October 16, 2003: Aaron Boone’s home run wins the pennant for Yankees

A rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox has existed in various states of contentiousness since at least December 26, 1919, when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee infamously sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Subsequent deals between the teams spurred the creation of the Yankees’ first championship-caliber teams.

It was during the late 1970s, however, that tensions between the fan bases rose to a higher level of ferocity. In 1976 the Yankees succeeded the Red Sox as American League champions. A brawl between the teams on May 20, 1976, raised the level of personal enmity between some of the players, and heightened the disdain of the fans for their opponents. A one-game tiebreaker between the teams on October 2, 1978, at Fenway Park, won by the Yankees, had hardened the rivalry for generations. Red Sox fans readily acknowledged irritation at the numerous World Series championships won by the Yankees in the years since 1918, the last time the Red Sox had won.

History, both distant and recent, provided a rich background as the Yankees and Red Sox met at Yankee Stadium to begin a deciding best-of-seven playoff series for the 2003 American League pennant. In the regular season New York had won the American League East Division title, finishing six games ahead of Boston and spending nearly the entire season in first place. It was the sixth consecutive year that Boston had finished second to New York. In the AL Division Series, the Yankees bested the Minnesota Twins and the Red Sox topped the Oakland A’s, setting the stage for the Championship Series showdown.

The teams split the first two games in New York, and Game Three brought the Series and rivalry to an impassioned state of pugnacity. The game featured a pitching matchup of two three-time Cy Young Award winners, with Pedro Martinez starting for the Red Sox and Roger Clemens taking the assignment for the Yankees. Clemens had established himself in Boston as one of the game’s greatest pitchers, winning three Cy Young Awards and a Most Valuable Player Award there before moving on to Toronto and, from 1999, New York. Martinez joined the Red Sox in 1998 and in his six Boston seasons to that point had been easily the best pitcher in the American League, capturing two Cy Young Awards of his own.

In the fourth inning of Game Three, immediately after surrendering an early lead, Martinez threw a pitch up and in, hitting Karim Garcia in the shoulder. “There’s no question in my mind that Pedro hit him on purpose,” said New York manager Joe Torre. “He was probably frustrated with the fact that we hit some balls hard. … I didn’t care for that.”1 Players exchanged angry words, but peace momentarily held. In the bottom of the inning, however, Manny Ramirez was angered by a high pitch from Clemens and approached the mound with bat in hand. This emptied the benches and led to 72-year-old Yankee coach (and former Red Sox manager) Don Zimmer being thrown to the ground by Martinez. Somehow, the umpires did not see fit to eject any of the participants, and eventually a smoldering sense of order was restored. The Yankees won the game, and the tension between the teams had become fevered.

The teams split the next two games and Boston won Game Six, coming from behind to take the lead with three seventh-inning runs off José Contreras, a Cuban free agent the Yankees had swooped in to sign after the Red Sox thought they had a deal with him (the signing being the proximate cause of Red Sox executive Larry Lucchino famously labeling the Yankees the “Evil Empire.”) “When this series began, everyone knew it was going to be quite a battle,” [Boston manager Grady] Little said after Game Three. “I think we’ve upgraded it to a war.”2 The stage was set for a tense and climactic Game Seven at Yankee Stadium.

Martinez and Clemens were again the opposing pitchers, a matchup befitting the historic significance of the contest. The Red Sox took a lead soon after the game began. In the second inning, Trot Nixon hit a two-run home run, scoring Kevin Millar. Another Red Sox run came in on a throwing error by Enrique Wilson, starting at third base in place of the slumping Aaron Boone, to provide a 3-0 lead. In the fourth inning, Millar homered as well, putting Clemens and the Yankees behind, 4-0. Two batters later, Mike Mussina was brought in to relieve an ineffective Clemens. For Mussina it was the first relief appearance of his career after 386 regular-season and 14 postseason starts, and he performed admirably, shutting out the Red Sox for three innings.

Martinez kept the Yankee bats quiet until the fifth inning, when Jason Giambi touched him for a solo home run, cutting the Red Sox lead to 4-1.

The score was unchanged as Giambi came to the plate with two out and none on in the seventh. This time he took a Martinez fastball to center field, where it dropped over Johnny Damon’s outstretched glove for Giambi’s second home run of the night, bringing the Yankees to within two runs at 4-2. The next two Yankees singled before Martinez fanned Alfonso Soriano for the fourth time, closing out the seventh inning. As he returned to the dugout, Martinez accepted traditional “game well-pitched” congratulations from his teammates, with body language indicating his work was finished for the night.

