The New York Yankees’ dynasty was teetering. They trailed the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 in the 2001 World Series and Game 4 was tied at 3 in the bottom of the 10th.
Yet the team’s star shortstop, Derek Jeter, was his typical calm self before stepping to the plate with two outs. He even joked with manager Joe Torre.
“I used to always hand my bat to Mr. T for good luck,” Jeter told Yankees Magazine for a story published on MLB.com. “His contract ran out on Oct. 31, and so I handed him my bat and said, ‘You can hold it for one last time because after this, I don’t have to listen to you because you won’t have a job.'”
The calendar flipped to Nov. 1 at midnight, and a message was posted on the scoreboard: “Attention fans: Welcome to November Baseball.” Play was suspended for a week following the events of Sept. 11, and the World Series extended past October for the first time.
As the camera panned around the stadium, a fan in the crowd held up a small sign that read “Mr. November.”
Moments later, Jeter lined the ninth pitch of the at-bat from Diamondbacks pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim into the right-field stands. The Yankees won the game 4-3 and evened the series at 2.
And Mr. November was born.
There was no better time for the first walk-off home run of Jeter’s eventual Hall of Fame career.
“That was everything I had dreamed of as a baseball player,” Jeter said. “Part of the dream is that you’re in the backyard and you hit a home run to win a World Series game. That’s what every kid dreams about, and I did it.”
Jeter’s heroics were made possible by Tino Martinez, the Yankees’ first baseman whose two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth off Kim tied the game at 3.
History repeated in Game 5. This time, it was Yankees’ third baseman Scott Brosius hitting a two-out, two-run, game-tying home run in the ninth off Kim. The Yankees won Game 5 in the 12th on an RBI single by Alfonso Soriano, putting them one win away from their fourth straight world championship.
The Yankees’ magic ran out in Arizona, where the Diamondbacks mounted a stunning rally off closer Mariano Rivera to win Game 7 with two runs in the bottom of the ninth.
Despite the sour finish, Jeter knows what that series and his moment meant to a grieving city and nation.
“People still come up to me and tell me where they were when I hit that home run, especially New Yorkers,” Jeter said. “Even if it was for a few seconds, I think it made a lot of people who were going through the toughest time in their lives smile.”
