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REVERSING THE CURSE,
PART 1
THE NOMAR ERA BEGINS
Mo Vaughn's three HRs
bury the Yankees
May 30,
1997 ... After
Mo Vaughn's third home run of the game tonight, it was expected that
the Fenway Park crowd of 32,341 to give the Red Sox first baseman a
curtain call. Who could doubt him after he hit everything in sight on
a 4-for-4 night -- a line single off the Wall in the first, a home
run into the Red Sox bullpen in the third, a home run over the screen
in the fourth, and another shot into the corner of the bullpen
closest to the center-field triangle in the eighth.
Official
distance of Vaughn's home runs: 392 feet, 447 feet, and 410 feet. Total: 1,249
feet, or 71 feet shy of a quarter-mile.
O'Leary, who
had just six hits in his last 43 at-bats and one home run all month, started off
Boston's three-homer fourth off Yankee starter Mendoza, who came into the inning
having already given up seven hits, including Vaughn's first home run, and three
runs. Singles by John Valentin, Nomar Garciaparra, and Darren Bragg made it 4-0,
and out came Mendoza.
In came
Rios, a 25-year-old rookie making his big-league debut. Rios was born in Madrid;
if this had been a bullfight, it would have been called on account of blood. The
first strike Rios threw in the major leagues, Cordero hit into the left-field
screen for a three-run home run that made it 7-0. Then Rios went to a full count
on Vaughn, who went opposite-field and hit the next pitch onto Lansdowne Street.
Hatteberg
led off the next inning with another home run off Rios, who was spared one last
sword thrust when Reggie Jefferson's bid for a home run died on the warning
track to end the inning.
Vaughn, who
had homered in the bottom of the ninth Thursday night, gave fans something
they'll never forget when he led off the bottom of the eighth off Lloyd, an
Aussie, and hit one halfway to Sydney.
It wasn't
just the fans who appreciated what they saw here tonight, it was his teammates. |
