by Phil Pepe
The Yankees slipped a notch in 1995, finishing second to the Boston Red Sox, but managed to obtain a playoff spot and engage the Seattle Mariners in the Division Series. The Yankees won the first two games of the best-of-five series at home, 9–6 in Game 1 with Wade Boggs and Bernie Williams each slamming out three hits and Boggs and Ruben Sierra hitting home runs, and 7–5 in Game 2 on Jim Leyritz’s two-run home run in the bottom of the 15th and Mariano Rivera pitching 3¹⁄³ innings of two-hit, shutout relief to get the win.
The Yankees then flew to Seattle, needing only one win in three games to advance to the American League Championship Series. But the Mariners were a sleeping giant getting ready to awaken and they did just that over the weekend of October 6, 7, and 8.
In Game 3, Tino Martinez burned his soon-to-be-new team and new teammates with three hits and three RBI in a 7–4 Seattle victory.
In Game 4, Edgar Martinez blasted two home runs and a single and drove in seven in the Mariners 11–8 shootout victory that tied the series and brought it down to the climactic fifth game.
Edgar Martinez struck again with three more hits in Game 5, the last of the three—and his 12th hit of the series—a double off Jack McDowell in the bottom of the 11th to drive in the winning run and send the Mariners to the ALCS and the Yankees on vacation.
George Steinbrenner was inconsolable in defeat, while criticism rained down on Showalter over his handling of the bullpen.
Why, after Mariano Rivera had pitched 4²⁄³ innings of shutout, two-hit, seven-strikeout ball in Games 2 and 3, did Showalter not bring him into Game 4 with the score tied? He sat in the bullpen while the Mariners scored five runs against John Wetteland and Steve Howe en route to an 11–8 victory.
Why, in the climactic fifth game after he had pitched a scoreless two-thirds of an inning, was Rivera removed with the score tied in the bottom of the ninth and replaced by Jack McDowell? The Yankees pushed across a run in the top of the 11th, but Martinez’s two-run double was the deciding factor, leading the Mariners to a 6–5 victory and a trip to the ALCS.
Veteran baseball men and media critics concluded that it was a trust issue, and Showalter’s unwillingness to trust Rivera in critical, high-pressure situations doomed the Yankees and, as it would turn out, also Showalter.
During the season, Steinbrenner’s closest advisors, fearing Showalter might defect to another team, implored Steinbrenner to tie up his manager with a long-term contract. But the Boss refused to heed the advice. He was determined to replace his manager over the objections of both general manager Michael and Michael’s assistant, Cashman.
In a gesture of compromise, Steinbrenner offered Showalter a new two-year contract calling for a salary in excess of $1 million, but with the condition that Showalter replace his hitting instructor, Rick Down. When Showalter declined, Steinbrenner took it as Buck’s resignation and somewhat gratuitously issued a statement wishing “Buck and his fine little family nothing but the best.”
Although Steinbrenner recognized the youthful enthusiasm and vitality Showalter brought to the job, as well as his feistiness and inventiveness, he also saw Showalter as a control freak. Steinbrenner presumably believed one control freak in the organization was enough, so he set the wheels in motion to find a new manager for the Yankees.
While continuing to maintain that Showalter was the best man for the job, Michael nonetheless conceded that Steinbrenner was adamant about wanting Showalter gone and he recommended Joe Torre, recently let go by the St. Louis Cardinals. When the recommendation was endorsed by Arthur Richman, a trusted Steinbrenner lieutenant who had known Torre when they both worked for the New York Mets, Steinbrenner offered the job to Torre, who readily accepted.
While Torre was a native New Yorker who was immensely popular with the media and fans, and in spite of having been an outstanding player who had a lifetime batting average of .297 with three teams over 18 seasons, as well as having won a batting title and a Most Valuable Player trophy in 1971, his record as a manager was less than distinguished. In 15 seasons with the Mets, Atlanta Braves, and St. Louis Cardinals, he had a record of 894–1,003, a winning percentage of .471, and had made the postseason just once, in 1982 when his Braves suffered a three-game sweep to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.
