A determined Pirate team went back to the basics and gave the ball to first-game winner Vern Law for Game 4. The National League's Cy Young Award winner, combined with relief ace Roy Face to beat back the Yankees, in an outing that was decided on Bill Virdon's single in the fifth that scored two of Pittsburgh runs.
Some believed in retrospect that Stengel had thought the "Bucs" would underestimate the young pitcher, giving him the advantage. Unfortunately the Yankees skipper was wrong as Bill Mazeroski took him for a key-double in the Pirate's three run, second inning.
It was a completely different story in Game 6 as the day belonged to the "Bronx Bombers". Richardson had two triples, Johnny Blanchard added two doubles, Roger Maris and Yogi Berra and Blanchard all collected three hits each and before it was over, the Yankees had finished with seventeen hits and twelve runs.
Whitey Ford added to the "Buccos" embarrassment by shutting them out again and many felt that it was all but over. Despite forcing another opportunity at their own Forbes Field, Pittsburgh had clearly been dominated by New York who had outscored them a staggering by the end of Game 6.
However, Game 7 would erase those numbers and leave fans in both agony and ecstasy. Vern Law and the rest of the Pirates showed why they were still there by rolling over New York to take an early lead. However, the Yankees came back with key performances at the plate by Bill Skowron, Mantle and Yogi Berra who shot to a lead going into the eighth inning. They continued to lead and looked to be in great shape as reliever Bobby Shantz appeared at the top of his game.
Fortunately for the Pirates, appearances can sometimes be deceiving. 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 and Roberto Clemente kept the rally going with an infield hit that scored Virdon and advanced Groat to third.
Now trailing , 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.
Bob Friend, an eighteen game winner for the Pirates and the "Bucs" starter in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the lead. Neal in , when Republicans were being ousted from Congress left and right in the midst of the Watergate Scandal. Remember when we wrote about Richard Nixon earlier in this World Series? House of Representatives archive shows a baseball card photo rather than a portrait, and the top notation is that he reportedly pitched the Republican side to victory over the Democrats in six consecutive Congressional Baseball Games.
I wonder what Vinegar Bend Mizell thought of the Kennedy vs. Nixon debates in , or how closely Mizell followed the campaigns in the midst of playing in the World Series.
Johnny Blanchard showed some warning track power with a flyout to Roberto Clemente in right, allowing the Moose to motor to third base. Whitey Ford then grounded out to second base, and the future congressman gets out of the inning with no further damage. I have never heard a line drive described by that phrase. Hoak draws the first walk Whitey Ford issues in this game, and Pittsburgh is cooking with two men on.
Long was a first baseman, primarily, but he could also play catcher. Huzzah for left-handed catchers. I would imagine being a reliever for Casey Stengel in the playoffs was a lot like being a volunteer firefighter. This team would not be fit for relievers who like to keep schedules, especially those whose schedule includes a nap in the early innings.
The panic should be lightened as the Yankees turns a double play, then Pittsburgh sends pinch hitter Rocky Nelson to bat with Hal Smith now on third base. Nelson, with his peculiar left-handed batting stance, enters in place of Vinegar Bend Mizell. It would be the last time for the North Carolina Republican to ever pitch in a playoff game.
E — Fred Green starts the sixth and only faces 3. Triple, single, single. Another run. Another pitcher. Listening to a blowout game is getting a little boring, even for this desperate-for-baseball person. I throw in the towel — Game 6 to the Yankees. I took a break from listening and went to the park with my daughter. We set up a tee and she hit me groundballs for 45 minutes, the majority of which I fielded and threw toward a red lawn chair manning first base. The red chair was not a reliable partner.
Two throws and it collapsed into a heap. R — Clete Boyer smashed a triple out to right field off of Fred Green. Maybe Richardson should have thought twice when it came to inviting the hard-partying Mick to lend his political endorsement. Or maybe Tony Kubek was a much better judge of political climates than Richardson was. The hits keep coming as Roger Maris is the third consecutive Yankee to drive a ball into the outfield.
Fred Green heads to the showers to complete a World Series experience he certainly would have loved to have forgotten. Clem Labine struck out Mickey Mantle, in what must have been a high moment in a year full of peaks and valleys for Labine.
