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"The bruise
from the (2003) World Series loss to the Florida Marlins is still smarting, and
some wounds from a difficult year working for George Steinbrenner remain open.
(New York) Yankees manager Joe Torre is thinking about the end." - The Star
Ledger (November 1, 2003) |
The biggest story of the 2003 World Series may
not have been the actual Fall Classic, but more so the dramatic pennant race
that led up to the Series itself. After years of less-than-stellar ratings,
record audiences finally tuned in to the Major League Baseball postseason,
making it the most-watched playoffs ever on cable. Fans also flocked to the
ballparks setting a new attendance mark with over 1,858,979 tickets sold. Many
attributed this renewed interest to the playoff's storybook backdrop that
featured two of baseball's most beloved underdogs, the Boston Red Sox and
Chicago Cubs. Both teams had surprised the experts by making the post season and
each continued to shock their opponents by battling back in their respective
leagues time and time again. After surviving the Divisional round, generations
of long-suffering fans from both ball clubs reveled in the possibility that the
curse of both "The Bambino" and "The Goat" was finally coming to an end. The
baseball god's apparently had other plans and both teams fell just five
heartbreaking outs short of making it to the Series.
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Unlike the similarities shared between their
tragic opponents, both league champions were as diametrically opposed as two
teams meeting on the same diamond could be. On the American League side, the New
York Yankees, recently nicknamed "The Evil Empire", surprised no one after
posting the best record in baseball en route to their 39th Fall
Classic. The National League champion Florida Marlins however, had managed to
sneak undetected under everyone's "radar" after falling ten games under .500 on
May 22. Amazingly, the moderately popular Florida franchise was making its
second Fall Classic appearance in only it's tenth year of existence. After the
emotionally exhausting playoffs, in which almost every game literally came down
to the final pitch, many fans believed that the Series was a foregone conclusion
and could not possibly live up to the drama of it's predecessors. Little did
they know that another battle of "David vs. Goliath" was about to unfold and
that neither team would ever be the same again...
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In Game 1 the Yankees opened the Series in the
same fashion that they had opened both the American League Divisional Series and
America League Championship with a loss. The 3-2 decision snapped the Yankees'
ten-game-home winning streak (in the World Series), dating back to Game 2 of the
1996 Fall Classic. Despite the setback, the pinstripe faithful refused to panic,
as the Bronx Bombers were 7-1, in which they had lost Game 1, under manager Joe
Torre. Starting pitcher David Wells had surrendered a run in the first inning
after Florida's Juan Pierre laid down a perfect bunt single that was followed by
Luis Castillo's flare single to right, putting runners at the corners. Ivan
Rodriguez lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Pierre and giving him a
playoff-best seventeen runs batted in. The Yankees tied the game in the third
against Brad Penny after Derek Jeter came up clutch with a RBI single to center,
scoring Karim Garcia from second and injecting some life into the crowd of
55,769 that was still suffering from an ALCS "hangover". Pierre later put the
Marlins back on top in the fifth with a two-run single to left, giving Florida a
3-1 lead, but Bernie Williams answered back with a solo home run with one out in
the sixth. It was the eighteenth post-season home run of his career and tied him
with fellow Yankees Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson for the most round-trippers
in Major League playoff history. Taking no chances, Florida pulled Penny in
favor of closer Ugueth Urbina, who struck out Jorge Posada and Alfonso Soriano
before inducing Nick Johnson to pop out to center, nailing down the
win.
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Game 2 evened the score as Andy Pettitte brought
the Yankees back to life (for the third consecutive series) with a near-perfect
6-1 outing. Pitching on three days' rest, Pettitte allowed only one unearned run
over 8 2/3 innings for his ninth consecutive win. Japanese import Hideki Matsui
gave the pitcher all of the offensive support he would need, belting a three-run
homer in the first inning. Alfonso Soriano, who had been struggling at the plate
throughout the playoffs, added a two-run shot in the fourth that sealed the
deal. Marlins right-handed prodigy Josh Beckett was given the start for Game 3
and the twenty-three year-old Texan worked through a lengthy rain delay and an
imposing lineup, striking out ten while giving up three hits and two runs.
However, Yankees starter Mike Mussina proved better giving up a single run in
seven innings. After one-hundred eight pitches through 7 1/3 innings, Beckett
was pulled in favor of the left-handed Dontrelle Willis who struggled with his
control due to the wet weather. Once again, Matsui came up big at the plate
snapping a tie with a two-out RBI single in the eighth. From there, ALCS Game 7
hero Aaron Boone and Bernie Williams both added home runs in the ninth capping
off another 6-1 decision over the Marlins.
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The fourth game in the Series held a special
significance as the fans in attendance witnessed the final appearance on the
mound by one of baseball's greatest pitchers, Roger Clemens. The future Hall of
Famer came on strong sitting down the first two Marlins in the opening frame.
However, things quickly turned sour after Ivan Rodriguez's two-out single
sparked an early Marlins rally. Following Rodriguez's lead, Miguel Cabrera, a
twenty year-old rookie, drilled a 2-2 pitch the opposite way from the forty-one
year-old Clemens deep into the right-field seats, giving Florida a 2-0 lead.
