2000 Survival and Subways

 

2000, Survival, Stadiums and Subways

 

                We survived it. The year 2000 ‘bug’ that had computer programmers scrambling to fix, as the short-sightedness of the late eighties into the early nineties dawned on them…there no programming provisions made for the upcoming date coded “00”. The year format was limited to just two digits, in the interest of saving space on computers internal memories.

Millions of dollars and man hours were put into updating software throughout the world. Some thought the food supply chain would be endangered. Some thought utility company computers would crash. Others thought it was simply the end of the world. Or the end as we knew it.

But we survived. None of the expected issues happened. We were not plunged into darkness, had plenty of food, our monies were not valueless.

To some, it was the beginning of a new millennium. To others (like myself) it was the end of the millennium. Here is my thought…you count to ten, you star with 1. As in 1,2,3…. Not 0,1,2. So, following that thought process, 2001 would be the start. For me, the same process follows with decades. And in historical baseball reference, it is a natural reasoning, since the American League formed in 1901, and joined the National League to become Major League Baseball as we (kinda) know it today.

Prior to the 2000 season, the presidencies of each league were eliminated, bringing the league administration under one collective roof, the Office of the Commissioner. Along with this, the umpires were also unified, to try to bring a sense of consistency to the style of play. The umpire situation was forced due to a labor issue.

The Umpire Union president, Richie Phillips, suggested that the umpires all resign in solidarity to force renegotiations of the collective bargaining agreement in 1999. Surprisingly, Major League Baseball accepted these resignations, terminating the umpire contracts, and promoting new umpires from the minor leagues.  The now unemployed umpires then voted to disband the union, and then reapplied to MLB for their jobs back. Most were welcomed back, but the umpire’s union was no more.

Prior to that, each of the two leagued hired, trained and supervised their own umpiring crews. The rules of the game were still the same, obviously, except for the designated hitter rule. But for a while one league had their umpires wear maroon jackets, one favored the ‘balloon’ type chest protector over the concealed chest protector, one called the strike zone lower than the other. If you were a fan of one league over the other, it was not an issue.

And honestly, except for the influx of new arbiters, the umpiring was not much of an issue. Or no more than it usually is.

With that being said, then 2000 season was the last year of twentieth century baseball. In that respect, it is fitting that the final World Series of the century was a Subway Series, between the Mets and the Yankees. New York was host to thirteen “Subway Series’” previously.

The term Subway Series was coined to highlight the fact that both teams were essentially playing in their home cities and could essentially just commute via subway to each venue from their ‘homes’. Plus, it was easier for the fans to have the ability to attend all of the necessary games. While there were numerous other occurrences of this, it seems more apropos for New York.

In 1906, Chicago hosted the first intra-city World Series, but as historical sticklers point out, there was no subway in Chicago, and that Series is often referred to as ‘The Crosstown Series”. And in 1944, St. Louis Sportsman’s Park was the host to that war-time Series, as both the Cardinals and the Browns played their home games at that stadium…no need to use a subway (if there was one) in that case.

In fact, the first two World Series appearances for the Yankees were ‘Subway Series’, as they played the New York Giants. Again, both teams shared the same venue, The Polo Grounds, so the term was loosely applied. It became more relevant after the Yankees moved across the Harlem River to the Bronx, and Yankee Stadium, which was approximately half a mile away from The Polo Grounds. In fact, Yankee Stadium was visible from seats in the upper deck of the Polo Grounds. And those seats did not have to be too high up either.

 

 

And speaking of stadiums, new ones opened in Detroit, Houston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco, which helped bring average attendance throughout the league up to pre-1994 levels.

The New York Yankees, who had won the previous two World Series’, were not the favorites going into the post-season. In an unusual year, the American League East was not the strongest of the six divisions. In fact, the Yankees had the least number of wins than any of the eight post-season teams.

