1960 World Series: Game 7: New York v Pittsburgh

The 1960 World Series was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League (NL) and the New York Yankees of the American League (AL) from October 5–13, 1960. In Game 7, Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off ninth-inning home run, the only time a winner-take-all World Series game ended with a walk-off home run. Despite losing the series, the Yankees scored 55 runs, the most runs scored by any one team in World Series history, and more than twice as many as the Pirates, who scored 27. The Yankees won three blowouts (16–3, 10–0, and 12–0), while the Pirates won four close games (6–4, 3–2, 5–2, and 10–9) to win the series. The Series MVP was Bobby Richardson of the Yankees, the only time in history that the award has been given to a member of the losing team, though the rules were different at this time. Votes had to be in by the start of the 8th inning of Game 7, at which point the Yankees were in the lead, and this was the first time since the series MVP award was created in 1955 that the team leading at that point did not go on to win. This World Series featured seven past, present, or future league Most Valuable Players. The Pirates had two – Dick Groat (1960) and Roberto Clemente (1966) – while the Yankees had five: Yogi Berra (1951, 1954, 1955), Bobby Shantz (1952), Mickey Mantle (1956, 1957, 1962), Roger Maris (1960, 1961), and Elston Howard (1963). As noted in the superstition called the "Ex-Cubs Factor", this was the only Series after 1945 and until 2001 in which a team with three or more former members of the Chicago Cubs (Don Hoak, Smoky Burgess, and Gene Baker) was able to win a World Series. The World Championship for the Pirates was their third overall and first since 1925. Bob Friend, an 18-game winner for the Pirates and their starter (and loser) in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the lead. Bobby Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long both greeted him with singles, and Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh was forced to remove the veteran pitcher in favor of Harvey Haddix. Although he got Roger Maris to foul out, Haddix gave up a key single to Mickey Mantle that scored Richardson and moved Long to third. Yogi Berra followed, hitting a short grounder to first, with Rocky Nelson easily getting the second out. In what, at the moment, stood as a monumental play, Mantle, seeing he had no chance to beat a play at second (and thinking the ball was caught in the air), scurried back to first and avoided Nelson's tag (which would have been the third out) as Gil McDougald (pinch-running for Long) raced home to tie the game at 9.[8] Had he been out on the play, the run would still have counted if it had scored before the tag (but the play happened quickly). With Mantle safe, the inning continued, but ended when Bill Skowron hit into a force play. Ralph Terry returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. The first batter to face him was Bill Mazeroski. With a count of one ball and no strikes, the Pirates' second baseman smashed a historic long drive over the left field wall (left fielder Berra had no chance to catch it despite following it to the wall), winning the game 10–9 and crowning the Pirates as World Series champions. As the Pirates erupted, the Yankees stood across the field in stunned disbelief. The improbable champions were outscored, out-hit, and outplayed, but somehow had managed to pull out a Game 7 victory. Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted in Ken Burns' documentary Baseball as saying that losing the 1960 series was the only loss, amateur or professional, he cried actual tears over. For Bill Mazeroski, by contrast, his Series-clinching home run was the highlight of a Hall of Fame career otherwise notable mostly for excellent defense. Mazeroski became the first player to hit a game-ending home run in Game 7 to win a World Series. Thirty-three years later, Joe Carter would become the only other player to end the World Series with a home run, doing so for the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1993 World Series against the Pirates' in-state rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, albeit in Game 6. Although most noted for the series-ending homer, Game 7 is also the only game in all of postseason history with no strikeouts recorded by either side. The Giants in the 2002 World Series failed to strike out an Angels batter in Game 2, but the Angels' pitching staff struck out eight Giants. Bobby Richardson of the Yankees was named MVP of the Series, the only time someone from the losing team has been so honored. #1960WorldSeries