The Yankees Twenty-Five Most Memorable Home Runs

Video Courtesy Of The New York Yankees

#19 A Veteran Comes Up Big For The Yankees

To set the stage for the heroics of Raul Ibanez, a good deal of controversy surrounded the Yankees as they took the field to play the Baltimore Orioles. And most of it centered on Alex Rodriguez who was in the midst of a battle with just about everyone, including the Yankees organization, over his alleged use of steroids and other legal matters.

To make it worse, A-Rod was struggling at the plate hitting (at the time) .111 with only one extra-base hit. The calls to drop Rodriguez in the lineup, or just drop him altogether, were coming in loud and clear in the office of manager Joe Girardi.

Rodriguez said all the right things, but apparently, he wanted to and expected to play.Even Donald Trump weighed in on the matter:

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A-Rod must be dropped in the Yankees line-up tonight if they want to win. He simply can’t perform without drugs.

So with the Yankees down 2-1 entering the ninth inning and facing a 2-1 deficit in the series, Girardi removed A-Rod from the game and sent Ibanez to the plate as a pinch-hitter.

The rest, as they say, is history. Facing Orioles closer, Jim Johnson, Ibanez smashed not one, but two home runs, the last one being a walk-off winner for the Yankees.

The two home run also marked the first time in playoff baseball history that a player who didn’t start a game hit multiple home runs.