victory over the Boston Red Sox for a trip to the World Series and their 39th American League pennant. Boone, who didn't start Game 7, homered on the first pitch from knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, who had two wins in the series and was making his first relief appearance.
The Yankees had been five outs from losing, when Jorge Posada blooped a tying two-run double off a tiring Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning. New York trailed 4-0 in the fourth inning and 5-2 in the eighth as Roger Clemens made an early exit in what looked to be the final game of his storied career.
But the Yankees bounced back, rekindling all those painful memories that have haunted so many Red Sox fans, thoughts of Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner and decades of New York domination.
This was the fifth pennant in six seasons for the Yankees, who haven't won the World Series since 2000, and the 26th time they played these old foes, a baseball first.
The final words of the ultimate chapter revealed it was the same old story, one that the Red Sox perennially curse: pinstripes in the World Series, despair back in Boston.
Only the names change in the annual fight between New York and New England, never the result.
Mariano Rivera didn't allow a run in his first three-inning appearance since Sept. 6, 1996. It capped a triumphant night for a New York bullpen that had failed so often. This time, it allowed just one run in eight innings, and Rivera walked off with the MVP award.
Wakefield, who relieved to start the 10th, had baffled New York with his knuckleball in Games 1 and 4 and started with a scoreless inning.
Boone, acquired from Cincinnati on July 31, then homered into the left-field seats, setting the old ballpark shaking. There wasn't a doubt from the moment it left his bat.
Rivera had probably pitched his final inning. Jose Contreras, who wasted a two-run lead in Game 6, was starting to warm up in New York's bullpen. Rivera had thrown 48 pitches.
Trot Nixon's two-run homer in a three-run second inning and Kevin Millar's solo shot in the fourth chased Clemens, who walked off slowly in what then appeared to be the final appearance of his storied career.
Jason Giambi, dropped to seventh in the batting order for the first time since July 1999, started the comeback with solo homers in the fifth and seventh innings.
A parade of New York relievers, including Mike Mussina in the first relief appearance
of his major league career, held Boston scoreless until David Ortiz made it 5-2 with a homer in the eighth on David Wells' first pitch of the game. Derek Jeter then sparked the eighth with a one-out double over Nixon in right, and Bernie Williams singled him home. Hideki Matsui followed with a double down the right-field line - on an 0-2 pitch - that put runners on second and third, and Posada looped a hit to center that scored both runners, with Matsui slapping the plate as he slid in and his teammates coming out of the dugout. Posada wound up on second base since no one covered the bag.
Martinez, who had thrown 123 pitches, was removed in favor of left-hander Alan Embree, who retired Giambi on a flyout. Mike Timlin came in and intentionally walked pinch-hitter Ruben Sierra and Karim Garcia unintentionally, loading the bases for Alfonso Soriano.
He hit a ball off the mound and it bounced to second baseman Todd Walker, who raised his glove, grabbed it and threw to second for the forceout.
Ever since the Boston sent Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, New York had ruled, winning 26 World Series championships while the Red Sox won none, a team supposedly cursed for selling the sport's biggest star.
The teams had battled on and off the field since December, when New York beat out the Red Sox to sign Contreras, prompting Boston president Larry Lucchino to call the Yankees the "Evil Empire."
For much of the night, it seemed this would be the night Boston would win a title in New York for the first time in 99 years, since a 3-2 victory at Hilltop Park on the final day of the season. In what could have been the final start of his storied 20-year career, Clemens got just nine outs and the six-time Cy Young Award winner slowly walked off the mound to the dugout, trailing by four runs.
But in Yankee Stadium's first Game 7 in 46 years, it was only the beginning.
The Red Sox, who finished second to the Yankees in the AL East for the sixth straight season, had come in with four straight wins in the postseason when facing elimination and seven of eight. After coming back from an 0-2 deficit against Oakland in the first round with three straight wins,
they became the first team to overcome a 3-2 postseason deficit with two wins at Yankee Stadium since the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1926 World Series. Clemens, who left Boston after the 1996 season and went on two win three more Cy Youngs, had little command of his splitter and repeatedly fell behind batters. He allowed four runs, three of them earned, and six hits in three-plus innings.
Martinez, a three-time Cy Young winner himself, didn't seem to have his best fastball, but kept getting ahead and mixing speeds. He had lost to Clemens last Saturday in a Game 3 remembered for brawls rather than baseball, but this time didn't get a decision, allowing five runs and 10 hits in 7 1-3 innings.
by George Sabo
Not a ballplayer was stirring, not even a scrub.
Their bats were all honed by the twilight with care
In hopes that Victory on the morrow be there.
The fans were all sleepless, not snug in their beds,
'Cause visions of Buckner danced in their heads.
And Grandpa in his jersey and I in my cap
Had just settled down, vainly to nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
We sprung from our beds to see what's the matter.
Away to the window we flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon in the sky behind the oak tree
Cast a glow of midday on all we could see.
And to our amazement, who should appear?
But the ghost of Bambino, his uniform unclear.
My grandpa turned white, this is the truth.
I rubbed my eyes and looked on Babe Ruth!
Solemnly he spoke, telling the reason he came,
"I was sold to the Yankees and that was a shame."
"First Shore and Lewis, the first one to go,
Next Leonard and Mays, but then came the blow.
The Babe has been sold, and all you will get,
Is one hundred thousand and 'No No Nannette.'
"They loved me in Beantown, it was so plain to see,
So clear to them all but Harry Frazee.
He needed the greenbacks to put in his purse,
And from that day forward you've suffered my Curse!
"You know the story, the long book of woe,
It started with Pesky when he held the throw."
My grandpa coughed and went for some water,
His throat had gone dry thinking of Slaughter.
"Galehouse and McCarthy, so goes the tale,
Caused many a schoolboy to wonder and wail.
Onward they toiled to that 'Impossible' trance,
Just to face Gibson, he gave them no chance.
"It was getting such a bore that I threw in some tricks,
Like that glorious night known to all as 'Game Six.'
With Fisk I gave you a moment of glee,
But, alas, 'twas Johnson who pulled Willoughby.
"A team should feel safe with such a great lead,
Yet August arrived and they started to bleed.
Take all prior visions, so twisted and bent,
Can they compare to the thought...Bucky Dent?!
"That this was so evil it was thought that the curse
Had drawn to its climax: '...It can't get no worse!'
But with no lessons learned they let go of Fisk,
They sent him away as if there's no risk.
"Now, I had only to surpass that moment of pain
To give you another no fan could sustain.
With one strike away, on the edge of your seat,
I gave you Bill Buckner and the ball through his feet.
"So why here in Boston should you not sleep,
Deprived of your victory, tommorrow to weep?
It's to remember the man who's caused you the guilt,
And to ask, 'Why wasn't Fenway the house that Ruth built?'"