In the final Major League Baseball game of the 20th century, which took place 21 years ago today, the New York Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves in a four-game World Series sweep for their 25th franchise championship.
The title marked New York’s third in four years, after the Yankees had won the 1996 and 1998 World Series championships to establish one of the great dynasties in baseball history.
In the fourth and final game of the 1999 Series, Roger Clemens delivered 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball against the Braves offense and eventual World Series MVP Mariano Rivera secured the final four outs to seal the deal.
Led by manager Joe Torre in his fourth year at the helm, the Yankees finished the regular season with a 98-64 record to win the A.L. East in a year that saw David Cone toss a perfect game on July 18 against the Montreal Expos.
No team has managed to win back-to-back World Series since the Yankees did it in 1998 and 1999, and the following year their title streak extended to an astounding three straight championships.
The 1999 Series also marked back-to-back championship sweeps for the Bombers, which hadn’t been done since Joe DiMaggio’s Yankees achieved it against the Cubs and Reds in 1938 and 1939.
Derek Jeter was the Yankees’ most valuable player over the course of the regular season, slashing .349/.438/.552 with 23 home runs, 102 RBI and 134 runs in the heart of the mighty Bombers offense.
"I think this is a better team because we had to do it again to validate what we did last year," Joe Torre said after leading his team to a second straight World Series sweep.
In a century thoroughly dominated by the New York Yankees, the 1999 Series marked a fitting end for the club that came to be known as baseball’s “Team of the Century.”