The Yankees beat the upstart A’s in the Divisional Series. The A’s featured two young heralded starting pitchers, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, and also featured the 2000 AL MVP Jason Giambi. The Yankees won three games to two, despite having their ace Roger Clemens taking both of the losses.

In the other AL Divisional Series, the Seattle Mariners swept the Chicago White Sox despite the Sox having the best record in the American League. This set up a Yankee-Mariner Championship Series, which the Yankees won in six games.

In the National League, the Wild Card Mets bested the NL West Champion Giants in four games, with Bobby Jones pitching a complete game one-hitter in the clinching game at Shea Stadium. The NL Central Champion Cardinals swept the NL East Champion Braves in three games. The Cardinals and Mets met in the National League Championship Series.

During the NL Divisional Series, the Cardinals started youngster Rick Ankiel in the first game. To keep the pressure of the young man, Cardinal’s manager Tony LaRussa kept the starting assignment quiet, even having pitcher Darryl Kile speak with the media as if he were the Game 1 starter. Ankiel finished the 2000 season with a very respectable 11-7 record and a 3.50 ERA. He averaged 10 strikeouts per nine innings and finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Rafael Furcal of the Braves.

Then, one of ‘those’ things happened. After sailing through the first two innings, Ankiel lost the ability to throw strikes. Pitching with a six-run lead, Ankiel allowed four runs on two hits, with four walks and a record tying five wild pitches in the inning. He was pulled from the game, and the Cardinals held on to win.

Believing that it was a one-time event, Ankiel was slated to start Game 2 of the National League Championship Series against Al Leiter of the Mets. He did not make it out of the first inning. His first pitch sailed over the head of Timo Perez, the Mets leadoff hitter. After nineteen more pitches, five of which got passed catcher Eli Marrero, Ankiel was pulled and replaced by Britt Reames.

Ankiel’s line score for that inning was:

IP            H             R             ER           BB           K             ERA                        Passed Balls

0.2          1              2              2              3              1              16.20                     2

 

Ankiel appeared again in the fifth game, facing four batters, walking two and unloading two more wild pitches.

Rick struggled with his control in early 2001 and was eventually was sent down to the minor leagues, where his issues spiraled totally out of control. Ankiel was able to re-invent himself as an outfielder, with a very strong throwing arm. He started slowly and worked his way back through the Cardinal’s farm system to return to the major leagues in 2007.

In his book, “Three Nights in August”, Tony LaRussa wrote that starting Ankiel in Game One of the Divisional Series was, “a decision that perhaps haunts him more than any he has ever made.”

 

The Mets were able to get past the Cardinals in five games, setting up the Series matchup with their neighbors. As I said earlier, the Yankees were the two-time defending champions at this time. They had won twelve straight World Series games, the last four of six from the Braves in 1996, and the sweeping the Padres in 1998 and the Braves in 1999. They would win the first two games of the 2000 Series, giving them a record of fourteen consecutive World Series game victories.

The Mets were able to win Game Three over the Yankees, continuing their streak of four consecutive World Series Game Three victories. The winning pitcher in Game Three was New York native John Franco, with yours truly in the stands at my first and only World Series game. 

The Yankees won the next two to gain their twenty-fourth World Series title.

Yankee’s Captain, Derek Jeter, became the first player to win the World Series MVP as well as the All-Star Game MVP in the same season.

 

As I alluded to earlier, with this being the culmination of nearly one hundred years of major league baseball, it still fascinates me that there are still ‘firsts’ that occurred in 2000. The most intriguing first involves parity within the league. For the first time ever, no team finished with a winning percentage over .600 or under .400.

Other firsts, to name a few…

Indians pitcher Chuck Finley becomes the first pitcher to record four strikeouts in an inning three times. Finley is actually the only pitcher to do it more than once.

Angels lead-off hitter Darin Erstad became the first lead-off hitter to drive in 100 runs in a season.

New York Yankee witch-hitters Jorge Posada and Bernie Williams each homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. That had never been done before.

Red Sox Ace Pedro Martinez became the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award unanimously for two straight seasons.

