Game 3 was the turning point. O’s had a favorable pitching matchup (Mussina vs Kenny Rogers) and a late lead. That was the missed opportunity for Baltimore
After upsetting Cleveland, the Orioles had similar aspirations as the underdogs against the Yankees in the ALCS, having lost 10 of 13 to them during the regular season. In Game 1 at the Bronx, the Orioles jumped to a 4-3 lead on the strength of HRs by Brady and Palmeiro. On to the bottom of the 8th, where Benitez came in. And with one out, Derek Jeter hit one to the opposite field. Tony Tarasco, in the game for defense, looked like he was about to catch it on the warning track----until 12-year old Jeffrey Maier became a household name by reaching over the wall and grabbing the ball and bouncing it over for a game-tying Home run. The Orioles were livid at what happened. (If there was instant replay today, that call wouldn't have stood.) Three innings later, Bernie Williams hit a more conventional home run to end the game and put the Yanks up 1-0 in the series. What gets lost in this is Baltimore actually bounced back to win Game 2, 5-3, as Palmeiro homered in the 7th to snap the tie and put the Birds ahead to stay. Tied at 1, the scene shifted to Camden Yards. The Yankees were 6-0 at Oriole Park in 1996. Why start losing there now. Mike Mussina nursed a 2-1 lead with two out in the 8th, but the Yankees rallied for 4 runs. The key play was Bernie Williams seeing Todd Zeile lose grip of the ball on a fake to second attempt and scored the go-ahead run. In Game 4, the Yanks' relied on an old weapon: the Bronx Bombers. Strawberry went deep twice. Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams also homered. New York won, 8-4. With their backs to the wall, the Orioles couldn't stop the Yankee mystique. Leyritz, Straw and Cecil each homered in the third as the Yanks scored 6 in the inning and held on to win the game, 6-4, and put the Yankees in the World Series for the first time since 1981. As for Manager Joe Torre, he had managed or played in more than 4200 games, and this will be his first ever trip to the World Series. A touching moment for Torre, who had lost his brother Rocco to a heart attack earlier that summer, and his other brother, Frank, was in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. The Yankees would now play in their 34th World Series. The question now is.....who against.
0:34 Another home run for Brady Anderson. STUD. Followed by a Palmeiro home run 2:55 More fan interference against Tarasco, wow 4:06 This will not be the only triple for Girardi this postseason (game 6 of the World Series) 4:48 More fan interference in game 2, with Richie Garcia again having to call it. 5:26 Palmeiro with a clutch home run Ironic that the Maier home run, was given up by Armando Benitez. Bernie Williams has been redhot this postseason David Wells pitching nicely in game 2 Such a shame that Mussina couldnt hold on in game 3 Strawberry and Cecil putting on a show
Three things come to mind watching this highlight. First, how good of a team Orioles were. You can make the case they even had a better overall team, especially with their loaded offense and Wells and Mussina in their rotation. Two, weird seeing David Wells with the Orioles and clutch of a pitcher he was in the playoffs. Lastly, watching Bernie Williams becoming a superstar during this playoff run. He really carried the Yankees offensively during the 96 playoffs.
"You can make the case they even had a better overall team, especially with their loaded offense and Wells and Mussina in their rotation" No they're not, there's a reason why the Yankees owned them head to head that season which led to them winning the ALCS in 5 games. 1997 is where you can make a case but in 1996 for how good their offense were, it was only good enough to make up how terrible their pitching were for the most part that season and that actually surprisingly includes Boomer and Moose. It sounded like you just looked at their names and became star struck while ignoring their numbers that season where Moose especially had a "low key" down season where his ERA was close to 5.
That Orioles team had zero pitching. That team gave up 903 runs and Mussina was their ace with an ERA of 4.81. Weird year since many guys had career lows on that pitching staff.
Do not mention the words Jeffery Maier or Richie Garcia, this devastating failure ushered the O's straight into the gutter as the laughing stock of the AL East. FOR 15 YEARS! I know they made the ALCS again in 97, but they had a much better team especially offensively in 96. The worst part about the Maier incident is that its baseball's version of the Tuck Rule in the sense that it destroyed one franchise and gave birth to a dynasty on the other. URK!
Yankees got lucky that Cleveland could not hold on to that game 4 against Baltimore, because Cleveland would have won game 5. And Cleveland always gave a headache to the Yankees, 97 and 98
Don't think so. They didn't have good young pitching yet behind Nagy and Orel, and even they both got lit up in the alds. Doubt if Mussina couldn't beat the yanks in a rubber match at home that jack friggin Mcdowell would have. Key and Pettitte had amazing 8 inning performances in Baltimore against a more stacked lineup than Cleveland's (which got better and more well rounded the next 2 years with the additions of Justice and Grissom, and then Fryman and Sexson). side note: Sandy Alomar's steroids didn't kick in till '97, so no the Indians would not have beaten the yanks this year.
Sorry I don't want to hear about Jeffrey Maier. The Orioles lost all the games they played against The Yankees at Camden Yards that year. Oh did I mention that Robbie Alomar should've been suspended
He didn't jump cause he didn't need to jump. The ball would have came down right in his glove. If he had jumped he would have made contact with the kids glove....Garcia woulda still called it a homer....he was dirty and later fired from MLB for more questionable calls in the 2009 postseason. A postseason which ironically, the Yanks also won the WS.
@@jasonnichols6164 Umpire judgement calls happen, it's part of the game. Not scoring the subsequent 3 innings, then getting swept 3 straight at home after this game, also happens. "If you want to blame an umpire as the reason for your loss, then you've become a loser." -Steve Lyons
@@adrianselbst6777 I'm not blaming him for why they lost the series, I am saying the man was shady. It's also rumored he was involved in book-keeping and racketeering.