Jeff Conine and Mike Lowell followed with singles, putting runners at the
corners. Derrek Lee then scored Conine putting the Yankees in a three-run hole
after only one inning. Taking their turn, New York rallied around their
struggling pitcher and responded by loading the bases with three singles to open
the second. Aaron Boone kept their drive alive with a sac-fly to center that
scored Bernie Williams cutting the lead to 3-1. Determined to "save face" for
his forty-two pitch first-inning debacle, "The Rocket" settled in needing just
fifty-four pitches to get through the next five innings.
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Clemens returned for the seventh to face Luis
Castillo as flashbulbs began to pop with each pitch. Falling behind on the count
1-2, Castillo battled the Yankee ace for five more pitches before looking at
strike three on a fastball that tailed over the inside corner. The 65,934 in
attendance gave Clemens a standing ovation as he walked off the field for the
last time, honoring him for his twenty seasons of pitching supremacy. As the
Marlins took the field to start the eighth, some of their classier players
tilted their caps to the Yankees dugout. Clemens, who came back on to the field
for a curtain call, returned the gesture by waving to the fans and to his
opponents. Once again, Ugueth Urbina was summoned from Florida's bullpen but the
Marlins reliever stumbled and surrendered two tying runs after Ruben Sierra
lined a pitch down the right-field line for a triple, scoring both Williams and
pinch-runner David Dellucci. Jose Contreras tossed two scoreless innings of
relief for New York, while Florida's Chad Fox, after getting through the tenth,
ran into trouble in the eleventh. With runners in scoring position, and Juan
Rivera sent in to pinch-hit for Contreras, Braden Looper took the mound. After
intentionally walking Rivera, Looper proceeded to strike out Aaron Boone and
force John Flaherty to pop out to third leaving all runners stranded on base. As
the Yankees prepared to take the field, Torre made a call to his own bullpen
that would prove both controversial and costly. The Yankees skipper elected to
go with Jeff Weaver in the eleventh, despite the fact that he had not appeared
on the mound in twenty-eight days. Weaver, who had been demoted as a starter to
a relief role, held the Marlins at bay with a series of well placed fastballs.
After Looper tossed a scoreless top of the twelfth, Alex Gonzalez worked the
count full to lead off the Marlins' half of the twelfth. Swinging for the
bleachers, the shortstop drilled the payoff pitch down the left-field line,
barely clearing the 330-foot sign on the wall, nailing a 4-3 win and setting off
a celebration both on the field and in the stands. In retrospect, many fans felt
that Torre's gamble on Weaver had not only cost the Yankees Game 4, but in the
end, the Series.
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New York caught another bad break in Game 5 after
losing starting pitcher David Wells to a "freak" back injury after just one
inning. Florida went on to hit reliever Jose Contreras for four runs in three
innings, after clearly taking control in the second. Things then went from bad
to worse as the Yankees struggling bullpen allowed six runs from the second
through the fifth. Marlins starter Brad Penny took care of the rest while
holding the Bombers to only one earned run over seven innings. Once again
Florida had defeated the mighty Yankees and moved within one win of a second
World Series championship. Game 6 maintained the Marlins' momentum as Josh
Beckett, starting on three days' rest for the first time in his young career,
dominated the Yankees with a complete-game, five-hit shutout. His rival, Andy
Pettitte, who had won eleven consecutive games following Yankees losses, gave
New York a valiant effort, holding the Marlins to two runs (one earned) over
seven innings. Pettitte sat down the first two Marlins in the fifth, but Alex
Gonzalez and Juan Pierre put together consecutive singles to keep the inning
going. Pettitte got ahead of Luis Castillo, 0-2, but the second baseman worked
the count to 2-2 before lining a single to right field. Outfielder Karim Garcia
fielded the hit and went for home, but his throw was slightly up the first-base
line, allowing Gonzalez to score with a heads-up slide, avoiding the tag and
touching the plate with his left hand. Beckett remained focused and sat the
Yankees down in order in the sixth, striking out Bernie Williams (looking) and
Hideki Matsui (swinging) to put the Marlins nine outs away from the
championship. Jorge Posada led off the seventh with a double to left, but
Beckett got Jason Giambi to ground out to third before striking out Garcia and
pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra. As a testament to Florida's defensive play, New York
remained 0-for-7 on the night with runners in scoring position. After Yankees
closer Mariano Rivera came in to prevent any additional runs, Beckett returned
to the mound to finish the job, forcing both Williams and Matsui to fly out to
left. He then got Posada to squib an inside pitch down the first-base line,
which he appropriately, fielded himself tagging the catcher for the final
out.
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The "routine play" almost seemed anti-climatic as
one of baseball's most dramatic post-seasons abruptly came to an end. While
Marlins players mobbed each other on the field in celebration, the stands of
Yankee Stadium remained silent as fans were coming to grips with another World
Championship lost. Much like the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, Florida had managed
to beat the odds AND the favored Yankees to become the best in baseball. Unlike
the '97 franchise of free-agent "mercenaries", the '03 Marlins boasted a young
team that looked to remain intact for future seasons. Things did not look as
bright in the Big Apple however where a dynasty was about to see several changes and a lot of pink slips. |
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