The D-Backs are Back

For the first time in twenty-two years the Arizona Diamondbacks are back in the World Series. In 2001 the Diamondbacks beat the New York Yankees four games to three and what a doozy of a series it was. Twice is game four and five the Yankees were down to their final out before tying the game with a dramatic home run. And both times the home runs were hit off Arizona’s ace reliever Byung-Hyung Kim. Each game was then won by the Yanks in extra inning.

But it was game seven that was a real masterpiece. It was the only time in World Series history where the trailing team came back to win game seven in their final at bat.

That game is featured in Chapter 15 of my book Grandpa Gordy’s Greatest World Series Games. In the book Grandpa Gordy, a retired sportswriter who covered baseball for years, gives a unique retelling of the dramatic game to his young grandkids Michael and Jessica. Here is an excerpt for my book.

“Okay little ones,” said Grandpa Gordy, “the Yankees as a result of their two, thrilling come-from-behind victories, were now leading in the series three games to two and needed one more victory to win their 27^th World Championship. That would not be easy because lying in wait in Arizona were those two nasty superstar starters Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. After all the tension of the previous two games, game six was a laugher as Randy Johnson glided to a 15-2 victory. That set the stage for game seven, which was one of the most exciting World Series games in history.”

Grandpa Gordy continued. “Once again, we had ourselves a pitching duel. Roger “the Rocket” Clemens was on the hill for the Yanks and Curt Schilling was back, starting his third game for Arizona. Both were on the top of their games. Zona ended a long string of zeroes with a run in the sixth that was matched by the Yankees with a run in the top of the seventh. Then in the top of the eighth one of the heroes of game five, Alphonso Soriano, came to the plate against the mighty Schilling. Soriano swings. There’s a high fly ball, deep to left. It is high! It is far! It is gone!! A home run for Soriano and the Yankees have a 2-1 lead. Six more outs and the New York Yankees can win their 27^th World Championship. And coming in to pitch in the bottom of the eighth was the magnificent Mariano Rivera, who has an incredible record of 23-consecutive post-season saves! Rivera then promptly strikes out the side in the eighth and the Yankee fans only need to count the outs because they know, with Mariano the Magnificent, it is automatic. But wait. The D-Backs are not buying the Mariano mystique. Mark Grace leads off the bottom of the ninth with a base hit. Damon Miller comes up and bunts trying to move the tying run to second. Rivera fields the ball and instead of getting the easy out at first, he fires to second to cut down the lead runner. But oh my! The throw sails wide and the runner is safe! First and second nobody out. Another bunt. This time by pinch-hitter Jay Bell. Rivera once again fields it and once again goes for the difficult force out, but this time he nails the runner at third for the first out. That brings the D-Backs’ scrappy shortstop Tony Womack to the plate. Two more outs are all Mariano the Magnificent needs. But wait. The pitch to Womack is a cutter in on his hands. He swings. He loops the ball down the right field line. Base hit! Cummings, who ran for Miller, is rounding third. He scores! The game is tied! Rivera then pitches too far inside to Craig Counsell and hits him, and the bases are now loaded for Arizona’s best hitter, Luis “Gonzo” Gonzalez.”

“Joe Torre signals for his infielder and outfielders to come in and play shallow. Just moments ago, New York was in the driver’s seat with the lead. Now, with only one out, the play must be at the plate. Unlike the situation in game five when Torre left the infield back with one out and the winning run on third, this time the D-Backs are the home team and if a run scores it’s all over. So, he must play the infield in. “Gonzo” who hit .325 with 57 home runs and 142 RBIs this season steps to the plate. The Magnificent Mariano, looking supremely confident, checks the sign from his catcher. The pitch. Another cutter, Rivera’s best pitch. In on Gonzo’s hands. He swings. He bloops the ball off the handle right toward shortstop. But wait! Where is Derek Jeter the Yankee shortstop? He is playing way in for a play at the plate. He turns to go back. He can’t get it! BASE HIT!!! Bell scores from third! The Diamondbacks win!”

“Wow what a finish,” Michael said as Grandpa Gordy finally sat down. He was completely out of breath.

