Chipper Jones had many good times and great memories in New York and against the Mets. This week's Throwback Thursday takes an in-depth look at one of those positive memories: The 1999 NLCS.
The year 1999 was a dope year! Back then, 11-year old me was totally about four things: Pro wrestling, video games, OutKast, and sports. 1999 was the year when the single-greatest wrestling video game was released: WrestleMania 2000. My life was never the same after it came out. While 2 of my passions came together for one miraculous celebration of technological excellence and the 3rd was at the top of the rap game as far as I was concerned, my 4th passion's business was booming.
1999 also meant that the Atlanta Braves were still at the height of their powers, despite phasing out some of the old names from the beginning of the Divisional Dynasty in favor of new faces who were either ascending to superstardom (such as Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones), or other new faces who seemed to just explode onto the scene and then crash and burn almost immediately afterward (such as some dude on Survivor right now). It was a great time to be a Braves fan, and a 103-59 record in 1999 with their 8th consecutive trip to the NLCS (not counting the '95 season since, well, there was no NLCS) was evidence of that. Eat your heart out, St. Louis.
Meanwhile, there was a rabble being roused in the NL East. Let's be honest here: The Braves really don't have an eternal rival. Right now, we all "hate" the Nationals. In truth, we probably don't hate Washington, we just hate the fact that they're currently the primary threat to the divisional crown. It's been that way for a long time, and the villain of the moment in the late '90s/'00s was the New York Mets.
After spending most of the '90s being mediocre-to-bad, by the end of the decade, the Big Apple's Senior Circuit squad had finally gotten their junk together. After stringing together 2 winning seasons in '97 and '98, the Mets exploded for 97 wins in 1999. However, they needed every last one of those victories. Win #93 gave them a wild card berth (after the Braves clinched the division the night before). Win #96 came on Game 162 when the Mets beat the Pirates with a walk-off wild pitch, and win #97 came in Cincinnati, when they won a 1-game playoff to make it to the NLDS, where they dispatched of the Diamondbacks in 4 games, w/ their 3rd win coming in a 10-inning affair. So, to say that the 1999 Mets were all about drama would be an understatement, and they'd deliver far more drama in October.
The Braves probably expected to be in the NLCS, but judging by comments that Chipper Jones made in September after a supposedly back-breaking victory over the Mets (whose fans' futile efforts to rattle him at Shea Stadium were now in full tilt), they probably didn't expect to see the Mets there, either.
"Chipper Jones should "probably" receive the rudest welcome [for Game 3]," [then-Mets manager Bobby] Valentine said, after [Jones] said last month that "Mets fans can go home and put on their Yankees stuff."
If it seemed like the Mets were leaning on their fans to help them back into the series, it's because they were. The first 2 games in Atlanta went the Braves' way with little-to-no drama. Greg Maddux was still in his prime, which meant that Game 1 was basically money in the bank as far as a good pitching performance was concerned. The offense produced 4 runs, which was enough for a 4-2 victory. They put up 4 more in game 2, and did it all in the 6th inning of that game (off of Kenny Rogers. Keep that name in mind.), as the come-from-behind victory in Game 2 gave the Braves all of the momentum heading to Queens.
Game 3 at Shea Stadium was a pitcher's duel, but if you were in a pitcher's duel with Tom Glavine (as Al Leiter was on that particular night in October), then you were probably going to lose that duel. Leiter only gave up 1 run in the 1st inning, but that 1 run was enough for Glavine and the back end of the Braves bullpen (particularly the most hated man in New York at the time) to work with, and the 1-0 victory gave the Braves a commanding 3-0 series lead. The Braves actually came 4 outs away from a sweep before John Rocker (there, I've finally said his name) blew the 4-out save in the bottom of the 8th inning. The blown save gave the Mets a very small lifeline, but 3-1 is still a commanding series lead.
Then Game 5 happened. Remember when I said that Greg Maddux in the Postseason was money in the bank? Yeah, not so much, at least for the first inning, which is when the Mets jumped on him for 2 runs thanks to a homer by John Olerud, giving the Mets an extremely early lead. Thanks to an offensive flurry in the 4th inning which included doubles from Bret Boone and Brian Jordan and an RBI from Chipper Jones, the Braves tied the game at 2 in that inning. The game would remain tied for the next 10 innings. Yep, this one went all the way to the 15th inning, mostly thanks to one of the early precursors of "Barves" syndrome: They left 19 men on base over the course of this game (NINETEEN), including this moment in the 13th inning, when an abysmal decision to give Keith Lockhart the green light turned into the cutoff man's throw (who was given that chance thanks to a laser of a throw from Melvin Mora from the warning track) beating Lockhart to the plate by about 12 miles. The play wasted a double by Chipper Jones, and gave the Mets yet another lifeline.
Finally, in the 15th inning, the Braves cashed in one of those baserunners, as Lockhart made up for that naive effort int the 13th by hitting a go-ahead triple. The Braves were up by 1, once again had a chance to finish the Mets off. Bobby Cox gave the ball to Kevin McGlinchy, with a trip to the World Series in his hands. McGlinchy lost a long battle to Shawon Dunston for a leadoff single, then walked Matt Franco. A bunt from Edgardo Alfonzo moved the runners into scoring position, and that brought up John Olerud. Instead of facing the guy who hit a homer earlier, the Braves decided to take their chances with a guy who was previously famous for receiving that "I'm too old for this" brand of a beatdown from Nolan Ryan: Robin Ventura. The Braves shouldn't have taken their chances with Robin Ventura.
