December 13, 2007: The Mitchell Report Is Released

December 13, 2007: The Report to the Commissioner of Baseball of an Independent Investigation into the Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball is released the public. Since the leader of the investigation was George J. Mitchell, the document becomes popularly known as The Mitchell Report.

Mitchell had a distinguished career in politics. He was a U.S. Attorney in his native Maine, and a Judge of the U.S. District Court. When his mentor, Senator Ed Muskie, resigned in 1980 to become U.S. Secretary of State, Mitchell ran for his seat, and won it, being elected to a full term in 1982 and re-elected in 1988. At that point, his Democratic colleagues elected him to be the Senate Majority Leader, a post he held for the rest of his term. He did not run again in 1994.

Instead, being of Irish descent, he accepted a post as U.S. Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, and was among the negotiators of the Good Friday Accord that ended "The Troubles" in 1998. His ancestral homeland was grateful, and he was appointed the Chancellor of the Queen's University in the Northern Irish capital of Belfast. Officially, he held this post for nearly 10 years, from 1999 to 2009, even as he served as Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission in November and December of 2002.

In 2006, in the wake of Congressional hearings the year before that tainted the reputations of several current and former players, Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig asked Mitchell to lead an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs by players.

After 20 months of investigations, Mitchell released a report running 409 pages, and including the names of 89 former and (then) current players, claiming evidence of use of steroids or other substances prohibited by MLB. Among them were former Yankees Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Justice; and some stars from other teams, including Barry Bonds, who already held the records for most home runs in a season and most home runs in a career.

This was just a few weeks after the Boston Red Sox had won their 2nd World Series in 4 seasons. And it did not escape the notice of some people in the media that Mitchell was a member of the board of directors of the Fenway Sports Group, owners of the Red Sox. But the report mostly let the Red Sox off the hook. It was as if Mitchell was trying to say, "The Red Sox are clean, and their recent victories were won fairly. But the Yankees, the team that Red Sox fans hate the most, won their recent Pennants and World Series unfairly."

It was a dark moment for Yankee Fans. Just 3 years and change earlier, they could legitimately say that their last title was in 2000, and Boston's last was in 1918. Now, it was generally accepted by baseball people, official and unofficial alike that the Red Sox had won 2 of the last 4 World Championships, while the Yankees hadn't "really" won one since 1978.

On July 30, 2009, The New York Times reported that 104 players had failed steroid tests in 2003, and that 2 of them were David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, the 2 biggest hitters on those Boston title teams. Just like that, the Sox' 2004 and 2007 titles were exposed as frauds.

What's more, The Mitchell Report was also exposed as a fraud, because it said nothing about Ortiz and Ramirez. Mitchell, already a behind-the-scenes political operative when Richard Nixon was digging himself a deeper hole in the Watergate scandal, should have known: It's not the crime that really gets you, it's the cover-up. He had accused, with evidence that held up better with some players than with others, but had covered up the "crimes" of players for his own team.

It is a tremendous stain on the career of a great public servant. And it destroyed The Mitchell Report's credibility completely.

*

December 13, 2007 was a Thursday. And, wouldn't you know it, New England beat New York that night. The New England Patriots beat the New York Jets, 20-10 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands. Speaking of cheating: This was the year that the Patriots had been exposed in the "Spygate" scandal.

I have to give Bill Belichick credit for one thing: He didn't lie about it. Whereas the Red Sox and their fans still insist that everything they've won since 2004 is legit, Belichick basically said, "Yeah, I cheated. What the hell ya gonna do about it, huh?"

There were 2 games played in the NBA that night. The Washington Wizards beat the Miami Heat, 104-91 at the American Airlines Arena (now named the Kaseya Center) in Miami. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 102-97 at the Staples Center (now named the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

There were 10 games played in the NHL that night:

* Here's one where the New York Tri-State Area beat New England: The New Jersey Devils beat the Boston Bruins, 3-1 at what's now named the TD Garden in Boston. The Scarlet & Black got a goal from Brian Gionta, and 2 from Jamie Langenbrunner.

* The New York Islanders beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2 at the Nassau Coliseum. (The New York Rangers were not scheduled.)

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Wachovia Center (now named the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh (then known as the Mellon Arena, before reverting to its original name).

* The Calgary Flames beat the Tampa Bay Lightning, 9-6 at the St. Pete Times Forum (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Nashville Predators, 2-1 at the Sommet Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Edmonton Oilers bear the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Florida Panthers beat the St. Louis Blues, 1-0 at the ScotTrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* And the San Jose Sharks beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose, California. 

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."

*

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 26, 2000: Yankees Have Scoreboard for All Time

October 26, 2000: Major League Baseball's 1st All-New York World Series in 44 years -- a "Subway Series" -- comes to what should have been its inevitable conclusion: As Yankee broadcaster John Sterling said: "Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!"

Remember: It's not a "Subway Series" unless it's a World Series. Nobody ever called regular-season games between the New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers a "Subway Series."

There had been exhibition games between the Yankees and the Mets from the Mets' 1962 debut onward. There had been preseason games, and the midseason "Mayor's Trophy" games. But they didn't count. Met fans thought they did. They didn't. In 1997, Interleague Play began, and the New York media called it a "Subway Series," but who was kidding who?

The 1985 season was the 1st time the Yankees and the Mets both stayed in their Divisional races until the last week of the regular season. The 1999 season was the 1st time that both made the Playoffs. Lots of people in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were sure that was going to be it. The Yankees held up their end of the bargain. The Mets didn't hold theirs up.

Now, after 39 years of hoping, wishing, praying for a chance to beat the Yankees in a World Series, Met fans finally had that chance. And they were sure they were going to win it.

After all, Al Leiter was going to start Games 1 and 5, and Mike Hampton was going to start Games 2 and 6. And, as everybody knows, "The Yankees can't hit lefthanded pitching. Especially in the postseason." I guess Met fans, whom I nicknamed "the Flushing Heathen," hadn't noticed how the Yankees beat all pitchers, left and right alike, in winning the Series in 1996, '98 and '99, and winning another Pennant to put them in this Series.

Still, Met fans always wanted this chance. In the immortal words of Leonard Nimoy -- who, being a Bostonian, probably knew just how illogical baseball can be -- "You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting."

*

October 21, 2000: Game 1 of the 1st Subway Series since 1956 is played at the original Yankee Stadium. Billy Joel, who was the first singer to sell out the Stadium, and later played the last concert at Shea, sang the National Anthem. Don Larsen threw out the ceremonial first ball to Yogi Berra, evoking memories of that 1956 Series, when the Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, including Larsen's perfect game in Game 5, and Yogi's 2 homers in Game 7.

Game 1 of the 2000 World Series came on the 25th Anniversary of the Carlton Fisk Game, and on the 20th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Phillies' 1st World Series win. It turns out to be, quite possibly, the greatest game I've ever seen. At the least, it was the most nerve-wracking game I've ever seen.

