The Astros win the (2001) pennant!

In our last post we mentioned a tie for the best record in the National League in 2001. The Diamondbacks, of course, went to the World Series and won it, but they just missed on the best record by going 92-70. They lost their last two regular-season games to the Brewers, and left it up to the Central Division battle between the Astros and Cardinals.

As it happened, those two finished the season against each other in St. Louis. The Astros won two of three, including 9-2 on the last day of the season. The tie wasn't played off because they didn't need to, as both were already going to the playoffs. The Astros won the season series so they got the division title and the Cardinals drew the wild card. Houston, at that point, had flamed out in three of the previous four seasons in the division round and had never won a postseason series. They were swept by the Braves to keep that streak going. The Cardinals battled with the Diamondbacks for five games but lost in the bottom of the ninth in the final game.

But here, they meet in an old-style NL best-of-3 series for the pennant, and the right to meet the Mariners in the World Series. Since the Astros were the high seed, I bypassed the coin flip and gave them the home field, the final two games of this series at Enron Field (before all that stuff happened there).

The series opened in St. Louis. With the teams meeting each other the weekend before, the rotation was determined by who didn't pitch in it. Matt Morris, who won 22 games for the Cardinals, got the ball while the Astros countered with Tim Redding. The Cards scored first when Mike Matheny drove in a run and Morris followed with a single up the middle to make it 2-0.

Morris only gave up two hits in the first five innings but Redding kept it at the 2-0 score. Octavio Dotel came in but Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds hit back-to-back homers to double the lead. Another run made it 5-0 and Morris went for the shutout to try and save the bullpen for the Houston leg of the series. He got the first two outs in the ninth but Jeff Bagwell and Lance Berkman singled, so Mike Timlin came in. Moises Alou singled to produce a run and Vinny Castilla walked. Closer Dave Veres entered to face Richard Hidalgo who with his 19 homers represented the tying run. Veres retired Hidalgo on a comebacker and the Cardinals had a 5-1 victory.

On to Houston, and the Astros brought out Wade Miller to face former Astro Woody Williams. (There were a lot of players who spent time with both teams in this series.) The Cards again jumped to a 2-0 lead as Pujols singled, Edmonds walked, a couple of infield outs produced a run and Matheny drove in another run with a single. It looked like the Cards were going to go back to the Series. But Houston finally got going in the third when Craig Biggio and Bagwell walked and Berkman hit a three-run homer. That was the only hit Williams gave up as he was pulled for a pinch hitter in the fifth. Bagwell greeted Gene Stechschulte with a two-run homer in the fifth and the Astros were up 5-2. Miller went seven strong innings with just four hits allowed and the two early runs. Mike Jackson and Billy Wagner each pitched a scoreless inning and it was on to Game 3.

Darryl Kile, the former Astro, pitched for the Cardinals in the ultimate NL game while the Astros were left with Dave Mlicki as Shane Reynolds had pitched on Sunday. He was in the bullpen with everyone else, though. The winning team would host the Mariners the next day in the opener of the 2001 World Series.

The Astros were not kind to their old friend. Biggio doubled off Kile and Julio Lugo singled for the first run. Bagwell walked and then Berkman tripled to the hill in center to make it 3-0 and send bodies scurrying around in the St. Louis pen. Alou struck out but Castilla singled and it was 4-0.

Kile got it together and ended up striking out seven in four innings before leaving. It seemed as though the Cards could get to Mlicki, who had a 6.17 ERA in 2001. But the right-hander struck out seven himself in the first four innings and kept the visitors off the board. Bagwell booted a grounder in the fifth and pinch hitter Kerry Robinson singled. When Placido Polanco singled with two outs to make it 4-1 and bring J.D. Drew to the plate as the tying run, the Astros pulled Mlicki and brought in lefty Ron Villone. He struck out Drew on three pitches to keep the score where it was.

Then it was a battle of the bullpens. The Cardinals, of course, did the Tony LaRussa special, using four pitchers in the next two innings. The Astros went one inning at a time with their best. It was still 4-1 in the seventh, the Dave Williams inning for Houston, but the Cards got the first two men on. Bobby Bonilla, as a pinch hitter, bounced into a force play. Fernando Vina struck out and Polanco popped out to end the threat. Mike Jackson gave up hits to Drew and Edmonds in the eighth but struck out Mark McGwire and retired Edgar Renteria on a fly ball. The Astros were three outs away from their first World Series.

