Revisiting the 1960 Pirates World Series - "Maz the Star"

Story by Yinzer Crazy Contributor Roger McNamara

Each Team’s Path to Destiny.  In the year of John F. Kennedy’s  election as the first Roman Catholic to the U.S. Presidency,  Major League baseball remained quaintly organized --- as it had been since 1903 ---into two Leagues of eight teams each, comprising a 154 game season schedule.  There was no  inter-league regular season play, each team instead facing the seven others twenty-two times each. The American League saw the New York Yankees reclaim the top rung, powering their way to a 97-57 (.630 winning percentage) mark, good for an eight game margin over second place Baltimore Orioles and 10 above defending League champion Chicago White Sox.  Over in the Senior Circuit the Pittsburgh Pirates surprised many at the time with a stellar campaign of their own --- a 95-59 record placed the Bucs seven games above second place Milwaukee Braves and fully 13 better than defending League and World Series titlist Los Angeles Dodgers.  No wild cards, no play-ins, no playoff rounds.  Instead the stage was set for the immediate unfolding of the World Series, the 56th in Major League history.  Certainly other pro sports leagues held post season tournaments leading to Championships, none worthy of dismissal.  Yet in this 1960 pre-Super Bowl era Baseball’s best-of-seven showcase was widely accepted as the Fall Classic.  No one could have known it at the time, but a genuine classic was about to unfold.         

Team Histories, Prominent Roster Spots.  It was familiar scenery to the Yankee franchise and roster.   Since its initial Series appearance in 1921 this year marked the team’s 25th renewal date, and many on its roster were by now veterans of post season action.  Under veteran manager Casey Stengel at its helm, NY’s 1960 edition was fully worthy of its Bronx Bombers moniker, with run scoring firepower delivered by the likes of muscular first baseman Bill Skowron, at age 29 stroking 26 HRs, 91 driven in and a .306 Average;  25 year old right fielder Roger Maris, with 39 circuit clouts, 112 RBI to go with a .283 average; slick fielding left side infielders Tony Kubek and Cletis Boyer, 14 home runs each; although then age 35 and maybe a shade off his prime, Yogi Berra managed 359 at bats in 120 game appearances, of which he made good use in driving in 62 runners aided by 15 homers and a .276 average; Yogi didn’t catch very much by then, but a strong and capable Elston Howard had rounded into form as a backstop commanding the respect of the mound staff;  and the perennial All-Star marquee talent of the group, center fielder Mickey Mantle, whose 40 home runs, 94 driven in and .275 average were actually off his accustomed heights.  Opponents were held in check by veteran staff ace Whitey Ford, at age 31 compiling nine complete games in 29 starts enroute to a 3.08 ERA. Whitey entered the Series with a sparkling record in the post season, a fact ignored by neither fans nor Yankee ownership in the Series aftermath.  The term “closer” was not yet used, but Ryne Duren and Luis Arroyo combined to fill that role, and the Yankee team ERA of 3.52 was the League’s best. 

By contrast, and despite having been the NL representative in the 1903 World Series inaugural, not since 1927 --- when they were dusted in 4 games by the Yankees --- had the Pirates stood in the October limelight.   The 1960 Bucs fielded a unit replete with star power and player skill.  Manager Danny Murtaugh guided 27 year old First Baseman Dick Stuart to 23 HRs, 83 RBI and a .260 BA;  veteran at the Hot Corner Don Hoak, whose 16 HRs combined with 79 driven home;  at age 28 Left Fielder Bob Skinner was renowned for ice in the veins while producing 15 round trippers and 85 RBI; 25 year old Roberto Clemente emerged as the everyday Right fielder into the talent that would elevate him to lasting stardom, sporting 16 HR, 94 driven across, a .314 average all clothed in sparkling defensive play, including a rocket throwing arm.  Oh, and a young 2nd Baseman named Bill Mazeroski, who fashioned 11 HRs, 64 knocked in with a .273 average --- all merely a prelude to his coming Date with Destiny.  The mound corps were led by 30 year old 20 game winner Vern Law and his scintillating 3.08 ERA assembled over 271 innings in 35 starts (close to 8 innings per outing); and Elroy Face in the relief corps, who posted a 2.90 ERA while the finishing hurler in 61 team victories.  It was a group that would not surrender meekly to the favored Yankees.  Instead it welcomed them to Forbes Field for a Wednesday afternoon October 5 Series Opener. 