(Note: I realize I'm going back and forth between using present tense and past tense. As I've already alluded to, baseball is often illogical, and so is writing.)

Leiter outpitches Andy Pettitte, but 4 baserunning blunders by the Mets leave the score 3-2 in the Mets' favor entering the bottom of the 9th. Still, to be able to take Game 1 at Yankee Stadium would be a huge boost to the Mets.

Manager Bobby Valentine brings in his closer. Unfortunately for him, it's Armando Benítez. Paul O’Neill fouls off pitch after pitch, and finally draws the most clutch walk in baseball history. The Yankees bring him around to score on DH Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly, and the game goes into extra innings.

It goes to the bottom of the 12th, and to 1:04 AM. With 1 out, Tino Martinez singles off Turk Wendell. Jorge Posada doubles, but Tino doesn't run well, and has to hold at 3rd. O'Neill is walked again, this time intentionally, to set up the double play. Luis Sojo pops up. And a Met castoff, José Vizcaino, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch is not fielding well, singles home the winning run.

José Vizcaino

Yankees 4, Mets 3. Essentially, the World Series that Met fans had waited their whole lives for has been decided in Game 1. Had the Mets won this game, the Series would have been very, very different.

Maybe the Yankees would have been shaken by the events of Game 1, and instead of just holding the Mets off in Game 2, 6-5, they would have fully blown that lead. The Mets won Game 3, and their idiot fans would have been thinking sweep.

Would the Yankees still have won Game 4? It was pretty shaky in the 5th inning. Would they still have won Game 5? It was tied in the 9th. Would they have won a Game 6? Would they have completed the ultimate comeback in Game 7, 4 years before the Red Sox did it to them?

*

October 22, 2000: Game 2 is one of the most bizarre contests in baseball history. It begins with Robert Merrill, the Brooklyn-born singer for the Metropolitan Opera Company whose recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner" had been the one the Yankees had used since 1967, singing it in person. (He died in 2004.) 

In the top of the 1st, with 2 out and a man on, Mike Piazza bats for the Mets against Roger Clemens of the Yankees. Piazza had hit some long home runs off Clemens, and in July, in an Interleague game also at Yankee Stadium, Clemens had nailed Piazza on the helmet with a fastball, giving him a concussion.

This time, Piazza hits a foul ball, and breaks his bat. The barrel of the bat comes back to Clemens, and... he throws the jagged-edged bat barrel across the 1st-base foul line. Right in Piazza's path, and Piazza almost steps into it.

We may never know what was going on in the head of the Rocket, but what's going on in the head of Piazza is rage. He thinks Clemens was throwing the sharp object at him. Piazza moves toward Clemens, and both benches empty. For one of the few times in his career, there's an on-field controversy with Clemens on the field, and Clemens is not the most insane man involved.

The umpires restore order, and Clemens finishes the at-bat by getting Piazza to ground to 2nd. He pitches 8 strong innings, and the Yankees pound Mike Hampton, and take a 6-0 lead into the 9th.

But the bullpen can't hold it, and the Mets come to within 6-5, including home runs by Piazza (the 1st-ever World Series homer for the alleged "greatest-hitting catcher ever") and Jay Payton, before Joe Torre has enough and brings in the Hammer of God, Mariano Rivera, to slam the door and keep it 6-5. The Yankees take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the Series, which now heads across town to Shea.

Clemens will be fined $50,000 for his what-the-hell moment. But Met fans have never gotten this into their thick skulls: Clemens was not throwing the bat at Piazza. If there's one thing that Roger Clemens made perfectly clear many times in his playing career, it's this: If he wants to throw something at someone with the intention of hitting him, that person will get hit. If he wanted to throw the bat at

Piazza, that bat would have hit Piazza.

And now, the question needs to be asked: Which of these men was on steroids, warping their perceptions of what was happening? Was it Clemens? Was it Piazza? Was it both? Until either man, or both men, decide to change their stories, we may never know for sure.

As it turned out, both men played their last game in 2007, meaning that both became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the election of January 2013. Piazza was elected in 2016. Clemens is still waiting. That did, however, avoid what would have been the most awkward induction ceremony in the Hall's history.

*

October 24, 2000: The World Series moves to Shea Stadium for Game 3. NSYNC sing the National Anthem. The Mets defeat the Yankees‚ 4-2‚ behind the pitching of Rick Reed and their bullpen. Benny Agbayani's 8th inning double is the key hit for the Mets as they cut the Yankees Series lead to 2-games-to-1.

Orlando "El Duque" Hernández strikes out 12, a Series record for a Yankee pitcher, but loses a postseason game for the 1st time after 8 wins. John Franco, the senior Met, is the winning pitcher.

Benítez, having blown Game 1, saves Game 3.

The loss ends the Yankees' record streak of 14 consecutive wins in World Series action. This would be the last World Series game won by the Mets until Game 3 in 2015.

*

October 25, 2000: Bobby Valentine chooses Bobby Jones as the Mets' Game 4 starter, and he's not especially good. However, the Yankees will have to choose between an aging and struggling David Cone, a struggling Denny Neagle, and Andy Pettitte on 3 days' rest.

This bodes well for the Mets, and if they win this one, then the Series is tied, and they've really got momentum. In Game 5, also at Shea, Al Leiter can outpitch Pettitte as he did in Game 1, and maybe this time the bullpen won't blow it; after all, after blowing the save in Game 1, Armando Benítez got it in Game 3.

Then the Mets only have to win 1 of 2 at Yankee Stadium to win the Subway Series, and reclaim New York from the Yankees. The Yanks will start Roger Clemens in Game 6, and after the bat-throwing incident in Game 2, the Mets will be loaded for bear, and Mike Hampton can't possibly have as bad a start in Game 6 as he had in Game 2, right? And if it still goes to Game 7, it'll be Rick Reed against Orlando Hernández again, and Reed showed in Game 3 he could outpitch "El Duque."

So, at this point, if you're a Met fan, you don't have a lot of reason to be confident of ultimate victory. But your position is quite defensible, your team is hardly in deep trouble following the Game 3 win, and, as the one man who has ever managed both these teams to Pennants, Yogi Berra, has said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." This World Series is far from over, and if you're a Met fan, at this point, you do have some reason to be optimistic.

Sheryl Crow sings the National Anthem, Game 4 begins, and that reason lasts all of one pitch. The 1st pitch of the game is from Jones to Derek Jeter, who knocks it over the left-field fence for a home run. The kind of hit that, once he was named team Captain in 2003, earned him the nickname "Captain Clutch."

Neagle struggles in the 5th, and manager Joe Torre plays a huge hunch, bringing Cone, once a superb Met starter, out of the bullpen to face the dangerous Mike Piazza with the bases loaded. I have to admit, I was sure he was going to either walk a run home, or serve up a gopher ball for a grand slam.

