1995 New York Yankees: The Return To October
The New York Yankees entered the 1995 season poised to begin a renaissance era. The proud franchise had not reached the postseason since 1981 and gone through particularly lean years from 1989-92. Some improvement in 1993 led to a 1994 breakout when they had the best record in the American League by August 1994…and then a strike canceled the rest of the season.
With hopes high in 1995, the Yankees had a season that can best be described as a mixed bag—they did end the postseason drought. But it came via the wild-card route, in this first year the MLB playoffs included non-divisional winners. And it ended with an early exit.
STRONG ADDITIONS; DEPTH PROBLEMS
It was a tumultuous offseason for all of MLB, as the strike persisted into the spring and the possibility of using replacement players loomed. The season would not actually begin until late April with a modestly shortened 144-game schedule. There was also a lot of player movement generally and owner George Steinbrenner had the Yankees at the forefront.
New York acquired starting pitcher Jack McDowell, a recent Cy Young Award winner with the Chicago White Sox. The bullpen was strengthened by the addition of closer John Wetteland. McDowell won 15 games, while Wetteland saved 31 games and posted a 2.93 ERA.
The Yankees also brought up 23-year-old Andy Pettite, and the young lefthander added 12 wins with a respectable 4.17 ERA. Sterling Hitchcock, another promising young pitcher, won 11 games.
But depth was a problem. Jimmy Key, a veteran lefthander, tore a rotator cuff early in the season. Manager Buck Showalter had to piece together the back end of the rotation. Scott Kamienicki made 16 starts and posted a 4.01 ERA. The front office went out and acquired David Cone right before the late July trading deadline and Cone went 9-2 over 13 starts down the stretch.
In the bullpen, Bob Wickman logged 80 innings and posted a 4.05 ERA setting up for Wetteland. There was also a 25-year-old rookie named Mariano Rivera who got some work in, although in his learning years, the future Hall of Fame closer, had a 5.51 ERA.
Thus, even fortified by McDowell and Wetteland, the New York staff finished seventh in the 14-team American League for composite ERA.
POWER OUTAGE
Don Mattingly had defined the everyday lineup since the mid-1980s, but the 34-year-old first baseman was in premature decline due to back problems. His power was mostly gone, although he still finished with a respectable .341 on-base percentage.
The real juice for the Yankee lineup started with Bernie Wllliams in centerfield and Paul O’Neill in right. Williams was an emerging star, and he posted a stat line .392 OPB/.487 slugging percentage. O’Neill’s line read .387.526 and his 22 home runs led the team.
The Yankees got further production from 37-year-old third baseman Wade Boggs. The future Hall of Famer, renowned for his contact hitting and batting eye, delivered a .412 OBP. Catcher Mike Stanley popped 18 homers and finished with an on-base percentage of .360.
But there were holes elsewhere in the lineup. While the Yankees drew walks and hit the ball in the gaps well, they had a mediocre team batting average and were at or near the bottom of the American League for both home run power and speed. The end result was being sixth in the league for runs scored. Much like the pitching, the bats weren’t bad—but they weren’t what was anticipated when this season of great expectation began.
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER
The season began well enough, with six wins in the first eight games, including taking three of four at home over the Boston Red Sox. But New York quickly gave it back, losing six of their next ten, including a series loss up in Fenway Park.
A West Coast trip to play the Oakland A’s, California Angels and Seattle Mariners was the cruelest cut. It’s historically notable trip in that a young shortstop named Derek Jeter, who didn’t get enough playing time to officially qualify as a rookie in 1995, got his first major league hit in Seattle. But in the moment, it was more notable that the Yankees lost eight of nine games.
And when those same three teams immediately came back East, it didn’t get a whole lot better. New York lost seven of ten on the return homestand. On June 11, the Yankees had a woeful 16-24 record. They were 9 ½ games back of Boston in the AL East. They were 7 ½ games back in the race for what was then just one wild-card spot.
This went well beyond below expectations and was shaping up into a full-blown nightmare. Steinbrenner acted, and over the course of the summer moves were made to acquire veteran bats in Ruben Sierra and Darryl Strawberry, in addition to the pending deal to get Cone.
SETTLING INTO THE WILD-CARD RACE
New York started to stabilize themselves, splitting their next ten games and then winning five of six at home against non-contenders from Toronto and Detroit. But the Yanks then lost four of their last six going into the All-Star break. They were 30-36, still eight back in the AL East and 7 ½ off the wild-card pace.
After continuing to play middling baseball immediately out of the break, New York started to right the ship in the latter part of July. Over 18 games against the AL Central, the Yankees ripped off a 14-4 record and closed to within 5 ½ games of the Red Sox.
But that surge crested when New York lost three of five to the Cleveland Indians, who were bound for the World Series, and dropped two of three in Boston. And the West Coast was again positively brutal. An awful 2-8 stretch effectively ended any hopes the Yankees had of chasing down the Red Sox.
The good news is that this time, the rematches with the West Coast teams in the Bronx went a little better. New York swept California, who was setting the pace in the AL West. They took two of three from Oakland.
While the record on Labor Day was 59-60, nobody was taking control of the wild-card race. Seattle led a packed six-team race, but the Yankees were only two games back. They still controlled their own destiny heading into the stretch drive, and that drive would begin with a three-game home series against the Mariners.
