 1968, with the birth of the Phoenix Suns, that they reached the major leagues. They had usually been good, and had reached the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993, but had never won the title.
The climate -- the old joke is "but it's a dry heat" -- made Arizona an unlikely place to be home to a hockey team. There had been minor-league teams, and then, in 1974, the Phoenix Roadrunners were created for the World Hockey Association. They lasted only 3 years.
In 1988, the NFL version of the St. Louis Cardinals moved, becoming the Phoenix Cardinals, with the name changed to the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. That opened Phoenix up as a market, and in 1996, the Winnipeg Jets moved to become the Phoenix Coyotes, with the name changed to the Arizona Coyotes in 2014. It wasn't hard to notice that, in that city, the Roadrunners had been replaced by the Coyotes.
In 1995, Major League Baseball expanded, with the Arizona Diamondbacks to begin play in 1998. They won the National League Western Division in only their 2nd season. In 2001, their 4th season, they won the Pennant.
In contrast, New York was a city of championships, and the New York Yankees had won the World Series 26 times, including the last 3 seasons and 4 of the last 5. And while Arizona needed a title because they'd never had one, New York needed it to help it heal after the terrorist attack on September 11. The Yankees won their Division, then needed a stirring comeback to defeat the Oakland Athletics in the American League Division series, before dispatching the 116-win Seattle Mariners for the Pennant, setting up the 2001 World Series.
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Game 1 in Phoenix was bad for the Yankees. They struck first, but Curt Schilling settled down. The D-backs scored a run in the 1st, 4 in the 3rd and 4 in the 4th, to knock Mike Mussina out of the box. Arizona 9, New York 1.
Game 2 was less embarrassing for the Yankees, but no better. Randy Johnson limited them to 3 hits. Andy Pettitte gave up a home run to Matt Williams, making him the 1st player to hit home runs in World Series play for 3 different teams. (He had done so for San Francisco in 1989 and Cleveland in 1997.) Arizona 4, New York 0.
Game 3, in The Bronx. It was October 30. Never before had a game that counted started this late in the year. This Series was the 3rd time one had gone to October 28. The Yankees needed to turn it around. They did. Jorge Posada hit a home run to back Roger Clemens, who allowed only 3 hits. New York 2, Arizona 1.
Game 4. It was the 1st time a Major League Baseball game that counted was played on Halloween. And, just perfect for the occasion, the Moon was in its full phase. Mark Grace, long the 1st baseman for the Chicago Cubs, who had fallen short with them in the postseason in 1989 and 1998, was now with the Diamondbacks, and was caught on TV saying, "Full Moon! You know what that means: Strange things happen!"
Schilling went back out for the Diamondbacks. Orlando "El Duque" Hernández started for the Yankees. Both had their good stuff. But it was 3-1 Diamondbacks going to the bottom of the 9th. Arizona manager Bob Brenly sent his closer, Korean submarine righthanded Byung-Hyun Kim, to get the last 3 outs.
But with the Yankees down to their last out, albeit with Paul O'Neill on base, Tino Martinez hit a drive toward the bleachers. The ball bounced off the outstretched hand of a fan, but still well over the fence. (This was not another "Jeffrey Maier incident.") Tie game. I've often wondered about that fan: On the one hand, you were there for a great moment in Yankee history. On the other hand -- or off it -- you had a chance to catch the ball, and not only didn't you, but you probably hurt said hand in the process!
Derek Jeter came to bat in the bottom of the 10th, with Kim still on the mound. The clock struck midnight. The scoreboard read, "WELCOME TO NOVEMBER BASEBALL." At 12:03 AM, Jeter cranked a screaming line drive to right-center. It JUST got over the fence. New York 4, Arizona 3. The old ballyard, in its 77th season of play (over 79 years, as it was renovated in 1974 and '75), was shaking.
A fan, knowing that the game could go to extra innings, and thus last beyond midnight, and knowing that somebody would be the hero, pulled out a sign he had made, reading, "MR. NOVEMBER," and held it up as Jeter rounded the bases.
Game 5. The 1st official MLB game with a date of November. Neither starting pitcher showed any ill effects: Not Mussina from his Game 1 pounding, not Miguel Batista from not having pitched in 12 days. But the game went to the bottom of the 9th, with the Diamondbacks leading 2-0.
