Yankees remember 2001

NEW YORK — Joe Torre won’t fight the feeling; he won’t even attempt to suppress the urge.

He’ll look out to the front of the mound, where Mariano Rivera picked up a ball and threw wildly to second base, giving the Arizona Diamondbacks an extra out in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.

He’ll look out toward shortstop and shallow left, where Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single dropped and enabled the Diamondbacks to take advantage of that extra out and score the winning run.

“I’ll think about it,” Torre said of the rush of emotions he knows will envelope him Tuesday when he brings his New York Yankees back to Arizona for the start of a three-game series.

“But it’s interleague. It won’t have the feeling of the World Series.”

And what a World Series that was.

After getting routed in the first two games on the road, the Yankees bubbled with emotion while representing New York in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and won three straight dramatic games at Yankee Stadium.

Andy Pettitte was shelled in Game 6, but Roger Clemens was stunning in his duel with Curt Schilling, and the Yankees were poised for victory when Alfonso Soriano put them ahead with a homer in the late innings.

“There are some good memories,” Torre said. “I’ll still take a one-run lead in the ninth inning with Rivera. We came that close to another championship.”

It would have been their fourth straight.

Returning to Arizona will cause the resurfacing of sad memories, too, and not just in losing a Game 7.

“We said goodbye to a lot of good people after that Series,” Torre said. “But, I don’t think had we won, it would have changed what happened.”

What happened were the retirements of right fielder Paul O’Neill and third baseman Scott Brosius — although Torre said had they won they might have considered coming back to try to extend the run — and the decisions not to bring back left fielder Chuck Knoblauch and first baseman Tino Martinez.

Torre said the organization pretty much decided to scuttle the struggling Knoblauch — prior to Game 7, Knoblauch spoke easily of wanting to return, but admitting, “I don’t think they’ll bring me back.”

And, despite Martinez’s dramatic, two-run, game-tying homer in the ninth inning of Game 4, “there was a feeling in the organization of wanting to go after Jason (Giambi).”

The Yankees’ offense operated sluggishly that season, with the hitters not working pitchers deep into counts and drawing walks as they had during the World Series run from 1998-2000.

Even had they won, the Yankees would have retooled, general manager Brian Cashman said.

“We had already made the decision (that) we needed to improve our on-base percentage,” Cashman said of the Yankees targeting of free-agent-to-be Giambi. “We knew we needed to upgrade our offense.”

The Yankees, despite winning four World Series in five years, and appearing in four straight, were in a rebuilding process after that Series.

Mike Mussina is the only starter remaining from that team; Rivera the lone reliever; catcher Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and center fielder Bernie Williams were also on that team.

Jeter said he still thinks about that game from time to time.

So does Williams.

“Hard,” Williams said. “That one was hard to swallow. We came so close.”

Despite all the turnover following that loss, the Yankees have come close since. If anything, the turnover is what might have helped most in the Yankees’ return to elite status.

They were bounced in the A.L.Division Series the following year by Anaheim, but returned to the World Series last year, and take into tonight’s game the best record in the majors.

“With other teams, you might get into the World Series once every 10 years,” Williams said. “But with the Yankees, with the talent we have, we thought we could get back there again in another year.

“That was a tough World Series for us to lose. It was hard to take, but it would have been a lot harder if we knew we couldn’t get back.”