A Familiar Ring

This was the year the mighty Yankees of New York were supposed to be vulnerable, the year the Cleveland Indians or Atlanta Braves would snatch the championship from the Yankees because their pitching, hitting and defense were nowhere near as dominant as the team that steamrollered through the 1998 portion of their century-long joy ride.

As they love to say in the city that never weeps (for its Bronx-based baseball team): Fuhgedaboutit.

Already the undisputed Team of the Century, the Yankees added Team of the Decade and Team of 1999 honors Wednesday night, completing a sweep of the Atlanta Braves with a 4-1 Game 4 victory before 56,752 in Yankee Stadium to claim their second consecutive World Series title, third in the past four years and 25th in franchise history.

Yankee right-hander Roger Clemens’ 16-year pursuit of a World Series ring--not to mention his first World Series victory--culminated with a brilliant performance in which he gave up one run on four hits and struck out four in 7 2/3 innings, and closer Mariano Rivera picked up series most-valuable-player honors with yet another photo finish.

As Keith Lockhart’s ninth-inning fly ball nestled into the glove of left fielder Chad Curtis for the final out, the Yankees stormed the field and piled onto Rivera, just as they did after last year’s four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.

The victory also capped a remarkable two-year playoff run for the Yankees, who are 22-3 in the last two postseasons and have won 12 consecutive World Series games, tying the record set by the Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig Yankees of 1927, ’28 and ’32.

“We just swept one of the best teams in baseball, it’s special to all of us,” said Yankee right fielder Paul O’Neill, who broke down and cried at the end of a bittersweet game, the joy of another championship and the death of his father Wednesday morning proving too much to bear.

“Our pitching was tremendous, our defense, holy smokes, we got home runs when we needed them, big hits when we needed them. Sometimes I think this team wants to win more than others.”

O’Neill was standing amid a packed and champagne-soaked Yankee clubhouse, where owner George Steinbrenner, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and actor Billy Crystal, among others, joined in the revelry.

It was a lot more subdued in the Buffalo Bill, er, Atlanta Brave clubhouse, where a franchise that considered itself the team of the decade absorbed its fourth World Series loss of the 1990s. This one, however, may have been impossible to avoid.

“They were awesome, they did it all,” third baseman Chipper Jones said of the Yankees. “They played a perfect series. When they play a perfect series, they’re going to beat anyone.”

Clemens, the five-time Cy Young Award winner, wasn’t perfect Wednesday night, but he was close. He was so dominant the Braves hit only three balls out of the infield against him. Only one Atlanta runner reached second while Clemens was in the game.

It was a subpar 1999 by Clemens standards--14-10 and a career-high 4.60 earned run average--and the right-hander was bombed in his only American League championship series start. But he was in command from the get-go Wednesday night.

“Roger has been waiting for this opportunity--that’s what he came here for,” Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter said. “He saved his best for last.”

Clemens, who had a minor altercation with a fan outside Yankee Stadium after Monday’s workout, appeared to injure his right ankle on an awkward play in the eighth while covering first on Walt Weiss’ slow roller. He remained in the game, but after giving up Gerald Williams’ single, Manager Joe Torre pulled him for reliever Jeff Nelson.

Clemens received a rousing standing ovation, and when he doffed his cap, fans responded with chants of “Roger! Roger! Roger!” A hush then fell over the crowd when Nelson gave up Bret Boone’s RBI single to center, trimming the Yankee lead to 3-1. But Torre summoned the bulletproof Rivera, who got Jones to ground to second to end the inning.

Yankee playoff hero Jim Leyritz smashed a pinch-hit home run, his eighth career postseason homer, in the bottom of the eighth, and Rivera threw a scoreless ninth, breaking three of Ryan Klesko’s bats in the process.

Rivera had two saves and a victory in the World Series, and he closed the season with an amazing 43-inning scoreless streak, dating to July 21. The right-hander has given up two earned runs in 47 1/3 career playoff innings for an 0.38 ERA, the lowest ever among pitchers with 30 playoff innings.

