2000 World Series

The 2000 World Series, the 96th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, featured a crosstown matchup between the two-time defending champion New York Yankees and the New York Mets, with the Yankees winning four games to one for their third straight championship and 26th overall. It marks, to date, the last World Series with a repeat champion. It was the first postseason Subway Series since 1956. The Yankees were in the World Series for the third straight year, fourth in the previous five, and 37th time overall&mdash;the most of any team in the MLB, while the Mets made their fourth World Series appearance&mdash;the most of any expansion franchise in the MLB and its first since winning the title in the 1986 World Series.

Under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB and the new World Umpires Association signed in 2000, the traditional National League and American League umpire was discontinued. All umpires reported to Major League Baseball, with an interim uniform. During the 2000 playoffs, the new umpire uniforms (black and cream shirts), with the Major League Baseball logo on the caps and shirts, were used for the first time.

The Yankees were the first team to three-peat as champions since the 1972–1974 Oakland Athletics.

Game 1
Saturday, October 21, 2000 at Yankee Stadium (I) in Bronx, New York

The opener fell on two anniversaries. Twenty-five years prior, Boston Red Sox's catcher Carlton Fisk ended Game 6 of the 1975 World Series with his famous home run off the left field foul pole in Fenway Park in Boston to beat the Cincinnati Reds and force a Game 7. Twenty years prior the Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series title, defeating the Kansas City Royals in six games.

Game 1 was a match-up between postseason veterans Al Leiter and Andy Pettitte. Both starters pitched scoreless until the sixth inning when David Justice's two-run double put the Yankees on top. In the top half of the seventh, Pettitte would quickly lose the lead on a barrage of hits, the last by Edgardo Alfonzo to put the Mets on top. However, the Yankees would rally to tie the game on Chuck Knoblauch's sacrifice fly against Mets closer Armando Benítez. José Vizcaíno would drive in Tino Martinez in the twelfth inning with his fourth hit of the game to win it for the Yankees.

Game 2
Sunday, October 22, 2000 at Yankee Stadium (I) in Bronx, New York

In Game 2 Roger Clemens started for the Yankees. Earlier in the year during regular season Interleague play, Clemens had hit Mets catcher Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball that resulted in Piazza getting a concussion and going on the disabled list. Game 2 still saw its share of controversy with Clemens and Piazza. Early in the game during Piazza's first at bat, Clemens pitch had shattered Piazza's bat. The ball went foul, but a sharp edge of the bat came towards Clemens. Clemens came off the mound and threw the bat towards the baseline, almost hitting the running Piazza. Piazza was perplexed and baffled by Clemens' actions and many lambasted Clemens for his actions. Clemens, after the game, explained himself saying he did not see Piazza running and threw the bat because he was pumped up with nervous energy and initially charged the incoming broken bat, believing it to be the ball at first. Piazza hit a home run off reliever Jeff Nelson later in the game, but in the end the Yankees came away with a 6–5 win.

The Yankees' Game 2 win tied the longest AL winning streak in the World Series at ten games (the AL had previously won ten straight from 1927–29 and again from 1937–40).

Game 3
Tuesday, October 24, 2000 at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York

The Mets broke open a 2–2 tie in the eighth inning to go ahead and eventually win the game. This ended the Yankees fourteen game winning streak in World Series play dating back to the 1996 World Series.

Yankee hurler Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez earned the loss, snapping his previous undefeated postseason record of 6–0.

Game 4
Wednesday, October 25, 2000 at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York

The Yankees scored first on a first pitch solo home run by Derek Jeter. It is the sixteenth lead off homer in World Series history, also marked the thirteen-game hitting streak in the World Series for Jeter. Footage of this home run currently serves as the background for the title screen of YES Network's "Yankeeography" series.

Game 5
Thursday, October 26, 2000 at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York

The Yankees scored first on a Bernie Williams solo home run in the second inning. However, the Mets responded with two unearned runs off Andy Pettitte in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the sixth, Derek Jeter homered to tie the game at 2–2. In the top of the ninth, Luis Sojo hit a two out single off Mets' starter Al Leiter, the throw from center field hit Jorge Posada as he was sliding into home plate and went into the Yankees dugout, allowing Scott Brosius to score and Luis Sojo to take third base, putting the Yankees on top 4–2. In the bottom of the ninth, Mike Piazza faced Mariano Rivera as the tying run with two outs. Piazza hit a deep fly ball, but it was caught in the deepest part of the ballpark by Bernie Williams to end the game and give the Yankees their third straight world title and fourth in five years.

Game 5 was the final World Series game at Shea Stadium (,, and 2000). This would also be the only time that visiting teams won a World Series at Shea Stadium. (Mets lost in 1973 in Oakland). This World Series win was sense of revenge for Roger Clemens. He won the World Series in the same stadium he lost it at in 1986 while with the Yankees' fierce rival, Boston Red Sox. Adding further revenge, throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game were members of the Mets' 1986 team.

Composite box
2000 World Series (4–1): New York Yankees (A.L.) over New York Mets (N.L.)

Aftermath
It would be the last World Series title the Yankees would win for nine years; they lost the 2001 World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the 2003 World Series to the Florida Marlins. This was the final World Series the New York Yankees won while playing at the old Yankee Stadium, and the final World Series played at Shea Stadium. Both stadiums closed at the end of the 2008 Major League Baseball season.

Records

 * The 1998–2000 New York Yankees establish a record of ten consecutive games won in consecutive World Series. The previous record was nine by the 1937–1939 Yankees. Overall, the Yankees had won fourteen straight World Series games (starting with Game 3 of the 1996 World Series) breaking the mark of twelve straight by the 1927, 1928 and 1932 Yankees.

Radio and television
The World Series telecast on Fox was the first year of their exclusive coverage of the Fall Classic (although the new contract would technically begin the next year). As in previous World Series televised by the network, Joe Buck provided the play-by-play with Bob Brenly and Tim McCarver (himself a Yankees broadcaster and a former Mets broadcaster) as color commentators. Game 5 of the series was Brenly's last broadcast for Fox, as he left to become manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and, incidentally, go on to defeat the Yankees in the World Series the following year. Brenly returned to broadcasting in 2005 as part of the Chicago Cubs broadcasts on CSN Chicago and WGN, and also has called postseason games for TBS.

ESPN Radio's coverage was without Joe Morgan for a second consecutive year for reasons made unclear. Instead, Jon Miller shared the booth with Dave Campbell, ESPN Radio's Sunday Night Baseball color man. In 1999, Morgan was absent from ESPN Radio's World Series coverage because he was working the television broadcasts with Bob Costas on NBC. During Game 3, Miller was forced to leave the booth after the top of the first inning due to an upper respiratory infection. Charley Steiner, serving as a field reporter for the network, filled in on play-by-play for the rest of the game; Miller resumed his duties in Game 4 of the Series.

DVD
On October 11, 2005 A&E Home Video released The New York Yankees Fall Classic Collectors Edition (1996–2001) DVD set. Game 5 of the 2000 World Series is included in the set.