It was every game of backyard baseball ever played. Every kid who has ever pulled their father out to the yard after dinner on a late summer evening to toss an old ball back and forth knows about the bottom of the ninth. For a moment, watching Luis Gonzalez getting ready to take his swings, I remembered playing this very game with my father in my backyard.

"Ok, dad" I’d say, "it’s the seventh game of the World Series, bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded. I’m hitting, you pitch." Of course, strikes didn’t count in my backyard, and nobody ever lost. But in this game, someone always has to lose. This year it was the Yankees, the team that was supposed to bring a fourth consecutive World Series title to their ravaged city. Their destiny seemed to have been written by their miraculous three-straight comeback against the Oakland Athletics in the ALDS, and sealed by their near-sweep of the Seattle Mariners, the team that tied the 1906 Chicago Cubs for the most wins in the history of the game, to win the ALCS. This was the team that had won three postseason games with two-run homers in the bottom of the ninth, and yet they lost.

The victors were a 1997 expansion team composed of formidable veterans and promising rookies. They didn’t have many devoted fans because they had only existed for four years, but everyone knew that their starting pitching was fabulous. Ultimately, it was that pitching combined with some clutch hitting that won the Arizona Diamondbacks their first World Series championship.

Looking back at the series, one sees what a roller coaster ride it was from the beginning. In game one, the Yankees scored the in the top of the first on a double by Bernie Williams that brought Derek Jeter home from first. For a minute, it looked as if the Yankees were up to their old tricks again, but the Diamondbacks scored 5 runs in the first three innings, chasing Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina and securing the win with 8 strikeouts in 7 innings by starter Curt Schilling, and four more runs off Yankee relief.

In game two, Randy Johnson presented the Yankees with a 3-hit shutout. Johnson struck out 11 and did not allow a Yankee runner past second base all night. The only serious Yankee offensive threat was ended when Luis Sojo grounded into an around-the-horn double play in the eighth. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks scored four runs off Yankee starter Andy Pettite, three of which scored on a seventh-inning three-run homer by D’back third-baseman Matt Williams.

It was some good pitching by Roger Clemens that brought the Yankees their gem in game three. The Yankee right-hander gave up only three hits in seven innings while striking out nine, and held the Diamondbacks to only one run. The Yankees scored their two runs on a leadoff homer by catcher Jorge Posada in the second and on an RBI single by third baseman Scott Brosius in the seventh. Game three was "small ball" at its best, timely hitting, smart base running, and great pitching on both sides created a close, tension-filled game.

Games four and five brought the Diamondbacks heart-wrenchingly close to winning the World Series in New York. In game four, Curt Schilling went seven innings on three days rest and struck out nine, giving up only one run. Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenley then handed the game over to 22 year-old closer Byung-Hyun Kim who struck out the side in the eighth, but blew the save on a two-out two-run shot by Tino Martinez in the ninth, and lost the game on a solo homer by shortstop Derek Jeter in the tenth. Kim was to become the tragic figure of the Series when, in game five, he blew the save again on a two-out two run homer, this time by Scott Brosius. In that game, Diamondback pitcher Miguel Batista pitched his way out of trouble in the first, fifth, and seventh innings, and left after seven and two-thirds innings with a two-run lead which Kim blew in the ninth. That put the defending World Champions only one win away from their fourth consecutive title, but they were headed back to the desert for games six and seven.

Randy Johnson started game six, which quickly erupted as the Diamondbacks scored twelve runs in the first three innings, six of which were credited to starter Andy Pettite, who was chased in the third after he walked Greg Colbrunn and gave up a double to Matt Williams. Diamondbacks starter Randy Johnson held the Yankees to two runs, both of which were scored in the sixth inning, after his team had put up an impressive 15 runs and 19 hits.

All of this brought the Series to the critical game seven. One game was to determine the Champions of a season of baseball that had brought comfort to so many people while the world seemed to spin out of control. For the second time in the Series, Curt Schilling took the mound on three days rest despite rumors of serious soreness in his arm. He said before the game that he was confident that if Bob Brenley gave him the ball, the Diamondbacks would win. Schilling went seven and a third innings and struck out nine. He retired the Yankees in order for the first six innings, but allowed Derek Jeter to score on a single by Tino Martinez in the seventh. He then gave up a leadoff home run to rookie second baseman Alfonso Soriano in the eighth, which give the Yankees the lead and left the game after striking out Scott Brosius.

It appeared to be the end for the Diamondbacks, for the Yankees had the most automatic closer in the history of the World Series, Mariano Rivera. Rivera’s name had come to be synonymous with lights-out saves in the postseason, and Yankee manager Joe Torre had come to rely on Rivera for two innings a save. It was business as usual in the eighth when Rivera struck out the side, but the ninth inning was to be the greatest come-from-behind victory in recent baseball history.

Rivera took the mound and gave up a base hit to first baseman Mark Grace, who was promptly replaced at first by pinch runner David Dellucci. Catcher Damian Miller then advanced Dellucci to second with another base hit and was replaced at first base by Midre Cummings, and suddenly the Arizona crowd was back in the game. Brenley then sent Jay Bell in to pinch-hit for Johnson, and Bell bunted into a fielder’s choice to Rivera, which got Dellucci out at third. That brought Tony Womack to the plate with one out. Womack, who was one for four on the night, sent Rivera’s 2-2 pitch to the outfield for a double, which scored Cummings and tied the game. Rivera then hit Craig Counsell on the arm to load the bases for Diamondback home run hitter Luis Gonzalez.

This was the backyard baseball game of which I spoke earlier. To get to this moment one had to go through the roller coaster ride of wins and losses that makes up a seven game series. All the tensions of the entire season came down to this final moment. For the length of that one precious at-bat, the world was comprised of Rivera versus Gonzalez. Gonzalez fouled off Rivera’s first pitch for a strike, but sent the next one into shallow right center for a base hit, which scored Bell from third to win the ballgame, the Series, and the title for Arizona.

After the game, Gonzalez said that he was fortunate to live out the fantasy of every kid who has ever held a bat in hand. By acknowledging that fantasy, he nodded his head to every baseball game that had ever been played in a suburban sandlot or in the streets of Puerto Rico. During that one at-bat, every person watching that ballgame went back to their earliest memory of the backyard bottom of the ninth, and they got to feel like a kid again.

Someone once told me that baseball was a bunch of overpaid men in tight pants playing a game for a living. The person who said this has probably never played baseball in the backyard growing up, for if he had he would realize that in every toss of the ball, and in every crack of the bat, there is a memory.