OT: 55 years ago (Oct.14, 1960), Bill Mazeroski hit the historic. . .

[Kibitzer]

. . . home run that ended the World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates defeating the New York Yankees in Game 7, 10-9. An astonishing end to an epic series. Headline next morning in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"We Had Them All The Way!"​

(That was a lie, of course, but it was one helluva day in the old 'Burgh. I recall it vividly and have two signed photos of Maz's blast in my sports gallery.)

 

[vtcwbuff]

I remember running all the way home from school to watch the end of the game. I can still see Berra watching it go

As a Red Sox fan the outcome made my day.

 

[johnnyc]

The Mick cried over that one. He had a heck of a series including an outstanding play on the base paths to help tie up the game.

ttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/sports/baseball/01mantle.html?_r=0

But it was not to be. Great moment in Pittsburgh sports history. What a great moment for Maz who was known more for his defense. My earliest memories are from the next season 61. Years later I adopted Pittsburgh sports teams as my second favorite on the strength of the Steelers beating the Cowboys in those Super Bowls.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2010/columns/story?id=5676003

 

[stamfordhusky]

I too have Pittsburgh roots - and that was a GREAT day. But Kib, you've got the date wrong! It was October 13th.

One interesting thing about that game is that there were 19 runs, 30 base runners, 9 pitchers, plus an injury delay - yet the game took only 2:36. The same game today would run over 4 hours.

 

[johnnyc]

One interesting thing about that game is that there were 19 runs, 30 base runners, 9 pitchers, plus an injury delay - yet the game took only 2:36. The same game today would run over 4 hours.

And there were no strikeouts.

 

[Bonpland]

I watched it at a friends house after school and when Maz hit the homerun my friend tried tossing a pillow in the air to celebrate and it instead hit me in the eye and I had to wear an eyepatch to school for a week.

I can't remember if it was Maz or another Pirate who said when he was interviewed that "They set all the records but we won the series."

The Yankess had rolled the score up blasting the Pirates in their three wins but the Pirates managed to squeek by winning their four. The Yankees were a great team but Pittsburgh did just enough to win the whole thing.

Ralph Terry, a starter who had had a big year was in to try to hold 'em in the ninth, but Maz made Terry's name synonymous with the homerun and the loss and for a long time when his name was mentioned people tended to forget about his sucessful career and instead linked him to losing. (A little like the way people forgot what a fine hitter and player Bill Buckner had been before Mookie Wilson's ground ball made its way into right field).

For young people now it would be hard to believe just how big an event the World Series was in those days. Pro football then was far less popular than ML Baseball (and behind college football as well); It had been less that two years since Johnny Unitas had led the Colts to their first championship over the Giants in overtime (the event that is largely credited with ushering the NFL into their period of rapid ascendancy).

For adult men raised in the early part of the last century it was baseball and boxing that were the big draws with football, horse racing, basketball, hockey and track and field lining up in various ways behind the big two.

People talked about MLBB the way that football is discussed today. Nowadays a Thursday night NFL game between Tennessee and Oakland will draw a larger TV audience than the seventh game of the Series will, but when Maz was hitting his homerun everyone in the country knew about it; it was a major event.

 

[Kibitzer]

[/QUOTE="stamfordhusky, post: 1442914, member: 649"]Kib, you've got the date wrong! It was October 13th. There were 19 runs, 30 base runners, 9 pitchers, plus an injury delay - yet the game took only 2:36.[/QUOTE]

Good catch. I quoted the October 14 P-G headline. They used announcer Bob Prince's signature line ("We had 'em all the way!") that I have appropriated for Boneyard use - but only after nailbiters, NC wins or victories over ND.

[/QUOTE="Bonpland, post: 1442941, member: 6000"]A Pirate said when he was interviewed that "They set all the records but we won the series."[/QUOTE]

Gino Cimoli said it. The Yankees pummeled the Bucs unmercifully in their three wins (16-3, 12-0, and 10-0), but the Pirates squeezed three wins over the mighty Bronx Bombers to set the stage for the miraculous game 7.

 

[yanks61]

A bad hop and a Hal Smith 3 run homer tends to be forgotten. It set the stage for Maz.

 

[MilfordHusky]

As a Yankee and Mickey Mantle fan, I recall the shock and agony well. It was compounded by the relentlessly obnoxious fans on my mother's side of the family (from Pittsburgh).

 

[stamfordhusky]

A bad hop and a Hal Smith 3 run homer tends to be forgotten. It set the stage for Maz.

The Yanks' getting two runs to tie it in the top of the 9th - the second one in bizarre fashion - kept Hal Smith, the Pirates' backup catcher, from being recognized as one of the great World Series's heroes ever. Smith came up for his first AB of the game with two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the 8th inning, with the Pirates trailing 7-6. On a 2-2 count, he hit a long HR to left center - not easy to do in Forbes Field, which had the most outfield area of any ballpark - to put the Bucs up 9-7. Three outs from their first championship since 1925. When Smith hit that HR, the Pirates's probability of a win went from 30% to 93% with one swing of the bat.

 

[yanks61]

The bad hop was the double play ball that hit Kubek in the throat before Smith came up.

 

[donalddoowop]

The series was played in the afternoon and not at night. So was the All Star game.

 

[stamfordhusky]

The bad hop was the double play ball that hit Kubek in the throat before Smith came up.

Yes, before Smith's HR - but not right before. Bill Virdon, the second batter in the inning, hit the ball that Kubek couldn't handle. Smith was the 7th batter in the inning and hit the crucial HR. A key play was directly before Smith's AB, when Roberto Clemente beat out a chopper between the pitcher and the FB to prolong the inning. At the start of that 8th inning, the Pirates trailed by 7-4 and had a 5% chance of winning. When the inning ended, their win probability was up to 93%.

 

[stamfordhusky]

The series was played in the afternoon and not at night. So was the All Star game.

True, as were all World Series games in that era. Ironically the first night World Series game in history also took place in Pittsburgh - in the middle of the Bucs' win over the Orioles in the 1971 World Series. Roberto Clemente MVP.

Pittsburgh was also notable for having the first game that was broadcast on radio - KDKA in 1921.

 

[Kibitzer]

As a Yankee and Mickey Mantle fan, I recall the shock and agony well. It was compounded by the relentlessly obnoxious fans on my mother's side of the family (from Pittsburgh).

Cut a little slack - first WS win since 1925 - and in such a stunning fashion over the mighty Yankees.

Pittsburgh fans didn't become really relentlessly obnoxious until the '70's, when the Stillers demolition crew was called the Steel Curtain and sportscaster Myron Cope inspired the fans to tirelessly wave those ubiquitous Terrible Towels. Since then these fans are as raucous as Boneyarders. Everywhere.

 

[cohenzone]

What a horrible memory to dredge up. In those days, they were all day games. It was a big deal for teachers to let kids turn on their transistor radios to listen. I was in hs and school got out before that game ended. I walked home with a friend (Hartford had no buses) and we listened to my radio. It was a wild, back and forth, high scoring game. When NY went ahead late, my friend and I m, both NY fans thought we had it. Before we hit home, Maz sent us into a deep depression.

A year later, the Yanks played the SF Giants in the series. It went 7 games again and once again Ralph Terry was on the mound in the bottom of the 9th in game 7. With the Yanks up 1, I think, and SF with runners on 2nd and 3rd, big Willie McCovey came up. A hit would win the series. Terry had luck on his side that time and avoided being the goat 2 years in a row when McCovey creamed the ball, but on a line right at 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson. Terry was a very good athlete. He was a good hitting pitcher and went on to become a pro golfer including a tour stint if I recall