from the New York Times

October 21, 1998

By BUSTER OLNEY

SAN DIEGO -- The Yankees have been a team greater than the sum of its parts all year, and when they secured their own corridor in history Wednesday night, it was appropriate that a pitcher who had struggled in recent weeks pushed them over the finish line.

Andy Pettitte, dropped to the back of the Yankees' rotation for the World Series, applied the final piece to their mosaic Wednesday night, pitching seven and a third shutout innings and outdueling Kevin Brown in a 3-0 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 4.

In achieving their first Series sweep since 1950 and seventh in their history, the Yankees wrapped up their 24th championship and the second in the last three years.

The Yankees set an American League record with 114 victories in the regular season, then eliminated Texas, three games to none, Cleveland, 4-2, and San Diego, 4-0. The Yankees finished the year with 125 victories and 50 losses in the regular season and post-season combined, shattering the previous record of 118, Their winning percentage of .714 is the third best in history for World Series winners, behind the 1927 Yankees (.722) and the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates (.717).

The Yankees will be toasted by New York for the second time in three years in a parade through lower Manhattan Friday morning.

Scott Brosius, named the most valuable player in the Series, sensed as the ninth inning began that he would make the final play, and so it was: The Padres pinch-hitter Mark Sweeney grounded to third base, and after Brosius threw to first for the final out, he raised his hands into the air. Mariano Rivera, the Yankees' closer, dropped to his knees near the mound, and the other Yankees embraced and piled around him.

The catchers, Joe Girardi and Jorge Posada, jumped and high-fived each other, and they all hugged. Chuck Knoblauch, the smallest Yankee, was lifted off his feet over and over. The Padres' relievers walked off the field as the Yankees celebrated, and Rivera turned and embraced Trevor Hoffman, San Diego's closer, just before the Yankees retreated to their clubhouse to spray each other with Champagne -- the good stuff, as promised by the Yankees' principal owner, George Steinbrenner.

"This is as good as any team I've ever had," Steinbrenner said, his hair slick from Champagne. "This is as good as any team that's ever played the game."

Said right fielder Paul O'Neill, a member of the 1990 Cincinnati Reds, the last team to have swept the World Series: "This is a special team. The things we accomplished won't be done for a long time."

David Wells, the pitcher who threw a perfect game in May, pronounced this team the greatest ever. "Maybe someone will come along and beat our record," Wells said. "But this is history."

Players gathered in the clubhouse to hoist Champagne bottles and chant the name of Darryl Strawberry, who is recovering at his New Jersey home following the removal of a cancerous tumor. Then they called out Brosius' name, but Brosius was not there to hear it -- he was in the family room, to spend time with his family, including his father, who is being treated for cancer.

With the clubhouse packed, many of the players went back onto the field to yell and scream and hug again. Tino Martinez, cigar in hand, walked to the mound with his wife at his side and saluted the brigade of Yankees fans who gathered above the visitors' dugout. O'Neill hugged Derek Jeter. Hideki Irabu wandered aimlessly, cigar in hand. Pettitte grabbed teammates and thanked them. "I tend to think about the bad things," Pettitte said. "So this is definitely very gratifying for me."

Pettitte beat Kevin Brown, the San Diego ace, who began the game firing like a gunfighter. Throwing a variety of fastballs -- sinkers, cutters, four-seamers -- that ranged from 88 to 96 miles per hour, Brown dominated the Yankees early, needed only 45 pitches to get through the first four innings.

Pettitte was far less overpowering, but not any less effective, and he donned his own peculiar stare -- hat curled low as if to hide his eyes, mouth turned down, shoulders square. Right away, Pettitte learned that the baseball gods had been kind to him: He has needed a home plate umpire who will call strikes on fastballs low and away from right-handed batters. Durwood Merrill, the umpire in Game 2 of the A.L. division series, had an extremely wide strike zone and Pettitte thrived, allowing one run in seven innings. When Pettitte pitched Game 3 of the championship series, John Shulock interpreted the strike zone strictly, giving pitchers almost nothing off the outside corner; Cleveland pounded Pettitte for four home runs.

Pitching to San Diego's Quilvio Veras in the bottom of the first inning Wednesday night, Pettitte threw a sinking fastball low and away. Strike 1, said Dana DeMuth, the home plate umpire, and Pettitte had a target that he would throw to time and again. He would get 17 groundball outs, shutting out the Padres into the eighth.

The Yankees broke through in the sixth, with one out. Jeter hit a high bouncer toward shortstop and, running hard all the way as he always does, easily beat the throw from Chris Gomez. O'Neill, his World Series batting average hovering barely above .100, turned on a low fastball and pulled it into the right-field corner, the ball skidding on the hard outfield surface and reaching the wall. Jeter raced around second, turned at third and stopped, while O'Neill rambled into second base. With one out, the Padres' infield came in, an attempt to prevent Jeter from scoring the game's first run.

Bernie Williams, who acknowledged before the game that this might be his last with the Yankees, swung fully and bounced a high chopper off the plate, the ball caroming high into the air, toward the pitcher's mound; moving on contact, Jeter broke from third. Brown waited for the chopper to come down, then leaped and reached with his right hand to grab the ball.

Brown glanced homeward, but Jeter was already knocking catcher Carlos Hernandez off his feet with a slide across home, and Brown had to settle for an out at first. The Yankees scored 965 runs in the regular season and another 59 in their first 12 games of the post-season. This particular run had the potential to bring them the crown they sought since reporting to spring training in February.

The Yankees added two runs in the top of the eighth against Brown on two walks and two hits, including a run-scoring single that Brosius lofted softly over the head of the drawn-in shortstop. When the top of the inning was over, Brown walked off the field and sarcastically tipped his cap to an umpire, upset over an earlier call and defiant to the end.

The Yankees then had to survive one last scare in the bottom of the eighth. Pettitte walked Veras and allowed a single to Tony Gwynn with one out, and the crowd of 65,427 -- the largest ever to see a baseball game in this city -- screamed together, hoping for comeback. Jeff Nelson relieved Pettitte and whiffed Greg Vaughn, but when he fell behind Ken Caminiti, two balls and no strikes, Torre called for Rivera.

Caminiti lined a single to right field, loading the bases for Jim Leyritz, the former Yankee with a taste for cowboy boots and a penchant for post-season home runs, ambled to the plate, the potential lead run. But Leyritz lined out to Williams, an out that effectively finished the Padres and Brown and guaranteed the Yankees their legacy.

Later, Jeter's shirt and face were wet from Champagne, a bottle in one hand and a cigar in the other. "I'm a little young to know about the teams back in the early 1900's," said the 24-year-old Jeter, "but we were 125 and 50, and there's not too many teams that can say that."

Just one.