Instead, Cone gets Piazza to pop up, ending the threat. Cone never throws another postseason pitch, and he never throws another pitch for the Yankees. But he got the job done. (Dwight Gooden, back with the Yankees, had appeared in the ALCS, but was left off the World Series roster, and got a nice hand at Shea went introduced. He then retired.)

David Cone

The Yankees hang on to win the game, 3-2, and take a 3 games to 1 lead in the Series. They can wrap it up tomorrow night. Met fans, who began the day feeling like it was still possible, are no longer using Tug McGraw’s old rallying cry of "Ya Gotta Believe!" Now, they're using another familiar rallying cry, that of "Yankees Suck!"

But all is not good news in Yankeeland. Darryl Strawberry, who was introduced to stardom and drug as a Met, and has been one of George Steinbrenner's reclamation projects, is arrested and jailed, after leaving a treatment center following a weekend drug binge.

*

October 26, 2000: The Euro, the currency of the European Union, which had started, on January 1, 1999, at $1.10 in comparison to the American dollar, drops to 83 cents. This remains its all-time low. Its all-time high is $1.60, achieved on July 15, 2008.

More importantly for me, on this day, Game 5 of the World Series is played at Shea Stadium. Marc Anthony, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent and a Met fan, sang the National Anthem. Jeter and Bernie Williams homer off Al Leiter. Pettitte and Leiter give it their all. The game is tied 2-2 in the top of the 9th. Two outs. Posada on 2nd, Scott Brosius on 1st. Not great speed on the basepaths. 

Luis Sojo, playing 2nd base because Knoblauch's fielding difficulties limited him to DH status, is coming up to bat. Leiter had thrown 141 pitches. A number that would not have caused Catfish Hunter and Tom Seaver to flinch, but by the standards of the 1990s and 2000s, a lot.

Met Manager Bobby Valentine's choices are not good:

* A: Stick with an exhausted Leiter. He would be pitching on brains, courage and fumes, and pray that he gets the out that sends it to the bottom of the 9th still tied.

* B: Put in Armando Benítez. He led the National League in saves that year and saved Game 3, but also blew Game 1 for Leiter, and also blew a Division Series game against the Giants (which the Mets ended up winning anyway), and had previously messed up 2 ALCS games against the Yankees for the Orioles (including the Jeffrey Maier Game). Or...

* C: Put in John Franco. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3, and also pitched well in Game 4, but would be pitching for the 3rd day in a row. And he was 39: There was a reason Valentine had taken the closer's job from Franco and given it to Benítez.

Valentine decided a tired Leiter was better than an aging, potentially tired Franco or an inconsistent, unreliable Benítez. Although I frequently accused Valentine of overmanaging, and sometimes outright stupidity, I can't fault him for this choice. If he had put in the very popular New York native Franco and lost anyway, he might have gotten away with it. But if he had put in the already suspicious Benítez and he blew yet another game, Valentine would have been run out of Flushing on the Long Island Railroad.

Leiter throws his 142nd pitch to Sojo. He knocks it up the middle. A Met fan once told me that Rey

Ordóñez would have stopped this grounder. This Met fan was a fool: Ordóñez would not have gotten it. Mike Bordick was the shortstop that night, and he was a good shortstop, and he couldn't quite get it.

Base hit for Sojo. Posada comes around 3rd. Center fielder Jay Payton's throw... never makes it to Mike Piazza at the plate, instead hitting Posada in the back and getting away, toward the backstop. This enables not only Posada to score the tiebreaking run, but also Brosius to score an insurance run as well. Yankees 4, Mets 2.

Bottom of the 9th. Two out. The Mets get a man on. Piazza comes up to the plate. If you're a Met fan, this is the man you want up: The best offensive player the Mets have ever had (cough-steroids-cough), one of the best fastball hitters of his time, power hitter against power pitcher, Mariano Rivera.

But if you're a Yankee Fan, there’s no one you'd rather have on the mound, and there's no one you’d rather get as the final out. It was similar to the final matchup of the 1978 Boston Tie Party, with Carl Yastrzemski, one of the greatest fastball hitters ever, and the most beloved player in his franchise's history (remember, Sox fans didn't always love Ted Williams), coming up to try to save his club against one of the fastest and most fearsome pitchers ever, Rich "Goose" Gossage.

Yaz popped up to end that game in victory for the Yankees; 22 years later, Piazza gets considerably better wood on his pitch, and hits one deep to straightaway center field.

For a moment, many of us, including myself -- and, years later, on the YES Network broadcast of a Yanks-Mets regular-season game, the entire announcing team of Michael Kay, Paul O'Neill and David Cone -- think, "Uh-oh!" Translation, at least in my case: "No! Tie game! The Mets will go on to win it, and take the next 2 in The Bronx, and the Yanks will have choked it away!"

Because we had grown up with the Mets as the team that won and the Yanks as the team that fell short. We had the arrogance of Yankee Fans of old, but deep down, in places we don't like to talk about at parties, we had the fears that came so easily to fans of the team then known as the Cleveland Indians, the pre-2004 Red Sox, the pre-2007 Phillies, the pre-2016 Cubs -- and the post-2006 Mets.

But Piazza had juuuust gotten under it. The ball has too much height and not enough distance. As the clock strikes 12:00 Midnight, Bernie stands on the warning track, settles under it, makes the easy catch, and it's over.

Jeter becomes the 1st player ever to be named Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game and the World Series in the same season. Still, he would never be named MVP of a regular season. At the site of his 1st game as a manager, 23 years earlier, Torre is picked up by his grateful players, and carried off the field.

There were 25,000 people at Shea chanting "Let's Go Yankees!" and "We're Number 1!" Eventually, the owner came out to talk to the press, and he and the announcers couldn't talk, because the Yankee Fans were so loud, chanting "Thank you, George!" Imagine that, thousands of people saluting George Steinbrenner at Shea Stadium.

I loved it. October 26, 2000 – actually, the final out came just before Midnight, so it was really October 27 that we celebrated – remains my favorite moment as a sports fan.

For the 1st time, the Mets had the chance -- their first, their best, maybe their last -- to beat the Yankees in a Subway Series, and to irrevocably "take over New York." And while they had their chances and fought hard, in the end, the better team won.

The Yankees have beaten the Mets in a World Series. The other way around has never happened. And it never will. Never, never, never. Or, in the words of Flushing's own Fran Drescher, "It begins with an N and ends with an A: Nev-a."

This was the 26th World Championship. And for those of us who grew up as Yankee Fans during the Mets' "glory" years of 1984 to 1990, the Dynasty That Never Was -- or, as Michael Wilbon of The Washington Post and ESPN's Pardon the Interruption would say, a Dynasty of One -- and had to deal with the unearned arrogance of Met fans, delusional that their 2 titles outweighed our 22 (until 1996; now 27), damn fools to believe that the 1986 Mets could have beaten the Yankees of 1927, 1938, 1941, 1953, 1961 and 1978, and eventually even the 1998 juggernaut... for us, this was the greatest, sweetest moment of them all.