A Series Unfolds.   Games 1 through 6  were split even at three apiece, New York cruising by lopsided margins in Games 2, 3 and 6 while Pittsburgh did just well enough to prevail by scores of 6-4 in the Opener, 3-2 in Game 4 and 5-2 in Game 5.  Pointedly, Ford was held out until his Game 3 gem, then going on to notch his 2nd Series win in Game 6, spinning a complete game shutout in each.  Thus he was  not available for a Winner-Take-All 7th and deciding meeting, set for Thursday October 16 back at Forbes Field.       

An Unforgettable Clincher.    A crowd of 36,683 eagerly filed through the turnstiles, virtually all presumed  Pirate loyalists. Gratification came early, as Yankee starter Bob Turley and reliever Bill Stafford were each touched for a pair of runs in the opening two frames.  Trailing 4-1 as they came to bat in the Top of the 6th, the Yankees rode an RBI single from Mantle and a 3-run homer by the venerable Berra to assume a 5-4 advantage.  Veteran left hander Bobby Shantz had been brought on from the Yankee pen to open the 3rd, bringing his best stuff along with him to blank the Pirates over the next five innings. Meanwhile NY tacked on pair of runs in its half of the 8th.  Now trailing 7-4 with six putouts remaining, the Pirates determinedly strode to the plate in a pivotal bottom of the 8th. 

A Bad Bounce; A Good Follow-Up.  A leadoff single by Gino Cimoli seemed headed for naught when Bill Virdon sent what appeared to be a routine double play ground ball in the direction of sure-handed Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek.  But just as Shantz thought of breathing easier the ball struck a pebble on the skin portion of the infield, taking a crazy hop into Kubek’s throat.  No fielding error was charged, but Kubek left the game with Pirate runners now on first and second, none out.  Dick Groat next touched a tiring Shantz for an RBI single, Stengel bringing Jim Coates on in relief.  A sac bunt and outfield fly still left the Yankees with a 7-5 lead.  Roberto Clemente foreshadowed what was to come in his Hall of Fame career with an RBI single, bringing up the little used reserve catcher Hal Smith.  Pirate confidence in him was justified when he deposited a Coates fast ball deep into the left field gallery, a 3 run dinger moving Pittsburgh to a 9-7 advantage.  Ralph Terry relieves Coates to record the final out, and now it is the Yankees turn to face elimination as eventual Series MVP Bobby Richardson leads it off for them in the 9th.  A pair of hits later --- including an RBI single by Mantle --- closes NY to within a run, which was soon collected by way of an infield ground out from the bat of Yogi Berra.  All tied at 9 apiece, Terry strides to the hill to look in on the Pirate leadoff hitter. 

A Hero Emerges.    Standing into the box was the #8 stick in Murtaugh’s lineup, 2nd baseman Bill Mazeroski.   Now a healthy 85 year old retiree in his native West Virginia, “Maz” had played his customarily steady all-around game in this Series, ever the good contact hitter but never especially renowned for the long poke.  He wasted no time in settling the issue, sending Terry’s first offering high into the October sky and well beyond the left field wall, Mantle and Berra looking on helplessly while a delirious throng stormed the field, barely enabling The Hero to circle the bases.  Beginning that moment and continuing through today the name Bill Mazeroski is forever etched in the fondest memories where rivers meet in Western Pennsylvania.  The Game 7 line score, emblazoned proudly on the outfield scoreboard, read:

                            R      H      E

New York           9     13      1

Pittsburgh         10    11      0           

For the Series the Pirates were out scored by a whopping 55-27, but in the end they led when and where it counted most. 

Aftermath.    The defeat did not sit well with Yankee ownership and front office management.  Attributing the outcome largely to the 70 year old Stengel’s mishandling of the pitching staff,  they moved quickly to a change in field leadership.  At his dismissal from the Bronx Casey had conducted the Yankees through a dozen seasons, generating 10 American League flags and 7 World Series crowns.   No other MLB managerial record, before or since, has approached such a standard.