The 2001 World Series is in my opinion (and probably others as well) the GREATEST World Series of the 21st Century. Great veteran lineups going against each other. The Yankees Staff of Clemens and Pettitte matched against the Diamondbacks staff of Johnson and Schilling. Two clutch game tying home runs and three walk offs, including one to win the championship. This series came at the perfect time given the tragic events of 9/11. It was something America desperately needed and these boys delivered. A four year old team hitting a Walk-Off against the greatest closer of all-time to deny your opponent their fourth consecutive title. Just the stuff of legends. 2002 here we come.
And just like that we’ve reached the end of the 2001 season. And it capped off with an outstanding World Series. Hats off once again to SW561 for all this work on these highlight uploads from 1990-2001. Great job my friend. Now onto the 2002 season next. Keep it up!
I was a Braves fan and had always thought 1991 was the greatest series of all time. This was the series that made me a Yankee fan, and I think it is the greatest series of all time. With the 9/11 backdrop, it was elevated beyond A+, to the best of all in my book. Consider this: the Yankees had a lead after only 5 innings in this series, and still almost won it. The three games in NY saw the Yankees with only a lead in one inning in 3 games, and did not lead Game 4 or 5, yet they won all three games. They did not lead from 6th inning Game 3 to the 8th inning of Game 7 and yet still went 3-2 in those games. NY were almost doubled up, 37-14 runs, and still got to within a half inning of a championship. In the 95 prior years, a team had never won a game down by two with two outs in the 9th inning. The Yankees did it twice in consecutive outs. (Shame on the writers' treatment of Curt Schilling. He was a first ballot HOFer in talent. Yet merely to virtue signal, they have kept him off over political disagreements. If that is how writers are going to act, then the HOF is a joke).
DBacks found a way. Against the team of the century, against the greatest closer of all time, in 7 games. Truly they earned every single inch of this. The Big Unit finally got his ring, Arizona followed in the footsteps of the Marlins and won a World Series relatively young in their existence, and we got a 7 game classic to take our minds away from reality for a bit. Now the question remains, what now? Will the Yanks return and etch another 3 peat? Will Arizona contend and defend next season? Or will a new champion emerge?
Joe Torre kinda summed it up when he said 'We snatched it away from so many other teams in the past', so it was ironic that the Yankees were the team that finally tasted the losing end of the late-inning drama. But they took it in stride. They knew that it took such a tough, resilient opponent in their own right to topple the Yankees dynasty.
After three devastating losses, the Diamondbacks were one loss away from seeing their season end. And the Yankees sent Pettitte on the mound to finish off the D'backs. But the D'backs had a game plan, and executed it to precision. A Womack double and a single from Danny Bautista put the D'backs ahead in the 1st. Then, they added three more in the 2nd. On the mound, Randy Johnson was his usual self, keeping the Yankees off the board through five innings. In the bottom of the third, the D'backs took out their frustrations on reliever Jay Witasick as they would score EIGHT runs in the third. By the end of the 4th, the score was 15-0. When all was said and done, Arizona collected 22 hits--a WS record--and Bautista drove in 5 runs. Arizona won, 15-2, to set up a Game 7. The seventh game featured Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. For the first five innings, both starters threw five goose eggs. Just one Yankee reached base in the first six. Come the bottom half, Steve FInley singled to lead off. Danny Bautista, in the lineup because he was 6-for-9 coming into Game 7, then doubled to score Finley and put Arizona ahead 1-0. But in the 7th, singles by Jeter, Paul O'Neill (in his last at-bat of his