River Avenue Blues

River Ave. Blues ยป Retro Week

Mark Prior, Drew Henson and the missed star potential of the 1998 draft

by Leave a Comment

Mark Prior (AP)

While the 1998 Yankees dominated on the field, they weren’t anything impressive in the amateur draft. However, it very well could have been one of the Yankees’ best.

Their No. 1 pick, 24th overall, was 6-foot-7 Andy Brown, a high school OF from Indiana who would go on to play just 19 games above Single-A (shoutout to the 2003-04 Trenton Thunder!). The only thing notable about Brown’s selection is that the Yankees passed on Mark Teixeira to take him. Their second-round pick, LHP Randy Keisler, produced -0.3 bWAR in pinstripes. In-between, their supplemental first-round pick, Mark Prior, didn’t sign, though he’s a face you may recognize above. He’ll be the crux of this post, so skip down a few paragraphs if you don’t want to hear about the Yankees’ drafting futility.

Keisler, Brown and Prior were pretty representative of the draft as a whole. The only productive big leaguers in the Yankees’ draft didn’t sign. Most players, like Brown, didn’t reach the majors. The four signees who did make the majors combined to produce -0.7 bWAR for the Yankees, with 34th round selection Brandon Claussen being the only one to have a positive contribution of 0.2 bWAR. The only lasting impact of the ’98 draft appears to be the 14th round pick of Brett Weber, who never made the majors with the Yanks but is now their replay guru.

This wasn’t too uncommon among Yankees drafts in that era. The ’97 draft mostly just gave New York the left-handed stylings of Randy Choate. The ’99 draft produced Andy Phillips and the ill-fated efforts of Kevin Thompson and Sean Henn, the latter of whom didn’t sign. The 2000 draft led to 12 scoreless innings from Matt Smith, 13 at-bats from Mitch Jones, a re-drafting of Henn and little else.

There are two reasons this 1998 draft stands out: Prior, the aforementioned supplemental first-round pick who would go on to briefly star for the Chicago Cubs, and Drew Henson, the dual-sport star committed to Michigan to play football but otherwise a first-round talent for baseball. Those two names comprise a major what-if, a seminal question of what the Yankees’ look like 5-10 years down the road if they sign Prior or if Henson doesn’t bust.

***

It’s funny how the Yankees even got the supplemental pick to take Prior in the 1998 draft. They had received the Rangers’ No. 1 selection as well as a supplemental pick in the 1997 draft after Texas signed John Wetteland in free agency. However, the Yankees were unable to sign Tyrell Goodwin with their No. 24 selection in ’97 as the outfielder followed through on a commitment to North Carolina.

The No. 43 overall choice in ’98 was the Yankees’ compensation. However, the inability to sign Goodwin colored the Yankees’ thinking a year later. They considered then-high school star Teixeira at No. 24 in the first round, but his asking price was too much, according to Buster Olney. He’d forgo signing with the Red Sox in the ninth round to attend Georgia Tech.

Prior was also available at No. 24 and, in retrospect, seems like the quintessential Yankees pick. A 6-foot-5 right-hander from southern California. Can’t really fit a stereotype any more than that. But the righty was only willing to sign with four teams, one of which was the Yankees, and rookie general manager Brian Cashman understandably shied away from taking him over Brown.

“We think he’s going to get the maximum out of his talent, because of his makeup,” Cashman told Olney about Brown. “He’s got a chance to be a well-above average hitter.”

The Yankees’ final offer to Prior was for $1.4 million, but the teenager chose to attend Vanderbilt. After transferring to USC, he cemented himself as a top prospect, eventually going to the Cubs with the second pick in the 2001 draft, behind only Joe Mauer and three picks ahead of Teixeira. It took $9.1 million more for the Cubs to lock up the college junior than the Yankees had offered three years earlier.

As you may remember, Prior and fellow power arm Kerry Wood would front a formidable Cubs rotation in 2003, each earning All-Star appearances en route to the NLCS. While things would soon fall apart thanks to arm injuries for each, Prior still produced 15.7 bWAR in his career, including 16.6 in his first four seasons and 7.4 in 2003 alone. He had the makings of a real bonafide ace before his arm failed him. We did get a glimpse of Prior in pinstripes in 2011 when he got a look in spring training and 11 innings in the minors.

Yet arm injuries may not have been Prior’s destiny if he wasn’t used heavily in the Cubs’ system.

“You look at his delivery and you can tell he is going to be at a very low risk for an injury,” the late Kevin Towers said of Prior in April 2003. “He’s got the type of motion that will keep him around for a long time.”

Whether the Yankees could have actually developed him is another story. Between Andy Pettitte in 1995 and Chien-Ming Wang 10 years later, the Yankees failed to develop a solid starting pitcher in-house. That was fine for an era when the team could dominate free agency or trade whatever prospects they had for pitchers, but it hurt come the mid-2000s when the rotation dried up some. Prior had a mid-90s fastball and knee-buckling curve by the time of the 2001 draft, but perhaps that doesn’t shine through in the Bronx of the early aughts.

