 |
 |
The New Stats Explained
by Ryan T. Campbell
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Johanna quoted in the Chicago Tribune about Fan Safety.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
This Month
Michael Street reviews
The Best Game Ever: Pirates vs. Yankees, October 13, 1960
Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:00pm
One of the constant sports arguments revolves around the best play, the best player, the best team, or the best game ever. Jim Reisler answers that last question with his recreation of Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, when Pittsburgh Pirate Bill Mazeroski achieved immortality by clubbing a walk-off homer against the mighty New York Yankees. Pitch by pitch and play by play, Reisler walks the reader through one of the best David-over-Goliath victories in sports history. It's a great read, mimicking the rhythms of baseball while presenting a complete picture of the game on and off the field, while salving the egos of Pittsburgh fans and whetting the appetites of everyone else for the upcoming season.
If it seems unlikely that today's small-market Pirates could ever defeat the big-market Yankees, it was equally unimaginable fifty years ago. The Pirates finished 7th or 8th in the National League every year between 1950 and 1957, putting up a 454-777 record over that span, for a .368 winning percentage. Five of those finishes were in last, and they lost ninety or more games four times, and over 100 games three times, an even more miserable achievement in the days of 154-game seasons.
Over those same eight seasons, the Yankees were the exact opposite, placing first seven times and winning the World Series six times, part of an amazing string when they won ten of fifteen Series appearances in eighteen years. These were the Yankees with Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, and Whitey Ford, along with All-Stars like Bobby Richardson, Roger Maris, and Elston Howard, among many others.
The Pirates had few standout players in those days. Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente arrived in 1955 and Mazeroski came along in 1956, while Ralph Kiner had his great years between 1946-53, before they traded him to the Cubs. All-Stars Bob Friend, Vern Law and Roy Face anchored the pitching staff, though few baseball fans today know their names. Manager Danny Murtaugh took over the reins of this team midway through the '57 season, taking them to second place in 1958, a 22-game improvement that was one of the best of all time. They slipped to fourth in 1959, but put it all together in 1960, when they had the NL's highest-scoring offense, best OPS and stingiest and most accurate pitching staff.
Still, few sportswriters outside Pittsburgh gave the Pirates much of a chance against the Yankees, who trailed the Pirates in most pitching categories, but led them in nearly all offensive categories. That, however, is why they play the games.
The first six games were either Yankee blowouts or narrow Pittsburgh victories. The Pirates won Game One, 6-4, and New York rallied for back-to-back wins in Games Two and Three, with scores of 16-3 and 10-0, respectively. Just when everyone was ready to hand the crown to New York as the games headed back to Yankee Stadium, Pittsburgh evened things up by winning 3-2 in Game Four, then took a series lead with a 5-2 win in Game Five. Whitey Ford took the hill for a 12-0 Game Six win, sending the Series back to Pittsburgh for a dramatic Game Seven.
With Ford unavailable for the Yanks- Stengel blundered by allowing his ace to only start two games instead of three-New York went with Bob Turley, who had started (and won) the lopsided Game Two. Pittsburgh countered with Vernon Law, the team's 20-game winner who had also started Games One and Three.
Turley surrendered two runs in the first inning on a Rocky Nelson homer, and Stengel yanked him after he gave up a leadoff single in the second, only to see his replacement, Bill Stafford, give up a two-run single to Bill Virdon four batters later. When Law put down the fearsome Yankee lineup in order for the first two frames, the underdog Pirates led the mighty Yanks early, 4-0.
New Yankee hurler Bobby Shantz matched Law's clean slate through the next two innings, and Bill Skowron led off the fifth with a solo shot to put the Yanks on the board. Law lasted through the top of the sixth, when he allowed the first two batters to reach, and Pittsburgh manager Murtaugh brought in Roy Face, the Pirates' closer, to stop the rally. Face got Maris to fly out, but Mickey Mantle followed this up with an RBI single, and Yogi Berra crushed a three-run shot to gave New York a 5-4 lead.
This score held until the top of the eighth, when Johnny Blanchard scored Berra with an RBI single, and Clete Boyer drove in two with a double, widening the Yankee lead to 7-4. Shantz, still on the mound, had faced the minimum, but Pittsburgh had scrapped back from behind all season, and Game 7 would be no exception.
Gino Cimoli led off the bottom of the eighth with a single, and Bill Virdon hit what looked like an easy double-play ball to All-Star shortstop Tony Kubek. But the ball took a bad hop, smashing Kubek in the throat and knocking him out of the game; Dick Groat, up next, drove in Cimoli with a single, ending Shantz's night.
Reliever Jim Coates came in to face Bob Skinner, who bunted the runners over, and then Coates got Rocky Nelson to fly out. With two down and two strikes against him, Roberto Clemente rapped a grounder to Skowron at first, but Coates failed to cover the bag, and Clemente reached safely, scoring Virdon to narrow the lead to one. Hal Smith's three-run homer gave Pittsburgh a two-run lead, but the Yanks had a comeback of their own in the top of the ninth. Trailing 9-7, Bobby Richardson and Dale Long led off with singles, Mickey Mantle drove in Richardson with a single of his own, and Berra tied the score by driving in Long with an infield groundout.
After the next two batters were retired, the incredible game now stood at 9-9 in the ninth, with the bottom of the Pirates order due up. Eight-hole hitter Bill Mazeroski hit only 11 home runs in the 1960 season, and 138 in his 17-year career, ending with a career .367 SLG that many say shows he's not a deserving Hall of Fame member. None of that mattered on October 13, 1960, however, as he nailed a 1-0 pitch over the wall for the only Game 7 walk-off home run in World Series history.
That homer was the rock that slew Goliath, the underdog victory that Pirates fans still gather to celebrate each season on the site of old Forbes Field (this year's 50-year anniversary should be huge). Amazingly, Mazeroski didn't win the series MVP—that went to his counterpart, Bobby Richardson, who hit .367/.387/.667, driving in 12 and scoring 8 runs. Richardson remains the only MVP recipient on a losing team, demonstrating how much the Pirates had to overcome to win their first World Series in 35 years, and the last one they would win for another 19 years.
Reisler's book perfectly captures the rhythm and excitement of this Best Game Ever, reconstructing the game pitch by pitch, incorporating background information about the city, the team, and the players. One of the beautiful aspects of baseball, particularly when you see it live, is the way that the action on the field alternates with the conversation in the stands. Football is too loud, basketball too fast-paced, and hockey has too much of both, but baseball has the time and silence to allow for discussions and conversations.
Reisler recreates that rhythm, as each chapter is based on an inning in the game, beginning with some of that background information before moving to the game itself. The stories he tells vary from more standard player biographies to descriptions from Pirates fans and photographers at the game. As the game progresses, that preliminary information diminishes and the focus changes to the action on the field. Reisler's prose is smooth and flowing, combining with the exciting pace of the game to make this a page-turner for any baseball fan.
Whether you're a miserable Pittsburgh fan, a baseball history buff, or just can't wait for the start of the season, you'll do yourself a favor by picking up The Best Game Ever, which will convince you that this Game 7 definitely deserves consideration for that superlative title.
|
|
|
|