“Well, I guess that poor Mr. Kim who allowed the Yankees to come back in those other games doesn’t have to feel bad anymore,” Jessica said.

“Well, you’re right little one,” Grandpa Gordy said. “And that was the first ever World Series Championship for the Arizona Diamondbacks as they beat the mighty Yankees 3-2 and won the series four games to three. So that’s all for tonight little ones. Good night and sweet dreams.”

It will be interesting to see if the 2023 World Series can match the excitement of 2001. We will soon see.

Check out more of my book Grandpa Gordy’s Greatest World Series Games at your local bookstore or on Amazon.

Simply the Best: The 1998 Yankees

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of what could be regarded as the best baseball team of all time, the 1998 New York Yankees. In his new book The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever The 1998 Yankees author Jack Curry makes a convincing case. If you are a baseball fan and you haven’t read Curry’s book you should. If you are a Yankee fan you must.

As a long time Yankee fan, I didn’t need much convincing, though I had to do some research on the 1961 Yankees, the team I grew up watching, to make sure Curry’s argument held up. And it does. It also holds up against all the other great teams in baseball history. By all means get Curry’s informative and enjoyable book to see his complete argument. For my blog here I will focus in on what I believe are the most important facets support the conclusion that the 1998 New York Yankees are the best team ever.

First, to set some parameters: I am not talking about the best collection of players, nor am I measuring the team over a course of several seasons. I am not talking about a dynasty team (though the 1998 Yankees were part of a dynasty team that won four World Championships and five AL Pennants over the course of 6 years; 1996-2001). I’m talking about a team having the greatest single season ever. And for this I believe there is no doubt.

The two most important categories to consider are wins, of course, and winning the World Series. A lesser category would be winning percentage.

Let’s start with winning percentage as the fairest way to differentiate a really good team from a great team. Afterall, winning percentage accurately accounts for the significance of the different lengths of seasons from baseball’s different eras. Specifically, the change from 154 games to 162 games which occurred in 1961. Using .700 as the dividing line we find nine teams in modern baseball history (since the beginning of the World Series in 1903) that had a regular season winning percentage over .700.

Here is the list:

1906 Chicago Cubs .763 W 116 L 36

1909 Pittsburgh Pirates .724 110-42

1954 Cleveland Indians .721 111-43

2001 Seattle Mariners .716 116-46

1927 NY Yankees .714 110-44

1998 NY Yankees .704 114-48

1931 Philadelphia Athletics .704 107-45

1907 Chicago Cubs .704 107-45

1939 NY Yankees .702 106-45

Of these nine teams four can be eliminated because despite their fantastic regular season they failed to win the World Series. In my book you can’t be considered the best team ever if you couldn’t even win the championship. So, despite having the most regular season wins at 116 both the 1906 Cubs and the 2001 Mariners are both eliminated because they failed to win the World Series. The Cubs lost to their crosstown rivals the White Sox and the Mariners failed to even make it to the World Series, losing in the playoffs to the Yankees. The 1954 Indians and the 1931 Athletics also failed to win the World Series so that leaves us with five teams remaining.

This is a tough call, but I’m going to eliminate the 1909 Honus Wagner led Pittsburgh Pirates because they had a difficult time in the World Series needing seven games to beat Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers. The remaining four teams all went undefeated in the World Series although the 1907 Cubs took five games to defeat the Tigers with one game ending in a tie.

To differentiate the four remaining teams, I will use a rough metric from the Baseball Almanac where the teams’ yearly stats are compiled showing the leaders in ten offensive categories such as batting average and runs and eight pitching categories such as ERA and strikeouts. The best team here is the 1927 Yankees who led in 12 categories, the 1939 Yankees 10 categories, the 1998 Yankees eight categories, and the 1907 Cubs only five categories. Using this metric, I will give the 1907 Cubs with the lowest score the boot leaving the three Yankee teams as the finalists. I know, I’m a Yankee fan, but what can I say, the stats don’t lie.