Despite his popularity and his roots, the local media was not greeting the choice of Joe Torre as the new manager of the Yankees with enthusiastic support. The New York Daily News, in fact, in a blaring headline, referred to him as “Clueless Joe.”
Tino Martinez
Another great trade engineered by Gene Michael was a five-player deal on December 7, 1995, that brought Tino Martinez to the Yankees from the Seattle Mariners to fill the first base position vacated by the retiring Don Mattingly, one of the most popular players in Yankees history. It made for a difficult introduction to New York when the Tampa-born Martinez got off to a slow start and was booed at Yankee Stadium.
Slowly, as Martinez grew acclimated to his new surroundings, he began to hit, and soon he was winning over the fans. He finished his first season in the Bronx with a .292 average, 25 home runs, and 117 RBI. The next year he batted .296 with 44 home runs and 141 RBI.
Martinez’s Yankee years are marked by two clutch World Series home runs. In Game 1 of the 1998 Series against the San Diego Padres, his grand slam off Mark Langston in the seventh inning broke a 5–5 tie and the Yankees went on to win the game 9–6 on their way to sweeping the Series. In 2001, the Yankees were down to the Arizona Diamondbacks two games to one in the World Series and 3–1 in Game 4. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Martinez belted a game-tying home run off Byung-Hyun Kim to send the game into extra innings.
After the 2001 season, Martinez signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as a free agent; played a year with his hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays; and came back for one last year with the Yankees. He retired after the 2005 season. When he was introduced at the Yankees’ annual Old Timers Day in 2011, this man, who was once booed mightily by fans at Yankee Stadium, got one of the loudest and longest ovations.
9. A Special Rookie
The Yankees team that Joe Torre took over in the spring of 1996 was largely a veteran one with established major leaguers manning most positions—Wade Boggs at third base, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill in center field and right, switch-hitting Ruben Sierra the full-time designated hitter.
The pitching staff had talent, experience, and a resume of success. It included holdovers David Cone and Jimmy Key—proven big winners in the major leagues—and second-year left-hander Andy Pettitte. Jack McDowell had left to test free agency, but the Yankees had added left-hander Kenny Rogers and right-hander Dwight “Doc” Gooden as free agents of their own. Also returning to close games was John Wetteland, who had racked up 137 major league saves, 31 of them the previous season.
Catcher Mike Stanley had opted for free agency and defected to the hated Boston Red Sox. In his place was Joe Girardi, known more for his defense and his baseball smarts than for his bat (while Stanley had hit 61 homers and driven in 224 runs for the Yankees in the previous three seasons, Girardi was hitting 15 homers and driving in 120 runs for the Colorado Rockies). It was Girardi’s defense, his deft handling of a pitching staff, and his leadership that prompted venerable coach Don Zimmer, who had managed him with the Chicago Cubs a few years earlier, to urge the Yankees to acquire Girardi.
Making a concession to his chronic back pain, Don Mattingly had retired and would be replaced at first base by Tino Martinez. Free agent Mariano Duncan was the new second baseman in place of injury-plagued Pat Kelly.
In short, what the Yankees had was a solid professional at just about every position. What they did not have was a shortstop. Veteran Tony Fernandez, their incumbent at the position, had broken his elbow in spring training, causing the Yankees to begin scouring the major leagues in search of a shortstop they might sign as a free agent or acq
uire in a trade.
The search led to the Seattle Mariners, who were willing to part with their backup shortstop, Felix Fermin. Fermin was not much of a hitter, but he was considered a wizard in the field, and defense was the Yankees’ main priority at the position. They (i.e., the owner) believed the team had enough offense to carry Fermin’s weak bat and were ready to make the deal. All it would take to get him, said the Mariners, was this rookie pitcher…this kid from Panama…um…what’s his name? Mario…er, Mariano…Rivers…er, Rivera?
Two decades later everybody wants to take credit for being in favor of giving Jeter the starting shortstop job in 1996, but back then many were adhering to the age-old bromide that conventional wisdom preaches that you can’t win with a rookie shortstop. Some even were convinced Jeter was better suited for the outfield than he was for shortstop and thought of him as the team’s center fielder of the future.
