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1960 World Series

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I knew he wasn't gonna catch it, and I was running my butt off. If he had misplayed it off the wall, I wanted to be on third base for a triple ...
But by the time I was going into second, the roar of the crowd and the umpire down the left field line, givin' his stuff... Then I hit second base, and I don't believe I touched the ground the rest of the way.

Bill
Mazeroski

The 1960 World Series featured both a David and Goliath matchup and a rematch of sorts, between the power-laden New York Yankees—winners of eighteen of the previous 37 Fall Classics—and the upstart Pittsburgh Pirates, making their first post-season appearance since being swept by New York in 1927. Notable, both for Bill Mazeroski's Game 7, Series-ending home run—the only time a winner-take-all World Series contest has ended with a walk-off home run—and for the fact that Bobby Richardson of the Yankees was the Series MVP (the only time this award has gone to a member of the losing team), this Series was likewise distinguished by its uniquely lopsided run production (better than 2 to 1 in favor of the losing team), with New York's three blowout wins—by a combined score of 38-3—trumped by the Pirates' four nail-biters (6–4, 3–2, 5–2, and 10–9).

Quotes

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Pittsburgh Pirates personnel

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Authors / speakers listed alphabetically by last name.
Quotes per author listed chronologically by date of occurrence (where available) or earliest known publication date.


  • I think it was just sheer guts against power, and the guts came through.


  • It's a dilly, all right. The ball really spins around that curve, like a pill on a roulette wheel. You can't charge 'em, or they'll get past you for a home run.
  • Sure, I expect trouble. Look at that sun. How can I say I don't expect trouble? I'll tell you one thing, though. It might be an experience. I know there's a good chance I'll be lousy, but the funny thing is, I'm looking forward to it.
  • Can't beat the Bucs, can you? No sir, can't beat the bad Buccos, I'll tell you that. That's for sure. Yessir! Yessir! We got 'em, we got 'em. They broke all the records, but we won the game. How about that? Can't beat that.
    • Gino Cimoli, speaking with Bob Prince in the Pirates clubhouse following Game 7.


  • They've been knocking me down all season in the National League and I've still gotten my share of base hits.
    • Roberto Clemente, responding to leaked Yankee scouting report ("Knock him down the first time up and forget him"); as quoted in "Change of Pace" by Bill Nunn, Jr., in The Pittsburgh Courier (October 8, 1960), p. 26
  • I heard him yelling too and reached up to catch it when he bumped into me. He cut my foot a little, but I told him you can cut me like that all the time if you catch the ball.
    • Roberto Clemente, on Bill Virdon's pivotal Game 1 catch/near-collision; as quoted in “'Butcher Boys' Aiming to Slice Series Stake” by Stan Isaacs, in ‘’New York Newsday’’ (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 16C
      • Comment: Scroll down to access Bill Virdon's 10/6/60 quote in this section.
  • With lineup they have, they should have won pennant in August.
    • Roberto Clemente, following New York's second consecutive blowout win; as quoted in "Murtaugh Won't Halt Party Plans (Cont.)" by Jack Hernon, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Sunday, October 9, 1960), Sec. 3, p. 2
  • He pitches with his head, too. He mixes up his stuff—two speeds of curve ball, a slider and then whoosh, the fast ball. He's tough.
  • We no good when first come home off road. All time during regular season we lose first game after come back to Forbes Field. Same thing happen now. But we get hot in second game now we back—just wait and see. We go out with fire.
  • These are the best fans anywhere. They make all of this worthwhile. They are the reason I'm glad we won the World Series. They're the ones who deserve this championship.


  • Every time a man steps to the plate, I consider him to be potentially dangerous. But I'm convinced I'm going to get him out. As for the Yankees, they don't worry me at all—Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, or any of them—because I know they put their pants on one leg at a time, like the rest of us. We've got some powerful hitting teams in the National League, Milwaukee and San Francisco, for instance, and Cincinnati. I don't think the Yanks are any more dangerous.
    • ElRoy Face, as quoted in “Man in the Newsː ElRoy Face Stands Out in Relief,” in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 58



  • Fans will see two opposite types in managing in Danny Murtaugh and Casey Stengel. Murtaugh goes with his regulars as far as possible. He might pinch-hit for them late in a game but very, very seldom. Danny figures if a man is good enough to play regularly, he's good enough to hit. And don't think this doesn't build up the confidence of a player. Murtaugh plays good, sound baseball according to the book. From what I've heard of Stengel, he may pinch-hit as early as the second inning. Casey also shifts players frequently but his methods have worked. Who can argue with success?
  • Everybody said the same thing, and Maz would be the first one to admit it. We all said, "Get off the wall! Get off the wall!" Maz was running as hard as he could run to get that extra base.


  • I guess the Western Union telegram boys will be busy carrying me telegrams until game time today. In New York, after we'd been shellacked by the Yanks, I got about 100 telegrams. About 75 of them told me what a lousy club we were and that we had no business playing in a World Series. When we won the next two games, the telegrams stopped pouring in. The only thing I can conclude from this is that people who own stock in Western Union ought to be rooting for the Yanks to pin our ears back again today. But if it comes down to that, my advice to them consists of one word: Sell.