Brenly sent Kim back out. He gave up a leadoff double to Posada, then got the next 2 outs, to bring the Yankees to their last out. The batter was Scott Brosius. The Yankees traded for him because of his glove, but he got a lot of key hits for them. He played 4 seasons for the Yankees. In all 4 seasons, the Yankees won the Pennant. In all 4 seasons, he hit at least 1 home run in the World Series. He did it again, sending the ball deep to left field. Tie ballgame. Again, the old Yankee Stadium shook, leaving some to wonder if it could survive the passion of Yankee Fans.
Kim had now given up 3 home runs, that were crushing in emotion if not quite in distance. Even Yankee Fans felt for him. Brenly took him out, and brought in Albie Lopez. The game went to the 12th inning, and Alfonso Soriano singled home Chuck Knoblauch. New York 3, Arizona 2, also the difference in games.
In the entire history of the World Series, from 1903 to 2000, only twice had a team down to its last out in the bottom of the 9th, trailing by 2 runs, come from behind to win: The 1911 New York Giants, who ended up losing the Series to the Philadelphia Athletics, anyway; and the 1929 A's, who did it to the Chicago Cubs in the clincher. Now, the Yankees had done it on back-to-back days.
The Yankees had more momentum than any team could dare ask for. All they had to do was win 1 out of 2 in Phoenix, and they would have Title 27.
They couldn't win Game 6. The Diamondbacks crushed Pettitte, and "Big Unit" Johnson slapped the Yankees down. Arizona 15, New York 2. It was the worst loss in the Yankees' postseason history.
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November 4, 2001. Sunday night. Game 7. Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. It started as a duel between 2 of the greatest pitchers of the era -- and, in hindsight, the era's 2 most controversial pitchers: Roger Clemens for the New York Yankees, and Curt Schilling for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Unlike other sports, especially college football, baseball has never had a media establishment that previews games as "The Game of the Century." After all, if a Series goes to 7 games, then, theoretically, the aces could face each other 3 times. But this did have that kind of feel to it -- even if, depending on how you measure it, this was only the 1st or 2nd calendar year of the 21st Century.
Both lived up to the occasion and the matchup, and pitched very well: Schilling held the Yankees to 1 run on 4 hits over the 1st 7 innings, while Clemens held the Diamondbacks to 1 run on 7 hits before Yankee manager Joe Torre called on Mike Stanton to get the last 2 outs in the top of the 7th.
Diamondback manager Bob Brenly stuck with Schilling for the top of the 8th, with the game tied 1-1 It looked like a mistake, as Soriano hit a home run. It was 2-1 Yankees, and it looked like Soriano had become one of the biggest World Series heroes ever: He was now the man who had hit the 2nd-latest home run in World Series history, behind only Bill Mazeroski's bottom-of-the-9th homer to beat the Yankees for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1960. (Remember: This was Game 7, and Joe Carter's Series-clinching homer of 1993 was in Game 6.)
Brenly brought Johnson, who'd already beaten the Yankees in Games 2 and 6, in to relieve. Less than one day's rest? It's Game 7: Win or lose, there's no tomorrow, and you've got until late February to rest.
Torre relieved Stanton by sending supercloser Mariano Rivera out for a 2-inning save. He'd gotten away with that 5 times in this postseason. This was the 6th time he'd tried it. It was still 2-1 Yankees in the bottom of the 9th, and Mariano needed to get just 3 more outs to give the Yankees their 4th straight World Championship, their 5th in the last 6 years, their 27th overall.
Mark Grace led off with a single to center. Brenly sent David Dellucci in to pinch-run for him. Damian Miller grounded back to Mariano, who threw to 2nd to start a double play -- and threw the ball away. Tying run on 2nd. World Series-winning run on 1st.
At this point, I already knew the game was lost. As Doris Kearns Goodwin, who grew up on Long Island as a Brooklyn Dodger fan and then became a Red Sox fan while in graduate school at Harvard, put it, "There's always these omens in baseball." Mariano had gotten the job done so many times. He would get it done many more times to come. This time, it was not meant to be.
Brenly rolled the dice, and went for the win in this inning, sending Jay Bell up to pinch-hit for the Big Unit. Bell bunted, and Mariano threw to 3rd to get Dellucci on a force. The tying run was still on 2nd, the World Series-winning run was on 1st, but now there was 1 out. Just need to get 2 more.
Mariano wouldn't get his next 2 outs until April 3, 2002 -- 5 months later, or 148 days.
Brenly sendt Midre Cummings in to pinch-run for Miller at 2nd. Tony Womack doubled down the right field line. Cummings scored the tying run. Bell reached 3rd with the run that could win the Series, and could score on as little as a sacrifice fly, or an error.
