In baseball, one man's pressure another man's dream come true

His team down a run in the bottom of the ninth, of the seventh game of the World Series, Mark Grace stood at home plate and stared out at Mariano Rivera.

Grace knew he was facing a Yankees closer considered by most to be the best postseason reliever in baseball history.

It was November 2001 and Grace was nearing the end of a terrific major-league career.

Pressure, which can do funny things to pro athletes, was at its very boiling point.

Some players, like some current Cubs, for example, go to pieces in moments such as these. Others overthink or freeze, and still others eat it up.

So what was Grace thinking about at that moment, the moment for which his career might be defined?

"Wiffleball,'' Grace said, without hesitation or a hint of sarcasm.

Wiffleball?

"We all played the game in our back yard or on the street, and in those games it was always the World Series and you were in Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field or Fenway Park and it's the bottom of the ninth,'' Grace said.

"That's what I was thinking. Except in this game, the bases were loaded, and that night we needed a baserunner.''

Funny thing about pressure, about the magnitude of postseason baseball, and what it can do.

It ruins careers, and makes others.

"It's really about your makeup,'' said Grace, who hit .329 in six career postseason series, including .647 in the 1989 NLCS when he was 25. "There's always pressure. I felt more pressure when it was May 15 and we were 7 games out already than I did in the playoffs.

"The playoffs were fun, even if you were nervous.

"There's two ways to take nervousness. You can channel it into fear, or you can channel it into excitement.

"The guys who channel it into fear are probably out of the game after not too long, and the guys who take it the other way become great players.

"Some guys want the ball hit to them with two outs in the ninth, want to be up at bat in that situation, want to pitch in that situation, and you'd be surprised how many guys want nothing to do with it.''

For Grace, it was nothing more than Wiffleball.

"Man, that was your dream as a kid, for it to be you at the plate in the World Series with the game on the line, with everything resting on your shoulders,'' Grace said, with a huge smile on his face, getting restless in his chair, feeling for a moment like he was there again. "So when it happens, are you going to run away, or relish the dream everyone in the world would want?

"It's every kid's dream come true and I'm not about to (bleep) that up.

"I marvel at the guys who fall apart because I … Look, I feel bad for them, but I think, 'Don't you love this?'

"I wanted to be there.''

Funny thing about pressure. Some step to the plate hoping not to fail, and others step to the plate knowing it's the very moment they waited for an entire lifetime.

In Game 4 of the '01 Series, Grace blasted a mammoth, upper-deck home run to right field in Yankee Stadium off Orlando Hernandez and could hardly keep from giggling as he traveled quickly around the bases.

Pressure?

Grace arrived at home plate as the potential tying run in the bottom of the ninth of Game 7 in Arizona … and stepped out of the box more than once to give himself time to enjoy the moment.

"I relished it. I loved it. I was grateful for it. I drank it all in and smelled it. I wanted to remember it. I wanted it to last awhile,'' Grace said. "I stood in the box and just thought to myself that I'm going to get on base. I have to get on base. By hook or by crook, I'm going to get on base.

"I'll take a pitch in the head if I have to. A concussion only lasts a month, right?

"Some way I was going to get on. I remember every single second of that inning.

"I flipped one into center field (for a single) and I'll never forget running off for a pinch runner. It was a great ovation, but that's when I got nervous because I was out of the game and had to watch. That's the hard part, watching, but it was great.

"After that basehit, you felt every ounce of energy switch from that dugout to our dugout.

"I knew then we were going to get Rivera, and we did.

"World champs, baby. Doesn't get better than that. Just doesn't.

"You can live forever, and it won't get better than that.''

Funny thing, that pressure.

"But it wasn't pressure. At least, that didn't feel like pressure. That felt like a gift, like a great opportunity,'' Grace said. "That's how I look at it. I was presented an opportunity that every kid dreams about, and few people ever get to live out the dream.

"I was thankful for the chance.''