Diamondbacks Fans Can Celebrate An All-Time Moment Friday

The Arizona Diamondbacks have been around since 1998, but they were already a 100-win team playing in the postseason a year later.

Their biggest and most important year so far, however, has been 2001.

There is not a doubt in our minds, and you can ask around among their fans.

That year, the D-Backs earned their first (and only) World Series title, led by Luis Gonzalez and two workhorses in the rotation: Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

On this day, but 21 years ago, they made the impossible happen: they defeated the New York Yankees in the Fall Classic.

“21 years ago today, @Luisgonzo20 delivered a World Series title for Arizona,” the team tweeted.

21 years ago today, @Luisgonzo20 delivered a World Series title for Arizona. pic.twitter.com/5j5lk4cVZy

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) November 4, 2022

It took seven contested games for Arizona to prove they could become World Series champs.

An Awfully Close Series

Arizona took the first two games at home, then the series went to New York when the Yanks won all three contests.

Game 6 went to the D-Backs, setting the scene for a winner-takes-all affair in Arizona.

Roger Clemens, for the Yankees, and Schilling, for the home club, kept the offenses at one run after seven frames.

Alfonso Soriano homered against Schilling in the eighth, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

In the bottom of the ninth, Arizona would score two off All-World closer Mariano Rivera to stun the Yanks and win it all.

Gonzalez had the last hit, a blooper to the short field between shortstop and left field that Derek Jeter may have had a chance to catch had he not been playing in.

A wild celebration followed right there on the field, as the D-Backs had won the trophy just three years after being born.

The Yankees were coming off three straight World Series wins, too.

It was one of the biggest achievements in MLB’s recent history.