October 26, 1996: Glory returns to the Bronx as Yankees beat Braves in six

It had been a long time. Too long for most, an eternity for some. In fact, it had been 18 long years since the New York Yankees had been in a position to capture ultimate glory and win a world championship. 

For Yankees manager Joe Torre, it had been a longer time – forever. His playing career began in 1960 and lasted through 1977, and he had also managed in 15 prior seasons. For 32 long seasons, he had never been part of a World Series championship.1

It was a dry night in the Bronx. The weather was a comfortable 57 degrees. It was a perfect night for baseball.

Game Six of the 1996 World Series pitted the Yankees against the Atlanta Braves, the reigning World Series champions. The Yankees held the advantage in the Series, three games to two, but it hadn’t been easy. The Yankees had dropped the first two games at home before heading to Atlanta and sweeping the three games there. What at first seemed like an easy World Series for the Braves had suddenly changed. The Yankees had to win only one more game to be crowned champions. The Yankees were playing at home, in Yankee Stadium, and this could have been seen as an advantage, but to date in this Series, the home team had yet to win even a single game.

Taking the mound for the Yankees was Jimmy Key, a quality left-handed pitcher who had signed a four-year free-agent deal with the Yankees before the 1993 season. Key was a key contributor to the Yankees, especially in the first two years of the deal, when he went 18-6 and 17-4. But injuries had since taken their toll. In 1996 Key’s 4.68 ERA spoke to the fact that he was not the pitcher he had once been.

Pitching for the Braves was one of the best pitchers of his time, Greg Maddux, the reigning four-time National League Cy Young Award pitcher. Maddux had also already defeated the Yankees in Game Two of this World Series, pitching eight innings and allowing no runs. In that same game, Key allowed four runs for the loss. 

The Braves were down, but they were certainly not out. For the Yankees to win this game, they would have to defeat a pitcher who seemed all but unbeatable.

For the more than 56,000 fans in attendance in the grand old ballpark in New York, the hope was for a close game – there was little likelihood of the Yankees scoring often in this contest. 

From the start, it seemed clear that both pitchers brought their best. 

The Braves went down in order in the top of the first inning. The Yankees did the same.

Javy Lopez, the Braves catcher, worked a one-out walk in the second, but no other runners reached base. Maddux again retired the Yankees in order.

It was in the third inning that things began to get interesting. Terry Pendleton, the Braves third baseman, led off with a grounder to second base that Mariano Duncan booted. Duncan had enjoyed a stellar 1996 season, batting .340. His energy and enthusiasm, as well as his phrase “We play today, we win today, Dassit,” inspired the club. He was not, though, a great defensive player. In a tight game, an error could be disastrous. Jeff Blauser, the Braves shortstop and a former All-Star, stepped to the plate. Terry Pendleton was quickly thrown out trying to steal second base. Yankees catcher Joe Girardi, brought to the team for his catching skills and leadership, made a great throw to erase the runner. Blauser then doubled. Key was able to retire the next two batters.

In the bottom of the third, the Yankees’ bats came alive. Paul O’Neill, who had joined the Yankees the same year as Key, led off with a double. Duncan followed with a groundout to the right side that allowed O’Neill to move to third base. 

Some players have legendary careers. Some have remarkable seasons. For others, it might be a singular game that is remembered forever. Girardi’s heroics came down to a single inning. First, he threw out Pendleton. In the bottom of the inning, he hit a blast, not a legendary home run, but something even more unlikely – a long triple to center field, scoring O’Neill with the game’s first run. Said Girardi, “When I got on third base, I almost started crying.”2

The next batter, rookie Derek Jeter, singled home Girardi with the Yankees’ second run.3

Jeter then accomplished what Pendleton could not; he stole second base. Next, after Wade Boggs popped out, Bernie Williams singled home Jeter to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. Williams noted, “[Maddux] made a few mistakes and we took advantage.”4

It didn’t take long for the Braves to answer right back. With one out, All-Star Fred McGriff walked. Lopez then singled, and so did the bright young star Andruw Jones. Just like that, the Braves had loaded the bases. Key, battling for his life, then walked Jermaine Dye to force in the first of the Braves’ runs. 

And that brought up Terry Pendleton. 