The Mets and the Cubs opened the season in Tokyo, with the teams splitting the two-game series. It was the first games played outside of North America. Plenty of firsts in that series, from the first major league hit in Asia by Damon Buford, the first home run in Asia by Shane Andrews, and Mr. Met became the first MLB mascot to entertain outside of North America.

The Cubs won the first game, the Mets the second.

 

Other interesting tidbits from the 2000 season:

 

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim become the first American League team with for players hitting thirty or more homers. (Garret Anderson, Troy Glaus, Tim Salmon and Mo Vaughn)

They also became the first team to have three players hit 2 homeruns in the same game. And for added measure, they hit their homers in the same inning.

Troy Glaus became just the second American Leaguer to amass thirty homers AND thirty errors in the same season. Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew was the first.

And they have the only outfield where all three regular starts reached seventy or more extra base hits…Anderson, Erstad and Salmon.

Arizona Diamondbacks ace Randy Johnson led the National League with 347 strikeouts, 130 more than the runner-up, Chan Ho Park of the Dodgers. Johnson struck out ten or more batters in a game an incredible twenty-three times during the season.

Iron Man Cal Ripken of the Orioles collected his 3,000^th hit on May 9^th against the Toronto Blue Jays. Injuries finally caught up with him, as he only appeared in eighty-three games. Including his first ever appearance as a designated hitter.

In Boston, apart from winning the Cy Young Award, Pedro Martinez collected fifteen games with ten or more strikeouts, second to Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks, and more than any other team in the American League.

Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra won his second consecutive batting title, the first right-handed batter to accomplish that in the American League since Joe DiMaggio in 1939-40.

In Cleveland, the Indians played host to an unusual day/night doubleheader. They beat the Chicago White Sox 9-2 in the opener, then hosted the Minnesota Twins in the nightcap. The Twins won the finale 4-3. It marked the first time a team played two different teams on the same day since 1951.

Cincinnati Reds team Captain Barry Larkin became the fourth Reds player to amass two thousand hits for the team. He joined Johnny Bench, Dave Concepcion and Pete Rose.

Colorado Rockies slugger Todd Helton hit the most doubles in a season since 1930. He hit 59, which set the record for a National League first-basemen. He also set a new NL record for total bases with 405.

Some say that Helton had an unfair advantage, since he played his home games in the ’rarified air’ of Coors Field. He finished with a .372 average to lead the league. However, Helton had the third highest batting average on the road that season (.353), behind Mike Piazza (.377) and Moises Alou (.363)

Teammate Jeff Cirillo also set a National League record for doubles by a third baseman with 53.

The Houston Astros debuted their new ballpark, dubbed Enron Field, which became a launching pad. After years of playing in the offense restrictive Astrodome, the modern facility featured many new and exciting amenities. One of my personal favorites is the train locomotive over the leftfield stands. It is a replica of a nineteenth-century steam engine. Every time an Astros player hits a homer, the trains chugs its way down the track, and then back again.

The visiting teams quickly dubbed Enron Field as ‘Ten Run Field”, due to the dramatic increase in runs scored at the new ballpark. The Astros increased their total runs scored over 1999 by 105, and their runs allowed increased by a whopping 269 over the same period. Despite finished fourth in the division, the Astros set a new record for team homeruns with 249.

First baseman Jeff Bagwell scored 152 runs; the highest runs scored total since Lou Gehrig in 1936. He established the runs scored record for National League first basemen. And he reached 300 homers, 1,000 runs batted in and 1,000 runs scored in his tenth big league season. The only others to have accomplished that before him are also Hall of Famers: Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Frank Robinson and Ted Williams.

The team also set a record for hitting six or more homers in a game five different times.

Pitcher Jose Lima did set a dubious record, in allowing a National League record 48 homers during the season.

For the Dodgers, Dave Hansen set a new record by hitting seven pinch-hit home runs. Outfielder Gary Sheffield hit forty-three homers, which was a new record for the Los Angeles part of team history and tied Duke Snider for the most in team history.