Craig Counsell, who had been the man who drove in the tying run and scored the winning run for the Florida Marlins in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series -- at this point, the only World Series won since 1995 by a team other than the Yankees -- came up with the chance to be the hero again. Mariano hit him with a pitch. Not known as a purpose pitcher, Mariano was, for one of the very few times in his career, rattled.
Up stepped Luis Gonzalez. A man whose seasonal home run totals had been 13 at age 23, 10 at 24, 15 at 25 (okay, he was playing his home games in the Houston Astrodome), 8 at 26 (1994, strike-shortened season), 13 at 27, 15 at 28 (the last 2 as a Chicago Cub, and remember that the wind blows in at Wrigley Field half the time), 10 at 29 (back in Houston, still in the Astrodome), and then...
He hit 23 home runs at age 30. Yes, he was now playing for the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium, but this was also 1998. The year of whatever it was that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were using to hit 70 and 66 home runs, respectively. Gonzalez hit 26 at 31, and 31 at 32. Very good, but no big deal -- until you realize that those last 2 years were with the Diamondbacks, playing their home games at "The BOB," which, like the Astrodome but unlike most other indoor stadiums, is a bad ballpark for hitters.
At age 34, Gonzalez hit 28 homers. At 35, 26. At 36, 17. At 37, 24. At 38 and 39, 15 both times. He closed his career with 8 homers at age 40 in 2006. Respectable numbers -- if they were achieved honestly.
In 2001, at age 33, the year of Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs, Luis Gonzalez hit 57 home runs. That's 26 more than he had ever hit before, and 29 more than he would ever hit again. People talk about Brady Anderson hitting 50 in 1996, when he'd only topped 16 once before, had never topped 21, and would never top 24 again nor 19 but once, and they suspected steroids.
What Luis Gonzalez did on the night of November 4, 2001 did not suggest steroids. Just as Bobby Thomson said that, 50 years earlier, he didn't need help to know that Ralph Branca was going to throw a meaty fastball. Doesn't mean Thomson didn't take advantage of the help that the Giants had been offering for the last few weeks. And it doesn't mean that Gonzalez hadn't been using steroids since 1998.
Gonzalez hit a looper into center field for a base hit. Bell scored the run that won the World Series for the Diamondbacks, in only their 4th season. Arizona 3, New York 2.
Schilling and Johnson were named Co-Most Valuable Players for the World Series. Sports Illustrated named them Sportsmen of the Year. In Schilling's case, that turned out to be retroactively problematic.
At the time, I was terribly disappointed. But not crushed. The Yankees had given me countless memories to treasure since the start of the 1996 season, including in Games 4 and 5 of this World Series. And there were a lot of really good players on that Diamondback team who had played for a long time, some with awful teams, and had struggled to get to this point, and (I thought) really deserved it. Grace with the Cubs. Johnson with the Mariners. Schilling with the Philadelphia Phillies. Gonzalez with the Astros. Bell and Womack with the Pirates. Matt Williams with the San Francisco Giants and the Cleveland Indians.
In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 9th on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.
For the Yankees, Paul O'Neill and Scott Brosius retired, and Tino Martinez and Chuck Knoblauch were allowed to leave via free agency. In this game, O'Neill went 2-for-3, including a single in his last at-bat in the 7th inning; Knoblauch flew out pinch-hitting for O'Neill in the 8th; Brosius went 0-for-3; and Tino went 1-for-4. (Tino and Luis Gonzalez were teammates at Thomas Jefferson High School in Tampa.)
So 4 starters, nearly half the Yankee lineup, had to be replaced. While the Yankees did win the next 5 American League Eastern Division titles, including a glorious Pennant win in 2003, this game had a true "end of an era" feel, emphasized by Buster Olney, then of The New York Times, when he titled his book about the 1996-2001 Yankees, and especially this game, The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty.
Some Yankee Fans were heartbroken. Not me. I was drained, and felt nothing. When I recovered, I was happy that some of the good guys in the game got their rings. I was over it fairly quickly, and by Opening Day 2002, I was really optimistic again.
Over the next few years, things would change, and make this defeat something to get really angry about. Williams would be revealed as a caught steroid user. Gonzalez would call a press conference and angrily deny that he had used them, after a newspaper article danced around the question of whether he did. Although never publicly revealed to have been caught, people have often wondered about Johnson and Schilling, chosen the co-Most Valuable Players of this Series.