The Baseball Almanac’s metric has however a significant flaw. It can’t account for a major difference between the two eras; before and after the leagues expanded. The 1998 Yankees competed against twice as many teams as the 1927 and 1939 Yankees, thus it was much more difficult to lead in a category. But we can use that metric to compare the 1927 Yanks and the 1939 Yanks, and we can give Babe Ruth’s Yanks the nod over Joe DiMaggio’s lower scoring Yanks, thus eliminating the 1939 Yanks and leaving just the 1998 Yankees and the 1927 Yankees in the competition.

So, comparing two teams from two different eras can be difficult but it also can be fun. I know growing up and watching the 1961 Yankees every day; as the season went on there were discussions as to whether the 1961 Yankees with the M&M Boys, Mantle and Maris, could compare with Ruth and Lou Gehrig and the Murders Row of 1927. At that time the 1927 Yankees were considered the best team of all-time, at least in my neck of the woods and without any advanced metrics. The ’27 Yankees certainly had all the power and glitz with two of the all-time greats in their lineup, Ruth, and Gehrig. The ’98 Yankees didn’t lack in star power with two emerging Hall of Famers, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera on their roster. They also had the AL batting champ Bernie Williams and a solid pitching staff with borderline Hall of Famer David Cone, plus Andy Pettitte and David Wells. As a result, I must contend that it all comes down to wins. The 1998 Yankees, winning 114 regular season games and 11 post season games for a total of 125 wins, had more wins than any other team ever, and 11 more than the 1927 Yankees. Now you could argue that if the 1927 Yankees played 23 more games, they probably could have won at least 12 of them. The problem is, that would be mere speculation and there is no way to know, and we will never know. There is no other way around it, the 1998 New York Yankees, winner of 125 games, are simply the best.

A couple of footnotes.

One reason the 1998 New York Yankees do not get the credit they deserve is that the year 1998 in baseball is primarily remembered for the incredible home run competition between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. As the Yankees dominated the American League with record setting precision, McGwire and Sosa were captivating the entire nation with their quest to break Roger Maris’s single-season home run record. Prior to any suspicions of PED’s they were America’s sports heroes as McGwire blew by Ruth and Maris with 70 home runs and Sosa doing the same with 66.

Curry’s book also mentions a comparison of the greatest teams done by the website FiveThirtyEight using a complex set of metrics. FiveThirtyEight lists the 1939 Yankees as number one, kudos to Joe D, but the ’39 Yanks had the lowest winning percentage of our nine .700 teams, and it somehow rates the 1906 Cubs number two despite losing the World Series. For those reasons I believe their metrics are flawed. They even dropped our 1998 Yankees to fifth, behind the ‘27 Yankees and the ’09 Pirates which I certainly find unjustifiable.

References:

The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever The 1998 Yankees by Jack Curry

Baseball Almanac

A Tribute to the Captain, Willis Reed

New York Knickerbockers’ star center Willis Reed died Tuesday at the age of 80. He was the heart and soul of a Knicks team that made it to the NBA Playoffs for seven years in a row from 1967 to 1973—winning the Championship twice in 1970 and 1973.

I’ll never forget that joyous night in May 1970 when the injured Willis Reed emerged from the Madison Square Garden tunnel to spur the Knicks to their game-seven victory over the Los Angeles Lakers to secure the first ever NBA Championship for the Knicks.

It was a time when the New York metropolitan area fanbase was split between the loyalist fans of the Yankees and the football Giants and the upstart fans of the Mets and Jets. Us loyalists were devastated by the recent demise of our storied Yankees and Giants as they plummeted to futility in the late sixties and early seventies. Our stars like Mickey Mantle and Frank Gifford were gone. Humiliation then set in when matinee-idol Joe “Willie” Namath and the Jets stunned the world with a Superbowl victory in January 1969 and Tom “Terrific” Seaver led the Mets to a startling World Series Championship later in October.

But then came our Knicks to the rescue. The ABA was in its infancy, so all eyes were on the NBA, and it seemed everyone; Yankee fans, Mets fans, Giant fans and Jet fans were all rooting for the Knicks. And the Knicks came through in thrilling fashion.

It is an understatement to say that Reed was the heart and soul of the Knicks. He was more than that. He was the glue that kept the team together. He was the Captain that made his talented teammates; Walt “Clyde” Frazier, “Dollar” Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Barnet, Phil “Action” Jackson and later Earl “the Pearl” Monroe and Jerry Lucas play a brand of team-oriented winning basketball rarely seen.

