October 28th, 2001

On a warm Fall evening in Phoenix, the fans at Bank One Ballpark watched history in the making as one of their aces, Randy Johnson, made mincemeat out of the NY Yankees' struggling offense. As the game wore on, Johnson became sharper, fanning a total of eleven batters on the night. He threw a one-hitter through the seventh inning and got into a little no-out jam in the eighth, but a strike-out and a double-play took care of that rally.

It was questionable (to everyone but Randy) whether he'd be back for the ninth until Brenly sent him to bat first in the bottom of the eighth. To punctuate this decision, a Fox cameraman found a pertinent, if not inappropriate, banner in the stands that declared in huge black on yellow letters U Can't Yank R Johnson!. The shot was understandably brief, and someone may have lost his job, but it certainly captured the moment quite well.

These Arizona fans love their aces and they've come to expect these guys to pitch late into every game they play. Hell, they have to. The Diamondbacks' bullpen isn't exactly making headlines.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.