And, of course, accusations have also been leveled at some of the Yankees from this Series, including Clemens (the proof has still never been publicly revealed), Knoblauch (who admitted taking human-growth hormone, or HGH, but also said that it hurt more than it helped, which doesn't take him completely off the hook, but hardly makes him a cheater on the level of, say, David Ortiz), and Andy Pettitte (the one thing that can be proven was a brief moment the next season, which didn't help the Yankees win a Pennant).
But no one suggests the D-backs' win was "tainted." Indeed, until the non-steroid cheating scandals of the 2017 Houston Astros and the 2018 Boston Red Sox (linked by the presence of Alex Cora), the only team whose World Series wins or Pennants are said to not be fairly won are the Yankees.
Take out all suspected cheaters, and declare their World Series wins vacant, and, between 1996 and 2013, you've got the '02 Angels, the '05 White Sox, the '06 and '11 Cardinals, the '08 Phillies; , and the '10 and '12 Giants. That's it: 7 out of 18. Extend it to 2018, and there go the '18 Red Sox, so it becomes 10 out of 23.
Unless you're prepared to vacate the titles won by the Diamondbacks in 2001; the Marlins in 1997 (Gary Sheffield) and 2003 (Ivan Rodriguez); and the Red Sox in 2004, 2007 and 2013 (David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez for the 1st 2), then don't tell me the Yankees cheated.
In a small bit of irony, Jay Bell later worked in the Yankees' organization. He managed the Tampa Yankees of the Class A Florida State League in 2017, the Trenton Thunder of the Class AA Eastern League in 2018, and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees of the Class AAA International League in 2019. He now manages in the Angels' organization.
UPDATE: Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, Diamondbacks founding owner Jerry Colangelo, and executives Roland Hemond have all been elected to the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame. So has Derrick Hall, who joined the team as an executive in 2005. The team has retired the Number 20 of Gonzalez and the Number 51 of Johnson, and those are the 1st 2 inductees into their team Hall of Fame.
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November 4, 2001 was a Sunday. These games were played in the NFL:
* The New York Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys, 27-24 at Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands.
* The New York Jets beat the New Orleans Saints, 16-9 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
* The Baltimore Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 13-10 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore.
* The Washington Redskins beat the Seattle Seahawks, 27-14 at FedEx Field (now Northwest Stadium) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.
* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Buffalo Bills, 30-14 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.
* The New England Patriots beat the Atlanta Falcons, 24-10 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
* The Miami Dolphins beat the Carolina Panthers, 23-6 at Pro Player Stadium in the Miami suburb of Miami Gardens, Florida. (It's now named Hard Rock Stadium.)
* The Tennessee Titans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 28-24 at Adelphia Coliseum in Nashville. (It's now named Nissan Stadium.)
* The Chicago Bears beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-21 in overtime at old Soldier Field in Chicago.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 21-20 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Arizona Cardinals, 21-7 at Sun Devil Stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe, Arizona.
* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers, 25-20 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Detroit Lions, 21-13 at Candlestick Park (then named 3Com Park at Candlestick Point) in San Francisco.
* In the Monday Night Football game the following night, the Denver Broncos beat the Oakland Raiders, 38-28 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).
* And the Cincinnati Bengals, the Minnesota Vikings and the St. Louis Rams had a bye. An odd number of teams with a bye? Yes: This was the last of 3 seasons in which the NFL had 31 teams, between the restoration of the Browns in 1999 and the start of the Houston Texans in 2002.
There were 7 games played in the NBA that day:
* The Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers, 113-100 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. (It's now named the Scotiabank Centre.)
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Washington Wizards, 100-78 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 94-85 at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis. Juwan Howard scored 36 points for the Mavs.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Phoenix Suns, 103-100 at the AmericaWest Arena in Phoenix. (It's now named the Mortgage Matchup Center.) Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway scored 31 in a losing effort for the Suns.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Utah Jazz, 100-96 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypto.com Arena.) Kobe Bryant scored 38 for the Lakers.
* The Golden State Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 96-86 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland).
* And the Sacramento Kings beat the San Antonio Spurs, 103-85 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento. (It's now named the Sleep Train Arena.)
There were 4 games played in the NHL:
* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 1-0 at the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Center. (It's now named the Lenovo Center.) Josef Vasicek scored the winner, 52 seconds into overtime.
* The Chicago Blackhawks beat their arch-rivals, the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the United Center in Chicago.
* The Edmonton Eskimos beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-0 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
* And the team then known as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 5-0 at the Arrowhead Pond in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California. (It's now named the Honda Center.)
Also, Arsenal lost 4-2 to Charlton Athletic at Highbury, North London.
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