During this non-live game period, we look back at certain seasons in baseball history. What happened, why they were important, what we will remember the most.
Year: 2001
SDLN: Braves over Astros at 3; D-backs over Cardinals in 5
SDLA: Mariners over Indians at 5; Yankees over A’s in 5
SC: D-backs over Braves at 5; Yankees over Mariners in 5
World Series winner: D-backs over Yankees in 7
MVP: LA: Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners; LN: Barry Bonds, Giants
Cy Young: LA: Roger Clemens, Yankees; LN: Randy Johnson, D-backs
Rookies of the Year: LA: Ichiro Suzuki, Mariners; LN: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
All-MLB Team (selected by me, in 2020):
1B: Jason Giambi, Athletics
2B: Bret Boone, Mariners
SS: Alex Rodríguez, Rangers
3B: Albert Pujols, Cardinals
OF: Barry Bonds, Giants
OF: Sammy Sosa, Cubs
OF: Luis González, D-backs
C: Mike Piazza, Mets
BD: Manny Ramirez, Red Sox
Starter: Randy Johnson, D-backs
Starter: Curt Schilling, D-backs
Starter: Mike Mussina, Yankees
Starter: Roger Clemens, Yankees
Reliever: Mariano Rivera, Yankees
Reliever: Keith Foulke, White Sox
Of all the years that MLB.com readers have been recommending me during this pandemic, no season has been more in demand than 2001. It doesn’t really surprise me, as it was the year of the September 11 attacks, which They arose just down the stretch of the Major League Baseball regular season and left the sport in a position to become a force of relief and union for society during one of the most difficult times in American history.
There’s no question that when we think of the 2001 season, the images we remember the most are all related to 9/11. Mike Piazza’s dramatic home run in the first game back in New York, with the Mets players all wearing caps in honor of emergency services personnel. Cardinals chronicler Jack Buck, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but with a firm voice, reading a poem to the fans who packed Busch Stadium. The then President of the United States, George W. Bush, throwing the ceremonial pitch at Yankee Stadium during the World Series. (And if that weren’t enough, the excitement of the World Series, with the Yankees dramatically winning all three of their games in the Bronx.)
All of this is true, and all of this is why we all remember the 2001 season so fervidly.
Here are five stories to remember in 2001:
The arrival of Albert Pujols. After being integrated into the big team roster as an under-the-radar player, the Dominican immediately became one of the best players in the entire Big Top and a key figure for the Cardinals. He hit .329 and hit 37 home runs, drove in 130 runs and had a OBP of .403 – and he did it all at the age of 21. Pujols finished fourth in voting for the National League MVP that year, the first of 11 straight seasons that would finish in the top 10.
Cal Ripken Jr.’s dramatic moment at the All-Star Game. Ripken Jr. reached his 19th consecutive Midseason Classic after being voted third baseman, but just before the game’s first pitch, Alex Rodriguez stepped aside so the “Iron Man” could play in his natural position. This was the last All-Star Game in Ripken Jr.’s career, and it turned into a thank you party for him. The highlight of the game was when the fence was blown off in the third inning to give the American League a 1-0 lead. In the end, he would be named All-Star MVP for the second time and would retire at the end of the season.
The Mariners had one of the best seasons of all time with Ichiro as their main figure. Another player who came alongside Pujols was Ichiro, who proved that position players from Japan could not only survive in MLB, but also succeed. Ichiro hit .350, ripped off 56 bases and led the Mariners to a 116-win season to tie the MLB mark (and set a new AL record) in that department. Ichiro joined Fred Lynn as the only other player to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season. The Mariners also sent eight different players to the All-Star Game – in Seattle – that year. No other team has won that number of games since then, although the Mariners have also been unable to return to the postseason since.
Barry Bonds. The Giants’ gunner hit 73 home runs this year and also set season marks in slugging percentage (.863) and walks received (232). Bonds broke the seemingly unattainable mark for the most home runs in a 2001 season, and no one has come close to him since.