A KEY SERIES WIN
On Labor Day afternoon in the Bronx, the Yankee bats unloaded with 19 hits, three apiece from Boggs, Bernie, and O’Neill. They were ahead 10-1 by the fourth inning and Pettitte cruised to a 13-3 win.
Rivera, still being experimented with as spot-starter, got the call on Tuesday and struggled, losing 6-5. On Wednesday night, New York trailed 3-0 in the sixth inning. They were on the verge of giving away another opportunity to close the gap.
In short order, an error and two singles got a rally going. Infielder Randy Velarde doubled to tie the game. O’Neill’s RBI single gave the Yanks a 4-3 lead. That was enough for McDowell, who went the distance and kept the score right there for a crucial series win.
MOVING INTO THE LEAD
New York went on to sweep Boston. The Yankees were just a half-game back of Seattle, and 1 ½ games ahead of the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals as the race intensified.
A trip to Cleveland produced a big series win and was followed by splitting four at mediocre Baltimore. The race held steady, but an intriguing dynamic was taking place in the AL West. The Angels, who seemed to have the race well in hand, were collapsing and the Mariners were now within three games. There were two weeks to go, and it was a very fluid situation on the playoff fringe.
The Yankees seized the moment and blasted through home games with the Blue Jays and Tigers, winning six of seven. The Angels kept falling and dropped into the wild-card picture. The Rangers and Royals fell by the wayside.
After all the travails of the season, New York came into the final week with a record of 74-65, and atop the wild-card standings, a half-game ahead of California, although the Yanks and Angels were tied in the loss column. Seattle still led California by two games in the AL West.
A STRANGE ANAMOLY
A historical oddity loomed over the final week, as the Yankees, Angels and Mariners jousted for the final two playoff spots. What would happen if all three teams were tied? That circumstance would favor the Yankees. The two AL West teams would play a tiebreaker game. That game would count towards the regular season standings—meaning the loser would slip a half-game back of New York. And the Yankees, in this scenario, would claim the wild-card by default.
It wasn’t the best thought-out system and would eventually change to create provisions for two tiebreaker games. But in the last week of the 1995 season, no one in the Bronx was complaining .
RACE TO THE FINISH
New York swept a two-game series in Milwaukee to open the final week. They entered the weekend one game ahead of California, who was in turn still two back of Seattle. The Yankees would go to Toronto to end the season.
On Friday night, the bats were silent for eight innings and New York trailed 3-0. A Mattingly single, followed by a walk and an error cut the lead to 3-1. Mike Stanley singled to make it 3-2. Pat Kelly, a light-hitting second baseman, came to the plate. Kelly homered. Wetteland closed the 4-3 win. While California held serve, New York still had the lead.
The offense opened Saturday afternoon the same way they closed Friday night—by dropping a four-spot. O’Neill’s three-run blast in the top of the first set the tone. Kaminiecki went the distance with a complete-game four-hitter and the Yankees won 6-1.
The Angels kept the pressure on and stayed within one game. The Mariners lost. New York was 78-66. So was Seattle. California was 77-65. The whole range of possibilities, from clinching to going into a tiebreaker game with the Angels, to backing in via the scenario described above, were all still on the table for the final game.
If you were a Yankee, the easiest way to settle this was to go win. That’s what they did, and it was done with comfort. Sierra’s two-run double in the first inning staked Hitchcock to the lead. Kelly’s two-run single in the second stretched it to 4-0. Hitchcock worked comfortably into the sixth inning. A tag-team of relievers took over. When veteran lefthander Steve Howe struck out Toronto’s Randy Knorr, the 6-1 win was secured and the playoffs were clinched.
MORE WEST COAST HEARTBREAK
Seattle and California did indeed end up in a tiebreaker game on Monday, which the Mariners won. That set up a Division Series battle with Seattle. This was the product of another historical oddity. Cleveland and Boston had the two best records in the American League, but MLB did not use seeding to determine its playoff matchups. A pre-established rotation among the divisions set the bracket.
The Yanks did not have to face the powerful Indians. Once again, it was an oddity that was rightfully fixed, but once again, no one in New York (or Seattle for that matter) would complain in October 1995.
Are you ready for one more anomaly that worked in New York’s favor? The best-of-five series did not follow a 2-2-1 format for homefield, instead using the more traditional 2-3 setup. While the Yankees would still have to close the series in Seattle, they could at least open in the Bronx.
New York took advantage of it and won the first two games. All they needed was one win in three games. But in a perhaps fitting end to the 1995 season, a trip to the West Coast proved disastrous. The Yankees lost Games 3 & 4. In the decisive fifth game, they coughed up a 4-2 lead in the eighth inning. In the 11th inning, they gave up a 5-4 lead. Their 6-5 loss was one of MLB’s more exciting playoff endings, but it left the Bronx in heartbreak.
A BRIDGE TO THE NEW ERA
Steinbrenner was never one to take losing lying down and he didn’t here. Showalter paid the price and was fired. While the young manager went on to an excellent managerial career in Arizona and Baltimore, he missed out on what was coming in New York. Joe Torre got the job. Pettitte, Jeter and Rivera all blossomed and were soon joined by catcher Jorge Posada.
But while Torre and that “Core Four” did indeed usher in a Yankee Renaissance—four World Series titles in the next five years—it shouldn’t be forgotten that the young Showalter, the veteran Mattingly, and others, laid the groundwork in the years immediately prior. 1995, while disappointing in the moment, was part of that growth process.