We beat the Mets. And it wasn't close. All 5 games were close, so it wasn't domination. But winning in 5 games is definitive, beyond any question. And we clinched at their place, on their field, at the William A. Shea International Airport, at the Flushing Toilet.

After all, we could have had worse luck, and it would have been all our own fault. We could have chosen to be Met fans. We chose Yankees. We chose greatness. Or, to put it another way: No matter how bad the 2004 ALCS was, losing the 2000 World Series to the Mets would have been 10 times worse.

As we saw in 2015, we don't have to live around very many Red Sox fans with their cheated-for arrogance, but we do have to live around Met fans with their unearned arrogance.

How arrogant are Met fans? Some insist that 2000 and the other World Series the Yankees have won since 1978 don't count, because they used steroids; therefore, the count since 1986 is 1 to 0, and the count since 1962 is 2-2. These fans are idiots: We have more evidence against the 2000 Mets (Piazza) than we do against the 1996-2009 Yankees. So if 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009 don't count for the Yankees, then 2000 doesn't count for the Mets, either.

For the moment, the count remains 27 to 2, and 5 to 0 since 1986.

This was the 13th World Series game played at Shea. An unlucky 13th. It was also the last, which no one (not even a wiseass Yankee Fan like me) could have predicted at the time.

I once saw a Met fan with a cap that had the 2000 World Series logo on the side, but razored off, with some of the stitching still visible. That's how much it bothers them. It should bother them: It basically erased their team's reason to exist.

As we've seen, the Yankees are (depending on your point of view: again, or still) the better team now. And let us not pretend that any Met World Series win -- be it 1969, 1986, or any future win -- is better than all of the Yankees' World Series wins.

Most of all, winning the 2000 World Series means that, as Paul Louis, a Yankee Fan and a Facebook Friend who was my age, said at the time, "The Yankees have scoreboard over the Mets for all time."

For all time.

*

October 26, 2000 was a Thursday. There was 1 college football game played that night: Brigham Young University beat Wyoming, 19-7 at Cougar Stadium in Provo, Utah. At the end of the season, BYU head coach LaVell Edwards retired after 19 Conference Championships and the 1984 National Championship, and the school renamed the facility LaVell Edwards Stadium.

The NBA season started 5 days later, on Halloween. There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-0 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Washington Capitals, 4-1 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-0 at the United Center in Chicago.

* And the St. Louis Blues beat the Calgary Flames, 4-3 at the Savvis Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.

October 25, 1986: The Bill Buckner Game

October 25, 1986: Dave Henderson steps to the plate at 11:59 PM, and hits a home run off Rick Aguilera, to give the Boston Red Sox a 4-3 lead over the New York Mets in the top of the 10th inning of Game 6 of the World Series.

By the time he crosses the plate, it's 12:00 midnight, October 26. The Red Sox will extend their lead to 5-3 before their half of the inning is over. All they need now is 3 more outs in the bottom of the 10th.

They get the 1st 2. You know the rest. But do you really remember? Red Sox pitcher Calvin Schiraldi, an ex-Met, allows a single to Gary Carter. Then he allows a single to Kevin Mitchell. Carter to 2nd. Then he allows a single to Ray Knight. Carter scores, Mitchell to 2nd, 5-4 Red Sox. Then Sox manager John McNamara pulls Schiraldi, and calls on Bob Stanley, once a very good reliever, but by this point in his career a lost cause.

Stanley faces William Hayward "Mookie" Wilson, and gets to 2 strikes. There were 13 separate pitches that could have ended this game in victory and a 1st World Championship in 68 years for the Red Sox. The 13th of these almost hits Mookie in the ankle. He jumps out of the way, and it rolls to the backstop. Wild pitch. Mitchell scores, Knight to 2nd, 5-5 tie.

For the Mets and their fans, Christmas had come 2 months early: The Red Sox had given them the game. They had royally blown it. According to Dan Shaughnessy, the Boston Globe columnist, in his book The Curse of the Bambino, somebody later calculated that the odds of the Red Sox blowing a 2-run, 2-out, 2-strike lead at that point were 320-1.

Three hundred and twenty to one. Think about that for a moment: A baseball regular season lasts 162 games. So if you had those conditions every single game -- 2 outs, 2 strikes on the batter, and you're up by 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning, or later -- the odds are that you would win every single game in a season, and nearly every single game in a 2nd season, up to Game 158 of that 2nd season, before you would lose one.

Another source said that the Mets' chances of winning the World Series were:

* 5 percent when the bottom of the 10th began;
* 0.8 percent when they were down to their last strike
* 2 percent after Carter's single;
* 5 percent after Mitchell's single;
* 11 percent after Knight singled home Carter;
* and 35 percent after Stanley's wild pitch tied the game.

In other words, even after the lead was fully blown and the game was tied, there was still a better than 2-to-1 chance that the Red Sox would win the World Series.

Well, some teams have meltdowns that last 2 months, like the 1978 Red Sox, the 1969 Cubs, and the 1995 California Angels. Some teams have meltdowns that last 1 month, like the 2011 Red Sox, the 2007 Mets and the 1951 Dodgers. Some teams have meltdowns that last 2 weeks, like the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies. Some teams have meltdowns that last 1 week, like the 1987 Toronto Blue Jays. Some teams have meltdowns that last less than a week, like the 2004 and 2012 Yankees. The 1986 Red Sox had a meltdown that lasted 10 minutes.

You'll notice that there's a name I haven't mentioned yet: That of Red Sox 1st baseman Bill Buckner. The Red Sox had already blown a lead that is the closest any team, in any of the 4 major league sports, had ever been to winning a World Championship without actually getting it. Even the Bayern Munich soccer team that allowed goals in the 91st minute to Teddy Sheringham and in the 93rd to Ole Gunnar Solskjær to blow the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final didn't come that close to winning before losing.

The Sox had blown what should have been an insurmountable lead, and Bill Buckner had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Then Stanley threw Mookie another pitch. It was, as Los Angeles Dodger broadcaster Vin Scully, leading the broadcast team for NBC, described, a "little roller up along first." It remains the most famous defensive miscue in the history of sports, over Fred Snodgrass' 1912 "$30,000 Muff," over Mickey Owen's 1941 passed ball, over any missed tackle in football, over any goalie's mistake in hockey or soccer, over any hockey or soccer player's own goal.

Buckner had injuries on both legs, and, as Yogi Berra might have said, even when he could run, he couldn't run. He was not going to beat Mookie to the bag, and Stanley hadn't run over to 1st to cover the base and take a throw. Mookie would have made it to 1st, and the bases would have been loaded. Granted, the next batter was light-hitting shortstop Rafael Santana, but, at that point, no one would have bet against the Mets. Scully was right: "If one picture is worth a thousand words, we have seen about a million words tonight!"

In spite of how much many Yankee Fans already hated them, it would take the Nomar/Pedro/Papi Era, 1998 to the present, for the Red Sox to truly become The Scum. But, retroactively, they deserved The Buckner Game.

