Sunday, June 22, 2008
By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Post-Gazette
Bill Mazeroski arrives at home plate to end the 1960 World Series. On the Web: Go to post-gazette.com for a video reminiscence of the series.
This time around, it's not Mantle, Maris, Kubek, Richardson or Ford with the New York Yankees.
It's not Clemente, Groat, Virdon, Mazeroski, Law, Friend, Face or Cimoli with the Pirates, either.
This time around, it's Jeter, Matsui, Damon, Rodriguez and Rivera with the Yankees.
And it's Bay, McLouth, Sanchez, Wilson, Doumit, Snell, Gorzelanny and Capps with the Pirates.
And, yes, it will be June, 2008, not October, 1960. Especially not Oct. 13, 1960.
Technically, that is.
But for fans, the three-game series starting Tuesday at PNC Park -- the first Yankees' visit since that amazing World Series -- certainly will have a 1960 feel to it.
The powerhouse Yankees were favored to win the World Series.
"You had to be impressed with the Yankees," Pirates shortstop Dick Groat said recently. "It was not an accident that that organization dominated the American League."
The Pirates hadn't played in the Series since 1927 -- when they were swept by the Yankees in four games.
Each team would produce a Most Valuable Player in 1960. Yankees right fielder Roger Maris won in the American League; Groat, who also won the batting championship, won in the National.
And the Pirates also would have the Cy Young award winner in Vern Law. (Back then, there were not separate Cy Young awards.)
Going in, it seemed as if it might be a pretty even World Series.
"We were underdogs in the media's mind," Pirates center fielder Bill Virdon said. "In our minds, we felt like we had a chance. I don't think there's any question about the level of talent on the two clubs. I think they had the best talent overall."
"You have to remember we were an absolutely unique baseball team," Mr. Groat said. "We kind of believed we weren't supposed to lose -- that we were invincible, that we were a team of destiny."
Still, these were the Yankees.
"Man for man, if you matched up by position, it looked like we had the better team," Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek said in an interview. "But teams are reflective of their manager and I knew Danny Murtaugh was scrappy. They were a team that was going to be extremely competitive."
'We out-dumbed them'
In retrospect, that the Pirates would win the World Series seemed obvious in the first inning of the first game at Forbes Field.
"There were so many little things in that Series, subtle things," Mr. Kubek said.
And most of them went in the Pirates' favor.
For example, that first inning.
The Yankees had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a home run by Maris -- meaning a home run would account for the first run and the final run of the Series.
The Pirates got off to a good start in their half of the first when Virdon walked. That brought up Groat.
Throughout that season, Virdon and Groat were outstanding at the top of the order. They had a hit-and-run sign that Groat would flash to Virdon if he felt he could hit the ball to right field. It was entirely up to Groat.
The Yankees had scouted the Pirates thoroughly down the stretch and knew about the play.
Scout Mayo Smith told the Yankees: "When that play's on, Groat never misses the ball. Don't cover second."
The Yankees's plan was to concede Virdon the base and hope to make a play on Groat.
Groat immediately flashed Virdon the hit-and-run sign, then had second thoughts.
"I was so nervous in my first trip to the plate -- I grew up here, I was a Pirate fan, it was the World Series," Mr. Groat said. "I put the sign on and then [decided] I wanted to take the first pitch, so I took the sign off."
But Virdon didn't see Groat take the sign off.
On the pitch, Virdon broke for second. Neither Kubek nor second baseman Bobby Richardson made a move toward the bag. Catcher Yogi Berra threw a strike to second, but the ball zipped into center field.
Virdon wound up at third.
"It worked out wonderfully," Mr. Groat said. "We out-dumbed them."
He then doubled, starting a three-run first for the Pirates, who would score the deciding runs in the fourth inning on a two-run home run by Bill Mazeroski in a monumental bit of foreshadowing.
Yankees dominate
There was nothing subtle about what happened in the next two games. The Yankees pounded the Pirates in both, winning, 16-3, in the second game at Forbes Field, then cruising, 10-0, in the third game behind Whitey Ford's four-hitter at Yankee Stadium.
"It's funny the way they scored so many runs," Mr. Mazeroski said. "Usually when you score 16 runs, the next day you score one."
The back-to-back routs put the Pirates in danger of failing to get the Series back to Forbes Field, but on the strength of solid starting pitching by Law and Harvey Haddix, the Pirates won the next two games in Yankee Stadium by scores of 3-2 and 5-2, with Elroy Face getting saves in both games.
However, the Pirates couldn't close out the Yankees in the sixth game back at Forbes. Once again, they ran into Ford, who scattered seven hits, and the Yankees offense, which produced a 12-0 romp.
So now this Series would come down to a final game.
"We were in pretty good shape," Mr. Virdon said. "We had a pretty good pitcher going."
Law would start for the Pirates. Bob Turley, who won the second game, would start for the Yankees.
The next day, Oct. 13, offense would dominate pitching big-time.
Post-Gazette
OCT. 13, 1960. The Yankees' Yogi Berra is put out at first in the second inning of Game 7 in the World Series against the Pirates at Forbes Field. Playing first for the Bucs is Rocky Nelson.
No game for starters
Neither starting pitcher fared well in the seventh game.
The Pirates built an early 4-0 lead, and Turley gave way to young Bill Stafford in the second inning.
