How a Nobody ENDED The Yankees Dynasty

the year is 2001 the month is November and the day is the 4th it's about 11:30 p.m. eastern time at 8:30 p.m. where this baseball game is being played Phoenix Arizona with 49589 people plus the players coaches team Personnel on both sides about to witness the New York Yankees continue to mark their territory on the baseball world in the most dominating fashion we've ever seen since the late 40s and early 50s when they won five championships in a row well the Yankees are on an ultimate role again having won three championships in a row now are up by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning in game seven of the World Series with the greatest closer in the history of baseball in the game ready to finish things this one is as good as over but how do we get here so join me you awesome supporters of the channel and even the 67% not subscribed yet you're welcome too although I hope you leave that 67% but let's dive into how the Yankees got here the Yankees had a great year in 2001 just a solid all-around team per usual the hitting was really good the starting rotation had some serious dudes at the top like Mike mucina Roger Clemens Andy Pettit the bullpen was solid with the team winning 95 games finishing 13 and 1 12 games over the second place Red Sox winning three games in a row to beat Oakland in the first round after losing the first two despite winning 116 games the most ever in baseball history the Seattle Mariners were no match for the Yankees with New York winning the ALCS in five games winning the pennant and rolling on to their fourth straight World Series appearance with a chance at their fourth straight title in order to do this they were going to have to go through the Arizona Diamondbacks and that wasn't perceived by most to be very hard or much of a challenge the Dbacks were a good team obviously they were in the World Series but clearly not as sexy as the Yankees they had some incredible hitters on the offense two absolute studs and Legends at the top of the rotation and Kurt Schilling and Randy Johnson and a pretty good Bullpen good stuff but overall this Dbacks team didn't have many advantages one advantage they definitely were getting was HomeField Advantage because back in 2001 won they just flip-flopped who at HomeField advantage in the World Series every year in 2000 the American League got it so in 2001 the national league got it it was as simple as that so the Dbacks were promised at least the first two games at home in Arizona and the last two if necessary now looking back that ended up arguably being the biggest Factor well one of the biggest the Diamondbacks took games one and two at home seemingly with ease K Schilling dominated in game one and so did Randy Johnson in game two neither game was really that close in the end forcing the Yankees to go back home with some pressure to get themselves back into the series and that proved to be no issue for them whatsoever well they at least got it done the Yankees went on to win Games 3 four and five at Yankee Stadium it wasn't easy at all they won each game by a single run with it taking Extra Innings after tying it with two outs in the ninth and late game walk-off heroics to win games four and five game four was when Derek Jeter became Mr November with his walk-off Homer Alonso serano's walk-off single would send the series back to Phoenix with the the Yankees just one win away from yet another championship and it was just demoralizing for the Dbacks obviously like I said and just show it was far from easy they literally won all three of those games by one run and they had to be really clutch doing it but it was such typical Yankee fashion continuing what they've been doing for so long dominating and when not dominating and maybe even looking like things might go south coming up clutch tying the game with two outs in the ninth and ending up on top in the end and at this point everyone's assuming the Yankees will do what was expect Ed to them before the series began Another World Series win well game six kept this weird pattern going the Dbacks won Games 1 and two pretty soundly in Arizona the Yankees won Games 3 four and five in New York by barely hanging on so if you understand the pattern naturally the Dbacks would blow the Yankees out of the water in game six back at home 15 to2 this series ain't over yet it's going to take at least another day and at this point what were the Dbacks going to just blow him out in game seven every game in New York was close but every game in Arizona was a blowout in favor of the Dbacks so was that how this works well no because game seven ended up becoming one of the more iconic games of all time the game was scoreless until the bottom of the six when a double by Danny Bautista gave the Dbacks a one to nothing lead but the Yankees answered right back scoring once in the seventh on a Tino Martinez base hit and a leadoff Homer by Alfonso Sorano in the eighth to give the Yankees the lead six outs away from a four Pat and in came Mariano Rivera Luis Gonzalez CA Matt Williams sea Steve Finley would knock a single to start a potential rally but the next guy up Danny Bautista sea the Yankees would go 1 2 3 in the ninth but they were now just three outs away from four straight championships the greatest closer in history