In 1975, the Red Sox won a World Series Game 6 that was a game for the ages. But for 36 years now, you can say the words "Game Six" in New England, or to a New Englander wherever he might be, and, instead of bringing a smile to his face, you would bring him to say, "Which one?"

At least now, with his death in 2019, Buckner will never have to face any more questions about it.

In 2010, the MLB Network listed this game at 3rd on their list of MLB's 20 Greatest Games -- limited in scope, due to the availability of surviving videotape, to 1975 onward.

*

October 25, 1986 was a Saturday. It was a college football gameday. These notable games were played:

* Number 6 Penn State beat Number 2 Alabama, 23-3 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Nittany Lions went undefeated, and were Number 2 going into the Fiesta Bowl to play Number 1 Miami, who were idle on October 25. Penn State beat Miami to finish Number 1 in the final poll, relegating Miami to Number 2.

* Number 3 Nebraska lost to Colorado, 20-10 at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado. They finished at Number 5.

* Number 4 Michigan beat Indiana, 38-14 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. Despite a stumble at home to Minnesota, they won the Big Ten Conference by beating Ohio State in Columbus, before losing the Rose Bowl to Arizona State, finishing at Number 8.

* Number 5 Oklahoma beat Iowa State, 38-0 at Cyclone Stadium (later Jack Trice Stadium) in Ames, Iowa. They would go on to win the Big Eight Conference and the Orange Bowl, and finish at Number 3.

* Number 9 Arizona State beat Number 15 USC, 29-20 at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They would go on to win the Pacific-Ten Conference and the Rose Bowl, and finish at Number 4.

* Number 10 Texas A&M beat Rice University, 45-10 at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. They would go on to win the Southwest Conference, but lose the Cotton Bowl to Ohio State, finishing at Number 13.

* Number 12 Louisiana State beat North Carolina, 30-3 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU would go on to win the Southeastern Conference, but lose the Sugar Bowl to Nebraska, finishing at Number 10.

* Notre Dame was not scheduled.

* Rutgers beat Army, 35-7 at the old Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

* And Princeton beat Harvard, 14-3 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

The NBA season wouldn't open for another 6 days. But there were 7 NHL games, including all 3 New York Tri-State Area teams being in action:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Washington Capitals, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Pat Verbeek scored a power-play goal in the last minute of the 1st period, but Bobby Gould scored in the 2nd and Larry Murphy in the 3rd, to give the Caps the win. Scott Stevens, then just 22 years old, assisted on Gould's goal.

* The New York Rangers played the Montreal Canadiens to a tie, 3-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The New York Islanders beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at the Nassau Coliseum. Brent Sutter scored the winner, 1:44 into the 2nd period.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Colisee de Quebec.

* The Hartford Whalers beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

At the time, I was a senior in at East Brunswick High School in Middlesex County, New Jersey. On this day, our football team lost a game it should have won, 20-17 to Perth Amboy, at Albert G. Waters Stadium in Perth Amboy. I say, "should have won," not just because our team had more talent, but because the officiating was atrocious, especially in regard to not getting pass interference calls we should have gotten.

The English soccer team I would one day support, Arsenal, beat Chelsea 3-1 at Highbury in North London.

October 24, 1999: The Major League Baseball All-Century Team

Top row, left to right: Johnny Bench, Willie Mays, Stan Musial.

Middle row: Mike Schmidt, Brooks Robinson,

Ken Griffey Jr., Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan.

Bottom row: Bob Gibson, Yogi Berra, Cal Ripken, Warren Spahn,

then-Commissioner Bud Selig, Roger Clemens and Hank Aaron.

October 24, 1999: The New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium), behind the pitching of David Cone and 3 hits from Bernie Williams, and take a 2 games to 0 lead in the World Series.

Before the game, the winners in the fan balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team were introduced. With some older players overlooked by young fans, some "wild cards" were added by a "select panel."

Pitchers
* Cy Young, born in 1867, pitched for several teams from 1890 to 1911. He died in 1955.
* Christy Mathewson, born in 1880, New York Giants, 1900-16. He died in 1925, and was added by the panel.
* Walter Johnson, born in 1887, Washington Senators, 1907-27. He died in 1946.
* Robert "Lefty" Grove, born in 1900, Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, 1925-41. He died in 1975, and was added by the panel.
* Warren Spahn, born in 1921, Boston/Milwaukee Braves, 1942-65. He was added by the panel. He was on hand for the ceremony, and threw out the ceremonial first ball before Game 1, even though he never pitched for the Braves in Atlanta. He died in 2003.
* Sandy Koufax, born in 1935, Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, 1955-66. He was on hand, making a rare public appearance, and joked that Spahn had to be added to the All-Century Team, "because he pitched for most of the century." As of October 24, 2022, he is still alive.
* Bob Gibson, born in 1935, St. Louis Cardinals, 1959-75. He was on hand for the ceremony, and died in 2020.

* Nolan Ryan, born in 1947, and pitched his best years with the California Angels and Houston Astros, pitching overall 1966-93. He was on hand, and is still alive.
* Roger Clemens, born in 1963, pitched his best years with the Boston Red Sox, was then still active with the Yankees, and would start and win Game 4. His career lasted 1986-2007. He was on hand, and is still alive.

Catchers
* Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, born in 1925, Yankees, 1946-63. He was on hand, and died 2015.
* Johnny Bench, born in 1947, Cincinnati Reds, 1967-83. He was on hand, and is still alive.

1st Basemen
* Lou Gehrig, born in 1903, Yankees, 1923-39. He died in 1941.
* Mark McGwire, born in 1963, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, 1986-2001. He was on hand, and then still active. He is still alive.

2nd Basemen
* Rogers Hornsby, born in 1896, best years with the St. Louis Cardinals, 1917-37. He died 1963.
* Jackie Robinson, born in 1919, Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947-56. He died in 1972. Joe Morgan, one of the finalists on the ballot, was part of the NBC broadcasting crew for this Series, and said that if he were one of the 2nd basemen chosen, and Robinson was not, he would forfeit his place to Robinson. Morgan finished 3rd in the 2B voting, so it wasn't necessary.

Shortstops
* John "Honus" Wagner, born in 1874, Pittsburgh Pirates, 1897-1917. He died in 1955, and was added by the panel.
* Ernie Banks, born in 1931, Chicago Cubs, 1953-71. He was on hand, and died in 2015.
* Cal Ripken Jr., born in 1960, Baltimore Orioles, 1981-2001. He was then still active, was on hand, and is still alive.

3rd Basemen
* Brooks Robinson, born in 1937, Baltimore Orioles, 1955-77. He was on hand, and is still alive.
* Mike Schmidt, born in 1948, Philadelphia Phillies, 1972-89. He was on hand, and is still alive.

