PHOENIX – Hours before the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks made a memorable homecoming, Curt Schilling stood on the mound he once ruled, this time with his 1-year-old grandson Nolan, named after Schilling’s pitching idol.
Schilling gently helped Nolan mimic throwing a pitch, maybe one of those splitters that once devastated hitters. It was a heartwarming snapshot of the future and the past, a moment that captured the ceremonies Saturday at Chase Field.
As the former players, older and grayer, took in the festivities with their families, dressed in throwback purple jerseys, Schilling looked around at the ballpark where magic once happened and predicted, somewhat hopefully, that the grandson named after Nolan Ryan was going to be “a right-handed, mid-90s guy and a left-shot defenseman.”
It was a full circle moment on a day that had many.
On Saturday, the 2001 Diamondbacks returned to Chase Field to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their improbable World Series victory over the New York Yankees. The team was greeted with long and well-deserved applause as the players made their way down a red carpet rolled out for them.
Chase Field, once Bank One Ballpark, is a place where the Diamondbacks have always felt welcome, but 25 years ago, it was one of the few places they felt the love.
“Usually nobody outside of New York roots for the Yankees,” said Schilling, who shared MVP honors with fellow pitcher Randy Johnson in that series. “But it was different after 9/11, and we understood that.”
In the wake of terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center’s north and south towers on Sept. 11, 2001, the country was rallying around the city of New York and the three-time defending champion Yankees.
That was the backdrop against which the Diamondbacks chased their first title in just their fourth season of existence. But that series was about much more than the upstart Diamondbacks, who had joined the NL as an expansion team in 1998, or the Yankees, who were hoping to extend their dynasty.
Both teams were playing in a country still trying to make sense of the attacks. But as emotional as the circumstances surrounding the attacks were, the players still had a World Series to play.
“It was very emotional knowing everything New York had been through,” said David Dellucci, an outfielder on that 2001 team who attended the celebration. “We went to Ground Zero. We visited first responders and families who lost loved ones in the attacks. So our hearts went out to all of them.”
Schilling emphasized the impact the attacks had on the national mood.
“I think we became a lot closer as a country during that time,” Schilling said. “We were very united and patriotic.”
The Yankees had faced a great deal of adversity on their journey to the World Series that year. In the five-game ALDS they overcame a 2-0 deficit against the Oakland Athletics and went on to beat the Seattle Mariners – a team that had won 116 games during the 2001 regular season – in the ALCS.
The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, won the NL West, beat St. Louis in a division series and defeated Atlanta for the NL pennant to reach the World Series faster than any expansion team in history.
In any other circumstance, the Diamondbacks might have been the sentimental favorite.
“Even the players were torn because we knew how important it was,” Dellucci said. “But it was our job to go out there and play hard and try our best to win it.”
With the country watching and the weight of everything that had happened just weeks earlier still fresh in everybody’s minds, the Diamondbacks and Yankees took the field in a thrilling seven-game series.
Although the Yankees were three-time defending champions, the Diamondbacks were not intimidated.
“None of that stuff mattered to us,” Schilling said. “We were playing for a championship. We had a group of guys who had been around a long time and wanted to win.”
Arizona dominated the first two games played at Bank One Ballpark. They beat the Yankees 9-1 and 4-0 with Schilling and Johnson as the winning pitchers.
Then the series moved to New York, where President George W. Bush, wearing a bullet-proof vest under his jacket, threw out the first pitch before an emotional Game 3 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees won the next three, all one-run games and with two going to extra innings. However, with another blowout win – this time 15-2 – in Game 6, the Diamondbacks forced a Game 7.
Diamondbacks altered their scoreboards to look like it's 2001 as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of their World Series team
(via @Michael_Rokicki) pic.twitter.com/xxUGUrGZhM
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 20, 2026
It turned out to be one of the most memorable games in baseball history.
Schilling started on the mound and kept the Diamondbacks in the game, but the Yankees took a 2-1 lead in the eighth on an Alfonso Soriano homer, putting Arizona’s chance of winning a championship on the ropes.
Johnson, who shared series MVP honors with Schilling, started and went seven innings to win Game 6. Then he dramatically came out of the bullpen with the Diamondbacks trailing 2-1 to get the last out in the top of the eight inning and pitch a scoreless top of the ninth, setting the stage for Arizona’s bottom-of-the-ninth heroics against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
During Saturday’s celebration, as the Diamondbacks gathered on the mound, Johnson fittingly entered out of the bullpen in left field carrying the World Series trophy. It was one of several special touches for a day celebrating the Valley’s only major pro sports title by a men’s team.
Even when the script didn’t go according to plan on Saturday, the performers improvised beautifully.
Dr. Jesse McGuire’s trumpet gave out, so he audibled at the line of scrimmage at Chase Field. pic.twitter.com/ZmQ4NuUWbB
— José M. Romero (@RomeroJoseM) September 20, 2026
Later, Johnson recalled what the Diamondbacks were up against in that final inning.
“I remember walking off the mound after pitching the top of the ninth while we were still losing 2-1,” Johnson said. “I knew what Mariano Rivera had done in his regular and postseason career, so I knew it was going to be an uphill battle.”
The Diamondbacks had three outs to work with against Rivera, who had been all but unhittable. He entered that game with 23 consecutive postseason saves.
But Arizona rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, capped by Luis Gonzalez’s dramatic walk-off flare single that drove in Jay Bell for the winning run and completed the comeback.
For the players in the dugout, it was almost impossible to process the victory. They were moments away from losing the World Series and now they were rushing the field to celebrate a championship.
“I just watched everything unfold in the dugout,” Johnson said. “It went from not knowing if we were going to win to dogpiling on the mound. And from that point on, until the next month or so, everything was just surreal.”
For Dellucci, the Game 7 victory was everything for which he could have asked.
“As a kid, that’s what you always dream about is winning a World Series,” he said. “And we were able to do it that night, and not only get it done with our best friends and closest teammates, but also in front of our home fans.”
Even now, 25 years later, the 2001 World Series is remembered as one of the greatest in the sport’s history.
“There is no chance it’s not in the top two or three best of all time,” Schilling said. “I think if you go back and look at this series as a non-Yankee fan, it all happened perfectly. They won all three games in New York. Three amazing games. We had the Game 7 walk-off win and all the drama and emotion that came with it.”
A quarter of a century later, the legacy of that Arizona club lives on and the memories still remain fresh in the minds of the players.
“Twenty-five years goes by pretty quick,” Johnson said. “But it would be fun to do this again in 25 years or maybe sooner. The 2023 team came pretty close to winning another, but hopefully they’ll come close again and we can celebrate a newer one soon.”
The 2001 Diamondbacks’ World Series victory remains a defining moment in Arizona sports history, a victory shared by a team, a city and a country during an unforgettable time.
In a fitting crescendo to the 25-year celebration, the Series co-MVPs met in the infield to hoist the trophy once more.
Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling hoist the 2001 World Series trophy together as the Arizona Diamondbacks are celebrating the 25th anniversary of that team before they take on the Yankees tonight pic.twitter.com/FL0I0HbfKx
— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) September 20, 2026
They nearly sealed the moment with a kiss.
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