ALCS Game 7, 2003

We are reviewing Essential Games of Yankee Stadium which is a six disc series featuring 6 historic games at the Cathedral. I have below my review of Game 7 of the '03 ALCS. We all know what happened in the game, and there are no real "special features" on the disc, so below are just thoughts and comments regarding the game.

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Game 7

2003 ALCS

New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

Red Sox

CF Johnny Damon

2B Todd Walker

SS Nomar Garciaparra

LF Manny Ramirez

DH David Ortiz

1B Kevin Millar

RF Trot Nixon

3B Bill Mueller

C Jason Varitek

Pitching-Pedro Martinez

New York Yankees

2B Alfonso Soriano

1B Nick Johnson

SS Derek Jeter

CF Bernie Williams

LF Hideki Matsui

C Jorge Posada

DH Jason Giambi

3B Enrique Wilson

RF Karim Garcia

Roger Clemens-Age 41. Won his 300^th game in 03.

Maybe this wasn’t that long ago, as when Clemens’ takes the mound the announcers talk about how everyone wants to know if this would be his last appearance.

Manny didn’t have the long dreads he has now. It seems like he actually had a shaved head.

I had forgotten that Boone didn’t even start in the game.

Look at some of the non-stars on our team, Nick Johnson, Enrique Wilson, and Karim Garcia. That’s almost as bad as when we would play Jose Molina, Melky Cabrera, and Wilson Betemit last year.

Jeter batting third was weird.

In the first inning, Hideki takes ball 3 and starts to jog towards first. He forgot the count. Ha Ha.

They keep saying “This could be the final time Roger Clemens is on a Major League mound.”

Wilson throwing error lets Varitek score and Damon gets to second.

In the 3^rd inning they show some footage of Manny as a high schooler at George Washington High in Washington Heights. He was a skinny kid, what happened?

We were getting rocked, 4-0 in the 4^th after a Kevin Millar homerun.

Mussina comes in in the 4^th, first bullpen appearance of his career.

The first time we scored was on a Jason Giambi solo homerun in the 5^th. 4-1

Giambi hit another solo shot dead center in the 7^th . 4-2

Giambino was batting 7^th. Remember when Torre batted A-Rod 7^th and there was a big fuss about it? Why couldn’t Alex do what Giambi did?

Kevin Millar made a great play on an Enrique Wilson groundball, but didn’t do a quick flip, and Wilson reached safely. The announcers say it was a weird angle, but you should always be able to do a 6 foot back-handed flip. Second baseman do it almost every day. There was no risk, Wilson wouldn’t have gotten another bag. Poor thinking is all I can say.

It’s weird to see Grady Little in the visitors’ dugout instead of Terry Francona.

Soriano strikes out with 2 on and 2 out in the seventh. His FOURTH strikeout of the game, yikes.

Great play by Enrique Wilson at 3^rd on a hard hit Manny grounder. Manny used to hustle so much more than he does now…

David Wells comes into the game. His first pitch is jacked to right field by David Ortiz. I had forgotten that Torre used Clemens, Mussina, and Wells all in the same game.

You can read Wells' lips, and he drops the f-bomb, when Ortiz hits it out.

5-2 as we go into the bottom of the 8^th.

They have brought up the brawl at Fenway when Pedro took out Don Zimmer just about every inning.

Jeter scores on a Bernie single to Damon. 5-3

Grady Little leaves Pedro in, even though he’s already thrown 115 pitches. Seems like he asked Pedro whether he wanted to stay in or go out. Really? Who’s going to say they want out of Game 7 in a playoff series?

Hideki hits a ground rule double down the right field line. Bernie’s on 3^rd, Hideki’s on 2^nd.

Posada hits a bloop to center field that is equally far from Damon, Walker, and Nomar. Bernie and Hideki score. No one covers the bag as Jorge goes to 2^nd. 5-5. Tie game. Pedro comes out. Imagine if Little had taken Pedro out before Hideki came to the plate? It could be a totally different ball game. Alan Embree is the new pitcher.

Alan Embree looks a lot like Wakefield. Maybe it’s just the goatees…

Also, Embree is one of the few guys that still chews while on the field. It’s disgusting how much tobacco he is chewing while he’s pitching.His cheek is bulging like a chipmunk.

They bring in Mike Timlin and the Yanks pinch hit for Enrique Wilson with Ruben Sierra. Sierra is intentionally walked. To fill 1^st base while Jorge’s on 2^nd. Finally Aaron Boone enters the game as a pinch runner for Sierra. So the Yanks pinch hit for Wilson with Sierra, who was given a base, and then pinch ran for him with Boone. Seems to me like that’s a lot of substitutions for one AB.

Karim Garcia walks. Bases loaded for Alfonso Soriano who is 0-4 with 4 K’s to this point. Willie Randolph gives Fonsy a little pep talk. I love seeing him in a Yankee uniform.

Fonsy grounds up the middle, off the mound, and Todd Walker makes a great jumping play on the ball. With Soriano going 0-5 with 4 K’s to this point, you have to wonder who’s more clutch…Soriano or A-Rod? I know Soriano won Game 5 in the 07 WS, but just food for thought…

Mo’s pitching the 9^th. The announcers are trying to compare the situation to his last game 7, which was in ’01 when Luis Gonzalez hit that single that ruined the entire year of 2001.

Johnny Damon’s up. He looks so much younger. Amazing what 5 and a half years can do.

As Tim Wakefield takes the mound in the bottom of the 10^th they talk about how good he has been so far this series. They say, he’s been as valuable of a players as the Red Sox have had all series.

Mariano threw 3 shutout innings. What a beast!

Aaron Boone’s brother, Bret Boone, is one of the announcers.

Boone’s stats before his home run.

.161 Avg, 0HR, 1 RBI in the postseason so far. .125 AVG, 0 HR, 1 RBI in the ALCS.

BOONE HITS A HIGH FLY BALL TO LEFT. IF IT”S OUT IT”LL SEND THE YANKS TO THE WORLD SERIES. THAT BALL IS GONE. THAAAAAAAA YANKEES WIN.

Bret Boone is standing in the press box, arms crossed, with a big smile across his face.

Just looking at Pedro makes me hate him.

Aaron says “…like Derek told me, the ghosts would show up, and they did.”

The announcer on the field says “Bret Boone, World Series hero.” Ha ha wrong name, wrong series.

Great Game. I literally screamed and jumped as I watched Boone's homer. Yes, I mean as I watched it on the DVD 5 years after it happened. I miss Boone, he'll always have a spot in the heart of every Yankee fan.