***

Henson (AP)

Henson seems like a prospect from a bygone era. The idea of a two-sport star is foreign with Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders well-removed from their playing days. These days, more and more kids decide to specialize in one sport over the other. Others are forced to choose a sport come age-18 when they go to college or sign with a team in the draft.

But Henson was different. Practically the same build as Prior, Henson measured in at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds and was a tri-sport athlete. Putting aside his success in basketball, he was a potential first-round pick in baseball as either a pitcher or hitter and was heavily recruited by both Michigan and Florida State to be either school’s quarterback before choosing the Wolverines. That’s quite the pedigree.

“Do you know how there are all the stories these days about what’s going to happen when Michael Jordan retires?” Mark Carrow, Henson’s baseball coach at Brighton High, told Sports Illustrated in 1998. “About how there’s going to be a void, an absence of superstars? I think Drew Henson is the one who can fill it, who can stand on that kind of pedestal. I honestly believe that.”

Um… wow. Of course, that’s from a biased point of view, but let that quote sink in.

Despite his commitment to Michigan, the Yankees still selected him in the third round, 97th overall, and gave him a $2 million bonus with the understanding he wouldn’t play a minor league game after July 31st in 1998-2001 in order to attend preseason football practices. It’s truly astounding that a player could get such a deal, but Henson had been named Baseball America’s high school player of the year. This was a premier talent.

The Yankees chose to take Henson as a hitter after he hit 70 homers over his four years at Brighton High School. However, there was talk of him as a potential starting pitcher as well.

“There weren’t many kids that could hit it that high and that far. The first thing that impressed you was the raw power that he hit the neighbor’s aluminum siding,” Yankees scout Dick Groch told ESPN. “Then he went to the bullpen and pitched that day. I personally said he would be in the big leagues in three years if he stayed with pitching. With the body that he had, threw 91 to 95, spun the curveball. It would have been a three-year program for him.

So for a couple years, Henson would dip his toe in the baseball water while still finding time to get snaps alongside future football demi-god Tom Brady. Despite his lost development time, he still impressed the Yankees in 79 games for the GCL and Tampa Yankees in ’98 and ’99, respectively. He was especially impressive with 13 homers and 12 doubles while batting .280/.345/.480 in 284 plate appearances for Tampa.

“We are talking about an extraordinary baseball talent here,” Yankees front office mainstay Mark Newman said to Jack Cavanaugh. “Drew is not just your everyday good baseball prospect.”

1998 GCL manager Ken Dominguez told ESPN of Henson’s confidence as a budding star: “I remember he was out in the outfield getting loose and I was hitting with him and I said, ‘Well, this is your first impression of the baseball game.’ He said, ‘I’ll play football in front of a 100,000 people. I’m not going to be nervous.’ That’s the type of person he was.”

Still, there were warning signs that Henson may not be the star that was promised. Despite earning top-25 rankings from Baseball America from 2000-02, he struck out in about 30 percent of his PAs. The Yankees traded him to Cincinnati to acquire Denny Neagle in July 2000 after Henson wouldn’t give up football before reacquiring him by dealing all-or-nothing slugger Willy Mo Pena in March 2001. By then, George Steinbrenner had given Henson a six-year, $17 million contract to play baseball full-time thanks to some shrewd negotiating from agent Casey Close.

At 21-years-old in 2001, Henson reached Triple-A Columbus and struggled for 270 at-bats. He struck out 85 times and mustered just a .222/.249/.367 batting line. Clippers manager Trey Hillman told the New York Times that Henson received plenty of grief from fans over his fading star and football past.

Despite the strikeouts, Henson topped out as the No. 9 prospect in all of baseball according to BA before the 2002 season. That was a spot ahead of Teixeira, two spots behind Mauer and seven spots behind Prior.

His full-time stay in Columbus didn’t look much better than 2001. He improved to a .736 OPS, but still struck out 151 times to just 37 walks. That translated to a 28.9 percent strikeout rate to just a 7.1 walk rate. He earned a token call-up to the Yankees, striking out in his lone at-bat.

Despite being just 22-years-old, the shine had worn off Henson after he couldn’t break through to earn third base. He’d play another full year in Triple-A with fewer strikeouts but even fewer times reaching base. The Yankees were forced to trade for a third baseman at the 2003 trade deadline and picked up Aaron Boone, merely giving Henson eight at-bats (in which he pick up just one hit) in his second call-up to the bigs.

A mutual parting of ways took place soon after with Henson pursuing football, playing seven games for the 2004 Dallas Cowboys and two for the 2008 Detroit Lions that went 0-16.

In the end, Henson may be one of the largest what-ifs in sports history, simply because he potentially could have starred in either sport. While the Yankees got negative value out of their 1998 draft haul, Prior or Henson could have easily been the type of standout piece that makes a draft worth it all by oneself.

