Saturday, October 01, 2011

YouTube Wonders (Yankees Edition)

While looking for the video that I used in the previous post to honor Roger Maris, I came across some other goodies.

Oh baby, how I remember this. It was Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS. I went to Game 1, psyched to see my first playoff game, and to see Donnie Baseball play in October. One night later, he sent the old building into orbit (Gary Thorne on the call). Check out a very young Derek Jeter, invited to sit on the bench as a non-roster player, and Jorge Posada, used mostly as a pinch-runner(!) in that series. This happened just after a Ruber Sierra home run (John Sterling went for the "back-to-back and a belly-to-belly" call). The place went so bonkers that Mariners' manager Lou Piniella pulled his team off the field until things calmed down.


I was in the House for Game 1 of the 1998 World Series. It was my first Fall Classic game in person. The Yankees trailed the Padres 5-2 before Chuck Knoblauch tied it with a 7th inning three-run shot. All was well at that point. Then Tino Martinez strolled to the plate. For the first time, I felt Yankee Stadium shake (Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Bob Brenley on the call).


Let's hear the new place sound like that.

I'm not trying to turn this into an "I was there" post, but...yeah, the building shook...again. You know the story: 2001, New York is emotionally shot, the Yankees looked old early in the World Series, then win games 3 and 4 (dramatically, Tino and Mr. November). They're down two in the ninth. We've already saluted Paul O'Neil (too emotional for me), knowing it's his last game. They can't possibly come back again...can they?

Oh yeah. Here's Scott Brosius (as called by Joe and Tim, with Brenley in the Diamondbacks' dugout).


They won it later, and lost it in Game 7.

How about a non-Yankee moment by a former and future Yankee? This is Bobby Murcer at Wrigley Field in 1979, playing for the Cubs (wearing number seven in honor of Mickey Mantle). Bobby Ray left the Yankees in a trade for Bobby Bonds after the 1974 season. He would be traded back to the Yankees later in the '79 season. On this day, he singled in the bottom of the 7th of a game that the Phillies would win 23-22 in 10 innings. Dave Kingman would hit three homers for Chcago, and Mike Schmidt hit two, including the go-ahead shot in the 10th for Philadelphia.


This is a sad, yet interesting video. It comes from CNN on the day Mickey Mantle died in 1995. Funny because it features a young Nancy Newman (now of the YES Network). Sad of course, because it pays tribute to the passing of the great, yet flawed Mantle. Sadder, because I can't embed the video here. But I can embed this video of Mantle hitting a home run off of Whitey Ford in 1973 on Old Timer's Day (Mel Allen intros the video outside of the remodeled house).


I leave you with this: color footage of the 1939 World Series (the Yankees swept the Reds). The glorious old building looks like a painting in this. Back then, as you'll see, fans were allowed to exit via the field.


Plenty more to be found on YouTube and elsewhere.

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