Mike Timlin, the sixth St. Louis pitcher, kept the scoreless bullpen string going, so it was up to Billy Wagner to close out the series. Pinch hitter Miguel Cairo doubled with one out, but Vina grounded out, and Polanco grounded to Jose Vizcaino at short and the Astros had their first pennant, as you know if you saw the top of the post. Final was 4-1.

Neither team hit much in the three games, despite the high ERAs of the time, but the Astros had Castilla (.400) and Berkman (.333), with Lance getting the two biggest hits for his hometown team, the three-run homer in Game 2 and the two-run triple in the final game. Renteria, Mr. Big Game, was the high man for the Cards, hitting .364. Pujols was held to .167 and so was Mark McGwire, in his final games before retirement. (Pujols was in left field in the games McGwire started.) Leadoff man Fernando Vina was 0-for-12 and only reached base once in three games, on a hit by pitch.

So Shane Reynolds, on three days' rest, gets to open the World Series against Freddy Garcia and the Mariners. Probably Redding in Game 2 and then they'll be caught up.

2000

I’ll take a little longer on this one to re-introduce these guys. You may remember the Subway Series from this year. But the Yankees won just 87 games and the Mets were a wild card. The best teams were the White Sox (95 wins) and the Giants (97). For the first time since 1959, no major league team was above .600 or below .400 in winning percentage. True balance, right? But the only thing anyone remembers is that the Yankees won their fourth World Series in five years.

But not in our world, they didn’t. To recap, the Indians won in 1996, the Braves in ’97 and the Yankees in ’98 and ’99. So we’ll have a new champ again, and ending a long drought either way.

This is a rematch, if you count waiting 83 years for a rematch. Since then, the Giants switched coasts, moving from the Polo Grounds in New York to San Francisco. Coincidentally, this was the last White Sox championship season. They only appeared in two more Series before the end of the 20th Century, in 1919 (we all know what happened there) and the aforementioned 1959, which they also lost. So it was a 40-year wait, and then 41 until “now,” although with no 1994 Series, you could say it was 40 years of World Series play.

The Giants, seemingly about to win their first Series title on the West Coast, bounced back after losing in six games to Pants Rowland and the 1917 White Sox. John McGraw’s boys won consecutive Series in 1921-22, lost in 1923-24 but won again in 1933. But the once-powerful NL franchise was being chased down by the Dodgers and Cardinals. The 1954 title was their last one in New York, or anywhere until 2010.

Both of these teams, of course, eventually made the real Series, the Giants in 2002 and the White Sox in 2005.

As a White Sox fan, I’m not sure people really remember the 2000 team – some of the names were ones even I hadn’t thought about in quite a while. It was a one-time champion and was swept out of the division series by Seattle. Frank Thomas (.328, 43 HR, 143 RBI) finished second to Jason Giambi in the MVP voting. Magglio Ordonez (.315, 32, 126) was the other big force on an offense that scored the most runs in the American League. Mike Sirotka (15-10, 3.79) was the staff ace – remember, the offenses were really scoring a lot of runs then – followed by Jim Parque (13-6, 4.28) and All-Star winning pitcher James Baldwin (14-7, 4.65). Keith Foulke, who would close out the 2004 Series for Boston, had 34 saves to lead a strong relief corps that included a rookie lefty named Mark Buehrle.

The Giants were eliminated by the Mets in the division series, but before that they were all about Barry Bonds (.306, 49 HR, 106 RBI). But Bonds’ teammate, Jeff Kent, was the MVP that year, with a .334 average, 33 homers and 125 RBI. All of the Giants’ regulars had double figures in homers. Livan Hernandez, Orlando’s older half-brother, gets the ball to start the series with his 17-11, 3.75 record. Shawn Estes (15-6, 4.26), Russ Ortiz (14-12, 5.01) and Mark Gardner (11-7, 4.05) follow. Robb Nen and his 41 saves are waiting to finish.

Even though both teams had quick trips to the playoffs, they managed to use all of their players except one. The Giants used all 25, so no disputes there.

The only Sox who didn’t appear against Seattle was Sean Lowe, a swingman who was supposed to start the Game 4 that never happened. There will be a Game 4 here, at least. One note: Parque opened the ALDS instead of Sirotka because of an injury suffered in Sirotka’s last tune-up start. Sirotka pitched Game 2, lost, and his career was over at age 29 because of a shoulder injury. I’m going to start Sirotka in the opener, not that it really matters because he is not going to come back to pitch three times in the series. Also, the Sox had a very odd playoff roster, which I’d like to adjust but I won’t. There are basically two DHs, Thomas and Harold Baines, a backup catcher (Josh Paul) who bumped another guy from the team and McKay Christensen, who was there for pinch running or something. So they’ll be at a disadvantage when the series shifts to the Bay.