  • I wasn't too worried at the start when Bob Cerv singled and Tony Kubek doubled. I knew I was in trouble, but felt that if I could get Roger Maris out, we'd walk Mickey Mantle and then try for the double play. And that's exactly how it worked out—Don Hoak took Yogi Berra's grounder and started the double play. Both Cerv and Kubek hit my best pitches, too. Cerv hit a ball in on him and Kubek hit a low, outside pitch into left field. But after the first inning, I made a change on Kubek. He had been batting .500 with seven hits and our "book" on him was to keep the ball outside and low. I decided to pitch him inside and he didn't get a ball out of the infield after that.
    • Vernon Law, on his Game 5 win; in "Bad Ankle Worse Than Ever,' Law Pitches On Just One Leg" by Law, in The Pittsburgh Press (Monday, October 10, 1960), p. 24
  • We didn't have time to go to church before the game but Mrs. Law and I prayed in our room. We prayed that no one on either side would get hurt and that everyone would would do as well as they possibly could. We didn't pray for victory because that would be a selfish prayer.
    • Vernon Law, in "Bad Ankle Worse Than Ever,' Law Pitches On Just One Leg"
  • Bill Skowron impressed me as the best Yankee hitter in the Series and he hit that home run off me yesterday in the fifth inning on actually a waste pitch. I tried to waste a side-arm fast ball by throwing it a foot outside but it nicked the corner and Skowron hit it into the right-field seats.
  • I had the utmost confidence in the Pirates all the way because I knew we were the better team. I thought the Yankees were playing over their heads. I didn't think they were that good.
  • To name names for the unfortunate horseplay really has no purpose at this time. I suppose many were to blame and not just one person. The person who twisted my foot has had enough disappointments in his own life. All of us were a close-knit bunch of players, and I believe all the players would lose a great deal of respect for me if this person was named. The players involved literally picked me up and tried ripping my shirt off, but because I resisted so, it might have been my fault as well. Bob Prince, our TV and radio announcer, probably was more of an instigator than anyone, as he was in front of me, leading the pack on. There were about five or six of them, and it could have been any of them. Certainly Bob could have stopped the whole thing if he wanted to. There never were any hard feelings toward anyone for putting me through three years of misery. The important thing is, I was able to continue my career. I loved what I was doing and I wanted to go out of the game on my own terms.
    • Vernon Law, on his October 1960 ankle injury, sustained on the Pirates' team bus on the night Pittsburgh clinched the NL pennant; as quoted in Kiss it Goodbye: The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates (2010) by John Moody, p. 213-14


  • I was very nervous at the start of the game but after the first out, I was normal again. I was rounding first base when I saw the ball disappear over the scoreboard in the fourth inning and I was as happy as a fellow can get. This was a dream come true.
  • That homer was one I'll always remember. The only one comparable was one off Taylor Phillips of the Cubs. That broke the home run record for a Pittsburgh second baseman. A small thrill compared to today's.
    • Bill Mazeroski, following his Series-winning home run; as quoted in "In the Wake of the News (Cont.)" by David Condon, in The Chicago Tribune (Thursday, October 6, 1960), Spts.—Bus.—p. 3
  • Dad would have loved it—I only wish he could have been here today. Dad always wanted to play big league baseball. He was considered a great prospect. Once he was ready to sign with the Cleveland Indians and then he had a foot cut off in a mine accident. From then on, all his hopes and ambitions were wrapped up in me, because I was an only son. Dad had to work hard in the mines, but whenever he could he always would try to catch me in a ball game or two. Then a year and a half ago he died of lung cancer.
    • Bill Mazeroski, following his Series-winning home run; as quoted in "Wished Dad Were Here" by The Associated Press, in The Chicago Tribune (Friday, October 14, 1960), Spts.—Bus.—p. 5
  • You keep it. The memory's good enough for me.
    • Bill Mazeroski, speaking after Game 7 with with 14-year-old Andy Jerpe, who was attempting to return the walk-off HR ball to Mazeroski; as quoted in "LOOK WHAT I GOT, KIDSː Boy Takes Home-Run Ball to Mazeroski, Gets to Keep It" by the Associated Press, in The New York Times (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 37; reproduced in "The Ultimate Seventh Game" by Daniel Wyatt, at The National Pastime Museum (October 22, 2014)
  • When I walked up to the plate, all I thought about was getting on base. But deep in my mind, I just knew we were going to lose. I thought, "Well, you can't feel too bad taking the Yankees into the seventh game of the World Series and losing in extra innings."
    • Bill Mazeroski, as quoted in “30 Years Later, Maz Hysteria Remains” by Bob Nightengale, in The Los Angeles Times (October 12, 1990), p. C6
  • I was almost at second base when it finally went over. I was running so hard, just trying to make sure I'd get to third. Then it took moment or two to realize what happened. It was gone. You know, all I could think about was, "We beat the Yankeesǃ We beat themǃ We beat the damn Yankeesǃ"
    • Bill Mazeroski, as quoted in “30 Years Later, Maz Hysteria Remains”
  • I get people coming up to me and talking about that home run all of the time. But you know, for once I'd like someone to say, "You were a damn good defensive second baseman. You were one of the best I ever saw." To tell you the truth, that's what I'm most proud of, that I could turn the double play as well as anyone who ever played the game. But no one remembers that. No one cares. It's kind of funny, isn't it? Thirty years later and people are still talking bout it. Who would have ever figured?
    • Bill Mazeroski, as quoted in “30 Years Later, Maz Hysteria Remains”
  • It hasn't been said very often, but I think it was one of the greatest games ever played in a World Series, especially a Game 7.
  • There was so much going on after the game, so many people outside. We had a hard time getting to our car. Everybody wanted to buy you a drink. They were patting you on the back. We finally made it to our car, and we were wore out. We got in the car and took off for somewhere quiet. We went up into Squirrel Hill and sat on a Schenley Park bench and there wasn't a soul up there. Nobody. Except for a few squirrels running around. We sat there for about an hour and just relaxed. I wasn't thinking about the home run. It was, "We beat them. We beat the Yankees." The only thing I could think of after I hit second base was, "We beat them, we beat the Yankees, the great Yankees."
  • So I just walked to the plate, tryin' to hit the ball hard somewhere. I was always a high fastball hitter, and the first pitch that went by was probably a little too high. The second pitch he got down a little bit, and I hit it. And I knew when I hit it that Yogi Berra was in left field, that he wasn't gonna catch it. I knew I hit it good enough, hard enough... 'Cause it was 410 feet out there, and you probably had to hit it about 425 to get it over the big fence out there. So I knew he wasn't gonna catch it, and I was runnin' my butt off. And if he had misplayed it off the wall, I wanted to be on third base for a triple; there's a lot of ways to score from third base than there are from second. But by the time I was going into second, the roar of the crowd and the umpire down the left field line, give it his stuff... Then I hit second base, and I don't believe I touched the ground the rest of the way.


