Paul O’Neill stood at his locker in the visitors clubhouse at Bank One Ballpark and put his bats away. His 17-year career as a Major Leaguer was over.
Outside, Game 7 of the 2001 World Series still had nine outs to go, but there was nothing he could do about it after being lifted for a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth inning. As O’Neill put his bats in his locker, Mariano Rivera came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth against the Diamondbacks.
Like everyone else in the ballpark, he figured he was moments away from his sixth World Series ring and fourth in a row. The Yankees had taken a 2-1 lead on an Alfonso Soriano home run earlier in the inning after Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling delivered pitching performances for the ages.
“We had never lost a World Series so we were in a position mentally, it was like, ‘We’ve done it again,’ ” O’Neill, now a YES Network analyst, said this week. “Mariano’s in there. We’ve got a lead. The way things came about . . . it wasn’t meant to be.”
The Yankees returned to that ballpark in the desert last night, now known as Chase Field. It is the site of one of the most surprising defeats in Yankees history, alongside Bill Mazeroski’s home run in Game 7 of the 1960 Series.
For O’Neill, it wasn’t just a devastating defeat. It was the final game of his career. He had decided to retire earlier in the year, and the fans at Yankee Stadium gave him a sendoff in Game 5 of the Series.
Joe Torre chose to lift O’Neill for pinch-hitter Chuck Knoblauch in the eighth, with Randy Johnson pitching for the Diamondbacks in relief and O’Neill nursing a bum foot. As O’Neill retreated to the clubhouse, owner George Steinbrenner was in there screaming at workers for FOX, who were setting up the stage for the World Series trophy presentation.
Steinbrenner told them and MLB executives that they were going to jinx the Yankees.
“Obviously, they did,” O’Neill said.
In the Diamondbacks’ dugout, Mark Grace watched Rivera strike out three of the four batters he faced in the eighth, meaning he would lead off the bottom of the ninth.
Grace had faced Rivera twice before, grounding out against him in the 1997 All-Star Game and in Game 5 of that Series.
“He’s no nonsense,” Grace said. “You’re not looking for off-speed stuff. You just know he’s going to try to bully you with that cutter inside.”
He took a 92-mile per hour cutter for ball one, then sliced a single into center field. As Grace rounded first, Steinbrenner badgered the clubhouse attendants about the jinx. The comeback was on.
After two bunts, one that Rivera famously threw into center field, and a double by Tony Womack, the game was tied.
“When Mo threw the ball into center field we were like, ‘Oh wow, he never does that. Now we’ve got a chance,’ ” Grace said.
Craig Counsell was hit by a pitch, and Luis Gonzalez hit the most famous broken-bat bloop in baseball history to give the D’backs a 3-2 victory.
Grace jumped onto the field to celebrate, calling it the best feeling of his life. O’Neill stood stunned on the top step of the dugout, his career finished.
“You lose on a bloop single,” O’Neill said. “There’s a botched-up bunt play. Those are the things we usually did. They didn’t happen against us. When I walked away from that game you could only shake your head and wonder about the one that got away.”
brian.costello@nypost.com