Sleeping awake -- A fan's game seven tale

Bill Mazeroski, Chris Chambliss, Joe Carter, Todd Pratt...

These players are in very good company, as they each ended a championship series with a walk-off home run.

The last one to do it was Pratt in 1999 when, as a member of the New York Mets, he ended Game 4 of the 1999 NLDS with a walk-off home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Joining that exclusive club at 12:17 a.m. this past Friday morning was much-beleaguered New York Yankees third baseman Aaron Boone, as he helped the Evil Empire live to see another day.

Boone capped off one of the most dramatic Game 7s in baseball history as the Yankees clawed their way back from as many as four runs to beat their longtime rival Boston Red Sox, 6-5.

It took 11 innings, almost four hours and one hanging knuckleball from Tim Wakefield to end the series.

However, that's not the beginning of my night. It actually began around 7:35 p.m. when I was in the residence of my oldest brother watching the New Jersey Devils raise their 2003 Stanley Cup Banner.

Premonition of sorts you might think if you live in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area.

I left his house at about 8:30 p.m., as I refused to watch the beginning of Game 7 because it seems like if I watch the game with my parents or my sister, the Yankees... well... they suck.

I didn't pay attention until about 9:00 p.m. when I got home. I turned on the game and it was 3-0 in the Red Sox and with Pedro Martinez cruising.

Calgon, take me away!

9:30 p.m. -- I learn that the Yankees score on a monsterous Jason Giambi solo homer. So Martinez isn't invincible! Did Don Zimmer come out and headbutt him?

10 p.m. -- 5-1, Red Sox. Martinez is still cruising. The Yankees have used three pitchers and David Wells gave up a homer to David Ortiz. To quote Rick Moranis as Dark Helmet in "Spaceballs," "Do something!"

(Note: It's now 9:20 p.m. Friday night and I'm on four hours sleep and a half-hour nap. But I'm still reminiscing.)

I turned on the game around 10:45 p.m. just as the bottom of the eighth started began.

Okay, another tangent: it's highly coincidental, but certainly ironic, that two longsuffering franchises could see their entire seasons collapse in the blink of an inning.

Although the Cubs' season didn't exactly end in Game 6, you could tell it was the start of the Great Cubbie Collapse of 2003.

A one-out double by Juan Pierre, then poor Steve Bartman's unfortunate walk into infamy, a walk of Luis Castillo by Mark Prior (which became a passed ball that advanced Pierre to third), Pudge Rodriguez's single, Alex Gonzalez's bobble, and finally Mike Mordecai's bases triple off of Kyle Farnsworth... and there was still one out in the inning.

Worst of all, Dusty Baker took out an overused Prior after he allowed the Marlins to tie the score.

Ok, my tangent is over, but one evening later came an almost mirror image of the Cubs' collapse involving a rally to tie the game.

A double by Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams' single to bring in Jeter, Hideki Matsui's ground rule double (because a fan touched the ball -- coincidence?), and Jorge Posada's blooper that scored Willliams and Matsui to tie the game.

Posada's blooper was exceptional because there were no Red Sox players covering second, and what should have been a single became a double.

This was all off of an ever-so-tiring Martinez, who was finally taken out by Grady Little after Posada's improbable blooper.

Giambi flied out, pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra (who the later-to-be-crowned hero Boone replaced as pinch-runner) was intentionally walked and Karim Garcia was walked on four pitches.
History repeated itself for the second time in three nights in an elimination game.

Mariano Rivera took the mound in the top of the ninth inning and, surprisingly, managed to pitch three consecutive scoreless innings.

He gave up three hits in that span, but none of them managed to score.

Then came Boone's home run on the first pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning to propel the Yankees into their 38th World Series appearance and sixth in the last eight seasons.

That's when I jumped out of bed and turned on the television for the final time in that very long night, to watch Yankee Stadium break out in unconditional pandemonium.

End game: 12:17 a.m.

By 1:30 a.m., I was asleep -- and awake again at 5:45 a.m.

Hey, a guy has to make a living.