The 2001 baseball season started like all others of late. High off the 2000 World Series win over the cross-town rivals NY Mets and their third consecutive championship, the Yankees were poised to do it again in 2001. And as the season progressed, it looked more and more like that would be the case. Then, September 11th happened.
As native New Yorkers, we were rattled to the core. As Americans we were all rattled to our core. Life in the days immediately after September 11th were unlike anything any of us had experienced. Every day activities stopped for a while as the city and country rallied together to search, rescue, recover, and eventually, begin to heal. MLB games were postponed for a week, pushing the World Series start to October 27th. The Yankees earning their spot in the World Series and the hosting games in NY seven weeks after the events of 9/11 was a tremendous morale booster for NYC. And for my brothers and I, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. My brothers were born October 30th and October 31st seven years apart. By the time their birthdays roll around, the World Series is long over and we begin the countdown to Spring Training. This year, with the Series being played at home in NY on both of their birthdays, I knew we had to find a way to make it to one of the two games.
StubHub was a relatively new ticket outlet at the time, and despite the ridiculously inflated prices, I decided to buy five tickets off of StubHub to Game 4 of the World Series, held on October 31st at Yankee Stadium. Five bleacher seats in Section 51, Row D. Five tickets at a cost more than five times face value to a once-in-a-lifetime event. So, on a cold, damp Halloween Wednesday night, my brothers, my sister-in-law, a friend and I headed out to Yankee Stadium to attend the one and only World Series game any of us will most likely ever attend. We knew to get there extremely early, given that with the heightened security protocols in place, it would take a long time to get into the Stadium. We didn’t care about being searched or going through metal detectors. We were over the moon simply to be out and at the game, especially after the excitement of the previous night’s 2-1 win, featuring President George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch and an RBI-game winning single by Scott Brosius. Somehow we knew that night was going to be special beyond measure.
The Stadium was emotionally charged. The pride of being Americans and New Yorkers was deeply felt with every chant of “U-S-A” and ” Let’s Go Yankees”. Tears streamed down faces when images of the American flag were flashed on the big screen. The first pitch was thrown out by Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto, and Yogi Berra – Yankees and baseball heroes to all. And as the night and the game progressed, it seemed that the amazing pitching performance by Curt Shilling was going to deny us the victory we so badly wanted and our spirits needed. By the end of the eight inning, we were down 3-1, and Diamondbacks’ closer, Byung-Hyun Kim, shut us down at the bottom of the inning to seemingly seal the victory for the D-backs. But victory was indeed to be ours that night.
With one out and Paul O’Neill on first base, Tino Martinez hit a first-pitch two-run home run over the right-centerfield wall to tie the game. The game was still alive! The Stadium rattled with everyone cheering as the scoreboard was updated to show the 3-3 tie, and we knew that the magic we felt in the air at the start of the game was alive and well! Who cared that tomorrow was a work day. Extra inning games can be long, and we knew we were staying to the bitter end!
At 11:59PM, Derek Jeter, who was 0-4 that evening, came up to bat with two outs in the inning. If there was ever moment for something to happen, at that time with that hitter was the time for it to happen. At the first swing for strike one, the clock struck 12:00AM. It was now officially November 1st. The first time in baseball history when a World Series game was in play in November. The big screen announced – “ATTENTION FANS – WELCOME TO NOVEMBER BASEBALL”. The air was electric. Something was about to happen…but not before Jeter works the at bat to a full count. The stage was now completely set. At 12:04AM – November baseball, three balls, two strikes, two outs, bottom of the tenth inning in NY. CRACK! The bullet over the far right field wall. The answer to everyone’s prayers. Let’s win this for NY. Let’s win this for America. Yankees win 4-3. As far as my brothers and I are concerned – it was the BEST WORLD SERIES GAME EVER!
The sense of joy, the energy of the fans in the Stadium, the feeling of being winners. We will never experience that again. But we were fortunate to have the opportunity to do so once in our lifetime. Celebrating the 29th and 22nd birthdays for my brothers. Celebrating our love of baseball and the historical significance of that specific game. Celebrating our love of team spirit. Celebrating the unity of humanity and of being an American. What a game!
My brothers and I before the game. My brothers and sister-in-law at 12:04AM!