The ball that Ventura smashed into the light drizzle of the New York night sky after nearly 6 hours of grueling baseball was actually ruled a single because the rest of the Mets mobbed the man before he even reached 2nd base. However, the only people who cared about that were the people who had money riding on the over/under line; The important thing was that the Mets had staved off elimination for the 2nd straight game, which had their fans dreaming of their Mets possibly synthesizing another 1985-esque run. However, they still had to come back down south to the Ted, where they'd only won once all season. The Mets had the momentum, but the series was still firmly in Atlanta's control.
If Game 5 was a slow burn, then Game 6 was a smash-bang-clusterfudge of a game, as both teams made up for the long stretch of offensive futility in the previous game by lighting the scoreboard on fire. The Braves seemingly took all of the drama out of the game by scoring 5 runs in the 1st inning off of Al Leiter. So that's it, right? The Braves finally killed off the Mets at this point, right? Well, the thing about the Mets is that, when it comes to the Braves, they are annoying as hell, and the '99 Mets were especially annoying. A 5-0 lead after 5 innings in an elimination game was not enough to kill off this squad. The Mets got on the board in the 6th with a 3-run inning, but the Braves fired right back with 2 of their own to make it 7-3 after 6. The game was still in Atlanta's control, right? Well, if you're a fan of all of the local Atlanta teams, then you know that no big game involving an Atlanta team is over until it's completely over, which means that no lead is safe. In the 7th, the Mets let the Braves know just how frail their lead actually was.
In that 7th inning, the Braves sent in John Smoltz in what was a clear effort nip this comeback effort in the bud. Smoltz was unsuccessful, as the Mets lit him up with back-to-back doubles and a single to cut the lead down to 2. Now, Smoltz had to deal with Mike Piazza with a man on. Piazza had been battling injuries throughout the Postseason, but this was 1999, when sluggers of his ilk would've been a HR threat if they were going up there with only 1 leg and a wooden plank as a bat. And indeed, Piazza showed just how dangerous he was.
That dinger tied it at 7. The lead was gone, and that was probably the first legitimate moment of doubt for the Braves, as far as the series was concerned. Those doubts were exacerbated in the 8th inning, which is when the Mets actually took the lead. Yep, a 5-0 lead in the first inning eventually became an 8-7 deficit in the 8th. This had all of the makings of being yet another lame night in Atlanta sports history. Fortunately, the Braves fought back and tied it at 8, and the game entered extras once again.
By this point, the game (and the series) became a battle of attrition, especially as far as the bullpens were concerned. It was a complete slugfest, reminiscent of the end of Rocky 2, where two iron-willed forces were giving the other every last ounce of energy that they had and were basically reduced to stumbling in the middle of the ring, leaning on each other long enough to exchange haymakers while praying that the other side just decided to stay down. This is basically the best way to sum up the 10th inning of this game: The Mets gave John Rocker one last troll gift by scoring a run off of him to take the lead in the top of the 10th, but the Braves once again fired right back in the bottom half of the inning thanks to a RBI single from Ozzie Guillen off of Armando Benitez.
After the Braves held the Mets scoreless in the top half of the 11th, we entered the fateful bottom half of the 11th inning with Kenny Rogers as the Mets' new pitcher. The last time we saw Kenny "Not the Gambler" Rogers, he was busy getting lit up for 4 runs in 1 inning way back in Game 2. Now, the game was in his hands, and things went just as badly as they did in that inning in game 2. Gerald Williams led off the inning with a leadoff double, and a bunt from Bret Boone put Williams on 3rd with only 1 out. Kenny Rogers then proceeded to walk the next 3 batters he faced. The first 2 were intentional but the 3rd one wasn't.
At long last, the Braves had finished off the Mets, won the 1999 National League Pennant, and advanced to the World Series. Atlanta had finally delivered the death blow, and the Mets' date with the execution could no longer be avoided. Liberation for both sides, really.
***
Naturally, the Braves got swept in the 1999 World Series by a much better Yankees team. Nobody did making it to the World Series and losing there better than our Braves, and they were in rare form in '99. Meanwhile, the Mets ended up making it back to the NLCS in 2000, and because the Braves weren't there, they won and advanced to the World Series. They also got to enjoy running into the buzzsaw that was the New York Yankees at that point in baseball history. If it seems like this was basically the story of two teams who would ultimately get fed to the Yankees, that's because it was. There was no stopping that Yankees squad in the late '90s, and the Braves had a front row seat on two occasions.
However, that doesn't take away from the accomplishments that the franchise achieved during that wonderful decade. More relevant to this piece, that doesn't take away from the wonderful season that the team had in 1999. 103 wins, another divisional title, another pennant, and coming out on the victorious end of an emotional Postseason battle against (at the time) your hottest divisional rival is nothing to sniff at. I'm not going to say that I want to go back to those days because I'd rather not be 11 years old again, but good grief, what a fun time to be a Braves fan, right? Let's all hope as neutrals that the 2014 ALCS results in something nearly as fun as this series was, and as far as the 2014 NLCS is concerned? Maybe we should root for a comet?
In all seriousness, if any of this year's Championship Series can come close to the drama and intensity of the 1999 NLCS, then this October could shape up to be one that we talk about years later. But for now, keep this series and the '99 Braves in your mind as you enjoy the current Postseason.
(UPDATE: Our friends over at Amazin Avenue actually did a longform centered around Robin Ventura's Grand Slam Single, so if you want to stay in 1999, then click here.)