Mets catcher Mike Piazza recorded an RBI in fifteen straight games, the longest streak since Ray Grimes in 1922.

Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter, as mentioned earlier, won the All-Star Game MVP, amazingly, the first Yankee to win the award.

Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder Brian Giles became the first in the team’s lengthy history to hit 30 homers, drive in 100 runs and bat over .300 in consecutive seasons.

Pirates catcher Jason Kendall established a National League record for runs scored by a catcher with 112.

Oakland A’s second baseman Randy Velarde completed just the eleventh unassisted triple play in major league history.

Seattle Mariners hurler Kazuhiro Sasaki, aged thirty-two, became the first relief pitcher to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

Four-decade player Rickey Henderson draws his 2,000^th career walk, joining Babe Ruth and Ted Williams as the only three to reach that plateau. Rickey also passed Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in total runs scored.

Saint Louis Cardinals rookie Keith McDonald became just the second player to homer in his first two major league at--bats, joining Bob Nieman.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays slugger Fred McGriff became the second player with 200 homers in each league. Frank Robinson was the first.

In the minor leagues, Esix Snead of the Potomac Cannons of the Carolina League stole 108 bases.

Jamal Strong of the Everett Aqua Sox in the short-season Northwest League stole 60 bases in a 76-game season, while pitcher Wilton Chaves of the Eugene Emeralds struck out 103 batters in 15 starts (10.1 ks per 9 innings)

And in the Gulf Coast League, Justin Morneau of the Twins finished at .402, while pitcher Manuel Esquivia struck out 77 in 12 starts.

Tomo Ohka of the Pawtucket Red Sox pitched the first perfect game in the International League in 48 years. The Charlotte Knights were the unlucky opponents.

The annual Major League draft was held, with the Florida Marlins drafting future All-Star Adrian Gonzalez with the first overall pick. Gonzalez was the first high school first baseman taken first overall pick since the Yankees drafted Ron Blomberg in the 1967 draft.

Other draftees of note were Rocco Baldelli 1^st round by Tampa Bay (#6), Chase Utley 1^st round by Philadelphia (15^th), Boof Bonser 1^st round by San Francisco (21^st), Adam Wainwright 1^st round by St. Louis (29^th), Grady Sizemore 3^rd round by Montreal (75^th), Cliff Lee 4^th round by Montreal (105^th), Yadier Molina 4^th round by St. Louis (113rd), Dontrelle Willis 8^th round by the Cubs (223^rd), Edwin Encarnacion 9^th round by Texas (274^th), James Shields 16^th round by Tampa Bay (466^th), Jason Bay 22^nd round by Montreal (645^th), Ian Kinsler 29^th round by Arizona (879^th, did not sign), Michael Vick 30^th round by Colorado (887^th, did not sign), and Russell Martin 35^th round by Montreal (1,035^th, did not sign)

 

The post season voting was sort of convoluted. The Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) voted Jason Giambi as the American League Most Valuable Player, and Jeff Kent as the National League Most Valuable Player. The Sporting News named Carlos Delgado as its Player of the Year, while Baseball America crowned Alex Rodriguez as the best player.

Let’s see where my votes would have gone.

First, we will look at team performances, beginning with the league’s best pitching teams:

American League	National League
Red Sox	Braves
Mariners	Mets
White Sox	Giants
A’s	Cardinals
Dodgers	Yankees

 

And then the top offensive teams were:

White Sox	Astros
Indians	Giants
A’s	Dodgers
Mariners	Cardinals
Yankees	Reds

 

And our Power Rankings, with season finishes were:

Giants	NL West Champions
White Sox	AL Central Champions
Braves	NL East Champions
Dodgers	2nd place, NL West
Cardinals	NL Central Champions
Mets	NL Champions
A’s	AL West Champions
Yankees	World Series Champions

 

 

As you can see from these lists, the most powerful teams were represented in the post season, but the strongest did not necessarily survive. Hot streaks by one team with a cold streak by another leads to these unusual outcomes.