The brief moment of doubt for an otherwise undoubted team

by Leave a Comment

(Getty Images)

The 1998 Yankees were perhaps the most infallible team in baseball history. They went from a 1-4 start to a 61-20 first half and rode that all the way to the best regular season record in franchise history.

But in the postseason, for one brief moment, they were on the brink. They were seemingly the underdogs. They were ripe for the picking.

That’s because as good as the 98 Yankees were, the late 90s Cleveland Indians were a force to be reckoned with, particularly on the offensive side of things. Having appeared in two of the last three World Series, Cleveland was on the verge of a dynasty of its own if the cards broke right and could have very well been known as the American League’s team of the 90s.

Mike already detailed their lineup in his Orlando Hernandez piece, but it’s worth taking a second look. They had in-his-prime Manny Ramirez, who had hit 45 home runs and driven in a ridiculous 145 runs. Future Hall of Famer Jim Thome, who was batting sixth for some reason despite a team-best 152 wRC+. Travis Fryman, David Justice and Mark Whiten provided a veteran backbone to the lineup while Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel combined for 91 steals in what was each of their age-31 seasons.

Yet the Yankees jumped ahead of Cleveland in Game 1 as expected and had David Cone on the hill for Game 2. After how well the Yankees hit in the first inning to blitz Jaret Wright, it seemed like the Bombers would have little trouble with a team that finished with 25 fewer wins than them in the regular season.

Yet Game 2 didn’t go according to plan.

***

The Chuck Knoblauch play is what sticks out from the stunning defeat. Future Yankee Enrique Wilson stumbling around third and ending up nearly flat on his face while scoring the winning run, all while Knoblauch (justifiably) protested that Fryman had run in the basepath.

“We were all yelling, ‘Get the ball, get the ball,'” Tino Martinez told Jack Curry. “It’s just one of those plays.”

“If there’s a ball rolling around now, I’m sure nine guys will be running after it,” Paul O’Neill added a day later. “It’s easy to say now. It’s almost comical.”

But it wasn’t just one play that lost the game. No, it was a lackluster offense that did the Yankees in. They stranded six runners in scoring position and only pushed across one run across 12 frames.

Martinez was one of the culprits, putting together just a walk in 10 plate appearances while failing to drive in O’Neill from third in the fourth inning. Knoblauch went hitless in six at-bats and the team was just 7-for-43 against Charles Nagy and six relievers. Welp.

“It’s very frustrating,” Martinez said to Curry. “I feel good, I’m relaxed and, all of a sudden, I’m trying to make things happen that are not there. I’m swinging at 3-2 pitches that are out of the zone. I’m striking out on bad pitches. I’m trying to do too much instead of letting things happen and unfold.”

Still, the team wasn’t about to lose its head after one bad game.

“I think it’s good for us to come back and keep doing what got us here,” Tim Raines said before Game 3. “I don’t think anyone is about to jump ship. We still think we’ve got the best team in the American League. We had opportunities to win that game and we didn’t. No one in here thinks it’s the end of the world.”

***

Game 3 somehow went worse. The Yanks pushed across a run in the first inning and that was it. Just one run once again.

But in this one, it wouldn’t be a pitchers’ duel; The Cleveland offense came alive and showed what got them there.

Andy Pettitte ran into trouble from the start but worked out of it in the first. But five pitches into the second, Thome homered to draw Cleveland even in the second inning before Wilson put them ahead with an RBI single.

Pettitte had performed well enough in the ALDS to earn the start, but this start would look closer to his lackluster August and September in which he combined for 6.13 ERA in 58 2/3 innings.

So it didn’t necessarily surprise when he allowed three home runs, one each to Ramirez, Whiten and Thome, in the fifth inning before he was unceremoniously pulled. The performance had Joe Torre seemingly shaky on Pettitte’s status for a potential Game 7 and likely led to his demotion from Game 3 to Game 4 in the World Series.

On the offensive end, the Yankees had a single walk in 12 plate appearances over the last four innings and even that walk was erased on a Derek Jeter GIDP. Bartolo Colon would close out the four-hitter by striking out Martinez.

“It’s gut-check time,” Cone said to Buster Olney. “It’s a real character test for this team. We need to come out and win tomorrow night and get the ball back to Boomer in Game 5. And we feel good about that.”

***

You know the rest of the story. El Duque begins his legendary postseason career with his dominant Game 4. David Wells outpitched Chad Ogea in Game 5 and the Yankees hit their way to a Game 6 win that was sealed by Jeter (aided by some WTF defense from Manny) and Mariano Rivera.

But as Cone said, the Yankees had a real gut-check moment. They had to overcome a legitimate challenge, one that surely scared fans a bit more after the Yanks blew a 2-1 lead in the 1997 ALDS to the same Indians team. It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where the ’98 Yanks are more ’01 Mariners than ’27 Yankees and the world suffered through a Cleveland-San Diego World Series.

Thankfully, the gut-check moment was passed with flying colors.

