Randy Johnson’s Top 5 Arizona Diamondbacks’ Moments

Champions. Credit: arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com

Game 7

In terms of overall, competitive games, the 2001 World Series was ordinary with Arizona winning three of their contests by four or more runs, two of them by double digits. In terms of drama, few Fall Classics could match up with this one. There was the backdrop of 9/11. You had the Yankees on the brink of consecutive losses only to come back and win both games. You had New York trying to become the first team since their 1950’s ancestors to win four straight World Series. Throw in only the third Game 7 matchup in the span of 14 years, and you have one of the most memorable affairs of all time.

Johnson, who had thrown 104 pitches in seven innings the day before, was asked to keep New York at bay with two outs in the top of the eighth inning. Watching him come out of the bullpen was, to a Yankees’ fan, eerily similar to that scene six years earlier in Seattle. The script went the same way for the Bronx Bombers only this time with the highest of stakes. Unit retired all four batters he faced and then watched as the Snakes solved the greatest of them all, Mariano Rivera. I don’t think I need to tell you the scene at Bank One Ballpark in the aftermath of the biggest win in franchise history. For Randy Johnson, that relief stint may not have been the biggest personal highlight. However, to a D’backs’ fan, there was no bigger Big Unit moment than those bullpen doors swinging open.

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