As mentioned earlier, the Yankees had the worst record of all the post-season teams yet prevailed by winning the last game of the season, Game Five of the Series.

 

Now, we will look at the individual performers, starting with the American League pitchers.

Our initial list of top ten performers is:

Pitcher	Team	W-L	ERA	Svs
Pedro Martinez	Red Sox	18-6	1.74	0
Tim Hudson	A’s	20-6	4.14	0
Billy Koch	Blue Jays	9-3	3.63	33
David Wells	Blue Jays	20-8	4.11	0
Mariano Rivera	Yankees	7-4	2.85	36
Derek Lowe	Red Sox	4-4	2.56	42
Andy Pettitte	Yankees	19-9	4.35	0
Bartolo Colon	Indians	15-8	3.88	0
Mike Sirotka	White Sox	15-10	3.79	0
Frank Castillo	Blue Jays	10-5	3.59	0

 

Then, compared to their team averages, we get this list:

Pedro Martinez	Above
Billy Koch	Above
David Wells	Above
Rick Helling	Rangers	16-13	4.48	0
Mike Mussina	Orioles	11-15	4.02	0
Frank Castillo	Above
Tim Hudson	Above
Kenny Rogers	Rangers	1313	4.55	0
Mariano Rivera	Above

 

Calculation and running the numbers brings us to this final top ten American League pitchers, with their post season award voting results:

Pedro Martinez	Cy Young Award Winner, 5th in MVP vote
Tim Hudson	2nd in Cy Young, 15th in MVP
Billy Koch	No votes
David Wells	3rd in Cy Young, 17th in MVP
Mariano Rivera	No votes
Andy Pettitte	4th in Cy Young
Bartolo Colon	No votes
Frank Castillo	No votes
Derek Lowe	No votes
Mike Sirotka	No votes

 

In the National League, where the pitchers held a 4.5% statistical advantage over their AL counterparts, we have this initial top ten list:

Randy Johnson	Diamondbacks	19-7	2.64	0
Robb Nen	Giants	4-3	1.50	41
Jeff D’Amico	Brewers	12-7	2.66	0
Greg Maddux	Braves	19-9	3.00	0
Tom Glavine	Braves	21-9	3.40	0
Kevin Brown	Dodgers	13-6	2.58	0
Al Leiter	Mets	16-8	3.20	0
Chan Ho Park	Dodgers	18-10	3.27	0
Darryl Kile	Cardinals	20-9	3.91	0
Mike Hampton	Mets	15-10	3.14	0

 

And against their team’s average performance, we get this list:

Jeff D’Amico	Above
Gabe White	Reds/Rockies	11-2	2.36	5
Scott Elarton	Astros	17-7	4.81	0
Randy Johnson	Above
Robb Nen	Above
Curt Leskanic	Brewers	9-3	2.56	12
Tony Armas	Expos	7-9	4.36	0
Kevin Brown	Above
Tom Worrell	Cubs (only)	3-4	2.47	3
Scott Strickland	Expos	4-3	3.00	9

 

Tim Worrell was released by the Orioles in early May and signed by the Cubs. Gabe White was traded from the Reds to the Rockies in early April for Manny Aybar.

Our finalized top ten National League pitchers were:

Randy Johnson	Cy Young Award Winner, 19th in MVP
Jeff D’Amico	No votes
Robb Nen	4th in Cy Young, 12th in MVP (tie)
Greg Maddux	3rd in Cy Young, 12th in MVP (tie)
Tom Glavine	2nd in Cy Young, 14th in MVP
Kevin Brown	6th in MVP
Chan Ho Park	No votes
Al Leiter	No votes
Darryl Kile	5th in Cy Young, 11th in MVP
Gabe White	No votes

 

 

