Former Yankee Andy Pettitte recalls 1995 Kingdome collapse as catalyst for '96 title
Former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte looks on during spring training at George M. Steinbrenner Field on Tuesday in Tampa, Fla. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
TAMPA, Fla. – Andy Pettitte still remembers the deafening silence.
It filled the visitor's clubhouse at Seattle's old Kingdome after one of the most painful postseason losses in Yankees history: a 6-5 defeat in 11 innings, sealed by Edgar Martinez’s walk-off double against Jack McDowell.
The flight back to New York was just as quiet.
Yet, speaking Tuesday at Steinbrenner Field, where he is serving as a guest instructor, the former lefty and current team advisor noted that those moments of heartbreak were actually the seeds of the dynasty that would begin just one year later.
Pettitte, a rookie in 1995, became a rotation stalwart in 1996 for the Yankees, who snapped an 18-year championship drought.
“When I think about ’96, I think about the ’95 season immediately and how that one ended,” Pettitte said in an interview reflecting on the 30th anniversary of that title team. “We had a two-game lead [winning the first two games at Yankee Stadium before losing three straight in Seattle]. It was a heartbreak. I remember that clubhouse after that game and how much hurt there was there. To tell you the truth, you feel like the hunger starts there. You immediately realize how much it hurts to lose.”
When the Yankees reported to Legends Field (now Steinbrenner Field) for spring training in 1996 – their first season in Tampa after training in Fort Lauderdale from 1962-1995 – Pettitte said that hunger was even more pronounced.
Though captain Don Mattingly’s back forced him to retire after the ’95 season, it was a potent group of established big-leaguers like Tino Martinez, Mariano Duncan, Paul O’Neill, Joe Girardi and Wade Boggs mixed with emerging star Bernie Williams and a 22-year-old shortstop named Derek Jeter. Pettitte, then 24, ended up anchoring a veteran pitching staff that included Jimmy Key, Dwight Gooden and Kenny Rogers. The bullpen featured, among others, closer John Wetteland, Jeff Nelson, Bob Wickman and a 26-year-old setup man named Mariano Rivera. All of them led by first-year manager Joe Torre, who replaced Buck Showalter.
“The expectation was to win and to win a championship,” Pettitte said.
The Yankees went 92-70 to take the AL East by four games over the Orioles, then mostly cruised through the AL playoffs. They downed the Rangers in four games in the best-of-five Division Series and ushered out the Orioles (maybe with a hand from Jeffrey Maier) in five games in the best-of-seven ALCS.
Pettitte earned the win in the clinching fifth game in Baltimore, allowing two runs and three hits over eight innings of a 6-4 victory, but remembered the flight home more than the pennant-clinching celebration at Camden Yards.
“We won, I pitched well and you’re like ‘OK, you can exhale,’ ” Pettitte said with a laugh. “And then on the flight back to NY, Joe Torre calls me to the front of the plane and tells me, ‘Hey, you’re going to start Game 1 of the World Series.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, hang on a second. I just pitched.’ But since we won early, we had some time off and [World Series Game 1] was my fifth day.”
The World Series would soon take its place in franchise lore. Pettitte got blasted for seven runs over 2 1/3 innings of a 12-1 loss at the Stadium, causing an irate Steinbrenner to barge into Torre’s office afterward demanding answers.
“I told George that we might lose Game 2, but there was nothing to worry about,” Torre has recounted many times over the years. “We would go down to Atlanta and take care of business because Atlanta was my town [Torre had played and managed there].”
The Yankees lost Game 2 to Greg Maddox but, as Torre predicted, they responded in Atlanta. David Cone, injured most of the season, was brilliant in Game 3 and Jim Leyritz hit what Pettitte called a “momentum-changing” home run in Game 4 off Mark Wohlers. Pettitte then delivered what he has always said was “the turning point in my career,” outdueling John Smoltz in a 1-0 victory, throwing 8 1/3 scoreless.
“I had a little bit of success up until that point, but the World Series, I let get a little bit too big,” Pettitte said of the difference in “the egg I laid” in Game 1 and his Game 5 performance.
The Yankees clinched the series in New York two days later, winning 3-2.
“Extremely loud,” Pettitte recalled of the old Stadium that night. “It was incredible.”
As is the fact that it has been 30 years.
“No, it’s crazy,” Pettitte, 53, said before laughing again. “But I do have an eight-year old granddaughter. So anytime anybody says, ‘Can you believe [anything has been this long]?’ I’m like, ‘I’ve got an eight-year granddaughter, so I can believe it.’ ”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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