But it opens at New Comiskey Park, yes, that was the name until 2003.

GAME 1 at Chicago

San Francisco … 100 010 000 – 2 8 0

Chicago …………001 000 002 – 3 7 0

W: Bradford L: Nen HR: Snow, Johnson

The White Sox rallied with two outs in the ninth, first tying the game on Carlos Lee’s RBI triple, then winning on Paul Konerko’s single.

Livan Hernandez left with a five-hitter going and a 2-1 lead. Robb Nen, who had 41 regular-season saves, came on. But he walked Frank Thomas with one out – the only walk of the game for either team – and pinch runner Tony Graffanino went to second on a wild pitch. After Magglio Ordonez flied out, Lee and Konerko delivered a victory for Chicago.

The rally made Chad Bradford, who got three outs in the ninth, the winner. Mike Sirotka went eight innings, giving up seven hits including Jeff Kent’s RBI double in the first and J.T. Snow’s solo homer in the fifth. Charles Johnson homered in the third for the only Sox run off Hernandez.

GAME 2 at Chicago

San Francisco … 001 000 001 – 2 3 2

Chicago ………... 000 300 00x – 3 4 0

W: Parque L: Estes S: Foulke HR: Rios

Herbert Perry’s two-run single in the fourth held up as the difference as the White Sox headed west with a 2-0 lead.

Shawn Estes was leading 1-0 in the fourth when he walked Frank Thomas, and Ellis Burks dropped Magglio Ordonez’s fly to right. Carlos Lee walked to load the bases and Paul Konerko popped up for the second out. Estes then hit Jeff Abbott to force in a run and Perry followed with a two-run single to center. Charles Johnson walked and Alan Embree relieved Estes, getting Ray Durham to end the inning.

Jim Parque left in the sixth after walking the bases loaded. Mark Buehrle relieved and struck out Barry Bonds. Lorenzo Barcelo got Jeff Kent to pop up and Burks to line out. Parque gave up only two hits, one of them Armando Rios’ homer in the third. Keith Foulke pitched the ninth, giving up a run on Burks’ double play grounder. There were 12 pitchers used in the game despite only seven total hits.

GAME 3 at San Francisco

Chicago ………. 001 000 000 – 1 4 0

San Francisco … 000 006 01x – 7 8 0

W: Ortiz L: Baldwin HR: Burks

The Giants blew open the game in the sixth against the Chicago bullpen, with Barry Bonds’ RBI double giving them the lead and Ellis Burks’ homer capping the six-run rally.

James Baldwin took a 1-0 lead into the inning, but pinch hitter Felipe Crespo singled with one out. Marvin Benard walked and Bill Mueller flied out. With Bonds coming up, sidearming lefty Kelly Wunsch came in for Baldwin, but Bonds doubled to the gap to make it 2-1. Chad Bradford came in and Jeff Kent doubled in another run. J.T. Snow was walked intentionally and Burks homered to put the Giants up 6-1.

Russ Ortiz got the win, going six innings and allowing just four hits and four walks. He gave up an RBI triple to Ray Durham in the third. Four relievers held the Sox hitless in the last three innings, and Chicago stranded 11 runners to the home team’s two.

GAME 4 at San Francisco

Chicago ………. 200 000 004 – 6 10 0

San Francisco… 000 200 000 – 2 4 0

W: Howry L: Nen HR: Durham, Ordonez

The White Sox beat Giants closer Robb Nen again, with Charles Johnson’s RBI double and Ray Durham’s three-run homer in the ninth giving Chicago a 3-1 lead.

Magglio Ordonez homered in the first off Mark Gardner with a man aboard in the first, but the Giants tied it in the fourth off Sean Lowe when Jeff Kent doubled home one run and J.T. Snow singled Kent in to make it 2-2.

Carlos Lee greeted Nen in the ninth with a double and after the next two hitters were retired, Johnson doubled to put Chicago ahead. Pinch hitter Harold Baines walked and Durham hit one out to right, sending many of the locals home and pushing the White Sox within one victory of its first Series win since 1917.

Bob Howry pitched a scoreless eighth for the victory.

