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Sporting News, The, Nov 6, 2000 by Michael Knisley

This was baseball for the true fans, rich in drama, full of subtlety, perfect to debate.

For the first time since 1989, neither World Series team scored more than six runs in a game. For the first time since 1915, every game was decided by one or two runs.

Every game but Game 2 was a thriller, and even that one featured Piazza-Clemens II, eight shutout innings by The Unstable One and a wild ninth-inning comeback by the Mets.

Game 1 was a 12-inning masterpiece. Games 3 and 5 were tied at 2 in the eighth. Game 4 was a postseason managing clinic by Joe Torre.

Memories?

Take your pick:

* Timo Perez's awful base-running blunder after Todd Zeile's near-homer in Game 1.

* Paul O'Neill's gritty 10-pitch walk to start the lying rally off Armando Benitez.

* Jose Vizcaino's unlikely late-inning heroics.

* Clemens' dominance in Game 2.

* El Duque's escape from a bases-loaded, none-outjam in Game 3.

* Derek Jeter's stunning leadoff homer, David Cone's possible last hurrah and Mariano Rivera's two-inning save in Game 4.

* Finally, the Yankees leaping out of the dugout to celebrate Luis Sojo's go-ahead single in Game 5, the gallant Al Leiter sitting inconsolably in the Mets' dugout and the final, breathtaking drive by Piazza falling a little bit short.

It wasn't a great World Series, not when it lasted only five games. But for those who love baseball, it certainly was a good World Series--good enough to watch. --Ken Rosenthal

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One play, which when it happened seemed largely inconsequential, illustrated the difference between the Yankees and the Mets in the Subway Series. It occurred in the top of the third in Game 4 at Shea Stadium, with the Yankees holding a 2-0 lead fashioned on single runs in each of the first two innings.

The Yankees' Derek Jeter led off the inning with a triple. Luis Sojo was the next hitter. As he stepped into the batter's box, he was surprised to see the right side of the Mets' infield playing back.

"This is the World Series," Sojo says. "I don't think you can give up any runs. Even (Mets' first baseman Todd) Zeile and (third baseman Robin) Ventura played back. I was thinking about bunting, about sacrificing the run home because Jeter is such a fast runner. But (first base coach) Lee Mazzilli said to try to hit the ball to second base, and I did. And you see that was the difference.

"I guess Bobby Valentine figured that three runs was not enough to beat them. But you never know what's going to happen."

Sojo's ground ball went straight to second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo. But from where he was positioned, Alfonzo had no play at the plate, and Jeter scored easily to put the Yankees ahead 3-0. In the bottom of the third, Mike Piazza hit a two-run home run for the Mets, and that's how the scoring ended. The Yankees won, 3-2. Sojo's groundout had knocked in the winning run.

During the regular season the Mets' defense probably would have conceded Jeter's run without a second thought, especially that early in a game. But as Sojo suggests, this World Series was so tight and so tense that every run seemed monumental. The Yankees went after those runs and protected against those runs more aggressively and more consistently than the Mets did.