Mazeroski’s walk-off blast clinches title for Pirates
With one swing of the bat, Bill Mazeroski brought Pittsburgh a championship.
Game 7 of the World Series, bottom of the ninth, tie game – it’s the kind of opportunity every player dreams about. And in the final game of one of the most thrilling Fall Classics of all time, Mazeroski delivered, slugging a walk-off solo homer to clinch a series victory for the Pirates over the Yankees on Oct. 13, 1960.
“I was too happy to think,” Mazeroski told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I was really happy. I don’t know what I thought.”
Facing a Yankees team that had won seven of the previous 11 World Series titles, the Pirates had been outscored 46-17 in the first six games of the series. They were shut out in Game 3 with a 10-0 loss and again in Game 6 with a 12-0 defeat after losing Game 2 by a score of 16-3.
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They had blown two leads already in Game 7, squandering a chance to close out the game with a 9-7 advantage in the top of the ninth by surrendering two runs on a one-run single by Mickey Mantle and an RBI groundout by Yogi Berra.
Yet in the bottom of the ninth, with the score tied 9-9, it was Mantle and Berra, in center and left field, respectively, who watched Mazeroski’s blast fly over the left field wall at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field to secure the 10-9 victory.
“I’ve said all along that this is the fightingest ball club I’ve ever seen,” shortstop Dick Groat told the Associated Press. “Our guys never know when they’re licked. Nobody gave us a chance after the third game but us. I knew we’d do it because that’s the way we’ve done it all year – coming from behind to win after everybody counted us out.”
Few might have guessed that the one to end it would be Mazeroski, who had amassed just 48 homers in five seasons up to that point, including 11 in 1960.
Once the ball went over the fence, pandemonium ensued, as Mazeroski raced around the bases with his helmet in his hand, teammates gathered at home plate and the crowd of 36,683 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field erupted and began spilling onto the diamond.
“We kept telling each other we could do it,” Mazeroski said. “All year we’ve been a fighting, come-from-behind club. We always felt we could pull it out – even after the Yankees tied it up in the ninth – but I didn’t think I’d be the guy to do it.”
The euphoric outburst seemed an appropriate response for the moment, as Mazeroski’s homer was a thrill the likes of which baseball had never seen before, and would rarely see again. It marked the first time a World Series had ever ended on a walk-off home run – an occurrence that would not repeat itself until 33 years later, when Joe Carter’s three-run shot won the 1993 Fall Classic for Toronto.
The dramatic homer alone immortalized Mazeroski in Pirates lore. But it was just the beginning of a run of excellence in Pittsburgh for the future Hall of Famer, who would help power the Pirates to three division titles, two pennants and a pair of World Series championships over his 17-year career that would culminate in his election to the Hall of Fame in 2001.
Janey Murray was the digital content specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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