That World Series. Oh yeah: Even if the World Series hadn’t been tied to the 9/11 attacks, it would still have been a classic. The dynamic duo Curt Schilling-Randy Johnson gave the D-backs a 2-0 lead, but then the Yankees won all three of their home games dramatically, all by one run difference. But then the D-backs rallied to win both games in Phoenix, with a surprising victory in the ninth inning of the decisive Game 7 over Mariano Rivera of Panama to claim his first (and only) World Series title.
Here are some other facts that stood out from the 2001 season:
1. The season kicked off with a bombshell signing: On January 26, Alex Rodriguez signed a 10-year, $ 252 million deal with the Rangers – the most lucrative in MLB history at the time. (It was a record that would last for seven years … until A-Rod himself broke it) A-Rod would be worth every penny the Rangers spent on him: The slugger hit .318 and hit 52 home runs in 162 games in 2001. His performance would be even better in 2002, and he would later be named American League MVP in 2003.
2. Despite not being a regular season game, and even not even being a play because in the end the pitch was declared a dead ball, on March 24, 2001, Randy Johnson starred in one of the most memorable chapters in the history of modern baseball by practically “pulverizing” a pigeon with a pitch.
4. Scott Hatteberg did something no one has been able to accomplish in major league history in 2001: On August 6, he hit a triple-play and hit a grand slam in the same game. It hasn’t happened since. In fact, it’s strange that it happened at all.
5. There were three no-hitters in 2001, two of them belonged to Hideo Nomo (Dodgers) and Bud Smith (Cardinals). But the strangest of the three had to be Marlins right-hander AJ Burnett. Burnett walked nine before completing his no-hitter game, the second-most free walks in history behind only Jim Maloney, who walked 10 batters on his no-hitter in 1965. Burnett struck out just eight. batters, situation that perhaps helped him: He only had 129 pitches. 6. One most memorable moment in 2001 was Mike Mussina’s near-perfect. On Sept. 2, 2001, while pitching for the Yankees, Mussina retired the first 26 Red Sox he faced before pinch-hitter Carl Everett broke the perfect game in the ninth inning with a single to right field two outs and counts. of a ball and two strikes.
7. In the final week of the season, Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. occupied the outfield for the Orioles at Camden Yards. (The son played center, and the father left.) The two Raines were 1-for-8 on the day, with Raines Jr. connecting the only hit between them.
8. As usual, Raines was overshadowed by Rickey Henderson in 2001. On the same day the Raines family played the outfield together, Rickey blew up the fence to become the all-time leader in runs scored, beating Ty Cobb. . (The current active leader, Pujols, is 467 behind him.) And three days later, in the final game of the season, Henderson had 3,000 career hits, a double off Rockies pitcher John Thomson.
9. In Henderson’s last game, by the way, San Diego fans also said goodbye to Tony Gwynn, who grounded out in his last at-bat after pinch-hitting for Jeremy Fikac. Another who would also play his last game in 2001 is Mark McGwire. In SDLN Game 5 against the D-backs, McGwire had struck out three times while walking to the plate in the top of the ninth to face Schilling with the game tied 1-1. Jim Edmonds had started the inning with a single, then manager Tony La Russa, intending to advance Edmonds… replaced McGwire with pinch hitter Kerry Robinson, who he asked to touch the ball. The bunt worked, but Schilling struck out Colombian Edgar Renteria and Mike Matheny, and Arizona’s Tony Womack brought the winning run to the plate with a single in the bottom of the inning to send the D-backs to the SCLN and finish the game. McGwire’s career.
10. Five years after his last game as coach of the Dodgers, four years after being inducted into the Hall of Fame and one year after guiding the US Olympic National Team to a gold medal, Tommy Lasorda returned to serve as third base coach for the National League in the All-Star Game. At first it was a comforting moment. Then it became briefly alarming. And then it was hilarious: (GG) (Taken MLB.Com)