The 1999 New York Yankees have a problem, which is that they have to live between the 1998 and 2000 squads. On one side you've got the greatest regular season in the modern era (114-48, 125-50 combined, the whole mythology). On the other, you've got the Subway Series, the first all-New York World Series since 1956. The 1999 team -- 25th championship, second consecutive sweep, best record in the AL -- just sits there in the middle, quietly being the best team in baseball, completely forgotten.
This is unfair. The 1999 Yankees were genuinely excellent and genuinely weird and had the most emotionally loaded World Series clincher in dynasty-era memory. They deserve more than a footnote between their more famous siblings.
98 Wins and a Different Kind of Season
The '99 team didn't replicate the '98 season -- nobody could -- but that's a bit like saying they didn't fly to the moon on a rocket powered by champagne. They went 98-64, won the AL East, and scored 900 runs. Derek Jeter had what many people consider the best season of his career: .349, 24 homers, 102 RBI, 8.0 WAR, 153 OPS+. He finished third in the AL MVP race. (Sixth would have been an insult. Third was still an undervaluation, but fine.)
Roger Clemens joined the team that winter, acquired from Toronto in a move that made every Red Sox fan's blood pressure spike. He went 14-10, 4.60 ERA in his first Yankee season -- serviceable, nothing more. The ring he'd chase all those years in Boston was sitting in his locker by November.
And then there was Darryl Strawberry, who played parts of the season while fighting colon cancer diagnosed the previous October. He hit a clutch three-run homer against Texas in the ALDS. The Yankees had worn his number on their caps during the '98 playoffs. The man deserved his ring.
| Series Result | Yankees 4, Braves 0 (sweep) |
| Series MVP | Mariano Rivera (1 W, 2 SV, 0.00 ERA) |
| Rivera Series Line | 4 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 3 appearances |
| El Duque Game 1 | 7 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 10 K |
| Jeter Series AVG | .353 (6-for-17, 4 runs) |
| 1999 Postseason Record | 11-1 |
| Yankees' 25th Championship | Consecutive sweeps (1998 + 1999) |
The Road There
The only postseason loss in 1999 was ALCS Game 3 against Pedro Martinez, who struck out 12 Yankees in seven scoreless innings at Fenway. Two hits. That's it. (When you actually stop to look at what Pedro was doing in 1999 -- 23-4, 2.07 ERA, 313 K in 213.1 IP -- it's kind of amazing the Yankees went to the World Series at all.) They rallied to beat the Red Sox four games to one anyway, with El Duque earning ALCS MVP honors. Clemens started Game 3 and got roughed up. He'd get another chance.
The opponent was the Atlanta Braves -- who had appeared in five World Series in the decade, won exactly one (1995), and lost to these same Yankees in 1996. They had Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine, the most feared rotation of the era. They'd beaten the Mets in the NLCS. They were good. They were dead on arrival.
Game 1: The Cuban Aces No One Remembers
Turn your brain off and look at what happened in Game 1 at Turner Field. Greg Maddux -- four Cy Young Awards, generational command, the best pitcher of his era -- went out there and threw seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball. He was on. And the Yankees were losing.
On the other side of the mound, Orlando Hernandez was throwing something else entirely. Seven innings. One hit. One unearned run. Ten strikeouts. El Duque, the man who defected from Cuba on a raft nearly two years earlier, was dominating the NL's best lineup like it was batting practice. (History doesn't give El Duque his credit. He went 3-0 with a 1.20 ERA across the entire 1999 postseason -- ALCS MVP, WS Game 1 winner, the most reliable October starter the Yankees had. He was built for October.)
The Yankees scored four runs in the eighth to break Maddux, two of them unearned thanks to a fielding error. Rivera came on for the last two outs. Yankees 4, Braves 1. On to the next.
Game 2: David Cone Does His Job
David Cone had thrown a perfect game against the Montreal Expos that July -- Don Larsen was in the stands to watch it -- and spent the rest of the summer letting teams know the perfect game wasn't a one-off. He started Game 2 in Atlanta, Kevin Millwood went for the Braves, and the Yankees won 7-2 without much drama.
No drama is underrated, by the way. The 1999 Yankees were excellent at producing wins that don't generate much conversation. That was kind of the whole point.
Game 3: The Chad Curtis Game
And then there's Game 3, which was everything the first two weren't.
Andy Pettitte got hit. Hard. The Braves jumped him for five runs in 3 2/3 innings -- ten hits, multiple rallies, the kind of outing where the manager's phone starts getting warm from overuse. Atlanta led 5-3 through seven. In the Yankee Stadium crowd, people were doing the math on elimination scenarios. The Braves' "Big Three" had now authored two complete team masterpieces in three starts. Maybe Atlanta had something.
Then the eighth inning arrived, and Chuck Knoblauch had a word to say about it.
Knoblauch had famously developed throwing yips in 1999 -- inexplicable, maddening, couldn't throw to first base without the ball potentially landing in the stands. The jokes were everywhere, and he damn well knew it. He'd been moved to DH stretches, been a story all season. But he was still at the plate in Game 3 with Joe Girardi on base, and he turned on a Glavine pitch and hit it just over the right-field wall. Two-run homer. Tied at 5-5. Rivera came in and held it through the ninth.
Extra innings. Yankee Stadium in October.
In the bottom of the 10th, Braves manager Bobby Cox sent Mike Remlinger to face leadoff hitter Chad Curtis. (Chad Curtis, the outfielder who'd already homered once in this game.) On the third pitch -- a fastball over the middle -- Curtis hit a ball that kept carrying toward left-center, kept carrying, and landed in the visitors' bullpen near Monument Park.