A Home Opener for the Ages

by Leave a Comment

(Adam Nadel/AP)

The schedule makers were not kind to the 1998 Yankees. The Yankees not only had to start the season on the road, they were out on the West Coast. Two games in Anaheim, two games in Oakland, three games in Seattle to start the new season. That’s no fun. The Yankees lost their first three games and four of their first five games that year.

It wasn’t until April 10th, ten days into the season, that the Yankees played at home in the Bronx. Twenty-seven of the other 29 teams played a home game before the Yankees that year. A crowd of 56,717 — the largest home crowd since Yankee Stadium was renovated in 1976 — turned out to see Joe DiMaggio throw out the first pitch on a Friday afternoon. DiMaggio threw a strike and might’ve been the most effective person to toe the rubber that afternoon.

“This has got to be the most brutal game I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Yankees first base coach Jose Cardenal to Buster Olney a few hours later, after the Yankees and Athletics combined for 30 runs and 32 hits. A’s first baseman Jason Giambi called it a “fiasco … you almost pitied anyone who went to the mound.”

That afternoon’s 17-13 win over the A’s was — and still is — the highest scoring home opener in Yankees history. Each team used ten pitchers. Only three of them did not allow a run. David Cone allowed nine runs in 4.1 innings and was the better of the two starters; Jimmy Haynes allowed six runs in 2.1 innings before giving way to reliever Aaron Small.

“There’s no excuses. I’ve been just awful the last two starts,” said Cone to the Associated Press. “The team has given me leads, and I’ve gone out there and given it right back up … I can’t explain it. Physically, I’m way ahead of schedule. I just get into trouble and kind of go into a panic mode and allow big innings to happen.”

The A’s struck first with a five-run second inning. Two walks, three singles, and a double accounted for the damage. The Yankees answered with two in the second, five in the third, and five in the fourth. Then Oakland pushed across eight runs against Cone, Darren Holmes, and Mike Buddie in the fifth.

“Not the textbook win. Not what I imagined my first win would be,” said Buddie to Olney. He allowed two inherited runners to score and gave up a run of his own in 1.1 innings, making him one of the day’s more effective pitchers. It was Buddie’s third career appearance and first career win.

Tino Martinez went 3-for-5 and, believe it or not, hit the game’s only home run. It was a three-run shot. Joe Girardi, the No. 9 hitter, went 4-for-5. Six of the nine Yankees in the starting lineup had multiple hits and, amazingly, the 1-2-3 hitters (Chuck Knoblauch, Derek Jeter, Paul O’Neill) went a combined 1-for-15.

“It’s always fun to win a game, but this is one of the ugliest games I’ve ever been a part of,” said O’Neill to Olney.

The Yankees drew 12 walks and struck out once — once! — as a team. Darryl Strawberry did the strikeout honors in the sixth inning. The A’s had themselves a great afternoon at the plate as well, obviously. Their 3-4-5-6 hitters (Ben Grieve, Matt Stairs, Jason Giambi, Dave Magadan) went a combined 9-for-20 and drove in eight runs.

It had been 43 years, since beating the Washington Senators 19-1 on Opening Day in 1955, that the Yankees scored at least 17 runs in their home opener. I don’t know what’s more impressive, that the Yankees accomplished something they hadn’t done in 43 years, or that they’ve scored 17+ runs in multiple home openers. Seems crazy.

A game like that, a 17-13 barn burner, is always a bit of an anomaly. The Yankees were great that season, the A’s were not, but for nine innings on a cold and windy afternoon in the Bronx, nearly 60,000 fans hung in for four hours to watch the first of 88 games — and 67 wins — at the House that Ruth Built that season.

“Yeah (it was cold),” said Girardi to Olney, “but you got a lot for your money.”

The time the Yankees called Shea Stadium home in 1998

by Leave a Comment

(Getty)

“There was a real loud bang and explosion. Extremely loud,” said Bill LeSuer to Randy Kennedy on April 14th, 1998. “I looked up and there was a real big puff of smoke. When I saw the hole, I realized something had fallen.”

LeSuer, then the Angels strength and conditioning coach, was the only person to witness a 500 lb. steel and concrete expansion joint crash down from the Yankee Stadium upper deck onto the loge seats below one day earlier. He’d been checking out Monument Park before batting practice and was walking across the outfield back to the dugout.

“I heard a tremendous bang, saw a big puff of smoke and chunks of concrete coming down,” LeSuer explained to Mike DiGiovanna. “I looked around and said, ‘Is there anyone else here who saw that?’ I realized I was talking to myself. There was no one else here.”

The expansion joint fell at approximately 3pm ET and demolished a seat below. Had it fallen when the ballpark was open, someone would’ve been crushed. That night’s game, as well as the next night’s game, were immediately postponed. Engineers were brought in to inspect the aging ballpark.

“It’s just fortunate that it happened here today instead of yesterday,” Joe Torre said to Kennedy, referring to the previous day’s afternoon game against the Athletics. David Cone added, “Yankee Stadium is crumbling. Everybody is in a little disarray right now.”