GAME 5 at San Francisco

Chicago ……...... 101 011 102 – 7 11 0

San Francisco … 210 010 000 – 4 8 1

W: Sirotka L: Hernandez S: Foulke HR: Durham 2, Lee, Bonds, Kent

For the first time in 83 years, the World Series belonged to the South Side as Ray Durham homered twice and ignited the clinching two-run ninth with a single.

Durham homered to start the game against Livan Hernandez, but Jeff Kent hit a two-run homer off Mike Sirotka in the home half. Three hits and an infield out in the second made it 3-1 San Francisco but Durham walked and Jose Valentin doubled him in to cut the lead in half in the Chicago third.

Durham’s second homer tied it in the fifth but Barry Bonds’ only homer of the series gave the Giants the lead back at 4-3 in the home half. But Carlos Lee answered back in the Chicago sixth with a solo shot.

The White Sox went ahead for good in the seventh when Valentin walked with two outs, moved to third on Frank Thomas’ single and scored on Magglio Ordonez’s base hit. Three relievers – Lorenzo Barcelo, Kelly Wunsch and Bob Howry – got through the seventh and Keith Foulke pitched the last two innings for the save.

The Sox made it easier on Foulke by scoring twice in the ninth off Aaron Fultz and Felix Rodriguez. While Robb Nen stayed in the bullpen, Durham walked and moved up on Valentin’s bunt. Thomas doubled and scored on Lee’s two-out hit. Foulke got pinch hitter Bill Mueller on a groundout to Valentin for the last out.

WRAPUP

The mysterious points system gives Ray Durham the 2000 Series MVP and to me, he is the only choice. He hit .333 with three of Chicago’s six homers, with all of the homers coming in the last two games. Carlos Lee was the only other possibility for the White Sox with a .316 average and three RBI. With neither team sporting a great pitching staff, I was expecting a high-scoring series but it didn’t happen. Just 37 runs and offenses were held to a .211 average. Barry Bonds hit just .222, with a homer and three RBI. Actual 2000 MVP Jeff Kent was the leading hitter in the Series with a .421 average, a homer and six RBI.

Other notes: Keith Foulke retired Bill Mueller for the last out; they were teammates on the champion 2004 Red Sox. Durham, of course, later played for the Giants, and Burks was a former member of the White Sox. Tony Graffanino picked up another ring, he was with the 1997 Braves. Mike Sirotka got the win in the last game, and as was mentioned earlier, that was it for his career. That would have been some way to go out, if it had happened this way.

Now it’s on to 2001, where we have quite a change from the actual Yankees-Diamondbacks matchup. The AL champions are the Seattle Mariners, who won a league-record 116 games but didn’t get a chance in the Series. The NL representative is … well, we don’t know yet. We had a tie between the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals with 93-69 records. Both made the playoffs, with Houston winning the head-to-head series in the season and therefore wearing the NL Central crown while the Cardinals were the wild card. Both lost in the divisional round. But for us, we’re going back to the old days, a two-of-three playoff.

1998 Series, add Braves, remove Padres

(I tried to fix the spacing issues, but it does not seem to help.)

These teams met in the real 1996 Series, but in our re-enactment, Cleveland represented the AL and beat the Braves, even winning three in a row in Atlanta just as the Yankees did. They met again in ’99 and have two other meetings coming up.

This series figures to be an even better matchup, even though the 1998 Yankees have been acclaimed as one of the great teams of all time. They won 114 games in the regular season and went 11-2 in the playoffs, including a sweep of the Padres in the series. While the Padres won 98 and the Astros won 102, the Braves won 106, the most in the NL since the 1986 Mets.

The Braves’ cast was slightly different than in ’97 with McGriff, Lofton and Mark Wohlers gone. In their places were Andres Galarraga at first, with 44 homers; an outfield featuring Andruw Jones as the regular center fielder and Walt Weiss in place of Jeff Blauser at short. The starters did not change – Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz and Neagle. Kerry Ligtenberg was the new closer.

The Yankees appear for the first time in the ’90s in our alternate Series, but obviously we’ll be seeing them again and again. As noted above, this was considered an all-time great team, but there really weren’t any epic performances. Derek Jeter was a distant third in the MVP voting and Bernie Williams was seventh. David Wells was third in the Cy Young, well behind Roger Clemens; the two would switch teams in the off-season with a disappointed Wells returning to Toronto. Mariano Rivera had established himself as closer, a role he still holds today.

