Earlier this week, we took a look at some of the most celebrated homers in Yankees history, and when you have 27 world championships, it's pretty easy to pluck some great moments.
But in the interest of fair play, we also have to unearth a list of the most famous, or infamous, or notorious homers hit against the Yankees. Whatever adjective you choose to use to describe them, these seven such moments are Yankee-killers we hate to bring up, but have to.
7. Jose Altuve, 2019After winning the first game of last year's ALCS, the Yanks dropped the next three, and then won Game 5 to force the series back to Houston. Always a scrappy bunch, these Bombers clawed their way back from the jaws of defeat thanks to a two-run homer by D.J. LeMahieu that tied the game at 4-4. Then, Aroldis Chapman happened. With two outs and one man on in the bottom of the ninth, Altuve launched Chapman's slider way over the left-center field wall at Minute Maid Park, winning the game and the series, and sealing the only calendar decade during which the Yanks failed to reach a Fall Classic in 100 years.
6. David Ortiz, 2004The Yanks had a laughable lead, up three-games-to-none in the ALCS with Mariano Rivera – the greatest closer in any realm – on the mound ready to close out a sweep. Then, Dave Roberts happened, and the Sox tied the game going into extra innings. Two innings later, in the bottom of the 11th, Ortiz bashed the game-winning homer off Paul Quantrill, making the series deficit 3-1. It didn't feel like much at the time, but boy did that change in a hurry, and soon the slogan "Cowboy up!" would morph into a battle cry for the beleaguered BoSox.
5. Johnny Damon, 2004By Game 7 of the ALCS, the Yankees looked like Sisyphus, rolling the Red Sox close to the edge of their demise, only to have them rumble back down to turn a 3-0 deficit into a 3-3 tie in the series. Kevin Brown was pitching and doom was knocking, and after Ortiz blasted a two-run homer in the first, Brown loaded the bases in the second before being pulled for Javier Vazquez. Perhaps, in a reverse Grady Little, Joe Torre should've stuck with Brown, Damon crushed a Vazquez offering over the right field wall for a grand slam, bulging the Sox' lead in Game 7 to 6-0 and all but punching a most unlikely ticket to the World Series. This dinger basically ended the biblical Curse of the Bambino, and did it in impossible fashion against their tormentors for many of those 86 years.
4. George Brett, 1980Game 3 the '80 ALCS, with the Yankees down 2-0 in a best-of-five series, was a true back against the wall moment, but the home team took a 2-1 lead into the seventh inning of Game 3 at the Stadium. And then, with two on and two out in the top of the inning, Brett strolled to the plate, and launched a Goose Gossage fastball into the upper deck in right field. It wasn't one of those cheap shots that lefties got at old Yankee Stadium, either. This was a bomb, and the Royals finally solved the Yanks by sweeping the Bronx Bombers in three games.
3. George Brett, 1983Less meaningful in the moment, but more famous overall, as July 24, 1983's Yankees-Royals tilt came to be forever known as the "Pine Tar Game." For those who don't know, all couple of ya, the Yankees were leading the Royals, 4-3, with two outs in the top of the ninth, and Goose was on the mound again. Normally players cringed at Goose's size, violent delivery, and warp-speed fastball, but perhaps the lone exception was Brett, the bane of Goose's baseball existence. So when Brett belted a home run to take a 5-4 lead, the game seemed over – until Billy Martin popped out of the dugout and pointed out the gobs of pine tar on Brett's bat. The umpire took a look and then called Brett out, making Brett leap from the dugout and charge like a bull at Pamplona. A savage argument ensued, and the call was reversed a few days later, forcing the game to be resumed from the point of the homer. It's hard to think of any Yankees game with no playoff implications that is more renowned, recalled, and debated than the Pine Tar Game, but hey, it did give us Ron Guidry's only career appearance in center field.
2. Sandy Alomar, 1997After winning the 1996 World Series, the Yanks theorized they no longer needed closer John Wetteland because Mariano Rivera could handle the job. Even they didn't know, nor did any of us, that Mo would become the greatest relief pitcher in MLB history, but the road to Cooperstown still had its share of bumps. Game 4 of the 1997 ALDS against Cleveland was one of them, as with two outs in the eighth inning and the Yanks up, 2-1, Rivera gave up a rather rare homer to Sandy Alomar. That tied a game Cleveland eventually won (in a series they went on to win, the only one the Yankees would lose between the 1995 ALDS and 2001 World Series), and to this day, Mo says that wayward pitch made him what he became: the relief pitcher nonpareil.
1. Bill Mazeroski, 1960This would likely top any such list at any time: Game 7 of the World Series, bottom of the ninth. Even those of us who weren't alive or lucid at the time are still mesmerized by Bill Mazeroski's shot off Ralph Terry in the ninth inning, and the slow-mo replay of Yogi Berra jogging deep into left field, only to watch the ball sail over the Forbes Field wall. The Yankees won their three games in the 1960 World Series by 13, 10, and 12 runs, respectively, and while the Pirates won their four games by seven total runs, the only total that matters is the one in the games won column. And the last one, courtesy of Mazeroski, was (and still is) the only walk-off homer ever hit in Game 7 of a World Series.
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