  • Forget about the final score. If that ball had gone through, the score would have been tied, Bob Friend would have stayed in, and it would have been a different ball game. The Yankees wouldn't have scored any sixteen runs off of Bob, you can bet on that. I thought he was pretty sharp, as far as he went.
    • Danny Murtaugh, on a pivotal play in Game 2, which cut short Pittsburgh's 4th-inning rally; as quoted in “Pirates Call Mazeroski Liner to Third Big Yankee Break” by Joseph M. Sheehan, in The New York Times (Friday, October 7, 1960), p. 41
  • I've seen every ball that has been hit over the center-field wall in Forbes Field. Mickey's, I'd have to say, was the most convincing.
    • Danny Murtaugh, as quoted in “Pirates Call Mazeroski Liner to Third Big Yankee Break” by Joseph M. Sheehan, in The New York Times (Friday, October 7, 1960), p. 41
  • So far as I know they haven't changed the World Series rules. This thing still goes to the team that wins four games and not to the club that makes the most records.
    • Speaking with reporters on October 12, following New York's Game Six 12-0 win; as quoted in "Murtaugh and Pirates Teach Yankees Sad Lesson" by Bill Lee, in The Hartford Courant (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 25


  • I got to my knees and backhanded it. I came up to throw to second to start a double play. But Groat had come in behind the pitcher's mound in preparation to take a throw from right field; he was on the grass instead of at second. He'd figured the ball had gone by me. So there's no one covering second. I cranked my arm twice, I was told, and then turned and stepped on the bag for a force out on Berra. But Mantle dove back into the bag and beat my tag at him. Yogi said I robbed him of a double. Mantle said he saw me catch the ball, and thought I caught it on the fly. Mantle might have been the goat if Skowron had followed with a single. Because if Mantle had gone to second he would have gotten there safely, and he would have scored on a single. Mantle wasn't more than an arm's length off the bag. Stuart said I should've gotten Mantle at first base. He told me if he'd have been at first base, the ballgame would've been over, and Maz wouldn't even have had to bat. That's the way Stuart was. He could give it and he could take it. But Murtaugh said I was the only one who could have caught the ball. I took one step off the bag with Yogi up; I couldn't take two steps off. The ball went over the bag and was in foul territory when I grabbed it. It was just one of the sequences in that game that stand out. It was probably the greatest game ever played in the seventh game of a World Series. It went back and forth. You couldn't ask for better drama.
    • Rocky Nelson, on a pivotal play in Game 7, whereby New York scored the tying run in the top of the ninth, setting the stage for Mazeroski's Series-ending home run; as quoted in Maz and the '60 Bucs: When Pittsburgh and Its Pirates Went All the Way (1993) by Jim O'Brien, p. 423


  • I was really disappointed, especially because I got hurt on a dumb baserunning mistake. I was on second base and a ball was hit to short and I took off for third. You're not supposed to go unless the ball is hit behind you between first and second base. I shouldn't have run; it was a real bonehead play. I was just so excited. The ball was hit to Kubek and he threw to third to get me. I dove into third, a headfirst slide, and my thumb just caught under the bag, and was bent back to my wrist. It really hurt. I told Murtaugh I had to play in the last game, though, if we were gonna win. I told him that. "I'll help this team win," I said. And I did. I had a sacrifice and I did some things that helped us. I only played seven innings in the field because my thumb hurt so much.
    • Bob Skinner, on the injury that caused him to miss Games 2 through 6; as quoted in Maz and the '60 Bucs: When Pittsburgh and Its Pirates Went All the Way (1993) by Jim O'Brien, p. 423


  • They won the laughers. The easy games went to the Yankees. But when it came down to the clutch you know who was there. This was our kind of game. It was the first time in the Series we had a chance to show them our finishing kick. That's the way we won it all year and today we put it on again.