Law lasted into the sixth, by which time the Yankees had rallied to go ahead, 5-4.
"The only way pitchers were getting guys out was on 400-foot fly balls," Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry said. "It was like a slow-pitch softball game."
Trailing 7-4 in the bottom of the eighth, things began to turn in the Pirates' favor.
Gino Cimoli began the inning with a single off left-hander Bobby Shantz.
Virdon followed with a hard bouncer right at Kubek.
"When I hit it, I said, 'Uh, oh' -- well, maybe not in those words -- 'double play,' " Mr. Virdon said. "It was automatic. Hard hit and hit right at him."
"He hit it, and I thought, 'That's it. That's the double play,' " Mr. Kubek said. "My only thought was, 'What do I do after I catch the ball? Do I run over and take [second base] myself or toss it to Bobby [Richardson]?' Well, it never happened."
The ball struck something just before it got to Kubek and slammed into the shortstop's throat.
"I couldn't get my hands up [in time]," Mr. Kubek said recently. "If it had hit me in the chest, I pick up the ball and we at least get one [out]."
Richardson picked up the ball as the Yankees rushed to Kubek's aid.
Yankees manager Casey Stengel kept yelling: "Give him air! Give him air!"
Kubek was taken to Presbyterian Hospital by Pirates team doctor, Joseph Finegold, in Dr. Finegold's car.
"He had a nice big Cadillac," Mr. Kubek said. "I had an ice bag on my throat, but there was no pain. We didn't have the radio on. Traffic was so bad that he's like playing demolition derby to get out of the parking lot."
Meanwhile, the Pirates were rallying.
Groat singled to left to score Cimoli.
Right-hander Jim Coates replaced Shantz. Bob Skinner sacrificed Virdon to third and Groat to second. After Rocky Nelson flied to short right field, another weird play went in the Pirates' favor.
Roberto Clemente hit a slow bouncer to first baseman Bill Skowron. Inexplicably, Coates failed to cover first base, and Clemente wound up with a run-scoring single instead of making the third out.
Hal Smith followed with a three-run home run. The Pirates led, 9-7, and were three outs from winning the Series. The Yankees scored twice in the ninth off Bob Friend to tie the game, 9-9.
The Pirates, who'd had that early 4-0 lead and led, 9-7, entering the ninth, now faced the bottom of the ninth.
"We were a little concerned that we didn't go ahead and win it [in the top of the ninth]," Mr. Virdon said. "But we still had a chance to win. Everybody felt that way."
Mazeroski would lead off the inning against Terry, who'd come in to get the final out of the Pirate eighth.
"I was just sitting in the dugout thinking," Mr. Mazeroski said. "I was always a Cleveland Indians fan growing up, and I didn't like the Yankees very much. The way they beat the Cleveland Indians all the time, I didn't like them at all.
"I'm sitting there with my head down, thinking, 'Holy cow! How are we going to lose this one? We have to get a run. We have to do something here.'
"And somebody yelled, 'Hey, Maz, you're up.' I didn't even know I was up at that time. I forgot all about it after all the excitement [of the top of ninth]."
The real excitement was two pitches away.
Terry, who'd warmed up five times in that game before pitching in the eighth inning, missed with his first pitch.
"I didn't have anything," he said.
With his second pitch, he tried a slider -- but it didn't break.
"It was like a moment frozen in time," Mr. Terry said.
It was 3:36 p.m.
Mazeroski swung.
"Maybe I was so keyed up that everything he threw slowed down for me," Mr. Mazeroski said. "It didn't seem like he was throwing very hard."
The ball headed for left-center field. Maz sprinted toward first base.
"You really know when you hit a home run," he said. "It feels good [off the bat]. This felt real good, and I knew for certain that Yogi Berra wasn't going to catch it. But get over the fence? It was 406 [feet].
"But I knew he wasn't going to catch it and that's why I'm running hard. I wanted to end up on third if he misplayed it off the wall or something."
"The ball really carried," Mr. Groat said. "Everybody was screaming."
And then everybody was really screaming as the ball cleared the wall.
Game over. World Series over.
"My first thought was, 'We beat 'em! We beat the Yankees! We beat 'em! We beat 'em!' I couldn't believe it," Mr. Mazeroski said. "About that time, I was hitting second [base], and I don't think I touched the ground all the way home. What a feeling! It's something I've never been able to explain -- that kind of feeling."
Maybe you can't explain it.
"I still get chills talking about it today," Mr. Mazeroski said, rubbing his forearm. "It was something. That's a dream that every kid has who plays, and it came true for me."
It was right about then that Kubek, resting in his hospital bed, knew how the Series had ended -- even though he didn't have a radio or the television on.
"There were a lot of happy nurses and horns honking," he said. "It was obvious what had happened. Nobody had to tell me."
A quiet moment
A while later, Mazeroski and his wife, Milene, headed away from the jubilant clubhouse and the crazy commotion around Forbes and found a bench in Schenley Park.
"Wasn't a soul up there but the squirrels," he said. "Not another soul. Never saw a car go by. Everybody was Downtown celebrating."
Mazeroski might have been the only World Series hero to celebrate sitting on a park bench. Does he think anybody else ever did that?
"Probably not," he said with a chuckle. "Probably not."
Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.
First published on June 22, 2008 at 12:00 am
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