The Classic 1960 World Series

 

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1960 World Series Photo Gallery
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The Classic 1960 World Series

My post a couple days ago on Rocky Nelson got me thinking about the 1960 World Series. With a first-inning home run in Game Seven, Rocky was certainly one of the heroes. So here’s a few words about this great World Series along with a photo gallery I put together. It includes some of our favorite photos from the classic 1960 World Series. The beautiful featured photo above shows Rocky Nelson’s home run, undoubtedly the highlight of his career.Thanks to John Leichliter for sending it to us. Roberto Clemente greets Rocky at the plate with Yankee catcher Johnny Blanchard and umpire Bill Jackowski looking on.

The 1960 World Series was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates (95-59 .617), managed by Danny Murtaugh, and Casey Stengel’s New York Yankees (97-57 .630) from October 5 to 13, 1960. It’s considered one of the most exciting World Series of all time, ending on Bill Mazeroski’s dramatic walk-off home run in Game Seven which gave the Pirates a 10-9 victory in the decisive game. It was the Pirates’ third World Championship overall and first since 1925. The Yankees were making their eighth appearance in the last ten years.

Looking over the statistics from the series, if you didn’t know better you’d guess that the Yankees had won. They outscored the Pirates 55–27, out-hit them 91–60, out-batted them .338 to .256, hit 10 home runs to the Pirate’s four (three of which came in Game Seven), and got two complete-game shutouts from Whitey Ford. And yet they lost the series! The Pirates’ inconsistent pitching and Stengel’s controversial decision not to start Ford in Games One and Four resulted in the peculiar combination of close games and routs.

Five future Hall-of-Famers appeared in the series: Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Casey Stengel, plus umpire Nestor Chylack. Bobby Richardson was the MVP of the series.

The series also featured seven past, present, or future league Most Valuable Players: Dick Groat (1960), Roberto Clemente (1966), Yogi Berra (1951, 1954, 1955), Bobby Shantz (1952), Mickey Mantle (1956, 1957, 1962), Roger Maris (1960, 1961), and Elston Howard (1963).

The NBC television announcers for the Series were Bob Prince and Mel Allen the primary play-by-play voices for the Pirates and Yankees. Old-time Cub fans will surprised to learn that Cubs’ announcer Jack Quinlan was at the radio mike.

Game Seven is one of the most memorable games in World Series history. Here’s a few excerpts about the game from Baseball Almanac:

“With Vern Law on the mound, the Pirates took take an early 4-0 lead. However, the Yankees came back with key performances at the plate by Bill Skowron, Mantle and Yogi Berra and shot to a 5-4 after six innings. The Yankees scored two more in the top of the eight to make it 7-4 and looked to be in great shape as reliever Bobby Shantz appeared at the top of his game.”

“Gino Cimoli led off the Pittsburgh eighth with a pinch-single and Bill Virdon hit a sharp grounder toward Yankees’ shortstop, Tony Kubek. After the speeding ball took a bad hop and struck Kubek in the throat (resulting in a single), Joe DeMaestri was summoned to replace him as both Pirates remained on base. Dick Groat followed with another single cutting the lead to 7-5 and Roberto Clemente kept the rally going with an infield hit that scored Virdon and advanced Groat to third. Now trailing 7-6, Pittsburgh had two runners on base and Hal Smith at the plate. Smith, who entered the game in the top of the eighth after Pirates catcher Smoky Burgess had left for a pinch-runner in the previous inning, sent shock waves through the Pittsburgh crowd by blasting a timely home run over the left-field wall. The Pirates had put a 5-spot on the board and now led 9-7”

“Bob Friend, an eighteen game winner, came on in the ninth to protect lead. Bobby Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long both greeted Friend with singles and Pirates manager, Danny Murtaugh was forced to lift the veteran pitcher in favor of Harvey Haddix. Although he forced Roger Maris to foul out, Haddix gave up a key single to Mantle that scored Richardson and moved Long to third. Berra followed suite hitting a short grounder to first, with Rocky Nelson stepping on the base for the second out. In what, at the time, stood as a monumental play, Mantle, seeing he had no chance to beat a play at second, scurried back to first and avoided Nelson’s tag (which would have been the third out) as McDougald raced home to tie the score, 9-9. The Yankees were still alive.”

Ralph Terry, who had gotten the final out in the Pirates’ eighth, returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth to finish the job. The first man he faced was Bill Mazeroski. With a count of one ball and no strikes, the Pirates’ second baseman smashed a historical long drive over the wall in left ending the contest and crowning the National League as champions. As the Pirates erupted in a wild celebration, the Yankees stood in disbelief knowing that they had clearly dominated the series, but were unable to finish the task. The improbable champions were outscored, 55-27, and out-hit, 91-60, but in the end the home team prevailed. Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying that losing the 1960 series was the biggest disappointment of his career. For Bill Mazeroski, it was the highlight.”

Wow! What an ending to what has become a classic World Series!

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: Thanks to John Leichliter for sending the featured photo and for others in the photo gallery; others are in public domain and were obtained through a Google search.

Information: Excerpts edited from the 1960 Worlds Series Wikipedia page, and the 1960 World Series Baseball Almanac page. Statistics from Baseball-Reference.com

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