Yanks for the Memories : Game 6: New York completes a remarkable turnaround and an incredible postseason by defeating Maddux and Braves, 3-2, for title.

Dynasty was simply no match for Destiny on Saturday night. The Atlanta Braves may be the team of the ‘90s, but the New York Yankees left no doubt they are the team of 1996.

The Yankees capped an exhilarating postseason run with a 3-2 World Series-clinching victory over the Braves before 56,375 in Yankee Stadium, touching off a wild celebration that spilled onto the streets of a jubilant New York City and was sure to last into the wee hours of this morning.

Five days ago, after losses to Atlanta in Games 1 and 2, Yankee fans were bracing for a wake. But after closer John Wetteland got Mark Lemke to pop out with the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the top of the ninth, they’ll get to shower their heroes with confetti at Tuesday’s ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue.

“I don’t think you can ever prepare for the feeling you have out there when you win something like this,” said Wetteland, whose four saves earned him World Series most-valuable-player honors. “I’m still shaking. Even though I feel lucid in my head, my body feels like it’s out of control.”

Few expected the Yankees to be back in New York for Game 6, but they reeled off three consecutive victories in Atlanta, overcoming a six-run deficit in Game 4.

Then they returned to New York early Friday morning to news that Frank Torre, the brother of Yankee Manager Joe Torre, was about to undergo the heart transplant operation for which he had waited 11 weeks.

Then the Yankees, who had come from behind to win six of their last 10 playoff games, who won games in October that they really had no business winning, beat the Braves’--and baseball’s--best pitcher, Greg Maddux, in Game 6 to win their 23rd world championship.

It was the first time the home team had won a game in this World Series, and the first time since 1981, when the Dodgers beat the Yankees, that a team has won four consecutive World Series games after losing the first two.

“I’m a tremendous believer in destiny now,” said Yankee third baseman Wade Boggs, whose 1986 Boston Red Sox team suffered a devastating seven-game loss to the New York Mets in the World Series.

“Too many things went our way. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place too easily. It was eerie. It was getting to be ‘Twilight Zone’ kind of stuff. But I knew this time I was on the good side.”

A Texas Ranger throwing error gives the Yankees a victory in Game 2 of the American League division series. A 12-year-old fan reaches over the outfield wall, turning a fly-ball out into a Yankee home run, in Game 1 of the AL championship series.

A backup catcher hits a game-tying, three-run homer off one of baseball’s best closers in Game 4 of the World Series, and the Yankees win in extra innings.

A 28-year-old man from--where else?--the Bronx, dies of acute brain pressure, and his heart is a perfect match for the dying brother of the Yankee manager.

Nope, the Braves never had a chance.

“This is a dream--everything that has happened in the last 24-36 hours has been unbelievable,” said Torre, who won his first Series title after 31 years as a player and manager. “I thought about Frank as the game ended, but I think I ran out of tears in the Baltimore series. This is such an exhilaration.

“I guess I did think it was fated that we’d win, but I tried not to let that happen, because once you think it’s fate, you stop working. What made it happen were people like Wetteland and Bernie Williams and Cecil Fielder. Everybody had a piece of it.”

Starting pitcher Jimmy Key gave the Yankees 5 1/3 effective innings Saturday, baseball’s best bullpen came through with another sparkling effort, and the Yankees turned the third inning into a Little Chop Shop of Horrors for Maddux, who had shut out the Yankees in Game 2.

Paul O’Neill opened the inning with a double into the right-field corner and took third on Mariano Duncan’s grounder to second. The Braves brought their infield in, but catcher Joe Girardi, swinging at the first pitch, blasted a triple over Marquis Grissom’s head in center for a 1-0 lead.

Derek Jeter then lined a single through a drawn-in infield for a 2-0 lead, stole second and scored when Williams, who entered with a .100 Series average (two for 20), lined a first-pitch RBI single to center, pushing the lead to 3-0.

The Braves countered with a run in the top of the fourth when Key walked Jermaine Dye with the bases loaded, but Terry Pendleton bounced into an inning-ending double play on a 3-1 pitch, and the Braves managed only one clutch hit the rest of the evening.

Atlanta had Chipper Jones on third with one out in the sixth, but Yankee reliever David Weathers came on to strike out Javier Lopez on a nasty slider, low and away.

Weathers walked Andruw Jones, but lefty Graeme Lloyd came on to face pinch-hitter Ryan Klesko, who popped out to end the inning.

