Things I still think about 22 years after covering Arizona Diamondbacks last World Series

The Arizona Diamondbacks may have been down this road before, but the path is different.

After a series of postseason upsets, the Diamondbacks will play in the World Series against the Texas Rangers beginning Friday, Oct. 27. It’s great — for both teams, really, two wild-card teams no one expected to advance this far, if they expected them to advance at all.

Everybody loves an underdog, though in this case it’s hard to pick one. They’re both defying odds just by getting here.

The last time the Diamondbacks made it to the World Series was wildly different. It was in 2001; they beat the New York Yankees in an all-time classic. They had two great pitchers in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, players like Luis Gonzalez, Jay Bell and more. The national media didn’t dismiss or, worse, ignore them because they couldn’t. The team was too good.

There will never be a World Series like 2001 again

In fact, there will never be a World Series like the one in 2001 again. We hope. So often you hear the cliché that a big game transcends the sport. It’s almost always bunk. But not in this case. Because the 2001 World Series was played under circumstances that once seemed unimaginable, and then, suddenly, horrifically, not.

The shadow of 9/11 was everywhere.

Stories about the hometown team playing in championship games become an all-hands-on-deck situation for local media. I was part of a big bunch of journalists who helped cover that World Series. I wrote about the broadcast for each game — how the Fox team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver called the games, how the network presented them, that sort of thing.

The first two games were held at what is now Chase Field, but was then known as the BOB — Bank One Ballpark. The Diamondbacks won both convincingly, which meant they went to Yankee Stadium with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

It didn’t matter. Everyone, seemingly, was waiting for the Series to get back to New York. Game 3 was played on Oct. 30. Ground Zero was still a gaping wound in the city, literally, and in the country as well. It’s difficult to explain if you don’t remember it, but everything was on edge. The World Series, in fact, was played later that year because games had been postponed after 9/11.

President Bush threw out the first pitch of Game 3

President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch at Game 3 — a convincing strike, made all the more impressive later when it was revealed that he was wearing a bulletproof best under his FDNY fleece jacket. Yet this was the world then. Of course he wore a bulletproof vest. It seemed like the impossible could now happen, because it had.

That’s about as dramatic as baseball gets, and it had nothing to do with the game.

Something lifted then. It’s hard to say what, but that moment seemed like something the Series and the country needed, some kind of catharsis. The world was still the world, but now the baseball part took on a level of importance, too.

The home team won every game. Arizona won the first two in Phoenix, the Yankees won the next three in New York, the Diamondbacks won Game 6 back in Phoenix, which meant that there would be Game 7 — the magic number when it comes to postseason drama.

And man, did it deliver.

Remember, Arizona only began to play in 1998, and the Yankees had been around forever, titans of the sport. While it wasn’t a true underdog situation, there was definitely a David and Goliath feel to the whole thing.

There is a thing that happens when you are covering a story, no matter how big. You are so wrapped up in deadlines and developments and checking your facts and trying to crank out readable prose in a short amount of time that you can’t always see the forest from the trees.

Luis Gonzalez's hit in Game 7 is unforgettable

I had two deadlines that night. I was writing, on deadline, about Game 7 of the World Series and about the 2001 Emmy Awards, which had been pushed back twice, once in the wake of 9/11 and a second time after the invasion of Afghanistan.

I couldn’t tell you without looking who won what, though I do remember Ellen DeGeneres hosting.

But I do remember Game 7.

Good problems: The Diamondbacks won't let Greg Schulte quit

Not every detail, of course — it has been 22 years. But there are two indelible moments for anyone who saw the game. One is the sight of Johnson emerging from the bullpen to pitch in relief for Arizona, one night after starting Game 6, a Herculean feat in baseball terms.

The other, of course, is the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Diamondbacks down 2-1. They managed to score a run on the practically unhittable Mariano Rivera, one of the greatest closers in history. And then Gonzalez hit his broken-bat bloop single to drive in Jay Bell to win the game.

Arizona had its first championship in a major professional sport. Cars honked on the streets of downtown Phoenix. And, weirdly, it began to rain.

The World Series may be exactly what we need right now

If you watched any of the Diamondbacks-Philadelphia Phillies National League Championship, you saw Gonzalez’s hit replayed several times. It’s one of the great highlights in the history of the sport. You’ll probably see it a lot more in the next couple of weeks.

In 2004, HBO made a documentary about the 2001 World Series, “Nine Innings from Ground Zero.” That’s the thing, this was baseball, but it was also more. It all just felt so big, so important. It was fascinating to cover, even more so to live through.

The world is increasingly divided along partisan lines. You can’t say 2+2 = 4 without someone claiming alternative facts and calling you an idiot, to boot. Who knows, maybe for a few games that’ll subside a bit. Maybe the rivalries will be limited to the field. Maybe not.

Baseball can’t cure everything. But as 2001 showed, it can help.

When do the Diamondbacks play again?

All games are on Fox.

• Game 1: Friday, Oct. 27, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Arlington, Texas.

• Game 2: Saturday, Oct. 28, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Arlington, Texas.

• Game 3: Monday, Oct. 30, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Phoenix.

• Game 4: Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Phoenix.

• Game 5 (if necessary): Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Phoenix.

• Game 6 (if necessary): Friday, Nov. 3, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Arlington, Texas.

• Game 7 (if necessary): Saturday, Nov. 4, at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) in Arlington, Texas.

How to listen to the Diamondbacks game

First pitch is at 5:03 p.m. (Arizona time) Friday, Oct. 27. Listen on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X, formerly known as Twitter: @goodyk.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How many World Series have the Diamondbacks won? Let me tell you