By Ron Cook
June 3, 2018
Bruce Kison runs into Dave Johnson in Game 4 of the 1971 World Series (Walter Ioss/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on Dec. 17, 1969, with 40 million people watching across America. Google the details. They are surreal and worth reliving. It was the second-most memorable wedding of my youth.
Bruce Kison’s was No. 1.
The details came rushing back when Kison died Saturday of cancer.
Like all of Pittsburgh, I was thrilled when the Pirates won the 1971 World Series, winning Game 7, 2-1, in Baltimore behind Steve Blass’ four-hitter. And, like all of Pittsburgh, I was worried that Kison wouldn’t make it back to Pittsburgh in time for his wedding that night. He did. Barely.
“He didn’t even congratulate me for pitching a good game,” Blass recalled Sunday. “He just said, ‘Thanks for making it quick.’ ”
A helicopter took Kison and best man, teammate Bob Moose, from Memorial Stadium to the Baltimore airport for a flight home on a Leer Jet arranged by Bob Prince’s friend, Jack Piatt. A police escort in Pittsburgh did the rest. Kison and Anna Marie Orlando of Verona were married as a concerned city relaxed and went back to its celebration.
“Why is everyone making such a big deal about the wedding?” Kison had asked a few days earlier. “If I can’t make it back to Pittsburgh Sunday, we’ll have to change it, that’s all.”
Kison really did have it all figured out during that World Series.
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