In the eighth inning, another Yankee starting pitcher, David Wells, was brought in with one out to face David Ortiz, one of the game’s most dangerous hitters. Ortiz jumped Wells’s first pitch and hammered it over the right-field wall to restore Boston’s three-run cushion, 5-2.

As the Yankees came to bat in the eighth, Red Sox manager Grady Little had left-hander Alan Embree and right-hander Mike Timlin warming in the bullpen, but all were surprised to see Martinez return to the mound. After retiring Nick Johnson, Martinez surrendered a double to right field by Derek Jeter. Bernie Williams followed with a line single to center field, scoring Jeter. Now having thrown 115 pitches, Martinez was visited by Little for a brief conversation. Although Embree was warm, Little chose to stay with Martinez as left-handed hitter Hideki Matsui came to the plate.

Little’s confidence was misplaced: Matsui ripped an 0-and-2 pitch into the right-field corner for a double, sending Williams to third. Jorge Posada then flared a fly ball to short center field where it dropped in to score the tying runs. The Yankee Stadium crowd erupted in joyous bedlam. After the game, Little defended his decision to keep Martinez in the game: “Pedro Martinez has been our man all year long and in situations like that, he’s the man we want on the mound over anybody we can bring out of the bullpen.”3

In the top of the ninth, the Yankees brought in closer Mariano Rivera to replace Wells, and Aaron Boone, having pinch-run in the eighth, took over for Wilson at third base. Rivera proved to be his usual indomitable self as he shut down the Red Sox for the next three innings. For the Red Sox, Timlin, who had closed out the eighth inning effectively, held the Yankees at bay in the ninth inning also. Tim Wakefield succeeded Timlin and retired the Yankees one-two-three in the 10th.

In the bottom of the 11th, Wakefield faced Boone, who swatted Wakefield’s first offering into the left-field stands and triggered pandemonium in the Bronx, as his home run gave the Yankees their 39th pennant. Boone was mobbed at the plate as the fans erupted in joy. “I knew it was out, I finally put a good swing on it,” said Boone after the game.4 Teammate Jeter spoke of the famed Yankee mystique. “I believe in ghosts,” Jeter said when asked if there was something to the Curse. “And we have a lot of ghosts in this Stadium.”5

The Yankee-loving segment of New York fell into delirium as they savored the dramatic victory. A notable exception was the editorial page of the New York Post’s late city edition, which, due to a transmission error, published a piece prepared in advance in anticipation of a different outcome. “Looks like the Curse of the Bambino boomeranged this year. Despite holding a 3-2 lead in games over the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees couldn’t get the job done at home; their season ended last night.” The piece lamented opportunities missed by the Yankees, but urged a consoling “Wait’ll next year!”6

Snake-bitten Red Sox fans everywhere took it as just the latest manifestation of the Curse.7

The Yankees were unable to take the 2003 World Series, losing in six games to the Florida Marlins, but the thrilling jubilation of the Championship Series victory is a momentous episode in Yankee history.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information and other data, as well as Retrosheet and the video of the game at YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA200310160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2003/B10160NYA2003.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St3WF3_xaWk

Photo credit: Courtesy of Alamy.

Notes

1 Dan Shaughnessy, “Sox Lose Game 3 Melee – Yanks frustrate Boston in Wild Playoff, 4-3” Boston Globe, October 12, 2003.

2 Tom Verducci, “Baseball Gets Rowdy,” Sports Illustrated, October 20, 2003: 44.

3 Bob Ryan, “End result? Manager All But Finished,” Boston Globe, October 18, 2003: D2.

4 George A. King III, “Boone HR Puts Yanks in Series: Empire Comes Back to Win on Blast in 11th.” New York Post, October 17, 2003.

5 King.

6 A screenshot of the editorial is available at: https://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/04/29/not-quite-dewey-defeating-truman/. Retrieved October 13, 2002.

7 On October 28 Grady Little was fired as manager of the Red Sox. It was portrayed as “due to his insistence on a long-term contract and not his controversial decision” in Game Seven. Mark Asher, “Little fired as Red Sox manager,” Washington Post, October 28, 2003. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2003/10/28/little-fired-as-red-sox-manager/95d1862f-e678-4094-9c82-5848af895066/. Accessed October 9, 2022.