Boone! It was over just like that
Published 12:00 am Friday, October 17, 2003
NEW YORK - As soon as the ball left Aaron Boone's bat, the end of this story was clear.
It was the same as all the others.
The World Series has pinstripes
And doom descended on Boston.
''Like Derek (Jeter) told me, 'The ghosts will show up eventually,''' Boone said.
Did they ever.
Boone set off bedlam in the Bronx with a leadoff home run in the 11th inning. The drive into the left-field seats gave the New York Yankees an incredible 6-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League championship series Thursday night, ending perhaps the best in a century of annual battles between these old foes.
''Wow. I can't even talk,'' Boone said. ''It's unbelievable. Mo … so many heroes today. Unbelievable. This is awesome.''
The Yankees, admired and hated but rarely ignored, overcame an awful start by Roger Clemens and deficits of 4-0 and 5-2 to win their 39th AL pennant, their fifth in six seasons. And like many New Yorkers, they'll be heading for Florida when the weather gets cold - the World Series opens at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night and, after two games this weekend, the Marlins and Yankees will go to Miami.
It will be hard for the 100th anniversary Series to top this ending - the first Game 7 in major league history won by an extra-inning home run.
''It couldn't be more satisfying,'' New York manager Joe Torre said. ''This has to be the sweetest taste of all for me.''
And, oh, how the memories of this autumn night will chill New England. The Red Sox were five outs from returning to the World Series for the first time in 17 years, from having a chance to win the title that has eluded them since 1918.
The Curse was about to be shucked.
And then Pedro Martinez let the Yankees tie the score with a three-run eighth, when Jeter doubled to start the rally and Jorge Posada blooped a tying two-run double.
Boston's bullpen held tough, matching Mariano Rivera, who threw three scoreless innings for New York.
But then Boone, who entered as a pinch runner in the eighth inning, connected on the first pitch of the 11th off Tim Wakefield, the knuckleballer who had baffled the Yankees in winning Games 1 and 4.
As the ball dropped into the lower deck in left, up came all those painful memories that have haunted so many Red Sox fans - thoughts of Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner and decades of New York domination.
''The fans in Boston have to be sad, like we are, heartbroken, like we are. But they have to be proud of us,'' said Martinez, who also allowed a pair of solo homers to Jason Giambi that began the comeback.
It was the 26th game of the year between the two teams - a baseball first. The battle matched, perhaps eclipsed, the great endings in 1949, won when New York beat Boston twice on the final two days, and 1978, when Bucky Dent's homer over the Green Monster rallied New York at Boston in the AL East tiebreaker.
''I feel like I let everybody down,'' Wakefield said.
Boone's homer was the fifth in big league history to end a postseason series, the first for the Yankees since Chris Chambliss against Kansas City in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the 1976 ALCS.
The Yankees waited for Boone at home plate, hopping with excitement, and mobbed him when he arrived.
Rivera ran right to the mound, dropping to the ground and pounding the pitching rubber with his right hand. The series MVP was sobbing by the time coach Willie Randolph got to him and hugged him.
''I see those guys coming back, coming back, coming back, and I think 'I've got to hold this,''' said Rivera, who threw 48 pitches in his first three-inning appearance since Sept. 6, 1996.
Trot Nixon's two-run homer in a three-run second inning and Kevin Millar's solo shot in the fourth chased Clemens. It looked as if this would be the final start of his storied 20-year career.
''I wasn't thinking that,'' Clemens said. ''I knew we had a lot of outs left.''
A parade of New York relievers - including Mike Mussina in the first relief appearance of his major league career after 400 starts - held Boston scoreless until David Ortiz made it 5-2 with a homer in the eighth on David Wells' first pitch of the game.
After Jeter doubled in the eighth he scored on a single by Bernie Williams.
Boston manager Grady Little went to the mound and talked to Martinez, who had thrown 115 pitches.
''He asked me if I had enough … in my tank to get him out, and I said 'Yes.' I would never say no,'' Martinez said. ''There's no reason to blame Grady. Grady doesn't play the game, I do. If you want to judge me or criticize me or curse me or whatever, I will swallow that, because I am responsible.''
Hideki Matsui followed with a double down the right-field line - on an 0-2 pitch - that put runners on second and third. And on Martinez's 123rd pitch, Posada looped a hit to center that scored both runners, with Matsui slapping the plate as he slid in and his teammates coming out of the dugout.
Mike Timlin escaped a bases-loaded jam, but that just delayed the inevitable.
Ever since Boston sent Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, New York has ruled, winning 26 World Series championships while the Red Sox won none, a team supposedly cursed for selling the sport's biggest star.
And come 2004, the Red Sox will still be chasing the team they call the ''Evil Empire.'
''This was our chance to get the World Series,'' Boston's Johnny Damon said. ''And we were so close.''