There are many things that are given the apparition The Greatest. This, readers, as spring training games begin in baseball for the 2026 season, is simply the greatest home run of all time.
It's the bottom of the 9th- game seven, 1960 world series. It is tied 9-9 as the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates come to bat. It is October 13, and the clock in Forbes Field has just ticked to 3:36 PM. The greatest game in baseball history is about to experience the greatest ending.
Ralph Terry is on the mound for the Yankees. Second baseman Bill Mazeroski comes to bat. He is an exceptional fielder. Nobody turned the double play better. He is not a power hitter. He will end his career with 138 home runs and a .260 batting average.
The Yankees were baseball's powerhouse. The Pirates had great pitching, great fielding, a few power hitters and a budding superstar with a gun for an arm in right field named Roberto Walker Clemente.
By game seven the Pirates had won three games with the scores of 6-4; 3-2; and 5-2. The Yankees had blown out the Pirates in their three wins 16-3; 10-0; and 12-0. Game seven was a classic see-saw battle with strange things occurring like a pebble from a ground ball from Bill Virdon hitting Yankee shortstop Tony Kubeck in the throat allowing the Pirates, who were behind 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning to avoid a double play and go on to take the lead 9-7. The Yankees tied the game in the top of the ninth, and thus Maz walked to the plate in the bottom of the ninth about to make history.
Note the mistake in the call as Ralph Terry throws the second pitch the announcer calls him Art Ditmars, who was not on the mound. This series is also the answer to a great trivia question- name the only player on a losing world series team to be named MVP? Yankee Second baseman Bobby Richardson.
ReplyDeleteRIP. Too bad Nutting owns the Buccos now and has the team in perpetual disarray.
ReplyDeleteWorst owner in all of sports.
ReplyDeleteIf this series took place after 2002 the Pirates would have been batting in the top of the ninth. The Yankees had the better regular season record but back then MLB alternated which league had home field advantage.
ReplyDeleteJoe Carter also hit a walk off HR in the bottom of the ninth to win a World Series for the Blue Jays. Toronto entered the inning down 7-6. But that was a game six ending.
Great writing, Rumpole.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t George Costanza the assistant to the traveling secretary of this team??
ReplyDeleteHe was only 24 years old, when he got that hit, and I was 13 years old watching it. Thanks for the memory Rump.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Rump for those of us who are shopping around for convalescent homes. A few comments in dissent. The '60 Yankees were not the powerhouse that you describe. They won 97 games; the Pirates won 95. So they were equal. And this was their first pennant since '56. Mazeroski is one of the most undeserving players to be voted into the HOF. His numbers are not even close to HOF worthy. He got in only because of one home run. You say that the Pirates had great pitching that year. True. They were second in the NL but were first in team hitting. One (big) omission. Tough to talk about the '60 Pirates without mentioning their manager, Danny Murtaugh. He was at the helm from 1957 through 1976 and won two WS. He deserved to be in the HOF more than did Maz. Finally, and this is a big one, the most famous home run ever hit was Bobby Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world." Honorable mention goes to Carlton Fisk in the '75 series.
ReplyDeleteYou’re 100% wrong about Maz. The greatest defensive second baseman of all time. Holds the record for double plays turned. 5-6 gold gloves. As he said in his HOF acceptance speech defense deserves recognition in the HOF. His nearly 1800 double plays accounts for close to 1800 rbis. Plus, and I just learned this, he had over 2000 hits. He was consistently the best defensive second baseman in baseball from 1958-1970. And the wizard of Oz Ozzie Smith was elected to the HOF on his first year of eligibility the year after the year after Maz got in. And Ozzie didn’t get in in his bat. So your comment about Maz ignores that defense is equally important to baseball as hitting and pitching. Just see how the Yankees blew the 2024 series to the Dodgers and ask them if defense matters. Maz got in for 1000 reasons more than that home run. Actually over 1700 reasons more - his double plays record. Nobody and I mean nobody turned the double play better. To this day. He’s a clear HOFer.
DeleteBtw if you love baseball you don’t have to be an old as Mr Kolsky to argue about a player. I wasn’t alive when Maz hit the home run. But I’ve watched that series and game 7 is arguably the greatest World Series game ever played. I’d consider the Cubs World Series win as potentially equal. And a few others. And while Bobby Thompson’s shot heard round the world was great- and it’s another game played before I was born - I’d argue that Maz’s HR is greater. Just barely. And finally the Yanks had Berra at the end of his career. Micky Mantle. Whitey Ford. They were awesome. The Bucs had Clemente as their only superstar and some very good players like Hal Smith, Bill Virdon, Maz, and the vastly underrated Elroy Face - who also just passed away. Another player on that team that should be in the HOF. He was the first unhittable reliever who threw a splitter.
ReplyDelete“Win at all cost”
ReplyDelete