Sweeny Murti's Top Yankee Stadium Moments: 20-16

New York, NY (WFAN)  -- 20. Tom Seaver (August 4, 1985) and Roger Clemens (June 13, 2003) 300th wins.

Tom Seaver's day actually started out as Phil Rizzuto Day. The Scooter was given a plaque in Monument Park and his #10 was retired. Over 54,000 packed the Stadium that day (no, it didn't happen all the time back then). The Yankees brought a cow onto the field to present to Rizzuto and wouldn't you know the darn thing knocked Scooter right on his backside. Holy Cow! The expression was never so literal.

But after that, the fans settled in to watch Tom Seaver, pitching for the White Sox, try to reach one of baseball's magic numbers-300 wins. Seaver made his name pitching for that other New York team, and now nearing the end of his career would reach the milestone in a different borough, but in New York nonetheless.

Seaver fired a complete-game 6-hitter, a 4-1 win over the Yanks. Don Baylor flew out to left for the final out and Seaver became the 17th pitcher ever to win 300 games. Roger Clemens may have reached his 300th on the road, but in his two starts prior to June 13, 2003 the Yankees blew late leads, once in Detroit and later at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Clemens came home to face St. Louis in another interleague matchup.

Clemens reached another milestone first. He struck out Edgar Renteria in the 2nd inning to become only the 3rd pitcher in history to reach 4,000 strikeouts (Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton were the others; Randy Johnson got there the next year). That was a bit strange because as the crowd saluted Clemens and that milestone with an ovation, the next batter stepped into the box for St. Louis. It was Tino Martinez, taking his first at-bat at Yankee Stadium since leaving as a free agent after the 2001 season. Tino's standing ovation was never really recognized since the crowd was still responding to Clemens K #4,000.

Later, all the cheers were for Clemens. He went 6 2/3 before giving way to the Yankee bullpen. Chris Hammond and Antonio Osuna got the ball to Mariano Rivera, who set down the Cards 1-2-3 in the 9th. Miguel Cairo grounded out to Jason Giambi at first for the final out.

Tom Seaver's 300th win in 1985 and Roger Clemens's 300th win in 2003. Both at Yankee Stadium. And believe it or not, one man was in the visiting dugout for both games---White Sox/Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa.

19. The Pine Tar Game-July 24-August 18, 1983.

Every once in a while George Brett's kids would say, "Daddy put in that tape where you get real mad again!" They're talking about the most controversial home run ever hit at Yankee Stadium, George Brett's blast off Goose Gossage known forever as the Pine Tar home run.

On July 24, 1983 with 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning, Yanks up 4-3, Brett slugged a 2-run homer off Gossage to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. As Brett rounded the bases and then went back to the bench, Yankee manager Billy Martin went to home plate umpire Tim McClelland and asked him to check Brett's bat, believing it had too much pine tar to be considered legal.

The rules stated that pine tar could not extend more than 18 inches past the bat handle. Using the width of home plate (which is 17 inches) to measure, McClelland determined that the bat was illegal and called Brett out. With 3 outs the inning was over, and the Yankees won the game 4-3. And that's when daddy got real mad. Brett came storming out of the dugout and charged straight for McClelland in an uncontrollable rage, restrained by teammates and the other umpires. As far as McClelland and the Yankees were concerned the game was over…but it wasn't that simple.

The Royals protested the decision to rule Brett out, and a week later AL President Lee McPhail upheld the protest, basically because the extra pine tar did nothing to affect the ball that was hit. And instead of calling the batter out, they simply took away the bat and the two teams were ordered to resume the game from the point after Brett's home run.

The two teams did that on August 18th, a scheduled off day for both. With a different umpiring crew working the game, Martin tried his best again, claiming that Brett didn't touch all the bases. But the new crew produced an affidavit signed by the original umpires stating that Brett did touch all the bases and Martin had no other tricks up his sleeve to deny the Royals.

In front of only a few hundred fans, the game continued with Ron Guidry playing centerfield and Don Mattingly playing second base. In only a few minutes, the last 4 outs were recorded and the Royals won the game 5-4.

Time of game is officially listed as 2 hours 52 minutes. Not counting a 25-day pine tar delay.

