Yankees and the AL East: 25 years as baseball’s best division

Aaron Frickin’ Boone

But it never came to that. Wakefield walked out in the bottom of the eleventh to face Aaron Boone. Boone had been brought in as a pinch runner; this was his first at bat of the game. And he needed only one flat pitch to send a deep drive into the left field seats, sending the Yankees to the World Series and their fans into delirium.

Red Sox fans, and players, however, went home in stunned, silent, disbelief. If you did not believe in the Curse before that game, you surely believed in it after.

It also signaled the last game Grady Little ever managed for Boston. He went off to Oakland for a bit and then faded into a ghost wandering through baseball purgatory, the mark of Milt Stock burned forever into his forehead.

Meaningful

Mariano demonstrated for all the world to see how much this game and series victory meant to the Yankees. Perhaps sensing their run really was over, and that the team with the most talent probably did not win, he collapsed on the mound in exhaustion and exhilaration.

This was a singular display from the normally stoic Panamanian, never seen before or since.

His effort and that of his team defined what it means to have the heart of a champion, to come back against high odds and a better team, and to stand victorious at the end. Even more than the championships they won, this series—this game—showed the entire baseball world why the Yankees are the Yankees.

And what it means to compete in the AL East. If you want it, you have to take it.

The Yankees went on to lose to the Marlins and a young Miguel Cabrera in six, along with future Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, but the loss did not seem to resonate. I have rarely met a Yankees fan who is more upset that they lost to the Marlins than thrilled that the Yankees beat the Sawx. Some don’t even know more games were played that year.

It was the most exciting series I have ever seen, and the best game seven ever played that wasn’t for the World Series title. That’s as much because it ended with an extra-inning, walk-off home run as because it was Yankees/Red Sox.

When I lied down that night in a vain effort to sleep, a smile on my lips and a song in my heart (Sweet Caroline), the universe made perfect sense.