A miraculous and stirring three days in the Bronx began with an 8-1 thrashing of Charlie Morton and the Astros in Game Three of the ALCS (they had gone 0-2 in Houston) on October 16, 2017. Three-run home runs from Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge propelled the offense, and CC Sabathia allowed no runs through six. The beloved Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch on a cool, becoming cold, and breezy Monday night in the Bronx.
How do we begin? Jason Giambi earned his salary beginning the Yankee comeback with fifth- and seventh-inning singleton jacks. Mike Mussina relieved an ineffective Roger Clemens with two on and none out in the fourth with the Yanks down 4-0, but a strike out and double play got Moose started on three scoreless, and Boston scored but one more through the eighth. Then Grady Little left Pedro Martinez in during a three-run Yankee game-tying rally on four straight hits, by Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, and Jorge Posada. Mariano Rivera held the Red Sox for three until Aaron Boone joined Yankee/Red Sox lore with his home run on Tim Wakefield‘s first pitch of the bottom of the 11th. The Series-bound Yanks won 6-5 in Game Seven of the ALCS on October 16, 2003. Cowboy down.
CC Sabathia‘s eight innings of four-hit, one-run, and seven-strike-out pitching in Game 1 of the 2009 ALCS on October 16 was scintillating, as the Yankee ace continued his impressive first season (and postseason) in the Bronx. Alex Rodriguez had an early sac fly, and Hideki Matsui came through with two rbi singles. David Cone threw out the ceremonial first pitch, while the last one, thrown by the one and only Mariano Rivera, counted in the Yanks' 4-1 win over the Angels.
The Yanks won the 1962 World Series in a Game Seven 1-0 game behind the pitching of Series MVP Ralph Terry on October 16. Second sacker Bobby Richardson speared Willie McCovey‘s screaming liner with two outs in the ninth to close it out with Willie Mays standing on second as the winning run, with Matty Alou on third. A great play by Roger Maris had held Willie to a double, and Alou from scoring.
Few expected much when the Yanks signed Doc Gooden, back from his drug-abuse suspension, on October 16, 1995, but he tossed a no-hitter in the Bronx the following May, and filled in admirably in the Yankee 1996 rotation while David Cone was out for months with his aneurysm surgery.
The times change. Neither Lou Gehrig nor Babe Ruth were eligible for the AL MVP that Mickey Cochrane was awarded on October 16, 1928, because repeat winners were not allowed. Eight years later, Gehrig would win his second on the sixteenth in 1936 once he had hit .354 while amassing 49 homers, 152 rbi’s, and 167 runs scored. It was in honor of Cochrane, by the way, that Mickey Mantle‘s father chose the switch-hitting slugger’s given name.
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