Yankees Memorial Day Memories: 1991

The late 1980's and early 1990's were a tough time to be a Yankees fan. The team had been cast out into the loser's wilderness. Guys like Dallas Green, Bucky Dent, and Stump Merrill took the team nowhere.

Things would not turn around until George Steinbrenner was suspended in 1990 for conspiring with gambler/sleazeball Howie Spira to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield. That of course led to Gene Michael making the day to day moves to get the ball club back into contention for the first time since the early to mid-1980's. 

The Yankees won only 71 games in 1991, but on Memorial Day (May 27) of that season, the Yankees gave their home crowd a big thrill. The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry hadn't been much since the 1970's since either one or both ball clubs had down times in the time since. But the holiday weekend gave Yankees fans something to talk about it.

Mel Hall in happier times

New York sent Dave Eiland to the mound not as a pitching coach, but as their starter on a very hot Monday afternoon. Boston countered with right-hander Danny Darwin. After a scoreless 1st inning, the Sox jumped on Eiland for three runs in the 2nd, with the aid of errors by infielder Pat Kelly and outfielder Roberto Kelly. 

The Red Sox tacked on single runs in the 4th and 5th innings, the latter courtesy of a solo home run by first baseman Carlos Quintana. Meanwhile, Darwin breezed through the first four innings before Jesse Barfield touched him up for a solo home run in the 5th.

Two innings later Mel Hall went deep to cut the lead to 5-2, and two batters after that Barfield went yard again. Suddenly it was a two run ball game. It would stay that way until the 9th inning when Jeff Reardon came on to close things out for Boston. (The Yankees bullpen trio of Eric Plunk, Steve Howe, and Lee Guetterman had limited Boston to just one hit over the final 4.2 innings.)

Reardon didn't retire a batter. Hensley Meulens and Kevin Maas reached on back to back singles to bring the tying run to the plate in the person of Hall. The Yankees outfielder would later be banished from New York because of endless teasing of a young, sensitive center fielder named Bernie Williams, but on Memorial Day Hall would put his name in the Yankees' history books.

Hall drilled a 2-2 pitch into the right field seats for a walk-off (a term not yet coined) 3-run home run and a Yankees victory before just over 32,000 fans. It was just the Yankees 18th win in 41 games, but it set the stage for many dramatic wins that would unfold in the mid- to late 1990's.

Post Game Unfortunately, Mel Hall's post-career life has not been so joyous. Hall was convicted in 2009 of raping a 12-yr old girl he coached in youth basketball. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison with no chance for parole until half his sentence has been served. Hall will be 71 at that time.