Outfielders
* Ty Cobb, born in 1886, Detroit Tigers, 1905-28. He died 1961.
* Babe Ruth, born in 1895, Yankees, 1914-35. He died in 1948.
* Joe DiMaggio, born in 1914, Yankees, 1936-51. He had died earlier in 1999.
* Ted Williams, born in 1918, Boston Red Sox, 1939-60. He was on hand despite already being ill, and it turned out to be his last appearance in a big-league ballpark, following his emotional appearance at that season's All-Star Game at Fenway Park in Boston, his former home field. As he did on that occasion, he tipped his cap to the fans. He died in 2002.
* Stan Musial, born in 1920, St. Louis Cardinals, 1941-63. He was added by the panel. He was on hand, and died in 2013.

* Mickey Mantle, born in 1931, Yankees, 1951-68. He died in 1995.
* Willie Mays, born in 1931, New York/San Francisco Giants, 1951-73. He was on hand, and is still alive.
* Hank Aaron, born in 1934, Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves, 1954-76. He was on hand, and threw out the first ball that night. He died in 2021.

* Pete Rose, born in 1941, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies, 1963-86. He is probably better known as a 3rd baseman or a 1st baseman. Despite having been permanently banned from baseball, for betting on baseball games while a manager, he was permitted to attend, and did. He is still alive.

* Ken Griffey Jr., born 1969, Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, 1989-2010. He was still active, was on hand, and is still alive.

With the steroid accusations against Clemens and McGwire, the ban on Rose, and the "kid vote" for Griffey in mind, the next-highest vote getters at the positions in question were Greg Maddux (who was on hand as an active Brave) for Clemens' spot, Jimmie Foxx (who died in 1967) for McGwire's, and Roberto Clemente (who died in 1972) for Griffey's and Shoeless Joe Jackson (who died in 1951) for, with some irony, Rose's. So if Jackson, also banned permanently for gambling-related offenses, is also removed, the next-highest outfielder was Reggie Jackson (who was on hand, being a Yankee front-office man).

*

October 24, 1999 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants beat the New Orleans Saints, 31-3 at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to the Oakland Raiders, 24-23 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

* The New England Patriots beat the Denver Broncos, 24-23 at Foxboro Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Carolina Panthers, 24-9 at Ericsson Stadium (now Bank of America Stadium) in Charlotte.

* The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Chicago Bears, 6-3 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

* The Miami Dolphins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 16-13 at Pro Player Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 31-10 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the San Francisco 49ers, 40-16 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The St. Louis Rams beat the Cleveland Browns, 34-3 at the TWA Dome (now the Dome at America's Center) in St. Louis.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat their arch-rivals, the Washington Redskins, 38-20 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the San Diego Chargers, 31-3 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Buffalo Bills, 26-16 at the Kingdome in Seattle.

* The preceding Thursday, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens, 35-8 at PSINet Stadium (now M&T Bank Stadium) in Baltimore.

* The next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 13-9 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* And the Arizona Cardinals, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans all had a bye week.

The NBA season started 9 days later. There were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Florida Panthers, 2-0 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-2 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center).

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the brand-new Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

October 22, 2003: The Jeff Weaver Game

October 22, 2003: The Jeff Weaver Game. As Phil Rizzuto would have said, I get agita just thinking about it.

It's Game 4 of the World Series at the Dolphins/Marlins Stadium. I’ve seen the location listed as "Miami," "Miami Gardens," "Miami Lakes," "Carol City" and "Opa-Locka." Just as the stadium itself has gone through several names: Joe Robbie Stadium, Pro Player Stadium, Dolphin Stadium, Land Shark Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, and, currently, Hard Rock Stadium.

The Florida Marlins lead the Yankees 3-1 after 7 innings, but as he strikes out Luis Castillo (a name that will feature in the Yankees-Mets rivalry in 2009) to end the 7th, Roger Clemens walks off the mound, and a crowd of 65,934 gives him a standing ovation, thinking that the 41-year-old legendary fireballer is walking off the field as an active player for the last time. (Within weeks, this will prove to have been, as his distant cousin Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, might have said, greatly exaggerated -- and not because Clemens could have appeared in Game 7, had this Series gone that long.)

Marlins starter Carl Pavano holds the Yankees to 1 run through 8 strong innings. Like Clemens' retirement, Pavano's frustration of Yankee Fans is happening for the first time, but by no means for the last.

The Yankees rally in the 9th against reliever Ugueth Urbina, whose post-baseball career will be more troubled than even Clemens', as he will serve 7 years in prison for attempted murder in his native Venezuela. Bernie Williams singles with one out, Hideki Matsui walks and Jorge Posada grounds into a force play. Pinch-hitter Rubén Sierra fouls off two full-count pitches before tripling into the right-field corner to tie the ball game.

This is Sierra's 2nd tenure with the Yanks, having made up with manager Joe Torre after Torre had him traded for Cecil Fielder in '96 due to disciplinary issues. This is the biggest hit Sierra ever got for the Yankees – or for anyone else, for that matter. But he is stranded on 3rd.

No matter, as the momentum seems to have shifted to the Yankees, and if they can win the game in extra innings, they will take a 3-games-to-1 lead, and can clinch their 27th World Championship tomorrow night over a Marlins team that really was unworthy of being there. This unworthiness is almost certain now that nearly everybody suspects Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez of steroid use.

The Yankees threaten to score in the top of the 11th when they load the bases with one out off Chad Fox. Braden Looper relieves and strikes out Aaron Boone, and replacement catcher John Flaherty pops out to third. (Yes, the same John Flaherty who has since parlayed one big regular-season hit, against the Red Sox in 2004, into a career as a mediocre broadcaster. At least he had one big hit, as Boone did 6 days earlier, which is more than the similar Fran Healy ever got.) Still, the Yankees have the chance to win this game.

But in the bottom of the 11th, Torre makes a mistake every bit as critical as the stranding of Sierra on 3rd in the 9th. He had already used Jeff Nelson, and José Contreras, originally a starter, had already pitched 2 innings. Torre could have left Contreras in.

He could have brought in his closer, Mariano Rivera. But he had this mental block about using Mo in non-save situations -- Game 7 of the ALCS, just 6 days earlier, being the most notable exception. He could also have brought in Chris Hammond, one of the best middle-relievers of that period, in his only season with the Yankees.

Instead, he brings in Jeff Weaver, who gets through the 11th with no trouble, but Álex González leads off the bottom of the 12th. This is not the Alex Gonzalez, ironically from Miami, who uses no accent marks on the A's in his name, and whose error at shortstop made the Cubs' collapse in the previous week's Steve Bartman Game possible. This is the Venezuelan shortstop, who had a .245 lifetime batting average, although he did hit 18 home runs that season, and a respectable 157 for a career that included a 1999 All-Star berth.

Weaver throws him a hanging curveball, and González hits it down the left-field line, and it creeps over the fence for a game-winning home run. Marlins 4, Yankees 3.

