1996 World Series Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

a memory evoked

Los Angeles rallied from a five-run deficit Wednesday night to win Game 5 — and the World Series — evoking a painful memory for Atlanta fans but no doubt a thrilling one for Hattiesburg native Charlie Hayes. According to baseballreference.com, the only other time a team has squandered a lead of five runs or more after five innings and lost a Series game was in Game 4 in 1996. The Braves, up 2-1 in the Series, led 6-0 after five innings but fell to the New York Yankees 8-6 in 10 at old Fulton County Stadium. Hayes played a role in the rally. He had an RBI hit in the three-run sixth and another knock in the eighth, when Jim Leyritz’s three-run homer off Mark Wohlers crushed the soul of Braves fans and tied the score 6-6. Hayes also reached on an error that scored the final run in New York’s two-run 10th. The former Forrest County AHS star went 3-for-5 in Game 4 — his only hits in the six-game Series — and three days later at Yankee Stadium caught the foul pop that closed out the Yankees’ championship. A midseason pick-up by the Yankees in ’96, Hayes played 14 years all told in the big leagues (1998-2001), batting .262 with 144 homers and winning the one ring. P.S. Dodgers first baseman and Mississippi Braves alum Freddie Freeman, 6-for-20 with four homers and 12 RBIs against the Yankees, was named the MVP of the 2024 Fall Classic, becoming the first Mississippi-connected player to win that award. No native or college alum has done so. … In the Arizona Fall League on Wednesday, Ole Miss product Tim Elko went 3-for-5 with a double, a homer (his fourth), four RBIs and three runs for Glendale. The Chicago White Sox prospect is hitting .267 in the AFL.

shining moment

Charlie Hayes had just three hits in 16 at-bats in the 1996 World Series, but what New York Yankees fans seem to remember is that the Hattiesburg native caught the foul pop that wrapped up the Yanks’ first championship in 18 years. The Yankees celebrated that title during their annual Old-Timer’s Game on Sunday at Yankee Stadium, and Hayes, now 51, was there with the likes of John Wetteland, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill, other heroes of ’96. Though Hayes played only 262 of his 1,547 career games with the Yankees, he’ll be forever linked with the boys in pinstripes thanks to that Series victory over Atlanta. In the Game 6 clincher, Mark Lemke hit the pop that settled into Hayes’ glove and sent him leaping into the air. “I think I’ve had over four million people tell me they were at the game, so, it’s kind of unique,” Hayes said in a story on mlb.com. Hayes, drafted by San Francisco out of Forrest County AHS in 1983, actually had many shining moments in a 14-year MLB career spent with five different clubs. He hit 144 homers, including 25 with Colorado in 1993, when he led the National League in doubles with 45 and batted a career-high .305.