career) and Tino tied the score at 1. Having lost faith in the bullpen, Brenly left Schilling in the game for the 8th. Soriano led off by drilling an 0-and-2 pitch over the wall for a home run. The Yankees now led 2-1. Despite leading for only 8 innings out of 67 in the series, the Yankees were six outs away from winning it all. And when Mariano Rivera fanned the side in the 8th, it was doom and gloom for Arizona.......isn't it? Randy Johnson came on in relief and retired all four hitters he faced. It was still 2-1 Yankees going into the bottom half. Mark Grace singled to open the frame. Then, Damian Miller bunted and Rivera threw the ball wide into centerfield. Two on and no outs. Jay Bell bunted but Rivera threw a strike to nail the lead runner at third. With two on and one out, up stepped Tony Womack. On a 2-and-2 count, Womack hit one down the right field line that fell in for a hit. The tying run scored and Jay Bell went to third. After blowing his first playoff save in 24 chances, Mo hit Counsell to load the bases. Up stepped Gonzo with a chance to win it all. With the infield playing in, all Luis had to do was just get it to the outfield. Mission accomplished. A bleeder just went over the infield. Bell scored and the Diamondbacks were World Champions. "We went through sports' greatest dynasty to win our first World Championship," says Schilling, who along with the Big Unit, were named co-MVPs of the World Series. The Diamondbacks had unseated the Yankees to win it all. And this series will go down as one of the greatest of all time. Three walk-off wins and doing this in a time where the country needed some feel good moments. Schilling summed it up years later: "The Yankees had to win the three games at home for it to be right". 43 million viewers watched Game 7. While the D'backs celebrated, most observers also felt the Yankees' dynasty ended on this night. Paul O'Neill, Brosius, Knoblauch, Justice and Tino would either retire or move on. It would be eight more years before the Yankees would win another fall classic despite fielding plenty of good teams over the next several years. SW561, thanks again for 44 hours of 2001 MLB highlights. Now, we await the 2002 MLB highlights where the season will be, well, California dreaming. But not without a few scares in the process.
Arguably one of the greatest Fall Classics of all time. 😀After the tragedy of 9/11 and the entire world still coping with the shock and horror of what happened, it was as if this World Series came at just the right time. For a few days in October-November 2001, the Yankees & Diamondbacks played the kind of baseball that gave us thrills & excitement - and perhaps a bit of nerves along the way as well - that kind helped people heal, even if only for a brief moment, during that difficult time. The Yankees were kinda, sorta 'sentimental' favorites for some, that they were playing for a part of the country that was still reeling from tragedy. But the Diamondbacks too garnered some attention, not only for the fact that they'd reached the Fall Classic in just their 4th season. They also had a TON of veteran-laden players who played in previous World Series or postseasons but never got to experience the thrill of winning. Collectively, they came together on this D-Backs club and jelled. And although the Yankees still had that postseason magic of theirs, the D-Backs were the better ball club and just a bit more clutch at the plate - even AFTER those two memorable Yankee comebacks at home in Games 4 & 5 in the Bronx. The D-Backs actually outscored the Yankees by a wide margin in this Series - 37-14. Still, it all came down to a 9th-inning rally in Game 7 to decide it. And this time it was the opponents that beat the Yankees at their own game. And against Mariano Rivera too, one of if not the GREATEST closer in the game. It was a heck of a World Series, one of the best ever for sure. One that I still remember quite fondly all these years later. It was contested with the backdrop of the 9/11 tragedy still well on our thoughts and minds at the time. Which probably, for me, maybe, makes it stand out even more.