Klesko may have nightmares all winter about Lloyd, the 6-foot-7 Australian. Three times Lloyd came on to pitch to Klesko in crucial situations. The results: strikeout in Game 3, strikeout in Game 4, infield fly in Game 6.

Super setup man Mariano Rivera didn’t give up a hit in the seventh and eighth, and Wetteland gave Torre and Yankee fans his usual scare, giving up a run in the ninth before shutting the door.

Andruw Jones struck out to open the ninth, but singles by Klesko and Pendleton put runners on first and third. Wetteland struck out Luis Polonia on a high fastball for the second out, but Grissom singled to right, trimming the lead to 3-2.

Lemke popped a full-count pitch toward the third-base dugout, and third baseman Charlie Hayes got a glove on it before both he and the ball crashed to the dugout floor.

As Yankee Stadium trembled with excitement and anticipation, Lemke popped the next pitch into foul ground behind third. When Hayes clutched the ball for the final out in front of the railing, Girardi leaped into Wetteland’s arms, and the two were soon engulfed by teammates.

“That’s the way it should be,” Wetteland said, “one giant ball of humanity who strived for and reached a common goal.”

The Yankees, upon orders from Torre, then went on a spine-tingling victory lap around the field, as the public-address system blared Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” and Queen’s “We Are the Champions.”

Boggs hitched a ride on a police officer’s horse--”That was wild, like an E ticket at Disneyland,” he said--and players threw their hats into the crowd before heading to the clubhouse for a champagne-spraying party.

“This is what you work for your entire career,” Wetteland said, clutching the World Series trophy. “You watch this as a kid, you always wonder what it would feel like.

“It’s unbelievable.”

* JOE TORRE

Yankee championship comes on heels of an even bigger family triumph for the New York manager. C12

* BRAVES

Atlanta wonders how it all went so wrong so fast. C13

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

By the Numbers

WORLD SERIES TITLES BY TEAM

* Yankees--23 (1923, ‘27, ‘28, ‘32, ‘36, ‘37, ‘38, ‘39, ‘41, ‘43, ‘47, ‘49, ‘50, ‘51, ‘52, ‘53, ‘56, ‘58, ‘61, ‘62, ‘77, ‘78, ‘96)

* Cardinals--9 (1926, ‘31, ‘34, ‘42, ‘44, ‘46, ‘64, ‘67, ‘82)

* Athletics--9 (1910, ‘11, ‘13, ‘29, ‘30, ‘72, ‘73, ‘74, ‘89)

* Pirates--6 (1903, ‘09, ‘25, ‘60, ‘71, ‘79)

* Dodgers--6 (1955, ‘59, ‘63, ‘65, ‘81, ‘88)

* Red Sox--5 (1903,’12, ‘15, ‘16, ‘18)

* Giants--5 (1905, ‘21, ‘22, ‘33, ‘54)

* Reds--5 (1919, ‘40, ‘75, ‘76, ‘90)

* Detroit--4 (1935, ‘45, ‘68, ‘84)

* Braves--3 (1914, ‘57, ‘95)

* Orioles--3 (1966, ‘70, ‘83)

* Blue Jays--2 (1992, ‘93)

* Cubs--2 (1907, ‘08)

* White Sox --2 (1906, ‘17)

Indians--2 (1920, ‘48)

* Twins--2 (1987, 9’1)

* Mets--2 (1969, ‘86)

* Royals--1 (1985)

* Phillies--1 (1980)

* Senators--1 (1924)

YANKEE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

* 1923 (d. Giants, 4-2)

* 1927 (d. Pirates, 4-0)

* 1928 (d. Cardinals, 4-0)

* 1932 (d. Cubs, 4-0)

* 1936 (d. Giants, 4-2)

* 1937 (d. Giants, 4-1)

* 1938 (d. Cubs, 4-0)

* 1939 (d. Reds, 4-0)

* 1941 (d. Dodgers, 4-1)

* 1943 (d. Cardinals, 4-1)

* 1947 (d. Dodgers, 4-3)

* 1949 (d. Dodgers, 4-1)

* 1950 (d. Phillies, 4-0)

* 1951 (d. Giants, 4-2)

* 1952 (d, Dodgers, 4-3)

* 1953 (d. Dodgers, 4-2)

* 1956 (d. Dodgers, 4-3)

* 1958 (d. Braves, 4-3)

* 1961 (d. Reds, 4-1)

* 1962 (d. Giants, 4-3)

* 1977 (d. Dodgers, 4-2)

* 1978 (d, Dodgers, 4-2)

* 1996 (d. Braves, 4-2)