“The ball comes out of his hand like a chain saw,” Jones said. “He’s breaking wood left and right.”

This Yankee season included many shattering moments--Torre being diagnosed with prostate cancer in spring training, designated hitter Darryl Strawberry’s arrest on drug and solicitation charges, the deaths of the fathers of third baseman Scott Brosius, utility player Luis Sojo and O’Neill.

Through it all they remained resilient, feeding off the adversity, drawing strength from each other.

“This team kind of represents New York,” Steinbrenner said before being doused by a champagne-wielding Jeter. “They’re mentally tough. This is a club that this city really should adopt. They’re battlers, and if you’re from New York, you understand what battlers are.”

The Yankees entered 1999 with extremely high expectations, bloated by a record 125-win season in 1998, and they struggled at times during a 98-win regular season. But when the playoffs started, the Yankees were every bit as dominant as they were in 1998, especially a starting rotation that outpitched the Braves.

“There’s no question this club was very, very special,” Torre said. “I know I’ve said that about the other three clubs I’ve had here, but having to validate what we did last year, one of those freak years where you win everything and everything turns out well . . .

“I thought winning 11 of 13 games [in the playoffs last year] was good, then all of a sudden we zipped through this postseason, which is only done because you have ability, and they know what to do with it.”

The Yankees didn’t exactly zip through Brave starter John Smoltz Wednesday night--the right-hander struck out 11 in seven innings--but Tino Martinez followed singles by Chuck Knoblauch and Jeter in the third with a hot smash that first baseman Klesko couldn’t handle, a play that was ruled a hit and scored two runs. Jorge Posada’s RBI single made it 3-0.

From there, Clemens and the Yankee defense took over. After Lockhart’s single to lead off the fifth, Eddie Perez grounded into a 5-4-3 double play.

Jeter ranged far to his left to field Williams’ sixth-inning grounder and throw the leadoff batter out, and Brosius, after fielding Jones’ two-out grounder at the third-base bag, made a leaping, one-hop throw to first in time for the out.

Things were going so well for the Yankees that even Knoblauch’s throws were reaching their intended targets. By the sixth, Yankee fans were mocking the Braves, using brooms to do the tomahawk chop.

Three innings later, the sweep was complete.

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DOUBLE SWEEPS

The Yankees are the only team to sweep soncecutive World Series, and they’ve done it three times.

1927-28: Led by Babe Ruth, the Bronx Bombers had no trouble sweeping Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

1938-39: Joe DiMaggio was the main star on the Yankee teams that dismantled Chicago and St. Louis.

1998-99: Mariano Rivera won one game and saved five of the other seven victories as the Yankees rolled past San Diego and Atlanta.

THE STREAK

The Yankees have won a record 12 World Series games in a row. They lost the first two games in 1996 (* 10 innings):

1996

Yankees beat Braves, 4-2

N.Y. 5, Atlanta 2

N.Y. 8, Atlanta 6*

N.Y. 1, Atlanta 0

N.Y. 3, Atlanta 2

1998

Yankees beat Padres, 4-0

N.Y. 9, San Diego 6

N.Y. 9, San Diego 3

N.Y. 5, San Diego 4

N.Y. 3, San Diego 0

1999

Yankees beat Braves, 4-0

N.Y. 4, Atlanta 1

N.Y. 7, Atlanta 2

N.Y. 6, Atlanta 5*

N.Y. 4, Atlanta 1

DOMINANCE

World Series titles

Yankees: 26.3%

Other Teams: 73.7%

*

Since World Series play began in 1903, the Yankees have won more titles thatn the next best three teams combined.

Yankees: 25

St. Louis: 9

Phila./Oak.: 9

Dodgers: 6

Boston: 5

Pittsburgh: 5

Cincinnati: 5

N.Y. Giants: 5