Not since Bill Mazeroski, 43 years earlier, had the Yankees given up a walkoff home run in a Series game. By bringing in Weaver – or, as Red Sox fans would say if this happened to them, Jeff Fucking
Weaver – Torre turned the Yankees from a team that was 1 run away from being up 3 games to 1 to a team that ends up losing the World Series to a team that was lucky to even get the NL's Wild Card and then needed both steroids and the Bartman-connected collapse.

The Yankees don't win another World Series game until October 29, 2009.

This loss really, really pissed me off. I was not heartbroken. I was enraged. And that was before I knew that Pudge, the Marlins' emotional leader, was a steroid cheat. And before I knew that Josh Beckett, who shut the Yankees out in Game 6 to clinch it, was going to become a typical classless Red Sock. This loss angers me more nearly 20 years later than it did at the time.

On July 5, 2002, the Yankees traded Ted Lilly to the A's. Lilly was a much-hyped prospect, but had been horrible for the Yankees.  When I heard he'd been traded, I used the old line: "Great trade. Who did we get?"

It was a 3-team deal, also involving the Tigers. The only player worth mentioning that the A's got was Lilly, who turned out to be a good pitcher -- when he wasn't wearing Pinstripes: He won 130 games in the major leagues, but only 8 of them for the Yankees. The Tigers got Carlos Peña, who ended up hitting 286 career home runs, and Jeremy Bonderman, who gave them some good pitching.

The only player the Yankees got as part of the deal was Weaver, who, to that point, was an average pitcher at best.  He would be less than that with the Yankees. He pitched poorly in the 2002 Playoffs, had nearly a 6 ERA in the 2003 regular season. Joe Torre didn't trust Weaver enough to put him on the Division Series roster, or on the League Championship Series roster. But he put him on the World Series roster.

In that Game 4, Torre used Clemens into the 8th, Nelson to get out of the 8th, Contreras in the 9th and 10th, and Weaver in the 11th. Aside from facing González to lead off the 12th, that was the only inning Weaver pitched in the entire postseason. Those 4 games against the Minnesota Twins, and those 7 games against the Red Sox, including the epic Game 7? No sign of Weaver. And the Yankees won both series.

As former UCLA quarterback Mark Harmon would say on NCIS, a TV series that began airing on CBS the previous month, would say in character as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, "There is no such thing as coincidence."

In Game 5 the next night, David Wells lasted only an inning, and Torre threw Contreras out there with no notice and about 20 hours' rest. He had nothing, and the Marlins won. In Game 6, the last World Series game ever played at the old Yankee Stadium, Beckett shut out a lifeless bunch of Yankees, and the Marlins were World Champions for the 2nd time -- both times as a Wild Card.

Torre trusted Weaver, and the World Series turned on that one pitch.

Does this look like the kind of guy you can trust?

On December 13, 2003, the Yankees traded Weaver and 2 guys you don't need to know about to the Los Angeles Dodgers, for a better pitcher. Or so we thought.

On April 29, 2004, I went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets play the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Mets beat the Dodgers, 6-1. The losing pitcher was Jeff Weaver. I went to that game for the sole purpose of booing Weaver. Cheering for the Mets? That felt lame. But booing Jeff Fucking Weaver? Damn, that felt good.

On June 18 of that year, the Yankees went out to L.A. to play the Dodgers in an Interleague series. I did not go to any games of that series. The Dodgers won that day, 6-3. The winning pitcher was Jeff Weaver. That felt lousy.

But Weaver wasn't done screwing the Yanks over. You know that pitcher the Yanks got for him? Well, he also gave up a major postseason homer for the Yanks. It was Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. The batter was David Ortiz. The pitcher was Kevin Brown.

In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. On their Series roster was... Jeff Weaver. He has a World Series ring.

You know who doesn't have a World Series ring? Pre-expansion era greats Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, George Sisler, Luke Appling, Ted Williams, Early Wynn, Ralph Kiner, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, Luis Aparicio, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Harmon Killebrew and Juan Marichal.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? The following players that I can remember seeing: Willie McCovey, Carl Yastrzemski, Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, Phil Niekro, Ferguson Jenkins, Bobby Murcer, Don Sutton, Rod Carew, Carlton Fisk, Robin Yount, Jim Rice, Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Don Mattingly, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Trevor Hoffman, Ichiro Suzuki, David Wright and José Reyes.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? So far, the still-active Evan Longoria, Zack Greinke, Joey Votto, Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge.

You know who else doesn't have a World Series ring? Jered Weaver, the younger and considerably better brother of Jeff. Reaching the majors with the Los Angeles Angels in 2006, he spent his entire career with them, before finishing in 2017 with the San Diego Padres. He won 150 games against only 98 losses, and an ERA+ of 111, making him 11 percent better at preventing earned runs since 2006 than the average pitcher over those 12 years.

Jeff, whose career ended in 2010, when he was only 34 years old, had a record of 104-119, and an ERA+ of 93 -- meaning he was 7 percent less effective at preventing earned runs from 1999 to 2010 than the average pitcher was over that stretch.

But Jeff Weaver has a World Series ring.

I would hate Jeff Weaver's guts -- if he had any guts to hate.

*

October 22, 2003 was a Wednesday. This was the only baseball game played that day. Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start for another 6 days. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the Continental Airlines Arena (as the Meadowlands Arena was then known).

* The Carolina Hurricanes and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a 1-1 tie at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Dallas Stars, 3-1 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3 at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim (now the Honda Center). Rob Niedermayer scored the winning goal with 3:50 left in overtime.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at General Motors Place (now the Rogers Arena) in Vancouver.

October 22, 2000: Clemens vs. Piazza

October 22, 2000: Game 2 of the Subway Series, at the original Yankee Stadium, is one of the most bizarre contests in baseball history. In the top of the 1st, with 2 out and a man on, Mike Piazza bats for the Mets against Roger Clemens of the Yankees.

Piazza had hit some long home runs off Clemens, and in July, in an Interleague game also at Yankee Stadium, Clemens had nailed Piazza on the helmet with a fastball, giving him a concussion.

This time, Piazza hits a foul ball, and breaks his bat. The barrel of the bat comes back to Clemens, and... he throws the jagged-edged bat barrel across the first-base foul line. Right in Piazza's path, and Piazza almost steps into it.

We may never know what was going on in the head of the Rocket, but what's going on in the head of Piazza is rage. He thinks Clemens was throwing the sharp object at him. Piazza moves toward Clemens and both benches empty. For one of the few times in his career, there's an on-field controversy with Clemens on the field, and Clemens is not the most insane man involved.

The umpires restore order, and Clemens finishes the at-bat by getting Piazza to ground out to 2nd base. He pitches 8 strong innings, and the Yankees pound Mike Hampton, and take a 6-0 lead into the 9th.

But the bullpen can't hold it, and the Mets come to within 6-5, including home runs by Piazza (the 1st-ever World Series homer for the alleged "greatest-hitting catcher ever") and Jay Payton, before Joe Torre has enough and brings in the Hammer of God, Mariano Rivera, to slam the door and keep it 6-5. The Yankees take a 2-games-to-0 lead in the Series, which now heads across town to Shea.