Now switching to the American League, where the hitters held a 5.9% advantage over the NL hitters, and held a big 25.2% advantage over the AL pitchers, we get this initial top ten list:

Players	Team	HR	RBI	AVG	Rc/G
Manny Ramirez	Indians	38	122	.351	1.49
Alex Rodriguez	Mariners	41	132	.316	1.52
Jason Giambi	A’s	43	137	.333	1.33
Carlos Delgado	Blue Jays	41	137	.344	1.40
Frank Thomas	White Sox	43	143	.328	1.35
Bernie Williams	Yankees	30	121	.307	1.41
Edgar Martinez	Mariners	37	145	.324	1.36
Nomar Garciaparra	Red Sox	21	96	.372	1.28
Mike Sweeney	Royals	29	144	.333	1.38
Magglio Ordonez	White Sox	32	126	.315	1.28

 

Against their team’s averages, we get this list:

Carlos Delgado	Above
Nomar Garciaparra	Above
Manny Ramirez	Above
Alex Rodriguez	Above
Mike Sweeney	Above
Bernie Williams	Above
Jason Giambi	Above
Carl Everett	Red Sox	34	108	.300	1.14
Edgar Martinez	Above
Darrin Erstad	Angels	25	100	.355	1.25

 

And thus, brings our finalized top ten American League hitters to this:

Manny Ramirez	6th in MVP (tie)
Alex Rodriguez	3rd in MVP
Carlos Delgado	4th in MVP
Jason Giambi	American League MVP
Nomar Garciaparra	9th in MVP
Bernie Williams	13th in MVP (tie)
Frank Thomas	2nd in MVP
Edgar Martinez	6th in MVP (tie)
Mike Sweeney	11th in MVP
Darrin Erstad	8th in MVP

 

And in the National League, our initial top ten list is:

Todd Helton	Rockies	42	147	.372	1.52
Jeff Bagwell	Astros	41	132	.310	1.49
Mike Piazza	Mets	38	113	3.24	1.21
Barry Bonds	Giants	49	106	.306	1.30
Jeffery Hammonds	Rockies	20	106	.335	1.48
Moises Alou	Astros	30	114	.355	1.32
Jeff Kent	Giants	33	125	.334	1.30
Richard Hidalgo	Astros	44	122	.314	1.28
Brian Giles	Pirates	35	123	.315	1.28
Sammy Sosa	Cubs	50	138	.320	1.24

 

Against their team numbers, our list is:

Todd Helton	Above
Jeffrey Hammonds	Above
Mike Piazza	Above
Jeff Cirillo	Brewers	11	114	.326	1.37
Vladimir Guerrero	Expos	44	123	.345	1.17
Sammy Sosa	Above
Scott Rolen	Phillies	26	89	.298	1.18
Geoff Jenkins	Brewers	34	94	.303	1.19
Brian Giles	Above
Cliff Floyd	Marlins	22	91	.300	1.17

 

And finalizing, our National League top ten list is:

Todd Helton	5th in MVP
Mike Piazza	3rd in MVP
Jeff Bagwell	7th in MVP
Jeffery Hammonds	No votes
Barry Bonds	2nd in MVP
Sammy Sosa	9th in MVP (tie)
Vladimir Guerrero	6th in MVP
Jeff Cirillo	No votes
Brian Giles	19th in MVP
Moises Alou	20h in MVP (tie)

 

It is worth noting that NL Most Valuable Player Jeff Kent did not make my top ten list.

 

So, to recap using my method and formulas, the top players in each league were:

 

American League

  

Pedro Martinez

Player of the Year

 

Manny Ramirez

Offensive Player of the Year

 

Alex Rodriguez

Carlos Delgado

Jason Giambi

 

(I was actually different from all of the previously noted post season awards, save for the Cy Young Awards)

 

National League

 

Todd Helton

Player of the Year

 

Mike Piazza

Jeff Bagwell

Jeffery Hammonds

Barry Bonds

 

Randy Johnson

Pitcher of the Year

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