The Feature I Couldn't Write
A Flashback to the 1960 World Series
November 5, 2001—I had this idea for a History Bits feature, and the Arizona Diamondbacks destroyed it.
When Mariano Rivera came into the game in the 8th inning to preserve the Yankees' 2-1 victory, bringing them their 27th World Series title and their fourth in a row, here's what I was thinking:
The Yankees have been outscored, 32 to 12, and out-hit, .250 to .183, yet they won the World Series because a 15-2 blowout is just one game that means no more than a 2-1, extra-inning victory. And the winning hit was a home run, not by Paul O'Neill or Derek Jeter or Bernie Williams or Tino Martinez, but by their rookie second baseman, Alfonso Soriano.
It made me think of the 1960 World Series, in which the shoe was on the other foot. Or maybe it would be more appropriate to say the bat was on the other shoulder.
In 1960, the Yankees outscored the Pittsburgh Pirates, 55 to 27, and out-hit them, .338 to .256. They set records for runs scored, hits, batting average, slugging percentage, total bases, and RBI.
Yet the Pirates won the World Series on a home run in the ninth inning of the seventh game. And that home run came, not from Roberto Clemento or Gino Cimoli or Rocky Nelson, but from their second baseman, Bill Mazeroski.
That was a very strange series indeed, as all three Yankee victories were major blowouts, while the Pirates got pretty good pitching in three of their four wins. And a stray pebble played a major role in the outcome.
Mazeroski, who hit. 273 with just 11 home runs during the regular season, got a big hit in game one, a two-run homer in the fourth inning, staking the Pirates to a 5-2 lead that held up for a 6-4 victory.
The Yankees evened it up in the second game, building leads of 12-1 after six innings and and 16-1 won after eight and a half before winning, 16-3. They followed that with a 10-0 blowout in which their second baseman, Bobby Richardson, had a Series record six RBI, four of them on a grand slam homer.
Pittsburgh starter Vernon Law was the dual hero in the fourth game, collecting his second victory of the series, 3-2. The Pirates scored all of their runs in the fifth inning. Law doubled to drive in the first run and came around to score what turned out to be the deciding run.
Making his first appearance, Harvey Haddix gave up two runs in the first three innings but held the Yankees off the rest of the way, with help from Elroy Face, as the Pirates took a 5-2 victory and a 3-2 lead in the Series.
They returned to Pittsburgh ready to close it out, but Game Six was no contest. The Yankees breezed, 12-0, behind Whitey Ford, who collected his second victory.
That set the stage for what may have been the most improbable seventh game in World Series history.
The Pirates jumped to a 4-0 lead after two innings and seemed to be on their way to the championship. But the Yankees came back behind home runs by Bill Skowron and Yogi Berra to go ahead, 5-4, in the sixth, and they stretched the lead to 7-4 with two runs in the top of the eighth.
Cimoli led off the Pirates' half of the inning with a single, but Bill Virdon then hit a sure double-play grounder toward Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek. However, the ball hit a pebble, hopped high, and struck Kubek right in the Adam's apple. He fell to the infield dirt in extreme pain and was taken to the hospital with a bruised larynx.
Meanwhile, the Pirates had two base runners instead of two outs. Dick Groat singled one of them home. Reliever Jim Coates retired the next two hitters, but he was slow covering on Roberto Clemente's grounder to first baseman Bill Skowron. Clemente got an infield hit when Skowron was forced to hold onto the ball, and another run scored to make it 7-6.
Then backup catcher Hal Smith hit a three-run homer, and again it looked as if the Pirates were headed for the championship.
The Yankees didn't give up, though. They scored two runs of their own to tie the game in the top of the ninth before Haddix came out of the bullpen to shut them down.
That set the stage for Mazeroski, the second baseman known as "Dazzlng Maz" for his all-around fielding skills, "No Touch" for his magical ability to turn the double play, and "Tree Stump" for his willingness to stand in against hard-sliding runners.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth, Maz hit Ralph Terry's second pitch into the left field bleachers and romped around the bases, waving his cap at the fans all the way.
It was the first time a home run had ended the World Series.
A 14-year-old boy retrieved the ball and was escorted by police into the Pittsburgh clubhouse celebration to present it to Mazeroski. Maz kept the ball only long enough to autograph it, though. Then he gave it back to the boy, saying, "You keep it, son. The memory is good enough for me."
Anyway, I had this idea all mapped out in my head, comparing the 2001 World Series to the 1960 edition.
Then the Diamondbacks scored two runs off Mariano Rivera in the ninth to ruin it all, so I couldn't write the feature.