The ex-Cub factor, which I have never believed, had been working in reverse. In the first two games of the American League pennant playoffs and through the first inning of Game 3, two ex-Cubs, Todd Zeile and Rafael Palmeiro, had hit four of Baltimore’s five home runs.
Palmeiro connected in Game 1. In the second game, they each hit one, both good for two runs. And in the first inning in Game 3 Friday night, Zeile homered again. Two home runs apiece–certainly a good enough beginning for the Wrigley Field alumni.
Zeile tomahawked a Jimmy Key pitch with no outs after Brady Anderson had welcomed Key with a hard single to right. This gave the Orioles a quick 2-0 lead over the Yankees. The Birds were still in front after seven. If they could get six more outs without cost, they would take a 2-1 lead in games in this best-of-seven series.
And it would further confirm my contention that the ex-Cub factor is a myth, that the team with the most former Cubs is doomed to defeat. This theory probably could be applied to as many as 10 or 12 big-league clubs.
I’m not about to change my mind, but in the eighth inning, Zeile, who had driven in both Baltimore runs, helped throw the game away. He didn’t throw the ball; it slipped out of his hand. But the result was the same. The Yankees scored a run on the error to take a 3-2 lead and then it was curtains when two more runs clattered across on Cecil Fielder’s home run.
The details on the Yankees’ decisive four-run rally:
With two outs and nobody on, Derek Jeter doubled to right and scored on Bernie Williams’ single to left for a 2-all tie. Tino Martinez, next up, doubled to left. The throw came in to third baseman Zeile, who wasn’t quite certain what to do with the ball.
Zeile cocked his arm and was about to throw to second in an attempt to nail Martinez. But at the last instant he realized he had no chance. Martinez was into his slide.
“My arm was already up,” Zeile explained later. “So I tried a pump fake.”
Simultaneously, he had that sinking feeling.
“I felt the ball coming out of my hand,” Zeile added. “But I had no idea it was going to get away from me.”
But there was this comforting thought. He expected that the ball would merely drop in front of him, close enough so he could make a quick retrieve, which would hold Williams at third.
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But the ball took a high bounce–like a chopper on a hard-rock infield. Seeing the high bounce and aware the ball would roll away from Zeile, Williams took off for home.
“I didn’t think Bernie was going to go,” said first baseman Palmeiro. “And when he took off, I thought he’d be out. Inning over, score still tied at 2-2.”
But the ball not only caromed away from Ziele, it was not within the easy reach of shortstop Cal Ripken. Ripken finally caught up with the ball and threw it home, but the play wasn’t close and the Yankees were ahead by one.
As could be expected, Mike Mussina, a hard-throwing right-hander, was upset. Suddenly, Mussina’s pitching duel with Key had evaporated. Fielder’s home run, his first of the championship series, followed and Yankees were home free 5-2.
Key pitched a hitless eighth, stretching his string of consecutive outs to 11. John Wetteland, the Yankees’ star closer, came on in the ninth and didn’t allow the ball out of the infield.
“It happened pretty fast didn’t it?” said Davey Johnson, the Baltimore manager. “I suppose you can say that’s the beauty of baseball. You never know what’s going to happen next.”
Especially, when an ex-Cub is in the lineup.