18. Derek Jeter dives into the stands-July 1, 2004.

Every time we played the Yankees, Jeter was going to do something special…Jeter just kind of laid claim to saying that he may be the best all-around shortstop out there.

-Johnny Damon.

In the late 90's and through the early part of the next decade, baseball fans in New York, Boston, and Seattle/Texas would debate who was the best shortstop in the game. The argument tended to favor Alex Rodriguez with his combination of power and speed over Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Jeter. And with the exception of Yankee fans who valued Jeter's overall contributions and collection of World Series rings over the batting titles, Gold Gloves, and MVP awards the other two were collecting, most people had Jeter an easy third in that race. It was equivalent to the Willie, Mickey, & The Duke quarrels on curbsides decades earlier.

On July 1, 2004 all three superstar shortstops were in uniform at Yankee Stadium, all three in vastly different roles. And it was Jeter who made the highlight reel play that not only defined this game, but also distinctly separated him from the other two. In fantasy games you wanted A-Rod and Nomar. But in the real game-on-the-line situation, the one you wanted on the field that night was Derek Jeter.

Top of the 12th inning, 3-3 tie, Yankees vs. Red Sox. With the go-ahead run on 2nd base and two outs, Trot Nixon blooped a ball into no man's land over third base and down the left field line. You know what happened next. Jeter snared the ball and unable to slow himself down flung himself into the stands at full speed. Describing it in written words does it no justice. Johnny Damon, then with Boston, was standing on second base and said recently, "I actually wish I had a camera in my back pocket and taken it out."

Jeter emerged from the stands with the ball in his glove and blood streaming from his face. He left the game, which the Yanks would win an inning later on a pinch-hit single by John Flaherty (aside from his first day in the major leagues, Flaherty counts this as the greatest thrill in his career-that's how big a game this turned out to be).

The other two faces on the Mount Rushmore of Shortstops?

Alex Rodriguez was at 3rd base for the Yankees, best seat in the house. Just a few months earlier he bought his ticket out of purgatory by agreeing to switch positions and be traded from Texas to New York. He was officially out of the argument. You can see A-Rod in the highlight of this play, arms raised in amazement as Jeter disappears into the seats.

Nomar Garciaparra was in the Red Sox dugout, watching not only that play, but also the entire game on the bench. Garciaparra was out with an injury, and his unwillingness to talk himself into that game was the last image Boston fans would have. No one really knew what to make of the foot injury that sidelined Garciaparra. "Unfairly for Nomar it kind of really put Nomar in a bad light as far as the rivalry and the fans," Damon said. "No one understood what Nomar was going through, but you definitely felt for him because he couldn't win that battle with the media." Nomar Garciaparra was traded 30 days later.

The argument no longer exists, because Jeter is the only one still playing shortstop. Now the argument is between Jeter and the computers, the stat guys who say he's a bad shortstop. The numbers may not add up in Jeter's favor. But the numbers only tell you that in the 12th inning on July 1, 2004 Derek Jeter caught up a pop-up. Anybody who saw it can tell you they saw Derek Jeter do something special.

17. Doc Gooden's no-hitter-May 14, 1996.

By 1996 Dwight Gooden should have been paving his path to the Hall of Fame. As we all know, things didn't quite work out that way.

In the spring of 1996, Dwight Gooden was a Yankee. He had not pitched in the big leagues since 1994, suspended by MLB for continued substance abuse issues. In 1996, he landed in spring training with the Yankees, where George Steinbrenner (who made Darryl Strawberry a Yankee one year earlier) was making a habit of taking in the poor, the tired, the huddled masses, the ex-Mets who fell off the pedestal.

This was not anything close to the Dwight Gooden who ruled New York the first time around. Gooden began 1996 with 4 starts in April, going 0-3, 8.38 ERA. But he remained in the rotation in May because of an injury to David Cone, an aneurysm that sidelined him until September. The Yankees needed Gooden to step up and he did.

Gooden's first two starts in May, he threw 6 shutout innings against the White Sox, then beat the Tigers 10-3. In that win over the Tigers, Gooden gave up 3 runs in the first inning and then retired 22 batters in a row. Gooden was almost unhittable. Then he took the mound on May 14 against the Mariners.

While Gooden got ready for his start that night, his father was in a hospital bed in Florida. Dan Gooden was scheduled for open-heart surgery the next day. Doc's mind had to have been elsewhere.

