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EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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History repeats Are these Yankees more like those in 1963 or 1996?
NEW YORK (AP) -- After the first two games, this World Series looked strangely familiar to the New York Yankees. For some, there was an eerie resemblance to 1963, when overpowering pitching shut down their hitters and led to a sweep by the Los Angeles Dodgers. For others, it looked a lot like 1996, when New York staged a remarkable recovery after losing the first two games to win the next four against the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees hope this one becomes a replay of the latter and not the former. Limited to one run and six hits by Arizona's Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson in the first two games, it seemed as if they were swinging with toothpicks instead of bats. That was a reminder of how Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, cornerstones of the Dodgers' staff, dominated the Yankees in the 1963 sweep. Arizona won the first two games of this Series 9-1 and 4-0, and optimists were quick to point out that Atlanta beat the Yankees 12-1 and 4-0 in the first two games before the 1996 Series made a sudden U-turn. Hall of Famer Yogi Berra watched Schilling and Johnson dominate and remembered the 1963 Series when he lined out against Drysdale in his only swing, his final at-bat as a Yankee. "Yeah, it reminds you of that Series a little bit," Berra said. "It's like my old saying -- déjà vu all over all over again.
"Johnson kept getting ahead of guys. Schilling, too. It's not only how hard they throw. It's control, too. Good pitching gets good hitting, but it's all about control. They throw strikes. They hit their spots. "I remember guys would come back to the bench after hitting against Koufax and they'd say, "He's on. He's got it going." And there was nothing you could do about it. They never pitched from behind. "They had good control. Get the first strike over and you can go in and out and get hitters guessing." Koufax beat Whitey Ford 5-2 in the opener of the 1963 Series, striking out 15 Yankees hitters, and then Johnny Podres won Game 2, beating Al Downing 4-1. When the Series moved to L.A., Drysdale shut the Yankees out 1-0 on a three-hitter and then Koufax completed the sweep, beating Ford again, this time 2-1. In four games, the Yankees managed four runs on 22 hits and batted .171. These Yankees were hitting .102 after two games. In 1996, the Yankees looked as outclassed against Atlanta in the first two games as they did in the first two against Arizona. The Braves got a four-hitter from John Smoltz in the opener, a 12-1 pounding that resembled the 9-1 loss to the Diamondbacks in Game 1 this year. Manager Joe Torre remembered sitting in his office before Game 2 as his club prepared to face Greg Maddux when owner George Steinbrenner stopped by for a chat. In his first year on the job, Torre was brutally honest with the boss. "I told him we may even lose this game tonight because we are facing Maddux," Torre recalled. "And I said we'll come back to Atlanta, win three and come back and win it for you Saturday." It was a long shot to be sure, but Torre turned out to be right. "Maybe," he said, "that's part of the reason I'm still here." The Yankees beat Tom Glavine 5-2 in Game 3, then erased a 6-0 deficit in Game 4 when Jim Leyritz hit a dramatic three-run homer, winning 8-6 in 10 innings. Andy Pettitte outdueled Smoltz to win Game 5 1-0, and then New York beat Maddux 3-2 to win the Series. That sweep of the final four games started a remarkable stretch of World Series success for the Yankees. They backed it up with four-game sweeps against San Diego in 1998 and Atlanta in 1999 and a five-game defeat of the New York Mets last year. Until running into Schilling and Johnson, the Yankees had won 16 of their last 17 World Series games. Maybe the prospect of facing the two Diamondbacks later in the Series shouldn't concern them. Remember they beat Smoltz and Maddux the second time around in 1996. "You never know," Berra said. "They might not have it the next time. In a short series, you never know what might happen."
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