In fact, the Yankees had not had a rookie open their season at shortstop since Tom Tresh in 1962, and then only because their regular shortstop, Tony Kubek, was fulfilling his military obligation.
But now, 34 years later, the decision was new manager Joe Torre’s to make and he’s on record for having penciled in the 21-year-old kid from Kalamazoo as the team’s Opening Day shortstop.
“Starting with a new ballclub, in a new league, the one thing I knew was Derek Jeter was going to be my shortstop,” recalled Joe Torre. “He didn’t have a spectacular spring [although he batted a respectable .288, Jeter drove in only six runs, struck out 17 times, and made six errors in 23 games], but then Opening Day in Cleveland he hits a home run [off Dennis Martinez in the fifth inning in his second at-bat with the Yankees leading 1–0], makes a great catch [an over-the-shoulder grab on a pop-fly in short left field hit by Omar Vizquel], and it got to the point where I trusted him. Certainly in my mind he was older than his years.”
For Torre, the defining moment, the event that earned Jeter the manager’s confidence, came in Chicago on August 12 of that first year. The Yankees were tied 2–2 with the White Sox and batting in the eighth inning. With one out, Jeter singled and then moved to second on an infield out. Paul O’Neill was walked intentionally, putting Yankees on first and second with two outs and Cecil Fielder coming to bat.
“Normally the rule is you don’t get thrown out at third base for the third or first out of an inning,” Torre said. “Cecil Fielder, my cleanup hitter, is hitting, so give him a chance to hit! All of a sudden I see Jeter take off from second. It’s all right if he’s safe, but he was out.
“I’m sitting next to my bench coach, [Don] Zimmer, and I’m livid. I’m not sure who I’m mad at. I’m mad at Jeter and I’m mad at myself because I could have said don’t try to steal; I could have given him a sign. I said to Zim, ‘I’m not going to talk to him now because I don’t want to ruffle his feathers. We have a couple of innings to play and he may come up to hit and I don’t want to make him nervous.’
“Jeter had to stay in the field after he was thrown out. Somebody brought him his glove. The bottom half of the eighth is over and I see Derek Jeter jogging in off the field. Normally, he’d sit at the end of the bench, but this time he came right over at me and sat between Zimmer and myself as if to say, ‘Okay, give me my punishment.’ I hit him in the back of the head and said, ‘Get out of here.’
“That told me this kid was special as far as being responsible at a young age. And then by the end of the year, it was very gratifying for me to see the Paul O’Neills, the Tino Martinezes, the Bernie Williamses, guys who have been around the block a day or two, to really start relying on this youngster, waiting for him to do something to lead the way.”
And lead the way Jeter did. He played in 157 of the Yankees 162 games, batted .314, scored 104 runs, had 183 hits, 25 doubles, six triples, 10 home runs, 78 runs batted in, 14 stolen bases, an on-base percentage of .370, a slugging percentage of .430, and a fielding percentage of .969. He also received all 28 first-place votes for American League Rookie of the Year, cast by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
In his second big league season, Andy Pettitte improved by nine games over his rookie season and led the American League in wins. But Pettitte, at 21–8, was beaten out for the American League Cy Young Award by Pat Hentgen of the Toronto Blue Jays, who was 20–10, but had a lower ERA, more complete games, more shutouts, and more strikeouts.
In his first year as manager of the Yankees, Torre saw the light that apparently blinded Buck Showalter the year before and made Mariano Rivera his primary set-up man to closer John Wetteland, who saved 43 games, and there were many who insisted that Rivera was the Yankees’ most valuable player in 1996. He won eight games, lost only three, had an earned run average of 2.09, and 130 strikeouts in 107²⁄³ innings. As a sign of things to come, Rivera even got a chance to close games when Wetteland was unavailable and picked up the first five saves of his career. There would be hundreds more.
His numbers were so dominant that Rivera finished ahead of Wetteland in both the American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young voting.
There is a school of thought that promulgates the theory that in that one season, Rivera revolutionized the game of baseball, in particular how a team’s bullpen is constructed and deployed today. He was so dominant setting up for Wetteland and pitching one, two, sometimes even three innings (he averaged 1.76 innings per appearance), that he personally shortened the game. It elevated the importance and, yes, the value of the set-up man and gave other teams the idea to emulate the practice.