  • I got my share of homers this year and I can tell you that no one ever gets any cheap ones here. Sure, I know Mantle led the American League in homers, but we got a couple of guys besides myself who can hit home runs, too. Clemente can hit a ball as far as anyone. He leans toward left field and hits to right. And what about Hoak, Skinner and Burgess? The ball jumps off their bats also.
  • Why did you come in here if you didn't expect to get wet?
  • I was gonna hit one. Can I help it if Maz got cute?
    • Dick Stuart, from a telegram explaining why he hadn't delivered on his promise of a World Series home run; as quoted in "Big Stu Breaks Promise But It's Maz' Fault" by The Associated Press, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 14


  • I heard Clemente yell something like "Got it" but I wasn't sure. I felt as I went back that it was a tough one but that I had a chance. I caught it up here (over his shoulder) and stepped on Roberto's heel as I bumped him into the wall.
    • Bill Virdon, on a pivotal Game 1 catch/near-collision; as quoted in “'Butcher Boys' Aiming to Slice Series Stake” by Stan Isaacs, in ‘’New York Newsday’’ (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 16C
      • Comment: Scroll up to access Roberto Clemente's 10/6/60 quote in this section.
  • I don't know about everyone else, but I'd certainly agree [with Tony Kubek]. I'm not sure if we belonged on the same field with those fellas. But something special was happening all year for us, and it happened again in the World Series.

New York Yankees personnel

[edit]

Authors / speakers listed alphabetically by last name.
Quotes per author listed chronologically by date of occurrence (where available) or earliest known publication date.


  • I gotta shake hands with himǃ That's one guy I know I'm better lookin' than.
  • Worst park in baseball for a batter. I warned the Pirates and they wouldn't believe me but I'll bet they do now. It gets worse late in a game and if a pitcher gets an early lead, he's in clover. Why, I could pitch the last three innings there and get the side out. But this place is a hitter's paradise. Great background, no shadows, no haze coming in from the stands. A hitter's paradise, like I told you. Man, do we love to hit here.
    • Yogi Berra, shortly before New York's Game 6 laugher, comparing Yankee Stadium to Forbes Field; as quoted in "The Scoreboard: Forbes Field Hitter's Paradise, Yogi Says; Yankee Park Worst" by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (October 13, 1960), p. 35
  • I dunno. This game is getting funnier and funnier. We do everything but punch 'em in the nose and here we are all tied up in the Series. We flatten 'em by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 and we still need one more to win. How do you figure that? Don't write this, but even if they beat us tomorrow, we're the better club.
  • We just got beat, Roger—by the damndest baseball team that me or you or anybody else ever played against.
    • Yogi Berra, responding to Maris' question, "What happened to us, for crying out loud, what happened?"; as quoted in "Berra Tells Maris 'What Happened'" by David Kelly, in The Pittsburgh Press (October 14, 1960), p. 1
  • We didn't win, anyway, did we? I hit a slider, I think it was, and then I worried all the way to first base if it would stay fair.
  • He pitched a hell of a ball game. Tremendous. He's out of the inning if the ball doesn't take that bad hop. That's the play. And if he's out there, he gets that ball that Clemente hit.
    • Yogi Berra, on teammate Bobby Shantz's five-plus-inning relief stint in Game 7; as quoted in ""Yanks Human, and in Defeat They Cry, Too" by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 18C
  • We were all buddies. We used to play with them in spring training all the time. Virdon was a Yankee to begin with. I knew him when he first broke in with us. I liked Smokey Burgess. They had Dick Stuart, and you had to like Dr. Strangeglove. And they had Friend and Face. They were good fellows. Face was tough. They call it a split-finger fastball today, but it's a forkball, and nobody threw it better than Face. He was tough for everybody to hit.
    • Yogi Berra, in "Yogi Berra: He remembers Whatzisname hitting the home run," Maz and the '60 Bucs (1993) by Jim O'Brien, p. 293


  • I don't know what to think, what to say. I'm still flabbergasted. Maybe I'm not the best hitter in the world, but I didn't think I was that bad. When Casey called me back, I thought it was to tell me something, maybe to ask me to try to hit to right or to give me a hint on what kind of pitcher Vernon Law is. But he never said another word to me. All he did was to tell Dale Long to grab a bat. I just don’t know and I just can’t figure it out.
    • Clete Boyer, on his premature Game 1 exit in favor of pinch-hitter Dale Long; as quoted in “Gripes Plentiful in Dressing Room of Beaten Yankees After Series Opener; Boyer Expresses Hurt at Removal” by Louis Effrat, in The New York Times (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 53
  • When he called me back, I wanted to die. I was ready to crawl all the way home. At first I thought he wanted to tell me to pop it to right or how many pitches to take, but when I saw Dale...I never felt so bad in my life.
    • Clete Boyer, elaborating on his early Game 1 departure; as quoted in “Ditmar Does His Job, But the 'Holes' Undo It” by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 19C
  • Not only did that ball take a bad hop, but I was in the right position only because Casey moved me back two steps just one pitch before. If I had been up two steps, I wouldn't have got it, and the Pirates would have either scored or had the bases loaded with nobody out. I didn't allow enough for that fast infield. It's a good thing he moved me. You can't tell what would have happened then. It might have been a different ball game.
    • Clete Boyer, on a pivotal play in the 5th inning of Game 5; as quoted in “Stengel's Wise Moves Keep Yankees Alive” by Allen Lewis, in The Philadelphia Inquirer (Thursday, October 13, 1960), p. 42
  • Casey, I'll tell you; he always bragged about me at third base. We had that little spat there in the 1960 World Series when he took me out for a pinch hitter in the second inning of the first game, but with Casey it was nothing personal. It was like whipping one of your kids. The next day you still love him.


