Passion Essay

A Game to Remember
By BOB HERBERT

Published: July 5, 2004
E-mail: bobherb@nytimes.com

There was nearly a full moon over the stadium in the Bronx, and at times it seemed as though the thunderous roars of the crowd were loud enough to be heard by fans who might have been watching from a perch on the gleaming lunar landscape.

It was, simply, one of the most exciting baseball games ever played. The youngsters lucky enough to have seen it on Thursday night will be telling their grandchildren about it in the 2050's and 2060's.

It was the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, the fiercest rivalry in the sport. The game went on for four hours and 20 minutes and seemed to capture in one glorious 13-inning span all the reasons why baseball was invented in the first place. By the end, the players themselves seemed awed.

Alex Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman and perhaps the best player in baseball, said afterward, "That was the greatest game I've ever watched, played or been in the ballpark for."

It started ugly. The Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez got upset with Yankee batter Gary Sheffield in the first inning and hit him with a fastball. The home-plate umpire issued warnings all around and matters cooled.

The Yankees built a 3-0 lead. The New York fans, used to their team winning, reached for the hot dogs, the beer, the cotton candy, whatever. Some chatted on cellphones. Some taunted the opposition with signs that said "1918," which was the last time the Red Sox won the World Series.

The Red Sox came back. Manny Ramirez, the slugger who told Sports Illustrated, "I'm blessed. I got a big contract. I got nothing to worry about," hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning, and the Red Sox scored again in the seventh to tie the game.

Now it became a chess match on the emerald turf as a series of relief pitchers sent the game into extra innings. The tone changed. If anything, the desire of each team to win heightened. Most of the sellout throng of 55,000 stayed put. A holiday weekend was coming and the fans sensed they were watching something special.

The Red Sox loaded the bases in the top of the 11th, but the rally was foiled by a slick-fielding double play that actually looked like a triple play. Another roar rose over the Bronx.

Still another Red Sox rally was foiled in the 12th inning when Yankee hero Derek Jeter saved the day by racing full tilt after a potential game-winning pop fly in short left field. He caught it, but in the process he crashed into a low wall and was launched like a missile head first into the crowd. He emerged with his face bloodied, bruised and already beginning to swell in spots. Jeter's parents watched anxiously from the stands. The fans went crazy.

An unheralded Yankee, Miguel Cairo, led off the bottom of the 12th with a triple and the Yanks seemed certain to win. All they had to do was move Cairo 90 feet to home plate. They couldn't. Like a battered fighter refusing to go down, the Red Sox somehow stiffened their resistance.

By then the players on both sides seemed to have entered a special zone that transcended the rivalry of the two teams. They were locked in an extended competition played out at such a high level of skill and intensity that it conferred a kind of grace on all who participated, no matter who would end up losing.

In the top of the 13th the Red Sox went ahead 4-3 on yet another homer by Manny ("I'm blessed") Ramirez. The fans quieted, and some began to comment that they had been privileged to see such an exhibition, even if the Yanks were vanquished by the hated Red Sox.

There weren't a lot of bullets left in the Yankee guns in the bottom of the 13th. Jeter was being driven to a hospital. Joe Torre, the manager, had used almost all his reserves. The Red Sox, who had looked beaten at various points, were now about to shake hands with victory.

Jorge Posada led off and struck out. Tony Clark grounded out. But then Ruben Sierra singled. And the unheralded Miguel Cairo, down to his last strike, launched a double to right-center field that scored Sierra. John Flaherty followed with a hit to left that scored Cairo and suddenly, incredibly, the Yankees had won. The stadium crowd erupted and it seemed that even the moon over the Bronx shook a little in the excitement.

For those who saw it, the game was a head start on a holiday weekend (a lost weekend for the Yanks — they were swept by the crosstown Mets), and a thrilling if temporary respite from the stresses and anxieties of the so-called real world. 

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company