Chad Curtis

Chad Curtis played outfield for the New York Yankees from 1997 to 1999, won two World Series rings, and is remembered for one of the wildest nights in franchise postseason history -- two home runs in Game 3 of the 1999 World Series, the second one a walk-off in the 10th, followed by Curtis refusing a live, on-camera interview in front of a national audience. He was a 45th-round pick who became, for one October, the most talked-about man in New York (for two completely different reasons, on the same night).

Path to the Bronx

Curtis wasn't supposed to make it. The Angels drafted him 1,155th overall in 1989 -- 45th round, the kind of pick teams make to fill out a farm system, not build one around -- after he bounced through two junior colleges and Grand Canyon University. He debuted with California in 1992, then got passed around: Detroit, a mid-1996 stop with the Dodgers, Cleveland to open 1997. He was hitting well for the Indians when Cleveland flipped him to the Yankees on June 9, 1997, for pitcher David Weathers (a journeyman reliever, if you're wondering why nobody remembers the other side of this trade) -- a deal that barely made news at the time and ended up being one of general manager Bob Watson's better bits of business.

Yankees Career

Curtis settled into left field and the top of the order almost immediately, hitting .291 with 12 homers and an .837 OPS down the stretch of 1997 -- his best baseball in pinstripes, even if it happened in half a season nobody remembers.

The numbers were never the story with Curtis. In 1998, he was part of a 114-win regular season roster that's still argued about as the best team ever assembled, though he barely played that October -- one lone ALDS appearance (he went 2-for-3), nothing in the World Series sweep of San Diego. He still got the ring (rings don't check your plate appearances). By 1999 he was a semi-regular again, and that's the year everyone actually remembers him for.

Two Swings, One Refusal

Game 3 of the 1999 World Series, October 26 at the Stadium, started badly. Andy Pettitte got roughed up early and the Braves led 5-1 through four. Curtis and Tino Martinez each took Tom Glavine deep with solo shots in the middle innings, trimming the deficit to 5-3. Then Chuck Knoblauch tied it 5-5 with a two-run homer in the 8th -- Curtis's first blast gets remembered as the tying shot half the time, and it wasn't, Knoblauch's was. Extras. Mariano Rivera held the Braves in the top of the 10th, and Curtis led off the bottom half against Mike Remlinger and hit his second homer of the night. Walk-off. Yankees 6, Braves 5. A guy drafted in the 45th round had just hit two home runs in a World Series game, one of them to win it.

Then came the part people still argue about. NBC's Jim Gray had grilled Pete Rose two nights earlier about his gambling ban during an on-field ceremony, and the Yankees -- by most accounts nearly the whole roster -- had quietly agreed not to talk to Gray for the rest of the Series. Curtis was the guy mic'd up after hitting the biggest homer of his career, and he was the one who said no, on live television, in front of the whole country.

George Steinbrenner wasn't thrilled. Joe Torre gave Gray a separate interview before Game 4 just to show the whole clubhouse wasn't as unified on this as Curtis's walk-off silence made it look. It didn't matter -- the moment stuck to Curtis for good, right alongside the home runs.

Legacy

He was gone from the Bronx before spring training 2000 -- a routine trade for two arms, not a punishment, whatever the timing suggests. Curtis played two more seasons in Texas and retired in 2001. Nobody outside diehards remembers the .263 average or the 41 steals. Everybody who watched October 1999 remembers the two swings and the refusal, and honestly, that's the trade-off you get for one perfect, chaotic night in the Bronx.