The Yankees and MLB had to scramble to adjust their schedule. It was possible the ballpark could be reopened in time for the third game of the series with the Angels. It was also possible the series with the Angels as well as the following series with the Tigers would have to be postponed, or moved to an alternate site.

The expansion joint collapsed on a Monday and moving that night’s game to Shea Stadium wasn’t logistically possible. They couldn’t prepare the ballpark and make ticket arrangements in time. Eventually it was decided the third game of the series would be played at Shea Stadium. The first two games would be made it up when the Angels came back to town in August.

Thanks to the collapsing expansion joint that fortunately injured no one, Shea Stadium became the first ballpark in modern baseball history to host two games featuring four different teams on April 15th. The Yankees and Angels played a game at 12pm ET while the Mets hosted the Cubs for their regularly scheduled game at 7pm ET.

The expansion joint collapsed Monday, on Tuesday the Yankees played a four-and-a-half inning exhibition game against Double-A Norwich at Yankee Stadium to stay sharp, and on Wednesday they “hosted” the Angels at Shea Stadium. The Yankees were the home team. They wore white pinstripes at Shea Stadium.

“It’s a huge distraction, there’s no two ways about it,” said Cone to Buster Olney, referring to the change in venues and all the logistical headaches. “Maybe in the long run this will bring us closer, but right now, those questions are kind of tough to answer.”

To prepare for Wednesday’s game at Shea Stadium, the Yankees dressed in their home clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, then bused out to Queens with a police escort through morning rush hour traffic. They used the visiting clubhouse at Shea Stadium with permission from the Cubs, who’d already unloaded their uniforms and equipment. The Angels had to use an old auxiliary clubhouse used by the New York Jets back in the day.

As for the game itself, the Yankees hammered Ken Hill for five runs on ten hits in four innings, and David Wells held the Angels to three runs in eight innings. The Yankees won 6-3. Here’s the box score. The highlight of the game was Darryl Strawberry hitting a home run in his old stomping grounds — he is Shea Stadium’s all-time home run king — and the Shea Stadium apple rising before the operators realizing it probably wasn’t a good idea to raise it for a Yankee.

“Don’t worry, Shea isn’t falling down like your place,” teased one Mets fans at the game, according to the Associated Press. Attendance for a short notice midweek afternoon game between the Yankees and Angels at Shea Stadium: 40,743. Attendance for that night’s regularly scheduled game between the Mets and Cubs at Shea Stadium: 16,012.

Between the game at Shea Stadium and the two makeup games in August, the Angels series had been successfully rescheduled. Ongoing repairs at Yankee Stadium meant that weekend’s series against the Tigers would have to be moved as well. Eventually the American League and the Yankees persuaded the Tigers to swap home series. They’d play in Detroit from April 17th to 19th, then at Yankee Stadium from April 24th to 27th, instead of vice versa.

The Yankees went to Detroit that weekend, won two of three, then went to Toronto and swept three games from the Blue Jays. They finally returned home to a fully repaired and inspected Yankee Stadium on April 24th, eleven days after the expansion joint collapsed. They won nine of ten games in the interim.

“These guys have a toughness,” said George Steinbrenner, who used the expansion joint collapse as part of his campaign for a new ballpark, to Buster Olney. “After all they’ve been through this week, to play this way.”

Tino Martinez, Armando Benitez, and the Brawl of a Dynasty

by Leave a Comment

(Newsday)

In 1998, the Yankees and Orioles were heading in opposite directions. The Yankees were emerging as baseball’s dominant team and were about to win the first of three straight World Series titles and four straight AL pennants. The Orioles, after winning 98 games in 1997, were in the first year of what would be 14 straight losing seasons.

Long story short, age was beginning to catch up to the Orioles in 1998. Cal Ripken Jr. was done as an impact everyday player, Roberto Alomar had one of the worst seasons of his career, and other 30-somethings like B.J. Surhoff and Brady Anderson had slipped. The rotation behind Mike Mussina and Scott Erickson was a mess too.

On the morning of May 19th, the Orioles were 20-23 and five games into what would eventually be a nine-game losing streak, their longest since starting the 1988 season 0-21. They’d lost 18 of their previous 28 games overall. There was already talk the O’s could be ripped apart at the trade deadline given all their impending free agents.

The Yankees, meanwhile, were 28-9 on the morning of May 19th and had the league’s best record. David Wells had thrown a perfect game two days earlier. The Yankees were great and everyone knew it. The Orioles were mediocre, descending to bad, and everyone knew it too. When their paths crossed on May 19th, it got ugly.

* * *

For the first seven and a half innings on May 19th, the Yankees and Orioles played a fairly nondescript game. David Cone wasn’t sharp, allowing five runs in six innings as the O’s nursed a 5-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh. Harold Baines had driven in three of his team’s five runs with a pair of singles.

The Yankees started their comeback in the seventh inning against rookie reliever Sidney Ponson, who was pitching in his eighth big league game. Doubles by Chuck Knoblauch and Paul O’Neill, and a single by Tim Raines cut the O’s lead to 5-3. Ponson went back out for the eighth and created a mess with back-to-back one-out walks to Jorge Posada and Knoblauch.