Gooden walked two in the first inning and needed a great catch by Gerald Williams in center and another pretty good one by Paul O'Neill in right to get out of it unscathed. It would have been hard to think no-hitter at that point. The second batter in Seattle's order that night was Alex Rodriguez, who scorched the ball in the first that Williams ran down.

"He just looked like he got better as the night went on, like he was energized by the crowd, the moment, everything he had going on with his father," Rodriguez said recently. "There was definitely some magic going through his body. Because when it started I thought he was just okay. His fastball was good, he was rolling his curveball a little bit. But, boy, as the game went on his fastball started exploding up in the zone and his curveball started diving down."

Gooden walked a few more as the night went on, six in all. But the no-hitter stayed intact. The Yanks led just 2-0 going to the 9th, so the game also hung in the balance when Gooden walked two batters in the 9th, his 5th and 6th walks on the night. A wild pitch moved the tying run into scoring position. This was not perfection, but it was still two outs away from no-hit brilliance and the 20,786 fans wanted to see it through. Jay Buhner struck out. Paul Sorrento popped up to the young shortstop Derek Jeter. Dwight Gooden had pitched a no-hitter.

The next day Gooden flew to Tampa to be with his father and present him with the game ball. Dan Gooden died 8 months later.

Gooden battled his demons before this night and endured many more battles after this night. But this particular night was a triumph for Dwight Gooden, the kind of night that belonged in Yankee Stadium. Alex Rodriguez, then the 20-year old Seattle shortstop, asked about that night recently summed it up this way:

"I thought the fans in the stadium had a lot to do with that night. I think if that game was not played at Yankee Stadium, the no-hitter does not happen…just because of the magic. As a player you know some days…you go into that stadium it's like magic."

16. DiMaggio starts 56-game hitting streak-May 15, 1941.

This must have felt like the least significant 1-for-4 in the history of baseball. But it started what has become the greatest individual feat in the history of the sport.

While this particular day, the start of "The Streak," may not represent a great moment at the Stadium by itself, it does represent what Joe DiMaggio stood for. "I'm just a ballplayer with one ambition," DiMaggio once said, " and that is to give it all I've got to help my ball club win. I've never played any other way." We've seen "unbreakable" records like Babe Ruth's home run record fall twice in our lifetime (and probably a third by the time A-Rod is done). Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak came down. There are pitching records that are unlikely to be touched (like Cy Young's 511 wins and maybe Johnny Vandermeer's consecutive no-hitters), but it's hard to believe there is a more unbreakable mark than DiMaggio's Streak.

We've seen players make runs at .400. George Brett needed just 5 more hits in 1980. Tony Gwynn needed just 3 more hits during the strike-shortened 1994 season. As impossible at it sounds, they came ridiculously close but didn't make it. All the home run records tumbled in the steroids era. The Streak is a feat that requires more skill (and luck) than chemistry.

Joe DiMaggio obliterated the previous mark by 12 games. That was an increase of 27%. That's a larger percentage increase than Cal Ripken breaking Gehrig's mark, and he added more than 500 games. Since DiMaggio set the mark at 56, only one player has even gotten to 40 (Pete Rose in 1978).

Since 2001, mlb.com has run a contest called Beat The Streak. A fan can go online and pick any player they want each day to get just one hit. The idea is to pick 57 in a row. You can choose any active player every single day and the closest anyone has gotten is 49. Even in the fantasy world this record is nearly unbeatable.

"That's the epitome of consistency," said Derek Jeter, who can't fathom getting close to the mark mainly because of the luck involved in getting a hit every single day. "You wouldn't even have to consider it until you got to 40 games, " Jeter said before breaking out laughing. "And you're STILL two weeks away! Wait till you get to 50 and you still have to get a hit every day for a week."

That 1-for-4 day at Yankee Stadium didn't seem like it at the time, but it became the defining feat of the most iconic Yankee of them all (I don't recall Babe Ruth ever ending up in a Simon & Garfunkel song or marrying Marilyn Monroe). While the steroids scandal has tainted any and all home run records, The Streak remains the one mark that has remained on another plane all by itself. And Yankee Stadium hosted 29 of the 56 games during The Streak.
 

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