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One of the Yes Network's most aired shows are
their Yankee Classics. Generally, during the
regular season on off days and mornings before a game
when there was none the day before, you can catch the
Yankees Classics. Then they fill up a lot of the
schedule with them during the off-season. As a
Yankee fan, I think it's a great idea, although the
ranking of some games as "Classics" can sometimes be
questions.
Well, this is an attempt to log as many of the
Yankee Classics that have been shown including some
commentary and rankings on whether they really are
classics or...not so much.
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| Regular Season vs. Boston Red Sox |
| Posada's Walk-Off Walk |
| Sunday, July 21, 2002 |
| Final Score: 9-8 |
| Yankee Classic Rating (1 low to 10 high):
7 |
Any close Yankee-Red Sox game seems to automatically get tagged as a "classic," especially those with a dramatic finish. This game fits into that category. The odd thing about this game is the similarity to the game played the night before.
The Saturday, July 20th game ended with a 9-8 score in 11 innings. The Yankees blew a 6-3 lead in the eighth, tied it in the bottom of the inning, then shut down Boston until the Yankees scored on a Robin Ventura fielder's choice in the 11th.
This game, the next afternoon on Sunday, July 21st saw the Yankees again give away a late lead, this time 7-6, in the seventh inning. Instead of taking it to extra innings, the Yankees rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth off Ugueth Urbina to hand Boston another 9-8 heartbreaker in another see-saw battle.
The Yankees jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the first, powered by a Jason Giambi two-run shot and a Bernie Williams solo blast off John Burkett.
Boston got one back in the second with a Manny Ramirez solo shot, but the Yankees matched it in the bottom of the third when Jeter, leading off the inning, reached second base on a Nomar error and eventually scored on a Bernie Williams base hit.
In the top of the 4th, Boston finally got to the relatively new-Yankee Jeff Weaver, who came to New York about two weeks prior in a three team deal. Back-to-back solo homers off the bats of Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez, his second of the day, led off the inning. Then, after singles by Jason Varitek and Brian Daubach, future Yankee Tony Clark brought them all home with his third home run of the season.
Weaver settled down to get out of the inning and the Yankees let him off the hook by re-taking the lead in the bottom of the inning, courtesy of a Nick Johnson lead-off double, an Alfonso Soriano RBI double and a Derek Jeter RBI single.
By the end of four innings there's already a 7-6 score, 6 home runs and two lead changes. However, things would settle down until the seventh when Nomar touched up Weaver for another homer, his second of the game, but this time with a man on and two out.
Mike Stanton then came on for the last two innings and stopped Boston from rallying for anymore. A Tony Clark double play grounder ended hopes of a Boston rally in the eighth and Boston ran themselves out of an inning in the 9th after Jose Offerman singled, advanced to second on a Rey Sanchez sacrifice bunt, was caught trying to steal third and was tossed from the game when he apparently didn't agree with the call.
With a one run lead in hand, Boston turned to their ace closer, Urbina to attempt to pick up his 25th save of the season. It did not go as well as planned. Giambi and Williams (those two again) led off with back-to-back singles, and when Trot Nixon misplayed Bernie's single in right, Enrique Wilson (pinch running for Giambi) came around to score and Bernie moved to third.
Robin Ventura and Raul Mondesi were then walked intentionally to load up the bases. Boston then shuffled around their defensive alignment to add an extra infielder directly behind second base but it didn't matter as Urbina walked Posada, forcing in the winning run.
Boston dropped to 4 games behind and aside from cutting it to 3.5 two days later, Boston hung around, but would never be any closer again the rest of the year as the Yankees played at a 41-22 clip down the stretch. This game is memorable for the odd way in which it ended and because it came against Boston. It's not a bad choice for a Yankee classic and it's a fun game to watch. |
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