The one member of the Core Four who did not make a significant contribution to the Yankees surge in 1996 was Jorge Posada, who became a frequent passenger on the Columbus-New York-Columbus shuttle. With Joe Girardi getting most of the work at catcher, and Posada in need of more experience at his new position, Jorge spent most of the season in Columbus, where he batted .271, hit 11 homers, and drove in 62 runs in 106 games while improving his defensive skills. He did make four trips to the Yankees and appeared in eight games, but had only one hit, a single, in 14 at-bats, a batting average of .071.
But Jorge Posada was still only 25 years old and his time had not yet come.
Wade Boggs
The lasting image of Wade Boggs as a Yankee is of him sitting astride a New York Police Department horse and galloping around the warning track at Yankee Stadium after the Yanks clinched the 1996 World Series.
After 11 seasons as a member of the Boston Red Sox and one of the most despised of all Yankees villains, Boggs became a Yankee in 1993 via free agency. He spent five years in Yankees pinstripes, batting .313 over that span and collecting 702 hits while batting .302, .342, .324, .311, and, at age 39, .292.
Boggs’ overall major league record included 3,010 hits, a lifetime batting average of .328, five batting championships, and seven 200-hit seasons. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005.
In his playing days, Boggs was known for his superstitions and eccentricities. He ate chicken before every game, woke up at the same time every day, took 117 ground balls—no more, no less—during pregame practice, took batting practice at precisely 5:17 pm and ran sprints at precisely 7:17 pm.
10. Champs to the Core
Derek Jeter’s rookie year and Joe Torre’s first as YANKEES manager coincided in 1996. By that point the Yankees had gone 15 years without winning a pennant and 18 years without winning the World Series, so it was considered merely more of the same mediocrity when they split their first 12 games and fell 4½ games out of first place in a formidable division that included the defending American League East champion Boston Red Sox and the still powerful Baltimore Orioles.
But the Yankees would win seven of their next 11 games and poke their nose ahead of the field in the American League East. By July 28, they were 23 games over .500 and a whopping 12 games ahead of the pack. A six-week malaise in August and September saw the Yankees lose 23 of 39 games and their lead shrivel t
o just 2½ games. But faced with impending doom and a monumental collapse, the Yankees righted the ship in time to win eight of their final 14 games and finish four games ahead of the Orioles.
It was a major triumph for their first-year manager, made possible in large part not only by contributions from youngsters Andy Pettitte (21 wins), Mariano Rivera (8–3 record), Derek Jeter (.314 average), but by veterans Tino Martinez (a .292 average, 25 homers, and 117 RBI), Bernie Williams (.305, 29, 102), Paul O’Neill (.302, 19, 91), John Wetteland (43 saves), and pitchers Kenny Rogers, Doc Gooden, and Jimmy Key, who combined for 35 wins.
With their ouster by the Seattle Mariners in the first round the year before, and the fallout after losing that series by the removal of manager Buck Showalter fresh in their minds, the Yankees took on the Texas Rangers in the League Division Series. The Rangers, managed by former Yankee Johnny Oates, had been powered to the American League West title by slugger Juan Gonzalez, who belted 47 home runs and drove in 144 runs. To add to the Yanks’ unease, John Burkett out-pitched David Cone and the Rangers took Game 1 of the best-of-five series 6–2 at Yankee Stadium.
When the Rangers scored a run in the second inning and Gonzalez blasted a three-run homer off Andy Pettitte in the third inning of Game 2 for a 4–1 lead, the huge stadium was shrouded in gloom with the thought that the Yankees would be going to Texas down two games to none.
But Cecil Fielder homered in the fourth, Charlie Hayes hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Fielder tied the score with a single in the eighth. Meanwhile, Mariano Rivera, John Wetteland, Graeme Lloyd, Jeff Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Brian Boehringer combined for 5²⁄³ scoreless innings and the Yankees batted in the bottom of the 12th with the score tied 4–4 and Jeter scheduled to be the Yankees’ first batter.
