Father’s Day
Mazeroski on His World Series Winning Homer —
“Dad Would Have Loved It”
The Pittsburgh Steelers have won six Super Bowls, and the Pittsburgh Penguins, five Stanley Cups. But no matter what the future may hold, for sheer ecstasy among Pittsburgh fans, nothing will ever top the October 13, 1960, 3:36 p.m. thrills.
At that instant, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski took his place in the batter’s box against the New York Yankees’ fifth hurler of the day, Ralph Terry. The World Series had been back-and-forth, and the seventh game, a see-saw contest, knotted at 9–9. Terry’s first delivery was high and away, but his second offering, “a high fat one,” as Maz recalled, came in right down the middle. Maz knocked it over the left field fence. Yogi Berra turned to watch it sail away, and a resigned Mickey Mantle, who had drifted over from center field, jogged slowly toward the dugout. The mighty Yankees, heavy betting favorites featuring a roster studded with future Hall of Famers, lost the game 10–9 and the series 4–3.
After the game, in an interview with Associated Press reporter Ross Grimsley, Maz said: “Dad would have loved it — I only wish he could have been here today.” In 1958, Maz’s father, Louis, died from lung cancer. As Maz spoke, his eyes filled with tears, in part from the joy of bringing the Pirates their first World Series title in 35 years and partly from memories of Louis who had always hoped to play big league baseball. The Cleveland Indians were ready to sign Louis who scouts labeled an outstanding prospect. But when Louis lost a foot in a coal mining accident, he put his hopes and ambitions into developing his only son’s skills.
From his early childhood, Maz remembered tossing a baseball around and swinging a bat under his father’s watchful eyes. Maz told Grimsley that his Dad was resolute that he become a major league ballplayer, and Louis worked with Maz to achieve the goal.
Sacrifices Louis made on behalf of his son paid off. By the time Maz reached the Pirates’ top minor league franchise, the Hollywood Stars, every Pacific Coast League manager recognized the young second baseman as a can’t-miss prospect. All agreed that they had never seen an infielder more skilled at turning the double play. The consensus among seasoned veterans who have seen them come and go for decades is that Maz is baseball’s best-ever fielding second baseman. The Pirates’ second sacker who followed Maz, Dave Cash, said his predecessor rarely made an error and never made a bad play. Maz won eight Gold Glove Awards, was named to ten All-Star teams, and turned more double plays than any second baseman before or since.
Post-scripts to Maz’s electrifying homer: in 1962, Ralph Terry redeemed himself. He won 23 games and got the final out in the Yankees’ World Series seventh game win over the San Francisco Giants. With two runners in scoring position, and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Terry got Willie McCovey to line out to second to preserve the Yankees 1–0 win. Across the victorious Yankees’ clubhouse, Joe DiMaggio shouted to Terry, the series MVP: “Hey Ralph, you can forget about that ninth inning in Pittsburgh now.” After his retirement, Terry competed in 106 PGA tournaments and had five top-ten finishes.
In 2001, the Cooperstown Hall of Fame inducted Maz. His two-minute, tear-filled speech is memorable for its rambling, choked-up delivery. Maz, long on skill and short on talk, thanked everyone in the Cooperstown 20,000-strong audience who made the trip to “listen to all this crap.”
Every year since 1993, on October 13 the Pirates faithful make a pilgrimage to the long-ago Forbes Field location where a portion of the brick center-field wall still stands, sacred ground to Bucco fans. The game is rebroadcast; the gathered throng reacts excitedly as if fans were hearing the unfolding innings for the first time. The Pirates are the only MLB team to hold an annual celebration for past World Series champions. On September 5, 2010, on Maz’s 74th birthday, the Pirates unveiled a 12-foot-tall statue of him outside of PNC Park, depicting the player circling the bases after hitting his momentous home run.
With his father’s guiding hand, Maz reached unimaginable heights from his humble childhood in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he grew up in a one-room shack without electricity and indoor plumbing. Maz, looking back on his early hard life, attributed his success to his father’s determination.
Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com.