  • I made only seventeen pitches and I felt fine. I wanted them to hit grounders. They did, but don't tell me they're that good that they can hit them where nobody is all the time. I'm ready to pitch again tomorrow, but I guess Casey has a different idea.
    • Art Ditmar, on being removed seventeen pitches—and one third of an inning—into his Game 1 start; as quoted in “Gripes Plentiful in Dressing Room of Beaten Yankees After Series Opener; Boyer Expresses Hurt at Removal” by Louis Effrat, in The New York Times (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 53
  • If they hit in the holes, there's nothing you can do about it. The guy that hit the ball the hardest was the only out I got. Skinner swung and missed on two low pitches and he just chopped at the one he hit. It came off the infield like a shot.
    • Art Ditmar, elaborating on his early Game 1 departure; as quoted in “Ditmar Does His Job, But the 'Holes' Undo It” by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 19C


  • This is the most disappointing defeat we ever had. Look at Stengel over there. Imagine how bad he feels. Look at him talking and holding back the tears.
    • Whitey Ford, as quoted in "Yanks Human, and in Defeat They Cry, Too" by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 18C
  • He stayed so far away from the plate. I have a little sinking fastball that would go away from him. I thought I could throw it on the outside corner and he wouldn’t be able to reach it, but he knew exactly what he was doing up there. He would just move in toward the plate as you were releasing the ball – he could reach over and hit it to right field with almost as much power as to left field.
    • Whitey Ford, recalling his experience pitching to Roberto Clemente during the Series; as quoted in Clemente! (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 81
  • Whitey Ford, who pitched against him twice in that Series, recalls that Roberto Clemente actually made himself look bad on an outside pitch to encourage Whitey to come in with it again. "I did," recalls Whitey, "and he unloaded."
    • Whitey Ford, almost certainly referring to the foul 'home run' hit by Clemente in the first inning of Ford's second start of the Series, Game 6 (see 10/13/60 Associated Press quote in Sportswriters, announcers); as paraphrased and quoted in Great Latin Sports Figures (1976), pp. 22–23
  • Only time I was ever mad at Casey in my life. I couldn't figure it out. Sure, I missed some time during the season with a sore arm, but I had gotten back for a few games and I was all right. I was used to pitching every fifth day, but I could have pitched the first, fourth and seventh games in the Series. It wasn't as if Forbes Field had a short left field like Fenway Park or Ebbets Field.
    • Whitey Ford, as quoted in “Terry and the Pirates” by George Vecsey, in The New York Times (Sunday, September 29, 1985), Sec. 6, p. 57
  • They won. That's what counts. It's something we still think about once in a while. And it happened 32 years ago. There's no getting around it. They played good baseball when they had to, and when the chips were down. Hal Smith hit the home run and, of course, Mazeroski hit the home run. When they had to perform, they did. So you can't take anything away from them. They had a fine ball club. Gino Cimoli said it best. He summed up the whole Series when he said, "The Yankees set all the records and we won the Series." That says it right in a nutshell. We did everything right except win the World Series. And that's what I mean. When the chips were down, they came through. They didn't let that 16-to-1 setback bother them. Most clubs would have folded up and said, "Let's just get this thing over with and go fishing." But, no, they didn't. They hung real tough every day. You can't beat that, and we didn't.
    • Whitey Ford, as quoted in Maz and the '60 Bucs: When Pittsburgh and Its Pirates Went All the Way (1993) by Jim O'Brien, p. 126
  • Yes, that was the most disappointing thing that ever happened to me; and, you know, I played in five World Series with Mickey Mantle, and we lost three of them and won two of them. After that Pittsburgh World Series was the time Mickey cried. He sat in his locker and the big tears were coming down his cheeks. I know just what he was going through. There were several of us who weren't feeling too good at the time. For me to see that, coming from a man like that, that meant a lot to me. He was hurt by that World Series there. He just shook his head. He didn't say anything derogatory toward the Pirates. It was just that we should have won that World Series. That's what he felt badly about. We all did. It was a downer.
    • Whitey Ford, as quoted in Maz and the '60 Bucs: When Pittsburgh and Its Pirates Went All the Way (1993) by Jim O'Brien, pp. 126–127




  • Maybe we lost, but I was on the better team this time.
  • The best team lost. Imagine Hal Smith hitting a homer.
  • That's the way they played all yearǃ I don't care, they still aren't the best club. They all ought to start going to church. That shows you that damned Face can get hit like the rest of them. That————immortal.
    • Dale Long, echoing teammate Roger Maris' withering assessment of the victorious Pirates and their 'ace,' Vernon Law (who, as per Maris, "better be a minister with all the luck he had"); as quoted in "Yanks Human, and in Defeat They Cry, Too" by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 18C