Walk-off. Yankees 6, Braves 5.
Curtis flipped his bat and leaped into a crowd of teammates at home plate. Rivera, who'd been pitching at the time, got the win. And the Yankees were up 3-0.
Nobody remembers Chad Curtis. That's the thing about great dynasties -- the depth becomes invisible. But for one night at the Stadium, the journeyman outfielder with the weird name hit two home runs and finished the most dramatic game of the series with his bat in the air.
Game 4: Paul O'Neill Plays
October 27, 1999. Clinching game. Roger Clemens vs. John Smoltz at Yankee Stadium.
Earlier that morning, Paul O'Neill's father died.
Charles "Chick" O'Neill had suffered a heart attack back in June and spent the postseason in a hospital. When his condition worsened right before the Series, Paul started splitting time between the park and the hospital, playing through cracked ribs he'd suffered crashing into the right-field wall in September, playing through whatever combination of grief and adrenaline you use to get through October while your father is dying.
Chick died that morning. Paul's mother told him his father would want him to play. He played.
He went 0-for-3 with a walk. The Stadium gave him a sustained ovation he'll never forget. The whole team knew what was going on, and they played like it.
Tino Martinez singled off Smoltz with the bases loaded in the third inning, driving in two runs. Jorge Posada added an RBI single. 3-0 early, which with Clemens on the mound was effectively the ballgame. Clemens went 7 2/3 innings, five hits, one run, first career World Series win. Rivera got the last four outs. Final: 4-1.
The man who'd been chasing a ring in Boston for years, who'd come to New York in part specifically to win one, walked off the mound with his first World Series championship.
Mo Wins, Mo Takes the Trophy
Mariano Rivera won World Series MVP -- 4 2/3 innings, zero earned runs, 1 win, 2 saves across three appearances. He closed Games 1 and 4, won Game 3 when Curtis walked it off. The Braves -- who had Maddux, Chipper Jones, Brian Jordan, Andruw Jones -- simply couldn't score when he was pitching. (Nobody could. 1999 Rivera might have been the peak of an already-peak career, and that's saying something.)
The award was right. But here's the thing about winning the MVP when your team sweeps the World Series: everyone on the roster probably deserved it. Jeter hit .353. El Duque threw 10 strikeouts and barely allowed a hit. Cone won Game 2. Curtis hit two home runs in a walk-off extra-innings classic. This was a team that kept producing whoever needed to produce.
This was the second consecutive sweep, the first time that'd happened since the 1938 and 1939 Yankees -- the same franchise, 60 years earlier.
Three titles in four years. Core Four collecting rings: Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Pettitte, all of them now with three. The dynasty wasn't over. The 2000 Subway Series was coming. But in the middle of it all, in the year that nobody puts in the conversation first, the 1999 Yankees went 11-1 in the postseason, swept the best rotation in the National League, and closed it out for a teammate playing with cracked ribs and a broken heart on the same night.
They deserved the title. They deserved more credit than they got.
Game 1 (Atlanta): Yankees 4, Braves 1
El Duque throws 7 innings of 1-hit ball with 10 strikeouts. Yankees rally for 4 runs in the 8th off Maddux. Rivera saves it.
Game 2 (Atlanta): Yankees 7, Braves 2
David Cone wins on the road. Yankees jump Kevin Millwood early and coast to a comfortable win. Series lead: 2-0.
Game 3 (New York): Yankees 6, Braves 5 (10 inn.)
Pettitte roughed up for 5 runs. Knoblauch 2-run HR in 8th ties it 5-5 off Glavine. Chad Curtis hits a walk-off HR in the 10th off Remlinger -- his second HR of the game. Rivera gets the win.
Game 4 (New York): Yankees 4, Braves 1
Paul O'Neill plays hours after his father's death. Clemens goes 7 2/3 innings for his first World Series win. Rivera closes it. Yankees' 25th championship.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the 1999 World Series?
The New York Yankees swept the Atlanta Braves 4-0 to win their 25th World Series championship. It was the second consecutive sweep (after the 1998 Padres) and the third title in four years for the dynasty core.
Who was the 1999 World Series MVP?
Mariano Rivera won MVP honors with a 0.00 ERA across 4 2/3 innings, picking up one win (Game 3) and two saves (Games 1 and 4). He was the only pitcher on the staff the Braves simply couldn't solve.
Who did the Yankees beat in the 1999 World Series?
The Atlanta Braves, who had won the 1995 World Series and appeared in five Fall Classics that decade. The Braves had Maddux, Smoltz, and Glavine -- the most feared rotation of the era -- and went 0-4 against a Yankees team that was simply better in every game.
What happened in Game 3 of the 1999 World Series?
One of the better games of the dynasty era. The Braves led 5-3 through 7 innings after Pettitte got knocked around. Chuck Knoblauch hit a 2-run HR off Glavine in the 8th to tie it 5-5. Then Chad Curtis -- who'd already homered once -- hit a walk-off home run in the 10th inning off Remlinger. Yankees 6, Braves 5. Rivera won. Curtis flipped his bat and became briefly, gloriously famous.
Who pitched Game 4 of the 1999 World Series?
Roger Clemens started for the Yankees and went 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits in his first World Series win. It was the ring he'd been chasing for years, finally his in his first season in pinstripes. Rivera closed the last four outs.