2001 Series no nightmare for Torre

PHOENIX — It’s been nearly 15 years since the Yankees lost the 2001 World Series in seven games at what was then called Bank One Ballpark to the D-backs, and no matter what he says, Joe Torre will never get over it.

“We only needed one more run,” said Torre, the Yankees manager then and Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer now, to the crowd before Monday night’s renewal of the long dormant Yankees-D-backs rivalry at Chase Field.

Torre was one of the feature pregame speakers at the tribute for Joe Garagiola, who passed away at 90 on March 23. And that reference opened his speech. It played to mostly deaf ears.

Beforehand, Torre was asked if he minded returning to the scene of the Game 7 nightmare. The Yankees blew a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth with the great Mariano Rivera on the mound, Luis Gonzalez ending it on a dump single over the head of a pulled-in shortstop Derek Jeter.

“Nah, for the Yankees purists it was probably tough for them to swallow,” Torre said. “But it was probably the most exciting World Series. I think what happened on 9/11 set it up. There’s no question, it was a very emotional time. But I’ll take my chances any day with Mariano.”

That moment is the greatest in D-backs history and is played over and over again on the mammoth video board that hovers high above center field, including Monday night.

Not so much for the Yankees, who were on the verge of winning their fourth World Series in a row with the greatest closer in history on the mound. Rivera finished his 19-year …

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