The rosters are what they were, with one exception. I made a mistake on the Yankees, as I left Darryl Strawberry on the 25-man list; Ricky Ledee replaced Straw, who was diagnosed with colon cancer but fortunately recovered and even played in the ’99 Series. I think it’s OK, though, as Ledee was just a replacement with 75 at-bats (though he did have a great World Series). The Braves’ roster was the same as they used in the NLCS loss to the Padres. We’ll stick with the rotations as they actually were for the playoffs, guessing at what the Yankees would have done in the Series had they needed more than four games.

So these Yankees remain one of the greats, but this was probably the best Atlanta Braves team ever, maybe the best in franchise history. So it should be a good battle. And it was.

GAME 1 at New York

Atlanta ……. 100 001 000 00 – 2 8 1

New York … 000 002 000 01 – 3 11 1

W: Stanton L: Perez HR: Galarraga

Paul O’Neill’s RBI single in the 11th won it for the Yankees in a hard-fought game. Andres Galarraga drove in the two Braves runs, with a single in the first and a solo shot in the sixth off David Wells. The Yankees couldn’t solve John Smoltz until the sixth. Jeter singled and stole second, and continued to third on Javy Lopez’s error. Bernie Williams lined a hit to make it 2-1 and Darryl Strawberry and Chad Curtis walked to load the bases. Jorge Posada singled to tie it up.

In the 11th, Posada led off with a base hit against Odalis Perez. Scott Brosius sacrificed and Kerry Ligtenberg entered for the Braves. Chuck Knoblauch walked and Jeter struck out. But O’Neill singled and pinch runner Homer Bush scored easily. Mike Stanton, the fifth Yankee pitcher, pitched one inning for the win.

GAME 2 at New York

Atlanta ……. 004 003 000 00 – 7 12 0

New York … 000 052 000 01 – 8 18 2

W: Lloyd L: Ligtenberg HR: C. Jones, Davis, Brosius

The Yankees won in 11 again, this time on Jorge Posada’s RBI single. They overcame a 4-0 deficit with a 5-run sixth, then after the Braves went back up 7-5 in the sixth, the Yankees tied it again in their half.

O’Neill dropped a fly ball in the third, leading to Chipper Jones’ three-run homer off Orlando Hernandez. Javy Lopez singled in a run later in the inning. But the Yankees, again baffled by a Braves starter in the early innings, got to Tom Glavine in the fifth. Brosius doubled and Jeter singled to make it 4-1. Williams walked and Tino Martinez singled to make it 4-2. Then Chili Davis hit a three-run homer to give New York the lead.

El Duque departed after Keith Lockhart led off the sixth with a double. Ramiro Mendoza hit Weiss with a pitch, and Chipper Jones’ single loaded the bases with one out. Galarraga struck out for the second out, but Mendoza fumbled Ryan Klesko’s grounder, allowing Lockhart to score with the tying run. (All the runs off Hernandez were unearned.) Lopez followed with a two-run single to put Atlanta ahead 7-5.

But Brosius greeted Dennis Martinez with a homer in the New York sixth. Jeter and O’Neill singled with one out and Williams’ fly tied it up. The Braves managed just one hit in the last five innings against Stanton, Rivera and eventual winner Graeme Lloyd. The Yankees put a couple of threats together but couldn’t deliver the big hit until the 11th. Martinez’s single started the inning against Kerry Ligtenberg, in for his third inning. Strawberry batted for Davis and singled, and scheduled Game 4 starter Denny Neagle, the seventh Braves pitcher, came in and walked Chad Curtis. Posada followed with the winning hit.

GAME 3 at Atlanta

Yankees … 001 000 100 – 3 10 1

Braves …… 050 011 10x – 8 9 1

W: Maddux L: Cone HR: Strawberry, Galarraga, Tucker

The Braves made their big inning stand up this time as Greg Maddux pitched into the seventh and cut the Yankees’ Series lead to 2-1.

David Cone was hit hard in the second, allowing five hits and five runs. Walt Weiss doubled in two runs in the inning. Cone was lifted for a pinch hitter in the fifth and Ramiro Mendoza gave up homers to Galarraga and Tucker.

Maddux was good enough, allowing an RBI hit to Chuck Knoblauch in the third. Strawberry’s pinch homer in the seventh made it 7-3 and John Rocker eventually got out of the inning. Galarraga added a sacrifice fly off Graeme Lloyd in the eighth, and Dennis Martinez finished up for the winners.