Considering the O’s still fancied themselves a contender that early in the season and desperately wanted to right the ship, manager Ray Miller went with his top relievers in the eighth inning. Alan Mills came in to get Derek Jeter to fly out to right field for the second out. Norm Charlton came in for the left-on-left matchup against O’Neill, but O’Neill singled to score Posada to get the Yankees to within a run.

One year earlier, the Orioles had one of the best closer-setup man combinations in baseball with Randy Myers and Armando Benitez. Myers saved 45 games with a 1.54 ERA while Benitez, then 24, struck out 106 batters in 73.1 innings with a 2.45 ERA. That was back when striking out 100 batters out of the bullpen really meant something. Nowadays it seems like every team has a guy like that.

Anyway, the O’s allowed Myers to leave as a free agent during the 1997-98 offseason, and inserted Benitez as their closer. Going into that game on May 19th, he had a 3.57 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 17.2 innings, but also 17 walks. The transition to closer was not going smoothly for Benitez and he’s one of the reasons the Orioles struggled that season.

Miller brought in Benitez for the four-out save after O’Neill’s single. The Yankees were down a run, but had runners on first and second with two outs, and Bernie Williams at the plate. Bernie hit Benitez’s fourth pitch into the right field seats for a go-ahead three-run home run. Benitez’s fifth pitch hit Tino Martinez square in the back, right betwen the 2 and 4 in 24, and chaos ensued.

As intentional as it gets. After the game home plate umpire Drew Coble said he ejected Benitez “almost before the pitch got there … I felt he would throw at him. I didn’t feel he would throw up at his head like he did.” Benitez of course denied throwing at Tino. He said he was only trying to pitch inside. The way he instigated the brawl by throwing down his glove and pointing at the Yankees dugout said otherwise.

To make matters worse, Benitez and Tino had a history. Three years earlier, when Martinez was still with the Mariners, Benitez hit him with a pitch immediately after giving up a grand slam to Edgar Martinez. I can’t find video of that beaning, but it did happen. Here’s the box score of the game. Edgar grand slam, Tino first pitch hit-by-pitch by Benitez. Bernie three-run homer, Tino first pitch hit-by-pitch by Benitez.

The brawl itself lasted nearly ten minutes and spilled into the visitor’s dugout. Mills, Benitez, Darryl Strawberry, and Graeme Lloyd threw the most vicious haymakers. To wit:

Goodness. Once order was restored on the field, Raines took Bobby Munoz deep to drive in Tino for one last little bit of poetic justice. The Yankees went on to win the game 9-5 thanks to their six-run eighth inning. The Orioles had lost again, and after the game, no teammates defended Benitez. One unnamed Orioles player called him “25 going on 15,” according to Tom Verducci.

“Sometimes you’ve got a young, immature guy who loses control,” said Miller to Buster Olney after the game. “It’s certainly not what the rest of the guys stand for.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that in 25 years. That guy that pitcher should be suspended for the rest of the year. That was a classless act. He’s got no class,” George Steinbrenner said to Joe Strauss. Peter Angelos, Orioles owner and longtime Steinbrenner foe, even called George to apologize.

Suspensions were handed down quickly. Benitez received an eight-game suspension, Strawberry and Lloyd each received three games, and Jeff Nelson and Mills each received two games. There were a bunch of fines as well.

“The severity of the discipline reflects the gravity of the offenses,” said AL president Gene Budig in a statement. “Mr. Benitez not only intentionally threw at Martinez, but the location of the pitch was extremely dangerous and could have seriously injured the player … This was a highly unfortunate and highly dangerous on-field situation. The events demand swift and stern action. A player’s safety is of utmost importance.”

Everyone remembers the brawl. No one remembers it spilled over into the next game. The next day, Jimmy Key’s first pitch was up and in, forcing Knoblauch to duck out of the way. Later in the first inning, after Raines singled home a run, Key drilled Chad Curtis. Hideki Irabu responded by hitting Mike Bordick in the second and Brady Anderson in the fifth. Benches never did clear though.

Because the suspensions were allowed to be served sequentially — they were served one after the other, not at the same time to avoid leaving each team shorthanded — Lloyd was eligible pitch in that game. He received a big ovation when he was brought in to pitch, something that had never happened before given his somewhat rocky tenure with the Yankees. “I looked up to make sure I brought in the right pitcher,” said Joe Torre to Jack Curry after the game.

“It’s great to be appreciated for things you do,” Lloyd said to Curry. “I want to be appreciated for my pitching. Sometimes I have to stand up for myself and my teammates.”

After the brawl the O’s continued to collapse and the Yankees continued to win. It made for a fun “the brawl brought the Yankees together” narrative, but the fact of the matter is the Yankees were very good, and they kept winning because they were very good. If the brawl brought them closer together, neat. They didn’t need the help though.

“Let’s get it behind us,” said Steinbrenner to Curry. “The way to get these guys is by winning the pennant and winning the American League East.”

