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2009 World Series

The 2009 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2009 season. As the 105th[1] edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League (NL) and defending World Series champions, and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League (AL). The Yankees defeated the Phillies, 4 games to 2, winning their 27th World Series championship.

2009 World Series

October 28 – November 4

Yankee Stadium (New York)
Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia)

Hideki Matsui (New York)

Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (Fox)
Dave O'Brien and Rick Sutcliffe (MLB International)

ESPN
WCBS (NYY)
WPHT (PHI)

The series was played between October 28 and November 4, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of roughly 19 million viewers. Home field advantage for the Series went to the AL for the eighth straight year as a result of its 4–3 win in the All-Star Game. The Phillies earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the National League East. The Yankees won the American League East to earn their berth, posting the best record in the Major Leagues. The Phillies reached the World Series by defeating the Colorado Rockies in the best-of-five National League Division Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series (NLCS). The Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) to advance to their first World Series since 2003. As a result of their loss, the Phillies became the first team since the 2001 Yankees to lose the World Series after winning it the previous year. As of 2023, this is the most recent World Series to feature a defending champion.


Cliff Lee pitched a complete game in the Phillies' Game 1 victory, allowing only one unearned run, while Chase Utley hit two home runs. In Game 2, solo home runs by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui helped the Yankees win by a score of 3–1. After a rain delayed start, Game 3 featured more offense, with a combined six home runs and thirteen total runs en route to a Yankee victory. The Yankees won Game 4 by scoring the decisive three runs in the ninth inning after an alert base running play by Johnny Damon. The Phillies avoided elimination with a win in Game 5, aided by Utley's second two–home run game of the series. The Yankees secured their World Series championship with a Game 6 victory in which Matsui hit his third home run of the series. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series, making him the first Japanese-born player and the first full-time designated hitter to win the award. Matsui was the series' MVP despite starting only the three games that were played at Yankee Stadium, since the designated hitter position was not used in NL ballparks at the time.


Several records were tied, extended, or broken during this World Series, including team championships (Yankees with 27), career postseason wins (Andy Pettitte with 18), career World Series saves (Mariano Rivera with 11), home runs in a World Series (Utley with five), strikeouts by a hitter in a World Series (Ryan Howard with 13), and runs batted in in a single World Series game (Matsui with six).

Background[edit]

The Series started on October 28, 2009, which was the latest start in World Series history, beating the previous record held by the 2001 World Series (October 27).[52] Game 4 was played on Sunday, November 1 and the series-winning Game 6 took place on November 4. The Series was only the third to end in a month other than October. The first came in 1918, which was played entirely in September after the regular season was cut short due to World War I.[53] The other such series was in 2001, when the September 11 attacks caused a delay in the baseball season that eventually forced the end of the World Series into November.[54]


Earlier in the season Commissioner Bud Selig expressed interest in scheduling a World Series game during daylight hours instead of the evening.[55] The starting times were ultimately moved before 8 p.m. ET for the first time in 30 years, but no day games were played.[56][57] The Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL) played across the street from Citizens Bank Park at Lincoln Financial Field on the day of Game 4. The NFL moved that game's kickoff time to 1 p.m. to avoid it ending too close to the start of Game 4.[58] Similarly, Game 5 was played at Citizens Bank Park on the same day as the Philadelphia Flyers hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League (NHL) at the Wachovia Center. The opening faceoff of the hockey game was scheduled for 7 p.m. but the NHL moved it to 5 p.m. to avoid conflict.[59]


The umpires for the series were Joe West, Dana DeMuth, Gerry Davis, Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt.[60] The World Series crew had included at least 1 umpire who had never worked the World Series in 24 of the past 25 series; however, following several mistakes by umpires in earlier rounds of the playoffs, this crew did not.[61][62][63]


The Phillies had won the previous season's World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays for the franchise's second championship. The Yankees had lost their previous World Series appearance to the Florida Marlins in 2003 and had not won since 2000 against the New York Mets. This was the fifth Series played between teams from New York and Philadelphia, and was the first Yankees–Phillies matchup since 1950.[64] The series also was the fourth consecutive time that the Phillies would have faced a team from the current AL East in the World Series, while the Yankees had faced a NL East opponent in four of their five most recent World Series appearances.[1]


This Series had two unofficial nicknames: "Turnpike Series", for the New Jersey Turnpike, which connects New York to Philadelphia through the state of New Jersey,[33] and "Liberty Series", based on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and the Statue of Liberty in New York.[65]

This was the fourth postseason start of Lee's career. In all four starts, he went at least seven innings and gave up no more than one earned run. The only other starting pitcher ever to begin his postseason career with four such starts was .

Christy Mathewson

He was also the first left-handed starter to beat the Yankees in The Bronx to open a World Series since in 1963.

Sandy Koufax

He was the first starting pitcher to throw a complete game without giving up an earned run against the Yankees in Game 1 of a postseason series.

Lee was the first pitcher ever to strike out at least ten, walk no one, and give up no earned runs in a World Series start.

Broadcasting[edit]

For the tenth consecutive year in the United States, Fox Sports televised the Series. Joe Buck called play-by-play and Tim McCarver provided analysis. The Series was also broadcast on ESPN Radio, with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan calling the action. Fox Sports en Español also broadcast the Series for the US Spanish-speaking audience.[126] The flagship radio stations of the respective teams broadcast all Series games with their local announcers. In Philadelphia, WPHT carried the Phillies' English-language broadcasts, with Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen, Tom McCarthy, Gary Matthews, and Chris Wheeler announcing, while WUBA aired the team's Spanish broadcasts.[127] In New York, WCBS-AM carried the Yankees' English broadcasts with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman announcing.[128] This broadcast made Waldman the first woman to announce a World Series game on radio.[129] XM Satellite Radio offered multiple feeds of each game to its subscribers.[130]

2009 Asia Series

2009 Japan Series

2009 Korean Series

at Baseball Almanac

2009 World Series

at Baseball-Reference.com

2009 World Series

(box scores and play-by-play) at Retrosheet

The 2009 Post-Season Games

via Wayback Machine

2009 World Series official MLB.com page

New York Yankees championship page