October 26 has been a good day in Yankee history.
October 26, 1996: Has it really been 15 years? Yes. Yankees 3, Braves 2, clinching the 23rd World Championship, first in 18 years, at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks scored all 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd, including a triple off Greg Maddux by catcher Joe Girardi.
Girardi, now the Yankee manager, hitting a triple off Maddux in a World Series game wsan t quite the U.S. college kids beating the amateur hockey players in their 30s put up by the Soviet Union in the 1980 Olympics, nor was it quite Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson in 1990. But it was a shock. A beautiful shock which may be the first time Joe Girardi has ever been associated with the word beautiful. (Let s face it, from Casey Stengel s wrinkles to Billy Martin s nose, from Joe Torre to Girardi, successful Yankee managers have rarely been good-looking men.)
When Mariano Rivera, then the bridge reliever, was on the mound in the 8th, Fox announcer Tim McCarver said, "There's not a lot of secret as to what you're gonna get from Mariano Rivera: A lot of high gas." It would be the next year, when Mo succeeded John Wetteland as the closer, that he developed the cut fastball that made him the greatest relief pitcher of all time.
When Mo got a strikeout to end the 8th, McCarver and Joe Buck wisely didn t say a word, and let the roar of the crowd be what took them to commercial. Those cheers seemed to contain not a word, but they spoke volumes. Some who were there said that the old Yankee Stadium actually shook at that moment.
An inning later, Wetteland, who became the first reliever ever to save all 4 of his team's wins in a World Series (and remains the only one) and was named MVP, got Mark Lemke to pop up to third base, and Charlie Hayes caught it. As John Sterling said on WABC (the Yankees radio station at the time), Ballgame over! Yankees win! The Yankees win! (He didn t start adding (name of series) over! until 1998.)
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