is on the mound this one is as good as over well not quite Mark Grace would Loop a leadoff single to start another potential rally for the Dbacks and immediately get pinch ran by David DUI next man up Damen Miller would put a bunt down just to get delusi over to scoring position Rivera tried to nail him at second to prevent that only for the ball to skip into center field two on nobody out the Dbacks tried the bunt play again but this time it didn't do anything going right back to Rivera who throw a third for the force out and at this point bunting wasn't going to save you anymore you were going to need a big hit someone had come through in the clutch so who would that be enter Tony wak by 2001 and in this game in particular Tony wac was a 31-year-old journeyman kind of the Dbacks were only his second team but it was his fifth full season the first two are in Pittsburgh the team that drafted him and the last three including 2001 with Arizona and his career would eventually end with him making stops with five technically six other teams in the span of three years and going to the Cubs twice at that point in his career by the end of it teams caught on to wac and his lack of ability on a baseball field to put it simply he was terrible I really do hate saying that and I don't want anything to seem personal but he just wasn't a good player he was a bad hitter and didn't even play good defense so the one thing that kept him around long enough his speed and I think batting average it's pretty interesting now that I think about it but Tony wac seems like a player who wouldn't last nearly as long as he did back then in today's game it's a fascinating way of looking at it but when wac first broke through and made it to the big leagues and played his first several seasons he was terrible yet still was able to be his team's full-time shortstop why is this well I think batting average this was before Moneyball and before analytics even had much of an impact on the game at all let alone taking over the game of baseball I'm not completely sure what teams looked at to evaluate players back then but I don't think they looked at Ops Plus or any of that I think the Dbacks just like the Pirates and any other team in the league looked at batting average and if you just looked at Tony W's batting average you think he was a consistently above average bat who's also fast on the bases look at 1998 for example WX sophomore season and last season with the Pirates his batting average was 282 and he stole 60 bases the most in the National League if you just looked at those two numbers you'd assume he was getting MVP votes in reality he wasn't productive at all a 100 Ops plus is League average for context WX Ops plus that year was 23 points below that he was by far a bad hitter not even average or anywhere near it bad he played in almost every game and had so many plate appearances while also recording 185 hits for the 1998 season which again seems good but with added context wac was a weak hitter he provided no power whatsoever he didn't walk a ton at all and was just a very quiet overall 282 hitter and I mean things just got worse in 1999 his first year with the Dbacks his Ops plus was 23 points below League average but in 2000 it was 29 Points Below in 2001 36 points below he did have a really magical and emotional moment on Father's Day that year in' 01 connecting for a grand slam just a few weeks after his dad passed away despite being such a bad hitter providing no real thump in the lineup having a really bad on base percentage and at this point not even stealing as many bases despite all of that wac was able to stay afloat and start in most of his team's games that year in 2024 happy New Year by the way this wouldn't fly I just have a hard time seeing any team keeping around a player with WiMAX numbers since WiMAX deback days in 1999 in the early 2000s analytics and saber metrics have not only entered baseball in its front offices because of Moneyball but it has completely taken over the game every team more or less has a lot of deep thinking analytical people working for them if you don't you're looked at as a dinosaur there are ways to truly see the value in a player now unlike any other era of baseball and Tony wac was not valuable at least in terms of what we value today so here comes Tony wac to take on mariana rivera in game seven of the World Series in the biggest at bat not just in his life but in Arizona Diamondbacks history not that their history was very long in 2001 but even today over 22 years later you can look at this ninth inning moment as the most important moment ever for the franchise and because of the fact that saber Matrix hadn't done their thing yet and entered baseball Tony wack gets a shot here because the Dbacks in Major League Baseball teams as a whole were dumber and didn't understand how to accurately value players at the time Tony wack gets a shot here just like he did in the nlds earlier that same postseason against the Cardinals when he made that one count and the ninth inning of a Do or Die win or go home game five wac would Loft a single into left field to break the one toone tie and walk things off for the Dbacks so he was clutched then would he be clutch in the most important moment possible with this team now down in the game and the entire season