Game Seven of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees swung back and forth. Heading into the bottom of the eighth inning at Forbes Field, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates, 53-21, and held a 7–4 lead in the deciding game. The Pirates hadn’t won a World Championship since 1925, while the Yanks had won 17 of them in the same stretch of time, seven of the preceding 11 years. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the eighth and took the lead, only to cough it up in the top of the ninth. The game was tied 9–9 in the bottom of the ninth.
At 3:36, Bill Mazeroski swung at Ralph Terry’s slider. As Curt Smith writes in these pages:
“There goes a long drive hit deep to left field!” said Gunner. “Going back is Yogi Berra! Going back! You can kiss it good-bye!” No smooch was ever lovelier.
“How did we do it, Possum? How did we do it?” Prince said finally, din all around.
Woods didn’t know—only that, “I’m looking at the wildest thing since I was on Hollywood Boulevard the night World War II ended.”
David had toppled Goliath. It was a blow that awakened a generation, one that millions of people saw on television, one of TV’s first iconic World Series moments.
Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is the joint product of 44 authors and editors from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) who have pooled their efforts to create a portrait of the 1960 team which pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the last 60 years. Sweet ’60: The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates is edited by Clifton Blue Parker and Bill Nowlin, with Associate Editors: Ron Antonucci, Clem Comly, and Len Levin, and contributions by: Alan Cohen, Alfonso Tusa, Andy Sturgill, Bob Hurte, C. Paul Rogers, Cary Smith, Charles Faber, Clem Comly, Clifton Blue Parker, Curt Smith, Dan Even, Dan Fields, David Fleitz, Dick Rosen, Donald Frank, Gary Gillette, George Skornickel, Greg Erion, Gregory Wolf, Jack V. Morris, James Forr, Jan Finkel, Jim Sandoval, Joe Schuster, Joe Wancho, Joel Goss, Jorge Iber, Mark Miller, Mike Jaffe, Peter Bauck, Rich Westcott, Rob Edelman, Rodney Johnson, Ron Briley, Rory Costello, Skip Nipper, Stew Thornley, Thomas Ayers, Thomas Van Hyning, Tim Herlich, and Warren Corbett.
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