Clem Labine played for three different teams in Detroit then released Labine on Aug. Pittsburgh waned a righty to compliment Roy Face in the bullpen, and signed Labine off the street the following day. Labine appeared in three blowout losses as a mop man before the regular season ended. My most favorite Clem Labine fact is that he played on back-to-back World Series championship teams, albeit two different teams.
Another lead-off double, just missing a homer. Richardson follows with a second stand-up triple, another RBI, increasing his WS record-setting lead to Two players both smash baseballs off the wall. The score is in the seventh inning. Your pitcher is batting. First of all, do you leave your starter in the game at this point, or do you take him out of the game in hope that maybe, just maybe, you might be able to squeeze a relief inning out of him two days later.
After all, Whitey Ford is pitching brilliantly. In post-series interviews, Mickey Mantle expressed his disagreement with Yankees manager Casey Stengel for leaving Ford in the game at this point.
Or do you do what Casey Stengel did, which is have your pitcher bunt for a suicide squeeze to make the score ? E — I tried to find video footage of the suicide squeeze, but no such luck. Every bounce is going the Yankees way. Why then, would you get two relievers warm in your pen before Ford throws a single pitch in the bottom half of the same inning?
Psychologically speaking, pitching for Stengel must have been frustrating, if not damaging. New York shortstop Tony Kubek made an error that put Gino Cimoli aboard, but the Yankees got the next three outs in fashion. R — Interesting stat. The Pirates hit. The league batting average was. In the modern age, league batting averages have been falling over the past two decades.
The modern peak of hitting occurred in , when teams hit. The worst team average in was. Compare that to , when the MLB cumulative batting average was. And as was the case the last time Ford had toed the rubber for the Yanks in Game 3, his teammates relentlessly mashed the ball en route to a resounding 12—0 victory.
In the top of the second, the Yankees went to work. Howard broke his hand and was replaced by pinch-runner Eli Grba a pitcher , meaning that each team used all 25 eligible players. Howard missed the decisive 7th game. Ford himself then notched the first RBI of the game, with a ground ball single to a counterpart Friend that scored Berra. The next inning, Mantle cracked a two-run single that scored Kubek and Maris.
He, however, fared no better, as a Skowron sacrifice fly scored Mantle and a triple to deep left field by Richardson plated Berra and Johnny Blanchard , making the score 6—0 New York.
The Yankees then began to run away with the game, scoring two runs in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. On the mound, as in Game 2, Ford was his masterful self, not letting the Pirates mount anything resembling a rally for the full nine innings.
His second shutout of the series was a critical one, as it tied the series at three games each. The Pirates jumped to an early 4—1 lead in Game 7, only to give up four runs in the sixth inning. The Yankees then added two more, making the score 7—4 by the eighth.
Next up was Roberto Clemente , who followed suit after Yankee pitcher Jim Coates was late in covering 1st base on the play , and the Yankee lead was again slashed, with the score now 7—6. The Pirates now had two runners on base and Hal W. Smith at the plate. Smith promptly hit one over the wall, and the Pirates took a 9—7 lead. Bob Friend , an eighteen-game-winner for the Pirates and their starter in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the lead. Although he forced 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 making 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 Gil McDougald raced home to tie the score, 9—9.
Ralph Terry , who had gotten the final out of the eighth inning, 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 wall, ending the contest and crowning the National League as champions. As the Pirates erupted, the Yankees stood across the field in disbelief.
The underdog champions were outscored, outhit, and outplayed, but had managed to pull out a victory anyhow. Years later, Mickey Mantle was quoted as saying that losing the series was the biggest disappointment of his career.
For Bill Mazeroski, it was the highlight. Mazeroski became the first player to hit a walk-off home run 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 World Series , albeit in Game 6. Although most noted for the series-ending homer, Game 7 is also the only game in Series history with no strikeouts recorded by either side.
Dick Stuart was on-deck as the game ended, as a prospective pinch-hitter for Harvey Haddix. Pirate relief pitcher Clem Labine became one of a handful of players and pitchers to play on World Championship teams 2 consecutive years with different teams.
He was also a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 7 is widely regarded as one of baseball's most famous games. This would prove to be Casey Stengel 's last World Series, as the Yankee club soon sent him into retirement. This led to his famous remark, "I'll never make the mistake of turning 70 again.
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