Bill Mazeroski, the Hall of Fame second baseman who won eight Gold Glove awards for his steady work in the field and the hearts of countless Pittsburgh Pirates fans for his historic walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, has died at the age of 89.
“Maz was one of a kind, a true Pirates legend... His name will always be tied to the biggest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship, but I will remember him most for the person he was: humble, gracious and proud to be a Pirate,” Pirates owner Bob Nutting said.
Mazeroski died on Friday in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, the Pirates said. No cause of death was given.
Photo: AP
Elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 2001, he was, by some measures, no superstar, but his best qualities were tangible and beyond the box score. His Hall of Fame plaque praises him as a “defensive wizard” with “hard-nosed hustle” and a “quiet work ethic.”
A 10-time All-Star, he turned a major league record 1,706 double plays, earning the nickname “No Hands” for how quickly he fielded grounders and relayed them. He led the National League nine times in assists for second basemen and has been cited by statistician Bill James as the game’s greatest defensive player at his position — by far.
Mazeroski’s signature moment took place in the batter’s box, as the square-jawed, tobacco-chewing second baseman, a coal miner’s son from West Virginia, lived out the dream of so many kids who thought of playing professional ball.
Photo: AP
The Pirates had not reached the World Series since 1927, when they were swept by the New York Yankees, and again faced the Yankees in 1960. While New York were led by Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Pittsburgh had few prominent names beyond a young Roberto Clemente.
The Pirates’ first three wins were not nearly so spectacular, but they were wins. In Game 7, Mazeroski saved his big hit for the end.
About 36,000 fans at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, and many more tuning in on radio and television, agonized through one of the Fall Classic’s wildest and most emotional conclusions. The lead changed back and forth as Pittsburgh scored the game’s first four runs, only to fall behind as the Yankees rallied in the middle innings and went ahead 7-4 in the top of the eighth.
Pittsburgh retook the lead with five runs in the bottom of the eighth, helped in part by a seeming double-play grounder that took a bad hop and struck Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat, but the Yankees came right back and tied the score at nine in the top of the ninth.
The bottom of the ninth has been relived, not always by choice, by the two teams and by generations of fans.
New York’s Ralph Terry started with a fastball, called high for a ball. He then threw what Mazeroski would call a slider that did not slide. Mazeroski got under it and belted it to the left, the ball rising and rising as it cleared the high, ivy-covered brick wall, with Yankees left fielder Yogi Berra circling under it, then turning away in defeat.
The whole city seemed to erupt, as if all had swung the bat with him, as if he were every underdog who longed to beat the hated Yankees.
Mazeroski dashed around the bases, grinning and waving his cap, joined by celebrants from the stands who had rushed onto the field and followed him to home plate, where his teammates embraced him.
“I was just looking to get on base,” he told the New York Times in 1985. “Nothing fancy, just looking for a fastball until he got a strike on me. I thought it would be off the wall, and I wanted to make third if the ball ricocheted away from Berra, but when I got around first and was digging for second, I saw the umpire waving circles above his head and I knew it was over.”
It was the first time a World Series had ended on a homer, leading to enduring waves of celebration and despair. Pirates followers memorized the date, Thursday, Oct. 13, 1960, and the local time of Mazeroski’s hit, 3:36pm.
Forbes Field was torn down in the 1970s, but a decade later fans began gathering every Oct. 13 at the park’s lone remnant, the center field wall, and listened to the original broadcast.
The late singer Bing Crosby, a former co-owner of the Pirates, was so afraid he would jinx his team that he listened to the game with friends across the Atlantic Ocean, in Paris.
“We were in this beautiful apartment, listening on shortwave, and when it got close, Bing opened a bottle of Scotch and was tapping it against the mantel,” his widow, Kathryn Crosby, told the Times in 2010. “When Mazeroski hit the home run, he tapped it hard; the Scotch flew into the fireplace and started a conflagration.”
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