Yankees History: Six Great Moments From 1990 To The Present

In virtually every World Series, there always seems to be a player who rises to the moment, carrying his team to victory. Typically, he is not the player who is paid $25 million to win a batting title or hit clutch home runs and drive in a hundred or more runs.

He is, for instance, Pablo Sandoval, who took home the MVP trophy following the San Francisco Giants‘ sweep of Detroit, hitting .500 with three home runs, a double and four RBIs in 16 Series at-bats in 2012.

Scott Brosius came to the plate 17 times in the 1998 Series. He collected eight hits, two of them home runs, driving in six runs, and batting .471 in just four games. For that, he was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player.

Or. as we witnessed in the 2016 World Series, it was Ben Zobrist who, on a two-strike count,  hit a double inside third base that scored pinch runner Albert Almora Jr. with the decisive run in an 8-7 victory that gave the Cubs their first World Series championship since 1908.

In 1998, the Yankees had Scott Brosius batting sixth in a lineup in which you can almost see the opposing dugout breathing a sigh of relief as he came to the plate because they knew that if they could get past him, chances were good no further damage would be done by the bottom of the order.

Scott Brosius came to the plate 17 times in the 1998 Series. He collected eight hits, two of them home runs, driving in six runs, and batting .471 in just four games. For that, he was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player.

Brosius came to the Yankees as a free agent signing the winter before the 1998 season following six years with the Oakland Athletics. He was signed on November 23rd for a salary of $2,650,000.

Steady and reliable, he manned third base for the Yankees playing in 152 games. Offensively, he contributed 19 home runs,  98 RBI, a .300 BA, and a .371 on-base percentage during the regular season.

Not surprisingly, Scott Brosius has fond memories of that year, and especially, of course, of the World Series in 1998, saying during a visit to the Baseball Of Fame:

"“Everyone always asks me about that moment,” Brosius said of that Game 5 home run, which followed the late game heroics of Tino Martinez and Derek Jeter in Game 4, “and I just remember running around the bases and thinking to myself: ‘No way did that happen twice.’ It was a great moment, but this bat from the ’98 Series is actually a sweeter memory for me, because we won the Series.”"

Brosius added two more World Series rings to his trophy case in 1999 and 2000 in the first ever Subway Series against the New York Mets.

When asked by the Hall Of Fame to donate two of the bats he used in the ’98 World Series, Brosius didn’t hesitate to say:

"“I know some guys are a little hesitant to give away their stuff,” Brosius said, “but when you guys came and asked me for these bats, I just said, ‘Are you kidding me? Yes!’ Anything I can do to get in this place, I will.”"

Today, Scott Brosius can be found leading a quiet life in Oregon with his family. He was a coach for a while following retirement, completing his final season of coaching baseball at Linfield College in McMinville, Ore., in 2015,  where he led his alma mater to three straight appearances in the Division III NCAA Tournament and its first national championship in 2013.