  • What go they want? I just gave them a dose of the same sliders and curves they'll see when Haddix gets out here.
    • Eddie Lopat, defending his batting practice offerings prior to New York's Game 5 loss; as quoted in “Sports of the Times: Unfurling the Jolly Roger” by Arthur Daley, in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 59
  • There is no substitute for experience and stuff, and Ditmar had both. But he didn't have any luck, just like in the game at Forbes Field.
    • Eddie Lopat, bemoaning the ill fortune of New York's Game 1 and Game 5 starter; as quoted in “Stengel Defends His Selection of Ditmar Over Stafford As Starting Pitcher” by Louis Effrat, in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 59


  • I was sure scared after that first strikeout, especially after getting struck out twice in the first game. I thought it would be another of those games where I'd strike out four times. I'm the man to do it. I was talking to myself. [...] They don't mean a thing to me, really. What's the good of homers in the middle of a game when you get 16 runs? I've hit homers in Series games that won them. Then they mean something. Now they don't.
  • I feel better than I have in years—no leg problems at all. But if I'm to get three more home runs, I'm afraid I'll have to get them right-handed. I don't know what's the matter. I've lost my confidence from that side. I've always been a better right-handed hitter than left, but it wasn't until recently that I really got into a left-handed slump. I just don't seem able to pull the trigger, hitting left-handed. I have no excuse for it. It's not my legs or anything. The ball just gets up to me before I know it.
  • Hell, it's true, isn't it? If you don't want to be quoted on that, he can quote me.
    • Mickey Mantle, on the matter of whether Yogi Berra's claim of Yankee superiority regardless of the Series' outcome—made following New York's Game 6 blowout win, knotting the Series at three all—should be on or off the record (see Berra quote from the same article, above); as quoted in "We Flattened 'Em, Yet We're Only Tied'" by Joe Reichler (AP), in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Thursday, October 13, 1960), p. 35
  • That's the worst thing about it. We hit so much better, but we lost anyhow. This is a lot better club than they are.
    • Mickey Mantle, as quoted in "Yanks Human, and in Defeat They Cry, Too" by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 18C
  • But we lost. That's all that counts. I never thought we would. We had it won, too. We got nobody to blame but ourselves. Years from now, all they'll know is that we lost.
  • Well, a lot of stories have been written about that play. Actually, I don't know why I did that. Tony Kubek said it was the dumbest play he ever saw.
  • I have always said this and I never second-guessed Casey in my life, but I believe the whole Series revolved around that decision.
    • Mickey Mantle, regarding Stengel's decision to hold back Whitey Ford until Game 3, in "The Mick" (1986) by Mantle with Herb Glick; reproduced in "The Ultimate Seventh Game" by Daniel Wyatt, at The National Pastime Museum (October 22, 2014)


  • Playing in the World Series is what I've wanted most of all ever since I became professional ball player. It's funny. When the Athletics traded me to the Yankees last winter, my first feeling was that of regret. No kidding, it was. My home is near Kansas City and I was able to spend a lot of time with the family while the A's were in town. That meant a lot to me. Raytown, Mo., my home, was only about 20 minutes from the ball park. But soon I realized what playing in New York could mean. There was a real shot at the World Series, something that has always been important to me. I had come up to the Cleveland Indians in 1957 and for a while, early in the season, they were given a chance to win the pennant. But they couldn't keep it going. Then, in mid-season of 1958, the Indians traded me to the Athletics and the World Series seemed a long way off. And now I'm a Yankee and this is a great uniform. I've never been this close to the World Series. There isn't a happier or prouder guy. I consider myself a very 'lucky' boy.
  • The Pirates should never beat our club. I think if we played this team all season we'd beat them real bad. They were real lucky. I think it is impossible to get any more breaks than they had in this Series.
  • That's the luckiest team I ever saw. They hit the two home runs, but those two grounders... one hits Tony in the neck and that miserable one Clemente hit. That Law was throwing 'at 'em' balls. Every line drive we hit, a little man was there to catch it. He better be a minister with all the luck he had.
    • Roger Maris, as quoted in "Yanks Human, and in Defeat They Cry, Too" by Steve Jacobson, in New York Newsday (Friday, October 14, 1960), p. 18C


  • Tony made a perfect throw and I should have had Smoky Burgess out at third. It should have been easy, but in my anxiety to make the tag, I neglected to wait until I had the ball. When I did catch it, I failed to hold it. I have no excuse. It was my error.
    • Gil McDougald, on his costly 2nd-inning error (in response to erroneous reports that Burgess had knocked the ball loose); as quoted in “Stengel Defends His Selection of Ditmar Over Stafford As Starting Pitcher” by Louis Effrat, in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 59


  • I guess you'd like me to tell you why I did so well in the World Series. I guess you'd like an explanation. It was the power of prayer. When I stepped into the batter's box in the World Series, thousands of people were praying for me and wishing me well. I like to think this is one of the reasons I do so well in World Series play. I like to think it is the fundamental reason.
  • Well, you visited with Tony this weekend and I called him, we talked on the phone. And he said that Mickey called him in the hospital right about the time he went to see him, just to check on him. And Tony asked him about the play and he said, "I just froze." He said, "I just didn't know what to do." But his instincts, as you mentioned, kicked in and he made that wonderful dive back in. The proper thing would be to get half way and give the third base runner time to score. But Mickey just froze...but he made that great slide, and the tag was not there.


