(This story originally appeared in the Spring 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)
Just like we did for the 1996 team in 2016 and the 1977 team in 2017, we decided to run a year-long series of Q&A features with members of the 1998 Yankees for the entire 2018 season. We got things started pretty hot with Tino Martinez, whose unforgettable grand slam in Game 1 of the World Series set the Yankees on a course for a sweep over the San Diego Padres, a rout befitting one of the greatest teams in baseball history.
I caught Tino during an event in Florida, where he was speaking to students attending one of the Steinbrenner family’s annual holiday concerts, then reading “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (better known as “Twas The Night Before Christmas …”) while accompanied by a symphony orchestra. We chatted in his green room before the performance, and it was easy to tell how much Martinez enjoyed getting to look back at such an incredible career highlight. It’s mostly well-known at this point that up to that point, even through the wild 1996 run, Martinez had struggled in the postseason, even getting benched when the ’96 World Series moved to the NL park so that Joe Torre could keep his regular DH, Cecil Fielder, in the lineup.
The World Series grand slam, besides being one of those moments that literally every baseball fan has dreamed of in his or her backyard, is shown on the video board at Yankee Stadium enough that I can pretty much close my eyes and recall the entire at-bat. The key pitch, obviously, was the 2-2 offering, somehow called a ball (there’s no way it wasn’t a strike, sorry Tino). I had fun going back and forth with him about it, allowing him to maintain that it was a ball. Whatever. Baseball players are funny.
Anyhow, I can’t say that this broke all that much new ground, but it was fun to talk about an iconic moment in baseball history, part of a run by a team that is rightly celebrated among the sport’s elite. Hope you’ll enjoy.
https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/tino-martinez-recalls-yankees-dynasty/c-267270982?tid=163658034