At 6-10 and 240-pounds Reed was a powerful presence at center for the Knicks. Yet he had the sweetest mid-range jumper of any center playing at that time. In his ten-year career with New York Reed averaged more than twenty points five straight seasons. He was an All-Star seven straight years. He won the NBA MVP in 1970 and was twice named the MVP of the playoffs. He was the first player to be named MVP for the All-Star game, the playoffs, and the NBA all in one season.

But he will always be remembered for that night in May. Reed sat out game six due to a deep thigh injury and the Lakers behind Wilt Chamberlain’s 45-point performance trounced the Knicks setting up the pivotal game seven in the garden. For us loyalist fans the game meant everything. But how could our team win without Willis? Our prayers were answered when Reed came limping out from that MSG tunnel, ready to tough it out on the court. He hit his first two jump shots and the garden crowd was electric. Reed inspired his teammates to a thorough 113-99 drubbing of the Lakers. And with star point guard Walt Frazier “dishing and swishing” his way to 36 points the Knicks were NBA Champions. Us loyalist fans had a measure of redemption, and the New York fandom was united in our jubilation.

Reed would go on to lead the Knicks to another Championship in 1973. The Knicks won that series against the Lakers in five games, and after his game five performance of 18 points and 12 rebounds Reed said, “it was my best playoff performance since the championship in 1970”. New York has not had another championship.

Reed had a successful coaching career after his playing days.

Born in Lico, Louisiana in 1942 Reed was a star player at Grambling State and a second-round pick by the Knicks in 1964. Reed retired after the 1974 season due to a severe case of tendonitis. His New York Knick teams are considered the best teams ever in New York basketball. Reed went on to have a successful coaching career leading the Knicks to the playoffs in 1978. He also coached Creighton and the New York Nets and then had successful working in the front office.

But Reed will always be remembered for that night in May 1970. That night of redemption.

RIP # 19.

A personal anecdote.

While reminiscing about Willis Reed a friend of mine told me a story about that night in May. He and a group of classmates were in Boston for a student council convention. They had gone through a grueling day of workshops covering such riveting topics as; the history of bicameral governing, Roberts Rules of Order and how to select a prom queen in the modern world of women’s lib. Prior to settling down in their hotel to watch game seven they agreed some liquid refreshment would be in order.

But this was 1970, our senior year (two years removed from the tumultuous year of my novel Mickey Mantle’s Last Home Run) and there was one problem. No one was old enough to purchase any beer. Fortunately, one member of the group looked older than his age, partly because he was trying to grow a goatee. He reverently referred to his emerging facial hair as his “Willis whiskers” in honor of his favorite basketball player Willis Reed. Sure enough he was able to successfully purchase several six pacts, flashing only his Willis whiskers and a big smile—no ID required. The group then sat back and enjoyed, in style, what forever will be known as “The Willis Reed Game”.

References:

NBA.com

Yearbook, Official Guide and Record Book of the New York Knickerbockers Basketball Club 1973-74

A Salute to King James

This past baseball season sports fans everywhere got to marvel as Aaron Judge pursued one of the iconic records in the history of professional sports—the single season home run record. Judge set the record this September with his monumental 62^nd home run blast. This winter we watched in anticipation as another iconic sports record was set to fall.

Last night LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers hit a fade away jumper amassing 38,388 points for his career to surpass the all-time NBA scoring record set 39 years ago by basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

In breaking the seemingly impossible record James adds to his incredible list of accomplishments. Remarkably, even as a scoring dynamo, James is 4^th on the all-time NBA list of assists. He has four NBA titles with three different teams and has been awarded four league MVP’s. He also has 2 Olympic gold medals.

Throughout his 20-year career James has been an ambassador for the game of basketball and has helped increase the sports’ popularity throughout the world.

As we saw with Aaron Judge’s accomplishments, all records are made to be broken. But not without hard work, persistence, and an abundance of talent, all of which are displayed by LeBron James. And incredibly, at the age of 38, James remains one of the top players in the NBA, so there is no telling how many other records are within his reach.