  • We gave 'em a little thrill. We hit a home run off each of their best pitchers, and the Pittsburgh club found out we was still around in the ninth inning. We ain't squealin' and cryin'. I thought our infield played as well as theirs, and you'd have to say our hittin' was fairly good out there. In fact we outhit 'em. Now when you come right down to what beat us, I'll say that man [Bill Virdon] made a helluva catch off Yogi Berra. Things would have been a lot different without it.
  • Richardson didn't make the right play, but he got the man, and it did do one thing: showed us that Skinner can run. Where was the man [Clemente] who hit the ball? He's the fastest man, ain't he? Now if that play had decided the game, they'd all be asking why he didn't go to second. And if I was the manager I wouldn't have an answer.
  • I am more amazed about that fellah every day. You seen that one he hit over the center field fence today. You've seen some of the left-handed shots he has made in Yankee Stadium. Now I tell you what amazes me so much; that fellah does it on one leg. You noticed how that right knee is always wrapped. He plays on one leg. Only one leg, yet you've seen he plays in all the games, and even the doubleheaders. Some times this year I knew the leg was bothering him but I kept him in and he'd get the big hit to win for us. Maybe in the seventh, maybe in the eighth, maybe in the ninth. But he'd get it. You seen Mantle's two right-handed homers today. For maybe the first three years he's with the club everyone told me I was silly to let him hit right-handed. Well, I been called silly about lots of things but I guess I'm not silly bout Mantle hitting right-handed, huh?
  • Berra could last five more years hitting in this park.
    • Casey Stengel, as quoted in "The Scoreboard: Forbes Field Hitter's Paradise, Yogi Says; Yankee Park Worst" by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (October 13, 1960), p. 35
  • Well, tomorrow will be it and you are a very nice gentleman whether you win, lose or draw.
    • Speaking to Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh following New York's Game Six 12-0 win; as quoted in "Meeting of (Master) Minds," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Thursday, October 13, 1960) p. 34
  • Now I tell these fellers (his pitchers) they can't pitch these other fellers (the Pirates) high but they do it so you have to say it was pitching that beat us. There ain't much you can do about those balls that nobody can field. They give Nelson that high ball and there it goes. Smith gets a high one and then them other fellers are back in the game and then we have to fight back to get even again. Then Mazeroski gets another high ball just like he did in the first game and that's all there is to it. Maybe it will be a lesson to them fellers.


  • I don't know what pitch it was. All I know is, it was the wrong one.
  • It was like a slow-pitch softball game. It all came down to who had the last ups.
    • Ralph Terry, as quoted in “Terry and the Pirates” by George Vecsey, in The New York Times (Sunday, September 29, 1985), Sec. 6, p. 57
  • Everybody remembers I hadn't pitched since the fourth game. But people don't know I warmed up with Bill Stafford in the second, with Shantzie in the third, with Jim Coates in the eighth, before I replaced Coates. After the second warmup, I didn't have anything.
  • I played golf professionally in South Africa and Europe a few years ago, and I stopped in Portugal for a pro-am tournament at a fancy club. My partner was a steel executive from England with three first initials like they have over there. The tournament was sponsored by a port manufacturer, so every few holes you'd stop and have a sip. After a few sips, he said to me, "I understand you played rounders back in the States." I said yes. He said, "I've seen only one game of rounders in my life. I was in Pittsburgh in 1960 and my hosts with U.S. Steel played 18 holes at Oakmont in the morning and then said we had to make haste because they had tickets for the final game of the World Series." Right then, I could see what was coming. He told me, "In the final chukker, this bloke from Pittsburgh hit the ball clear over a wall, and sheer pandemonium broke loose. We were lucky to escape with our lives." I looked at him and said, "You know, it's a funny thing, but I'm the bloke who served it up." He said, "What a coincidence. Let's have some more port."
  • I didn't have a thing left and I knew it. It's funny. I even started thinking, "Geez, why didn't Casey start Whitey Ford in Game 1? Then he could be pitching now. But we didn't have anyone. The whole staff was tired.
    • Ralph Terry, as quoted in “30 Years Later, Maz Hysteria Remains” by Bob Nightengale, in The Los Angeles Times (October 12, 1990), p. 8
  • To this day, it was the wildest celebration I've seen in my life. It was pandemonium. I sat in the clubhouse, feeling awful, and then I went into Casey's office. He had told us before the game that he'd probably never see us again. We knew they wanted him out, that they wanted to hire Ralph Houk before he got away. And that's why it hurt so much, knowing this would be the last game he'd ever manage for us. I walked in and said, "Case, I feel real bad. I let you down." He said, "Kid, what were you trying to throw there?" I told him I was trying to keep the ball down and away to him, but I just got it up. He said, "Good, because that's what you've managed to do there. You followed my report, it just didn't work out. I'll sleep good tonight. Now, you forget it." I often wonder what would have happened to my career without Casey. If he had started screaming at me, blaming me for everything, who knows what would have happened?
    • Ralph Terry, as quoted in “30 Years Later, Maz Hysteria Remains”

Other teams' personnel

[edit]

Authors / speakers listed alphabetically by last name.
Quotes per author listed chronologically by date of occurrence (where available) or earliest known publication date.


