October 13, 1960 Forbes Field Pittsburgh, PA World Series - Game 7 New York Yankees 9 Pittsburgh Pirates 10 Maz HR Sinks Yanks - Bucs Are World Champs ! Fifty-four years ago today, perhaps the greatest game in World Series history was played in Pittsburgh, as Pirate second baseman Bill Mazeroskis solo home run off Yankee reliever Ralph Terry to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Pirates a 10-9 victory over the Yankees to win the World Series 4 games to 3. To this day, Mazeroskis home run remains the only walk-off home run ever hit in a seventh and deciding game of the World Series. Here is a summary of this see-saw battle, from Wikipedia, accompanied by a 10:00+ minute highlight film of the game, narrated by Pirates legendary broadcaster Bob Prince. For the deciding seventh game, Bob Turley, the winning pitcher in Game 2, got the nod for the Yankees against the Pirates Vern Law, the winning pitcher in Games 1 and 4. Turley lasted only one inning. After retiring the first two batters, Turley walked Bob Skinner, then Rocky Nelson homered to give the Pirates a 2–0 lead. Turley was then pulled after giving up a single to Smoky Burgess leading off the second. Don Hoak then drew a base on balls against Bill Stafford, and Bill Mazeroskis bunt single loaded the bases. Stafford appeared to get the Yankees out of trouble after inducing Law to hit into a double play, pitcher to catcher to first. But Bill Virdons single to right scored both Hoak and Mazeroski and increased the Pirates lead to 4–0. The Yankees got on the scoreboard in the fifth on Bill Skowrons leadoff home run, his second homer of the Series. In the sixth, Bobby Richardson led off with a single and Tony Kubek drew a base on balls. Elroy Face relieved Law and got Roger Maris to pop out to Hoak in foul territory, but Mickey Mantle singled to score Richardson. Yogi Berra followed with a home run that gave the Yankees their first lead, 5–4. The Yankees scored two more runs in the eighth. With two out, Berra walked and Skowron singled. Johnny Blanchard then singled to score Berra, then Clete Boyer doubled to score Skowron. The Pirates opened the bottom of the eighth inning with singles by Gino Cimoli (pinch-hitting for Face) and Virdon (on a ground ball to short for what could have been a double play; the ball instead took a bad hop and struck Kubek in the throat, causing Kubek to be replaced). Dick Groat then chased Bobby Shantz (who had entered the game in the third and had pitched five innings, after not pitching more than four during the regular season) with a single to score Cimoli. Jim Coates got Skinner out on a sacrifice bunt, which moved the runners up. Nelson followed with a fly ball to right, and Virdon declined to challenge Maris throwing arm. Coates then got two quick strikes on Roberto Clemente and was one strike away from getting the Yankees out of their most serious trouble of the afternoon. Clemente eventually hit a Baltimore Chop towards first with first baseman Skowron and Coates trying to get to the ball at the same time at the cut of the infield grass. Clementes speed forced Skowron to just hold onto the ball as Coates, after trying to get the ground ball, could not make it to first base in time to cover. The high chopper allowed Virdon to score, cutting the Yankee lead to 7–6. Hal Smith followed with a three-run home run to give the Pirates a 9–7 lead. Ralph Terry relieved Coates and got the last out. Bob Friend, an 18-game winner for the Pirates and their starter in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the lead. Bobby Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long both greeted him with singles, and Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh was forced to bench the veteran pitcher in favor of Harvey Haddix. Although he got Roger Maris to foul out, Haddix gave up a key single to Mickey Mantle that scored Richardson and moved Long to third. Yogi Berra followed, hitting a short grounder to first, with Rocky Nelson easily getting the second out. In what, at the moment, stood as a monumental play, Mantle, seeing he had no chance to beat a play at second, scurried back to first and avoided Nelsons tag (which would have been the third out) as Gil McDougald (pinch-running for Long) raced home to tie the score, 9–9.[8] Had Mantle been out on the play, the run would still have counted if it had scored before the tag. With Mantle safe, the top of the ninth continued, but ended when the next batter hit into a force play. Ralph Terry returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. The first batter to face him was Bill Mazeroski. With a count of one ball and no strikes, the Pirates second baseman smashed a historic long drive over the left field wall, ending the contest and crowning the Pirates as World Series champions. As the Pirates erupted, the Yankees stood across the field in stunned disbelief. The improbable champions were outscored, outhit, and outplayed, but had managed to pull out a victory anyhow. Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying that losing the 1960 series was the biggest disappointment of his career, the only loss, amateur or professional, he cried actual tears over. For Bill Mazeroski, by contrast, it was the highlight. Mazeroski became the first player to hit a game-ending home run in the seventh game, to win a World Series. Thirty-three years later, Joe Carter would become the only other player to end the World Series with a home run, doing so for the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1993 World Series against the Pirates in-state rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, albeit in Game 6. Although most noted for the series-ending homer, Game 7 is also the only game in all of postseason history with no strikeouts recorded by either side. [Yankee second baseman] Bobby Richardson was named MVP of the Series, the only time that someone from the defeated team has been so honored. The NBC television announcers for the Series were Bob Prince and Mel Allen, the primary play-by-play voices for the Pirates and Yankees respectively. Prince called the first half of Game 7 and conducted postgame interviews in the Pittsburgh clubhouse, while Allen did the latter portion.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 12:48:50 +0000