Perfection on Beanie Baby Day

by Leave a Comment

(Getty)

The baseball gods were kind to David Wells. They blessed the burly left-hander with a rubber arm and the ability to roll out of bed and paint the black on both sides of the plate. He didn’t have blow-you-away type stuff, but he did have an extremely long and productive big league career by throwing strikes and eating innings. On a Sunday afternoon in 1998, it all came together.

* * *

The Yankees were, without question, the best team in baseball in 1998. They won 27 of their first 36 games and were so good that they won eight of their No. 2 starter’s first nine starts even though he had a 5.23 ERA. That No. 2 starter was Wells, who Buster Olney says Joe Torre called the “Fourth of July” because he unpredictable and explosive. The Yankees split the first two games of a three-game series with the Twins on the weekend of May 15th, and Wells was scheduled to start the rubber game that Sunday.

It was Beanie Baby Day at Yankee Stadium. The team gave away thousands of the plush stuffed animals that were near the end of their novelty lifespan. Wells spent the previous night at Saturday Night Live’s end-of-season wrap-up party, he would later admit in his book Perfect, I’m Not.

“This party is too much fun to even consider leaving at a reasonable hour,” he wrote, going on to explain how he plopped into bed at 5am ET and was woken up by his six-year-old son Brandon less than four hours later. Wells showed up to the park for the afternoon game hungover, downed some coffee and Tic Tacs, then went out to the bullpen for warm ups.

As he explained in his book, Wells felt terrible during his pregame routine, and not just from the hangover. He was bouncing curveballs and missing his spots in the bullpen, but pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre continued to sing his praises for a strong warm-up. Wells though he was nuts. The Twins had won four of their last five games but were without banged up leadoff man Todd Walker, who brought a .382/.420/.551 batting line into the series.

The first batter of the game nearly ended the whole thing before it all started. Matt Lawton swatted a 2-1 pitch to deep left field, but Chad Curtis reeled it in for the first of 27 outs. Brent Gates popped out on an 0-2 pitch for the second out, and Paul Molitor tapped the first pitch to second for the third out of the inning. Stottlemyre greeted Wells with a “Way to go, Boomer!” in the dugout while opposing starter LaTroy Hawkins danced around a Derek Jeter single for a scoreless first inning.

The ball didn’t leave the infield in the second inning. Marty Cordova grounded out to Wells, Ron Coomer struck out, and Alex Ochoa popped out into foul territory behind the plate. Another 13 pitches, another “Way to go, Boomer!” in the dugout. Bernie Williams created a run in the bottom half of the second, scoring on a wild pitch after he’d doubled to lead off the frame and gone to third on a passed ball. Wells struck out Jon Shave to open the third, but catcher Javier Valentin worked the count full and started fouling off pitches. The ninth pitch of the at-bat froze him for called strike three, and Boomer followed that up by whiffing Pat Meares to strike out the side. “Way to go, Boomer!”

Hawkins tossed a 1-2-3 third inning, then Wells sat down Lawton, Gates, and Molitor on an infield pop-up, a strikeout, and a fly ball to left in the top of the fourth. Bernie added a second run on a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth while Wells needed just a dozen pitches to get two strikeouts and a ground ball in the fifth. Hawkins followed up with another perfect frame, as did Wells in the top of the sixth with another dozen pitches, another two strikeouts, and another fly ball. Another “Way to go, Boomer!” greeted him in the dugout.

The Yankees were up 2-0 but Hawkins had settled into a groove, throwing another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the sixth. He’d retired 12 of the last 13 men he faced, the one exception being Bernie’s homer. Wells had thrown 80 pitches in the first six innings, and he started to labor in the seventh. He fell behind in the count 2-0 to Lawton before the Twins’ leadoff hitter flew out to center. Wells ran the count full on Gates before getting a ground out to first, then fell behind Molitor 3-1 before running the count full and getting a strikeout. Stottlemyre greeted him with another “Way to go, Boomer!” in the dugout, but Wells knew what was going on and he started to feel the butterflies. Plus he was still hungover.

Superstition is a serious thing during perfect games, hence the “Way to go, Boomer!” welcome after every inning. Wells sat alone at the end of the bench while his teammates were at the plate each inning, per no-hitter/perfect game tradition. “Here the guy has a no-hitter going and he looks like he has no friends,” said Jim Kaat during the broadcast.

The Yankees created some breathing room in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runs. Darryl Strawberry tripled and a Curtis had a single, all while Wells sat in the dugout with those butterflies in his stomach. His teammate and good friend David Cone then broke the cardinal rule of perfect games: He spoke to him.

“I think it’s time to break out the knuckleball,” Cone said to Wells, according to Buster Olney. Wells burst out laughing.

The comic relief helped him settle down. The Twins didn’t hit the ball out of the infield in the eighth inning — ground ball, ground ball, infield popup — and the crowd greeted Wells with monstrous standing ovation to start the ninth. Shave fouled off three pitches as part of a seven-pitch at-bat before popping out to shallow right for the 25th out. Valentin struck out on four pitches for the 26th out, his third strikeout of the game. Meares was the final batter of the game, and Wells got ahead of him 0-1 after a foul ball.