Pendleton had been the National League MVP in 1991 and the runner-up in 1992. He was now 35 years old, but still a dangerous hitter. The previous inning, Pendleton had been caught stealing to partly negate a scoring threat. This time, he did worse. Pendleton grounded into a double play to end the inning. Jimmy Key and the Yankees had escaped.

Maddux, who had bent, wasn’t going to be broken. Seeing that victory could be on the horizon, he rediscovered his best stuff. The Yankees went down in order in the fourth.

In the fifth inning, the Braves had a single, but could do no other damage, partly because Marquis Grissom was called out at second base after he tried advancing on an errant pitch. Braves manager Bobby Cox argued the call and was thrown out of the game. Replays later showed that the umpire had missed the call.5 After the game Cox noted, “We’re not going to blame the umpires. … We got beat and that’s the end of the story.”6

Maddux kept cruising; the Yanks went down in order again. 

One of the particular strengths of the 1996 Yankees was their deep bullpen. As the game headed to its final acts, that strength would be used. Chipper Jones began the top of the sixth with a double. Key stayed on to retire McGriff on a groundout, but Jones moved to third. In from the bullpen came David Weathers, who struck out Javy Lopez before walking Andruw Jones, bringing up power hitter Ryan Klesko, pinch-hitting for Dye. Torre again went to the bullpen and summoned Graeme Lloyd.

Klesko popped out. The threat averted. The Yankees’ precarious 3-1 lead remained intact.

The Yankees went down again in the sixth.

For the seventh inning, Torre called upon his young set-up man, a player just starting his legend, the future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera. After a leadoff walk to Pendleton, he retired three in a row.

The Yankees threatened, but did not score in their half of the seventh inning. 

The Braves proved no match for Rivera in the eighth. They went down in order. 

The Yankees also did not score.

This brought the Yankees and the Braves to the ninth inning. In from the bullpen came their closer, John Wetteland.

The inning began with Andruw Jones striking out. But Klesko and Pendleton both singled. The tying runners were on base.

Rafael Belliard was sent in to run for Pendleton. Luis Polonia, pinch-hitting for Blauser, struck out.

Grissom then singled to right field, cutting the Yankees’ lead to 3-2. This brought up Mark Lemke, a career .286 hitter in World Series play. 

Wetteland started him off with a fast strike. It wasn’t going to be that easy, though. Wetteland’s next two pitches were balls … not close. Girardi came to the mound to talk with his pitcher. A second quick strike followed that exchange.

Ball three followed.

Lemke then popped the ball up, in foul ground, off third base. Charlie Hayes, who entered the game as a defensive replacement, drifted to the ball, approached the Braves dugout, stretched his arm out, and just missed the game-ending catch as he fell into the dugout. 

Lemke would get another chance.

And so would Hayes.

Another popup to the left side. Hayes settled under it, made the catch, and the Yankees were once again baseball’s champions. The Braves became only the third team in the history of baseball to lose four consecutive games after winning the first two games of a World Series.7

For Joe Torre, it was his first time on top. He shared, “I’ve never been so happy. I never thought this would happen to me.”8

Author’s Note

The author was privileged and thrilled to be able to attend this game with his father, a lifetime Red Sox fan, who put his allegiance to his team from Boston to root his son’s Yankees on. We will both never forget the joy and excitement in the Stadium as well as Wade Boggs riding on the police horse as the celebration ensued. 

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com website for pertinent material:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA199610260.shtml

He also viewed the game footage on YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKxi6-jxbTo.

Photo credit: 1996 WS ticket: Courtesy of Matt Perlstein.

Notes

1 Jack Curry, “A Return to Glory,” New York Times, October 27, 1996: 1.

2 Marty Appel, Pinstripe Empire (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2014), 497. 

3 Derek Jeter was named American League Rookie of the Year in 1996.

4 John Harper and Bob Klapisch, Champions: The Saga of the 1996 New York Yankees (New York: Villard, 1996), 205.

5 Thomas Stinson, “‘It Was Time to Say Something’ Dejected by Second-Base Call, Cox Ejected by Third-Base Ump,” Atlanta Constitution, October 27, 1996: E9.

6 Tim Tucker, “Yanks’ 3-2 Victory Finishes Off Braves,” Atlanta Constitution, October 27, 1996: A1.

7 Tucker.

8 Harper and Klapisch, 207.