The shoe never felt SO good on the other foot as it was in Game 7, as the D'backs did to the Yanks what they did to them twice in the series (and what NYY did to many opponents over 6 Octobers)
The Yankees had come back so many times and broke the hearts & minds of their opponents throughout their dominant run from 1996-2001, so perhaps it was somewhat poetic that the Diamondbacks would beat the Yankees at their own game, literally, a dramatic, come-from-behind rally in the 9th. The 2001 World Series couldn't have been decided more fittingly. 🙂
Whats forgotten from the Yankee side is that Mariano was having an amazing World Series, but many just remember that bottom of the 9th inning in game 7. Had he been able to hold on, he would have been WS MVP, or co-MVP along with Clemen. Clemens was sensational in this World Series, games 3 and 7. Soriano and Tino both had a couple of big hits in this series. As for the Yankees, 2001 is considered their final season from the era that begun in 1993, as they will now enter a new era in 2002, with no Tino, no Oneill, no Brosius, no Knoublach. Its the end of an era for the Yankees, THANK GOODNESS. As for the Yankees offseason moves: This was Paul Oneill’s final MLB season. What a great career he had. A true yankee fan favorite. And he won a title with the Reds in 1990. This was Scott Brosius final MLB season. So many clutch postseason home runs for the Yankees from 1998-2001. Yankees will acquire Robin Ventura from the Mets in a trade to play third base. Chuck Knoublach is now a free agent, and he will sign with the Royals in the offseason This was David Justice final season with the Yankees, as he will be traded to the Mets and then to the Athletics in the offseason. This was Tino Martinez final season with the Yankees, as he will sign with the Cardinals. Tino will return to the Yankees in the 2005 season (his final MLB season). Yankees will replace Tino with Jason Giambi
2002-New era and new tv and radio stations broadcasting Yankees games. YES instead of MSG on cable, WCBS2 instead of WNYW5 for over the air games and WCBS 880 instead of WABC 770 broadcasting games on radio.
@@Cantpasslevelcandycrush Yup. Now, because of the new YES Yankee channel, George Steinbreiner will spend money on players like it has never been seen before. He wants the press, the ratings, the stars, and to win under the new YES channel. 16:01
@@hmhm856 That was why the D'backs Game 7 win saved baseball for me. Steinbrenner may want the moon and everything with the new YES network, but the Yanks were not infallible. Arizona's win proved that the Yankees are beatable, and other teams will take cue on how to beat them.
Ripken, Gwynn, McGwire, the Braves as an annual team in the NLCS, Cleveland’s run as an AL threat every year at Jacobs Field, the Yankees seemingly never losing a big game…. 2001 was the end of a baseball era
The 2001 World Series was my favorite World Series not to feature the dodgers and angels. Also the first November series due to the 9/11 delay. Luis Gonzalez dream came true.
The D'backs must've found out I didn't watch Game 5, and figured out a way to get me back in it. They took out their frustrations on Pettitte and Witasick, treating them like punching bags with hard swings all throughout the first four innings of Game 6. Thankfully, they saved just enough runs in the 7th game to win it the way they did. Whitey Ford could've pitched Game 6, and HE would've fell victim to this determined Arizona team.
If that happened, I'd be out of baseball for a few years at least, maybe forever. Because I thought the Yankees would win the title every year. And why watch MLB when you know the same stinking team wins every season. And down the road, even the Yankees' fans would've taken their success for granted a la the Braves' fans. In short, Tony Womack's double SAVED baseball for all. Once he tied the game, I KNEW Arizona would win it.
The biggest world series choke of all time belongs to the 1996 Atlanta Braves. However, had Arizona lost this World Series to the Yankees, then this 2001 Arizona team would have been considered the biggest choke in World Series history. Surprisingly, 1996 and 2001 both to the Yankees. Schilling gave up two crushing home runs in this postseason, and both times on elimination games, and both times Arizona won it in walk-off fashion (this game 7 against the Yankees and game 5 in the division series against the Cards). Im surprised that Randy pitched 7 innings in game 6. I would have just pitch him for 5 innings, and then have him for reserve in case Curt struggles in game 7, since Curt will now be starting his third game of the series and his second-consecutive three-days rest start
Just like on the flip play against the A’s m, Bautista was safe. However, back then Jeter and the Yankees got every call. Thank gos the Dbacks prevailed in 7!
5:06 Great defensive play by Jeter 5:30 Tino with another big hit in this WS to tie the game in the 7th 6:02 Soriano with another big hit in this WS. He has had big hits this 2001 postseason (Seattle game 4) 6:43 Tony Womack with another big hit this 2001 postseason 16:01 THE BOSS!!!!!! Sadly, beginning in the offseason, this is when George Steinbreiner will now spend money without stopping on players, with the new YES Channel, and his quest for another title. The Yankees are now entering a new era
