It was the middle of the afternoon when my mom called and said that she had scored two tickets for the game that night. It was Game One of the 1995 ALDS. Did I want them?
“Ma, what do you think?”
She offered to drive into the City to deliver them so I could take a friend. I said, “Why don’t we just meet at the bat and go together?”
Mom had taken me to games as a kid–for birthday parties and special occasions–so while she wasn’t the biggest fan in the world, I didn’t see any reason for her to drive all the way to New York and not see the game herself. It was the first time the Yanks had been in the playoffs since 1981, after all.
We sat way up in the left field bleachers, miles in the sky. The climb to those seats was scary, especially if you have a fear of heights. And it didn’t get any safer once the place started shaking with cheering and clapping. The Yankees won that night, Don Mattingly’s first playoff game. They won the following night too and we all know what happened in Seattle.
I was living in Brooklyn at the time and didn’t have a TV. So I listened to the rest of the Series on the radio. The last game was so tense, I turned out all the lights in my room and kept the volume low and crawled under the covers. The pain didn’t last too long as the Yanks won the Whirled Serious the following year, but a terrific, if short-lived, rivalry with the Mariners was born.
The ’95 Series is the subject of a new book by Chris Donnelly. For those of you brave enough to revisit that bittersweet moment in Yankee history, check, check it out.
I'll always remember it as the same week OJ got off and the Pope said mass at Giants Stadium...I was home sick from school with the flu and was never at a loss for crazy shit to watch on TV in the afternoon.
I'll never forget that series. Being born in September of 1981, it was my first time to see the Yanks in the Playoffs, and especially after the disaster of 1994 (which left me crying the bleachers on August 11th), I was more excited than ever. My hero Donnie Baseball was leading the Yankees against the Seattle Mariners (who at the time were led by my all-time favorite player to never play for the Yankees, Ken Griffey Jr.). I remember watching every game with my Dad, and both of us just feeling crushed by Game 5. I sulked out of the living room, knowing in my heart that it was over for Donnie, and down into my bedroom in the basement. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, I discovered my sneakers, a pair of Mariner Teal Nike's emblazoned with Griffey's #24 on the tongue. I picked up one of them, and flung it across the room in disgust.
To this day, there is a dent in the ceiling where that shoe connected with the cheap tile. Even years after moving out, I refuse to let my parents fix it, as a reminder of the 1995 ALDS.
http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=2685722
Via Pinto, Wang just signed with the Nats. Best of luck to him. Look out DC worms.
[2] I remember feeling very deflated by that series, yet very proud of Donnie for not only finally making it to the post season, but for having such a good run. Donnie definitely passed his mojo onto Jeter right after that, that's why I felt less bad about him not being there for their run after that.
My reaction was stronger when they lost to Cleveland in '97; they were so ticked off they were practically ready to strangle somebody; the whole region it seemed turned into a boiling tanker of Whoop Ass... >;)
I made it to games 1 & 2. I remember the atmosphere being electric before game 1. Saw M's reliever Bill Risley get into it with a couple of fans during pregame warmups. I had tickets in the upper deck, but while walking around the stadium, I came across a friend of mine who had an extra ticket under the net behind home plate.
Game 2 was pretty wild, I remember the crowd was pretty hot after Sierra went deep then went ballistic after Mattingly went deep. People started throwing stuff on the field, Piniella pulled his players off the field. After Leyritz went deep, the crowd was singing "NY, NY" along with the PA system. They were chanting "sweep, sweep, sweep." It just wasn't meant to be.
On the subway ride home, I came across what may have been a member of the M's press (they had a M's media guide), I remarked that the series was far from over, but I liked the Yankees' chances. All they needed to do was go on a 1 game winning streak, to steal one in the Kingdome, where they had trouble all year (a few years, IIRC). I was willing to punt the RJ-McDowell start, but figured they'd win game 4. Edgar saw to that. Figured game 5 was in hand with "hired gun" David Cone starting. It just wasn't meant to be.
One thing that surprised me was Showalter's apparent lack of faith in Wetteland. True he was torched in game 4, but he tossed 3 scoreless innings in game 2, and ended game 1 (did he get the save?)
I was at Game 2, and wouldn't trade that memory for anything. Donnie's (last-ever) homer had the place at a higher pitch than I've ever seen, and I've seen a bunch. By the time Leyritz ended it, the light rain was swirling like warm, light snow. I had to go to the bathroom so badly I was probably courting some kind of bladder injury, but no way was I budging until it was decided.
[5] What I remember the crowd chanting -- maybe it differed by sections -- was "We-want-Cleve-land!" People pounding the response rhythm -- bam, bam, BAM-BAM-BAM on that perforated metal paneling that lined the upper-deck tunnels. In my memory, the scene fades to white right there.
And Game 5? The grainy, rabbit-eared 10-inch B&W set in a gas station cashier's booth waaay at the bottom of the Jersey Turnpike, where I'd limped into port with a friend's borrowed Mustang that had thrown a rod cresting the Delaware bridge. I was on my way back from a visit in DC with friends who'd only tolerated my attention to games 3 and 4, and was looking forward to joining a more baseball-attuned crowd back in NY to watch the Yanks snatch victory, etc.
The lowest moment wasn't even the very end. It was Coney getting squeezed so badly by Jim Evans that he let his frustration show. You could read his lips on the mound: "C'mon, Jim." That's when I knew it was over.
Hi everyone,
First off, thanks to Alex for posting this and mentioning my book. After reading all of your comments, I think that you all will find that your experiences watching the series are relayed in various forms in Baseball's Greatest Series. The Mattingly home run, the collapse of Wetteland, the fans taunting the Mariners, and of course the way it all ended (and a lot more) are all discussed in great detail in the book. Please forgive me for shamlessly self promoting, but I really think, seeing all the comments, that you all will enjoy Baseball's Greatest Series (despite the outcome for NY). If anyone has any questions on the book, please feel free to ask.