GAME 4 at Atlanta

Yankees … 001 002 000 01 – 4 8 2

Braves …… 100 000 101 00 – 3 8 1

W: Mendoza L: Ligtenberg HR: Williams

Like Spinal Tap, the Yankees seem to need to go to 11. This time, it was Bernie Williams’ homer with two outs off Kerry Ligtenberg that gave them their third win in the series – all in 11.

Tino Martinez’s two-run single in the sixth chased Denny Neagle and gave New York a 3-1 lead. Andy Pettitte went six for New York, holding the Braves to just four hits and a run, and came out for a pinch hitter in the seventh. Jeff Nelson came in and gave up a single to pinch hitter Keith Lockhart. Mike Stanton relieved and walked Ryan Klesko, also pinch hitting. A sacrifice and Gerald Williams’ infield out made it 3-2.

Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the ninth, but the Braves tied it up. Lockhart doubled, Michael Tucker singled and Williams singled with two outs. With runners at second and third, Rivera got Chipper Jones to ground out and turned it over to Ramiro Mendoza, who went two hitless innings for the victory.

GAME 5 at Atlanta

Yankees … 000 010 000 – 1 5 0

Braves …… 300 011 20x – 7 12 0

W: Smoltz L: Wells HR: Brosius, Galarraga, Graffanino

John Smoltz kept the Braves alive, pitching a five-hitter and sending the series back to New York.

Atlanta took the lead for the fifth straight game as Galarraga hit a three-run homer in the first off David Wells. Smoltz’s squeeze bunt added to the lead in the fifth and Ryan Klesko drove in a run in the sixth to knock out the big lefty. Tony Graffanino added a home run in the seventh against Mike Stanton.

Smoltz gave up just a Scott Brosius homer in the fifth, and no other extra-base hits. He walked two and struck out three in a 126-pitch effort.

GAME 6 at New York

Braves …… 010 001 000 – 2 5 0

Yankees … 000 003 00x – 3 6 0

W: Hernandez L: Glavine S: Rivera HR: Lockhart

The Yankees finally won a game in regulation, though it was their fourth one-run victory, to clinch the series in six. As in every other game, Atlanta scored first, but again New York came back.

Tom Glavine was working on a shutout in the sixth when Scott Brosius was hit by a pitch. Derek Jeter walked and Paul O’Neill doubled to cut the Atlanta lead to 2-1. Bernie Williams’ sacrifice fly tied it and Tino Martinez knocked in O’Neill for the final run of the series.

Orlando Hernandez pitched into the seventh, giving up just five hits including a Keith Lockhart homer. He was pulled after walking Javy Lopez with one out in the seventh. Graeme Lloyd came in to get the next five outs and Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth to finish it off. It was Rivera’s first save as the Yankees won twice at home in extras, and on the road in 11 innings in Game 4 after Rivera failed to close it out in the ninth.

WRAPUP

I think I’ll have to go against the projected Series MVP. The award points leader is Andres Galarraga, who had a fine series, with three homers, seven RBI and a .318 average. I don’t think that’s really enough for a guy on the losing side to get it. How about Keith Lockhart of the Braves? He was amazing. He was 9 for 13, that’s a .692 batting average which I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before. He had a homer and drove in two runs, but he only played in four games as part of a platoon with Tony Graffanino (who also had a homer).

No, I have to stick with the winners. The top “vote-getter” among Yankees was Scott Brosius, coincidentally the actual ’98 Series MVP. But in this series, he had two solo homers and batted .286. Nothing really special there either. There really isn’t anyone who stands out except for Derek Jeter, who hit .407 (11 for 27). He only drove in one run, but he scored five. And besides, he’s Derek Jeter. So that’s who wins the MVP. I can’t blame the computer for not picking him out – he rated third, followed by Chipper Jones and Bernie Williams. Bernie had a game-winning homer and tied for the team-high with 4 RBI but only batted .217. John Smoltz was the top pitcher, with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings, but his team couldn’t hold the lead in Game 1.

Because of the Yankees’ success in one-run games, they were outscored 29-22 by the Braves. If the Braves could have won just one of those extra-inning games, they would have sent Maddux to the mound in Game 7. But just as in the real thing, it wasn’t to be for the Braves against the Yankees. They’ll get more chances later on. It was a great Series, as I thought it might be.

Next, as the Yankees’ sweep of the Braves in 1999 “stands,” it’s the rather unlikely matchup of 2000, with the White Sox and Giants facing off for the first time in 83 years.