just two outs from ending in heartbreak what would he do well the dinosaur age of baseball one that was soon coming to an end but not yet gave him a shot and he made it count wilmac would pull his hands on a two- strike cutter by mariana rivera and lineing into right field for a double not only just tying the game but putting the winning run at third base and all of the sudden the Yankees were the ones feeling sick two pitches later Craig Council would get hit to load up the bases with still only one out for Luis Gonzalez to get another crack at Rivera and he finished the job simply getting the bat on the the ball and blooping it into shallow Center Fields scoring Bell and winning the World Series for the Diamondbacks and what is the most iconic moment in their history understandably so the winning hit one that walks your team off to win it all will of course be the most iconic one of them all but that doesn't mean WX heroics two batters earlier should go unnoticed as clutch and awesome as Gonzalez's game-winning hit was the stakes weren't nearly as high as they were for WX hit the bases were loaded with only one out and the game was tied worst case scenario Gonzalez grounds into a double play and the game continues wac rounds into a double play the game ends and the Yankees win their fourth straight Championship Gonzalez was also the team's best hitter by far someone who had an MVP caliber season in 2001 so you also have to just fully realize just how improbable WX double was for wac to even make contact is crazy let alone smoking a line shot down the right field line with two strikes mariana rivera was the greatest reliever of all time the greatest postseason pitcher of all time someone who put up a career 77 ER 141 postseason Innings that is absurd analytics not being as highly regarded didn't matter with Rivera he was one of those guys who you didn't need to see much data to find out how good and valuable he was so you put this monster up against not just a below average hitter but a pretty terrible hitter I mean arguably one of the greatest mismatches of all time such a lopsided face off between the two in favor of Rivera yet wac was able to not just put the bat on the ball and bloop a hit or something and find grass but lineing a shot down the line to TI the game up with two strikes that's baseball for you you will never be able to predict it ever what happened here makes zero sense but that's one of the Endless reasons that makes baseball the best after becoming a champion in 2001 Tony wac played several more seasons one more full year in Arizona in 2002 before getting traded to the Rockies in ' 03 and then getting traded again the same year to the Cubs signed a contract with the Red Sox but before ever playing a game with them was traded to the Cardinals when the hell does that ever happen a player getting traded to another team right after signing a contract with a new team he was actually a lot closer to an average hitter than any other year in his career with the Cardinals in 2004 that was his best year actually he hit over 300 going on assign with the Yankees for 2005 but was back to being awful going to the Reds in 2006 but getting released getting picked up by the Cubs on a minor league deal only to get designated for assignment a couple months later becoming a Washington National and receiving a non-roster invitation to spring training with them for 2007 until he get released during spring training and that's when Tony wac called it a career since then there's not much to know about him I'd say he flew pretty under the radar even while playing so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that he's really gone off the map in retirement I did find an interview he did over a year ago where he discusses his life and baseball career including of course his big hit in the World Series and I found one particular moment of this interview I love where wack talks about that ninth inning being the first time he ever saw mariana rivera blink implying that he and his team really got to Rivera mentally in that ninth inning but that's the first time you know I've ever seen Mo blink on the mount Mo blinked a lot on the mount after he threw that ball that first bun away and then after I got the hit he really was blinking Mo that's the first time I ever seen Mo blink so during his playing days Tony wac was a nobody a journeyman who kept his big league career alive because of how dumb teams were at the time including the Diamond Back doing a couple things here and there to look like a good player when in reality he wasn't but ironically the Dbacks being naive and not as advanced with analytics helped them win the world Series without Tony wac they don't beat the Yankees and win the World Series while also effectively ending New York's Dynasty since 2001 the yanes only have one ring in these past 22 plus years which is not meeting their expectations the New York Yankees Dynasty ended that night thanks to Tony wilmack if the Dbacks were smarter and realized how bad wilmac was they wouldn't have gotten and then kept him but they did and because they did Tony wac ended up being responsible for the clutchest and most improbable and important moment in Arizona Diamondbacks history let me know what you think thank you for watching and I'll see you in the next video