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Look back at: Divisional Playoffs |
League Championship
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Sunday, October 22
A Subway Series classic
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
NEW YORK -- A half-century from now, or whenever the next Subway Series is played, they'll still be talking about this one.
They'll be talking about Game 1 of the great New York-New York World Series of the year 2000 -- all 4 hours and 51 minutes of it.
They'll be talking about Todd Zeile's gravity-defying home run that wasn't.
|  | | Robin Ventura's dive into the third-base stands for a foul pop-up was typical of the Mets' and Yankees' efforts in a classic 12-inning Game 1 of the World Series. |
They'll be talking about Derek Jeter's whirling, no-look, off-balance laser beam that produced a miraculous out at home plate.
They'll be talking about David Justice's two-run double that shook the Bronx like an earthquake.
They'll be talking about Edgardo Alfonzo, pumping down the first-base line, emptying every ounce of premium unleaded in his tank, to produce the infield single that capped what appeared to be a staggering, climb-off-the-mat game-winning rally.
They'll be talking about Paul O'Neill's 10-pitch at-bat off Armando Benitez that launched the Yankees' game-tying reincarnation in the bottom of the ninth.
They'll be talking about Mike Stanton, buzzing through six Mets hitters after midnight to keep the Yankees alive, even as their offense found 1,001 ways to turn opportunity into disaster.
And they'll be talking, of course, about Jose Vizcaino, a man who had all but fallen off his team's radar screen -- and then reappeared to get four hits, the last of which was the first game-winning hit at 1:04 a.m. in World Series history.
Yes, consider yourself warned. You'll wake up some day in a whole 'nother lifetime. And they'll be talking about Yankees 4, Mets 3, in 12 innings, on a spine-tingling Saturday night that turned into an unforgettable Sunday morning.
They'll be talking about a game that can take its place alongside Don Larsen and Sandy Amoros and Cookie Lavagetto in the Subway Series classic vaults.
Better go find a blank videotape. This one's probably showing on ESPN Classic right now -- if they're sure it's over yet.
"It was heart-stopping at times," said David Cone. "It was kind of ugly at times. But it was a great Game 1. If they're all like this, buckle your seat belts. This should be some kind of Series. If that's Game 1, look out."
If they're all like this, you'll need to do more than just buckle your seat belts. You'd better hope the overhead compartment opens and deploys your personal oxygen mask. Because this was one game was one in which breathing came almost as hard as winning.
After almost a week of hype for this blockbuster, it was hard to know what to expect. But no matter how even the teams may have looked on paper or how out of control the New York hysteria got, how could anyone have figured on this?
There are events, and then there are events. And let's just say that if Con Edison could have figured out a way to bill those 55,913 paying customers at Yankee Stadium for all the kilowatts they generated, there'd be a very happy CEO at Con Ed corporate headquarters this week.
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It was heart-stopping at times. It was kind of ugly at times. But it was a great Game 1. If they're all like this, buckle your seat belts. This should be some kind of Series. If that's Game 1, look out. ” |
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— David Cone |
"There was a lot of electricity," said Jeter. "You could feel it. The fans were into it. There was a lot of energy. It was loud. The whole city was into it."
The buzz started the moment Billy Joel walked out to croon the anthem, and it never faded -- for five hours. At one point, after Justice broke up the brilliant 0-0 duel between Andy Pettitte and Al Leiter with his sizzling two-run double in the sixth, the old cathedral rocked for so long, it was nearly three minutes before Leiter could throw his next pitch.
It's impossible to know where to start summing up all the other freeze frames that made this game what it was. But one of the most vivid came in the sixth inning, when the Yankee Stadium ghosts did to the Mets what they did to the Red Sox last October -- sneakily raising that outfield fence just high enough to somehow keep Zeile's screamer to left field from leaving the park even though it seemed to merely graze the top of the wall.
"It's a game of inches, huh?" grumbled Bobby Valentine afterward.
No, it's a game of quarter-inches, if that ball was any judge. But there was still no excuse for Timo Perez to assume it was a home run when it wasn't -- and then not be able to score the go-ahead run from first base. Timo's goof gave Jeter an opportunity to rise and meet another October moment. And that's never a good idea.
"I saw him out of the corner of my eye," Jeter said of the impossible throw he made from short left field to nail Perez at the plate. "And I saw he hadn't reached third yet. So I thought, 'If I get rid of it as fast as I can, I might have a shot at him.' In that situation, as fast as he is, I knew I didn't have time to plant my feet. So I just grabbed it and threw it."
But the Mets have spent all month bouncing off the canvas, and this was no different.
They answered after J.T. Snow seemed to break their hearts in San Francisco. They answered after the Cardinals tied them in the eighth inning of Game 2 in St. Louis. And they answered in this game, throwing a three-spot up there in the top of the seventh -- against a team that was 27-1 in the last five postseasons in games it led after six innings.
But the Yankees had an answer themselves. O'Neill fouled off four man-eating two-strike pitches from Armando Benitez to draw a one-out walk in the ninth. Next thing you knew, the bases were loaded. And Chuck Knoblauch was launching a game-tying sacrifice fly. And off they went, into the October history books.
Glendon Rusch pitched out of a bases-loaded mess in the 10th. Turk Wendell rescued Rusch from a two-on, two-out crisis in the 11th. Then up came the Yankees, moments after the p.a. system had finished blaring a mega-decibel rendition of "Wild Night."
The Yankees loaded the bases one more time. Wendell got a foul-ball out from Luis Sojo for the second out. No World Series game had gone beyond the 12th inning since 1916. But players on both teams still hung over the rails at the front of the dugouts, spellbound.
"Usually, after I leave a game, I come in and watch the rest on TV," said Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson, who had pitched the seventh and eighth innings. "But not this time. I grabbed a jacket and went right back out there and watched every pitch."
And now it was time to watch the hero of the night, Vizcaino. He was the 101st batter of this long night's journey into day.
Vizcaino hadn't started a game in the entire postseason. He hadn't started a game the Yankees won since way back on Sept. 7 -- more than six weeks ago. He was only in the lineup because of his 10-for-19 numbers off Al Leiter -- and Leiter had been out of this game so long, he had enough time to eat two meals.
So Vizcaino actually glanced over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't going to be pinch-hit for. Then he walked to the plate, about to record the moment of a lifetime.
"I was listening to the crowd," he said. "They were all screaming -- because they wanted that game to be over."
And so did he, apparently. He inside-outed Wendell's first pitch into left field. Tino Martinez rumbled home. Jeter came sprinting out of the dugout to wrap Vizcaino in a bear hug. Policemen seemed to be running onto the field from every direction. Sinatra was already blaring from every speaker before the Mets could even make it off the field.
And the clock beyond the outfield fence read 1:04 a.m.
In the Subway Series annals, he is now Carlton Fisk. They'll be replaying this one in the city they call New York about a trillion times. And at the end, Derek Jeter will be hugging Jose Vizcaino every time.
"This feeling is gonna last a long time," Vizcaino said. "I'm never gonna forget this."
Friday, he had called it "a dream come true" just to start a World Series game. So if that was a dream come true, what was this?
"I'm just gonna go home now," he said, "and think about all my at-bats and picture myself doing it again -- because I'm never gonna forget this day."
And he sure won't be the only one. Of all the many October baseball games this Yankees team has played over these last six Octobers, this one is going to stick in their memory banks more than most.
"It was probably the most exciting one," Jeter said. "And obviously, the longest one. But I'd also have to say it was the most gratifying one."
Thankful as he was to have won it, though, that's as thankful as the rest of us are just to have seen it.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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