Clemens will be fined $50,000 for his what-the-hell moment. It was absolutely indefensible. He probably should have been suspended for it. Besides, he was probably on steroids at the time, right?

That is the conventional wisdom, aided by Met fans and other Yankee Haters, including the media. But the conventional wisdom was not wise.

Baseball is a game where things happen very slowly, and then, suddenly, they happen very quickly. It takes about 4/10ths of a second for a pitch to get from the pitcher's hand to the plate, and less than that to get at least the 60 feet, 6 inches back to the pitcher's mound, even if it's not hit toward said mound.

When Carl Mays threw the pitch that hit Ray Chapman in the head and caused a fatal injury on August 16, 1920, the sound of the ball hitting Chapman's head -- no batting helmets in those days -- and the fact that the ball came right back to him led him to believe that Chapman had hit the ball. So he threw the ball to Wally Pipp at 1st base. Clemens did what Mays did: Picked up something coming toward him, and threw it. It was natural to think, at first, that it was the ball.

But that bears the question: How do you mistake half of a broken baseball bat for a baseball? It seems stupid. Nevertheless, Clemens told home plate umpire Charlie Reliford, "I thought it was the ball." His actions back that claim up. Clemens may not be the most honest ballplayer you'll ever meet, but, on this occasion, his words were consistent with his actions.

Let's tell the truth: Clemens did not throw the bat at Piazza. He threw it across the foul line. Look at the video: Once the bat left Piazza's hands, he and it never came within one foot of each other.

Joe Buck, who is known to hate the Yankees, broadcasting the game on Fox, said, "He fires the bat back toward Piazza." Not at him. Toward him. If even Joe Buck, right as it's happening, wouldn't say it was at Piazza, that speaks volumes.

It was Tim McCarver, his broadcast partner, who called it "a blatant act" and "foolish." McCarver was one of these people who knows he's really smart, and wants you to know it, too. This time, he outsmarted himself: It couldn't be both a blatant act and foolish. "Foolish" suggests that he was acting in the heat of the moment. "A blatant act" would be planning it out, or, at least, having time to think about it. He didn't have that kind of time.

And so, just as Yankee shortstop turned NBC broadcaster Tony Kubek burned into fans' minds, 25 years earlier in the 1975 World Series' Game 3, that Ed Armbrister of the Cincinnati Reds had blatantly interfered with Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox, which cannot be proven, fans heard McCarver, and they took his word for it. They shouldn't have.

If there's one thing that Roger Clemens made perfectly clear, many times in his playing career, it's this: If he wants to throw something at someone with the intention of hitting him, that person will get hit. If he wanted to throw the bat at Piazza, that bat would have hit Piazza.

Which brings us to a simple concept: Clemens did nothing wrong. I know: That sounds like the reaction to Avengers: Infinity War and "The Snap": "Thanos did nothing wrong." Yeah, well, to hear Met fans tell it, what Clemens did was as bad as killing half of all life in the universe. They may actually hate him more than Red Sox fans do. And he didn't do anything to them, either. (Hell, he didn't reject the Red Sox for the Yankees: The Red Sox rejected him, and he went to Toronto first.)

McCarver was right about one thing: What Clemens did was foolish. But it caused no harm. It didn't come close to causing harm. Clemens broke neither the rules of baseball, nor the laws of the City of New York, nor the laws of the State of New York, nor the laws of the United States of America.

Should he have done it? No. But the only thing that got hurt was Piazza's feelings, and the Mets', and the Met fans', and those of Yankee Haters everywhere.

So now, the question needs to be asked: Which of these men was on steroids, warping their perceptions of what was happening? Was it Clemens? Was it Piazza? Was it both? Was it neither? Until either man, or both men, decide to change their stories, we may never know for sure.

As it turned out, both men played their last game in 2007, meaning that both became eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the election of January 2013. Piazza was elected in 2016. Through 2022, Clemens is still waiting. That did, however, avoid what would have been the most awkward induction ceremony in the Hall's history.

Oh, yes: The rest of the game. The Yankees took a 6-0 lead. The Mets scored 5 runs in the 9th, after Clemens was taken out. This included a home run by Piazza. Yankee manager Joe Torre had to call on Mariano Rivera to get the last out. He did. The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the Series, and won the Series in 5 games.

Roger Clemens has 2 World Series rings. Mike Piazza has none. But Mike Piazza is in the Hall of Fame. Roger Clemens, thus far, is not. Who is better off?

*

October 22, 2000 was a Sunday, so it was also a day of NFL action. Almost lost in the craziness of Game 2 of the World Series was the fact that, a few hours earlier, Corey Dillon of the Cincinnati Bengals rushed for 278 yards against the Denver Broncos, breaking Walter Payton's single-game record of 275, set in 1977. The Bengals had been 0-6, but won this one, 31-21 at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. (It's now named Paycor Stadium.) They won the next week, too, beating their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns. But they fell apart, finishing 4-12.

Dillon, who has since been arrested for hitting his wife, has seen his record surpassed by Jamal Lewis and Adrian Peterson -- a cocaine addict and a child abuser, respectively. Walter Payton, one of the most decent men in sports history, went to his grave with his record intact. I don't think he would have minded seeing his record broken, but it would have upset him to see the character of the men who have done it.

Other NFL games played that day:

* The Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots, 30-23 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chicago Bears, 13-9 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Tennessee Titans beat the Baltimore Ravens, 14-6 at PSINet Stadium (now M&T Bank Stadium) in Baltimore.

* The Carolina Panthers beat the San Francisco 49ers, 34-16 at Ericsson Stadium (now Bank of America Stadium) in Charlotte.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons, 21-19 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 35-16 at Alltel Stadium (now EverBank Stadium) in Jacksonville.

* The Dallas Cowboys beat the Arizona Cardinals, 48-7 at Texas Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat their arch-rivals, the Cleveland Browns, 22-0 at Three Rivers Stadium in PIttsburgh.

* The Minnesota Vikings beat the Buffalo Bills, 31-27 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the St. Louis Rams, 54-34 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. There was never really an NFL rivalry in Missouri, not between the Chiefs and the Rams from 1995 to 2015, and not between the Chiefs and the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals from 1970 to 1987.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Seattle Seahawks, 31-3 at the Oakland Coliseum (then named the Network Associates Coliseum).

Three days earlier, the Detroit Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 28-14 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Jets entered the 4th quarter at Giants Stadium trailing 30-7, and won it 40-37 on John Hall's field goal with 8:13 left in overtime. It's become known as the Monday Night Miracle.

And the New York Giants, the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers had a bye week.

There were 4 NHL games that day:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-1 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Kirk Maltby scored the winning goal with 2:59 left in overtime.

* The Florida Panthers and the Minnesota Wild played to a 0-0 tie at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

* And the Phoenix Coyotes and the Edmonton Oilers played to a 3-3 tie at the Skyreach Centre, as the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton was then known.