“The ball leaves my hand, heavy, and I swear to God, it takes forever to reach the plate,” Wells wrote in his book about the 0-1 pitch to Meares, his 120th and final pitch of the game. “I’m watching the pitch in slow motion.”

Meares swings underneath the pitch and popped it up skyward, toward the right field foul line. Paul O’Neill runs over to make the catch — one-handed! — for the 27th and final out.

“David Wells has pitched a perfect game!” yelled John Sterling during the radio call. “Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down! Baseball immortality for David Wells, and thaaa Yankees win! Thaaa Yankees win!”

It was the 15th perfect game in baseball history, and only the second thrown in Yankee Stadium. Don Larsen, who threw the other Yankee Stadium perfect game during the 1956 World Series, called Wells after the game to congratulate him. Coincidentally — or maybe not — both men are graduates of Point Loma High School in San Diego.

”Yeah, it was tough. From the seventh on, it was ridiculous,” said Wells to Murray Chass after the game. Given his rock star persona, it’s not surprising he made the rounds after the game, appearing on Howard Stern, Regis & Kathie Lee, and David Letterman in the following days. Mayor Giuliani gave him the key to the city, and endorsement offers rolled in. ”He’ll think about it every day of his life, just like I do,” said Larsen to George Vecsey.

Wells played two stints and four years in pinstripes, helping the team to the World Series in that 1998 season. His career is probably underrated historically, but he gained baseball immortality during that Sunday afternoon in the Bronx. Wells is part of the game’s most exclusive club, one of only 23 men to throw a perfect game, and one of only three to do so for the Yankees.

The Bad Call That Helped Tino Out Of His Postseason Slump

by Leave a Comment

(Getty)

Tino Martinez was a great Yankee for six seasons and he helped the team win four World Series titles, plus a fifth AL pennant. He has a plaque in Monument Park! A core member of the dynasty Yankees, through and through.

Martinez also had some ghastly postseason performances during his time in New York. Love the guy, but it is true. Tino was benched in favor of Cecil Fielder during the 1996 World Series games in Atlanta, and by time Game One of the 1998 World Series rolled around, he’d hit .188/.301/.292 in 29 postseason games for New York. Egads.

Tino’s postseason luck changed in Game One of the World Series against the Padres. In what very well might be his signature moment as a Yankee — it’s either this or his game-tying two-run homer in Game Four of the 2001 World Series, right? — Martinez clubbed a seventh inning go-ahead grand slam off Mark Langston that turned a 5-5 game into a 9-5 Yankees lead.

“I haven’t done much,” said Martinez to Jack Curry following the game. “We’ve been winning. We got to the World Series. I knew eventually I’d come up in a big situation and get a big hit to help the team win. It’s definitely a big relief to get a hit in a situation like today.”

Ask Langston and the Padres, and Martinez never should’ve been in position to hit that grand slam in the first place. They think the previous pitch should’ve been called strike three to end the inning. And when you see the 2-2 pitch, it’s really hard to disagree with them.

The pitch had plenty of plate. No doubt about that. Home plate umpire Rich Garcia said it was down though. Here’s another look:

Looks about thigh high to me. Garcia disagreed through. He had it low, the at-bat continued, and Martinez socked the next pitch into the upper deck. “I was looking for a fastball and I thought it was low. I thought (Garcia) did a good job of calling the pitches consistently tonight,” said Tino to Curry.

“I thought it was right there when I threw it, and I’ve already seen it a thousand times on replays and am even more certain about it,” said Langston to Ross Newhan after the game. “It was obviously a big pitch, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’ve not had a call go my way and I know you have to push it aside and execute the next pitch. I didn’t and that was the difference in the game. I executed on 2-2 but not 3-2 … I can cry about the call, but it would just be sour grapes.”

It is impossible to say how the non-strike call on Martinez changed the series. The Yankees were really freaking good that year and it’s easy to say they would’ve won the series anyway, but who knows? The Padres won 98 games in 1998. They were no pushover. Get the call on Martinez, win Game One to grab homefield advantage … who knows what could’ve happened?

“Yeah, it changed the whole series, that’s for sure,” said Andy Ashby to Barry Bloom in 2016. “But you look back on it, I didn’t pitch well in Game Two. We needed to win one of those first two games in New York, but we didn’t do that. And that changed the whole series.”

For Martinez, the non-strike call was the break he needed to get going at the plate in the postseason. He had a three-hit game in Game Two — Tino had three hits in his previous 31 postseason plate appearances combined — plus a single and two walks in Game Four. Following the non-strike call, Martinez hit .282/.348/.436 with seven home runs and 27 runs driven in in 48 postseason games through the remainder of the dynasty years.

“I know I haven’t done my part, but we’ve been winning,” said Tino to Curry. “You have to take the post-season game by game. It’s a relief to get out of this slump.”