  • Fred Green nearly choked on his chaw when Mantle hit a line shot into the right field stands. Clem Labine, who told me while he was warming up that he had his good sinker, didn't have good control of his curve ball and served up a couple of fruitful line drives. The phone in the bullpen rang as desperately as if a bunch of people were reporting a fire. Three pale, young Pirate pitchers warmed up nervously. One was so nervous that he kept dropping the ball when the catcher threw it back. A laugher is not a pitcher's best introduction to a World Series, but eventually they all had to go face the hilarious Yankees. When the Yankee run total had passed 15, the phone stopped ringing. All that was left in the Pirate bullpen were two catchers, slumped over and too tired to talk.
  • Yankee Stadium was the scene of the second laugher, and it might not have taken place if New York's Bobby Richardson had followed the book on himself. The book said "no power," but when Labine threw him a high, inside pitch with the count at three and two, Bobby refused to accept it as the fourth ball it was and powered it into the seats. That got the bullpen parade going again, and the pale Pirate threesome, blooded veterans by now, were prodded in their heating up when a shot from Mantle arced out 420 feet and bounced into their midst. This time, they did better, but it was too late. In a laugher it always is. Toward the middle of the game a lady Pirate fan wearing a "Beat "Em Bucs" ribbon on her hat started rooting for Whitey Ford, who, with a 10-run lead, didn't need the encouragement. The good-humored complacency of Yankee fans turned to restless indifference. The ball game was almost forgotten. Herbert Hoover got a big hand for walking through the stands, and when a foul ball dropped into the seats near Pandit Nehru, the fans rose to their feet for a better look. Many of them stayed up and went home. How long can anyone laugh?


  • Good thing for the Pirates Kubek's ball hit the bag; otherwise it would have gone for a double and there would have been two runs. That was a slow change-up Maris hit.
  • Ditmar didn't have a thing on the ball, not a thing.
  • Don't put that tag on the poor fellow. He's young and he'll grow out of it.
  • That Coatesǃ How can he give Mazeroski a fastball waist-high with the count, two strikes and no balls?.
  • Wouldn't it be something if the Pirates did to the Yanks what the Yanks did to them in 1927—sweep them in four games?


  • There goes Stengel, putting on his usual show. He'll be out there 100 times this afternoon.
    • Ralph Kiner, former Pirate slugger/soon-to-be Mets broadcaster/then-San Diego Padres GM, attending Game 1 with his friend and erstwhile mentor, Hank Greenberg, each of them providing, for the benefit of PPG readers, intermittent color commentary—in this case, vis-à-vis the first of Stengel's two 1st-inning visits to the mound; as quoted in "The Drama Desk: Conversation Piece" by Harold V. Cohen, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Friday, October 7, 1960), p. 10
  • This'll probably be Yogi's last year behind the plate..
  • Dale was part of Mr. Rickey's great experiment. Trying to make a catcher, a left-handed catcher at that, out of him. It set him back four years.
  • Groat didn't make up his mind soon enough to try for third.... I'm glad Dick won the batting championship. Not only because he's such a great guy, but because it would have been unfair if Norm Larker had beaten him out. After all, the Dodgers only used Larker against right-handed pitchers.


  • More power to Richardson. Records are made to be broken and I think the little guy is making one helluva showing. But I'm really surprised at the way the Pirates are pitching him. They're keeping the ball up on him and in Chicago we never pitch him high. That homer he hit with the bases full in the third game was on a high fast ball that was in on him. And both those triples he hit yesterday were on high fast balls. We keep the ball down on him and away.
  • Kluszewski pointed out that the surprising New York Yankee second baseman has been "the most natural hitter," as far as swinging at the ball is concerned, in the entire Series. "In a way that's not so hard to understand," Klu said. "The big names like Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Bill Skowron get all the publicity and try their hardest to live up to it. But a little guy like Richardson, who hit only one homer all season, doesn't get much advance publicity and therefore is more likely to play his normal game."


  • The Pirates are a good pressure ball club themselves. All season long they had the ability to come from behind in the late innings and win games. I don't believe it will be any different in the Series.
    • Vada Pinson, explaining why he picked Pittsburgh to win the Series despite the Yankees' reputation for performing under pressure; as quoted in "Change of Pace" by Bill Nunn, Jr., in The Pittsburgh Courier (October 8, 1960), p. 26


  • They talk about the break in the second game when Gil McDougald grabbed that drive by Bill Mazeroski in the fourth. Mazeroski shouldn't have been trying to pull the ball. The Yankee infield was playing back. They were going to concede the run from third. If Bill hits to the right side of the infield and if he's safe, the score is 3-2. If he's thrown out, it's still 3-2 and the man on second goes to third. There's still only one out. The Yank infield comes in and Bob Friend hits for himself. That was the play.


  • The first time Mickey Mantle came up to bat right-handed in this Series I had a feeling that it was going to happen. I said to the man sitting next to me, "He's going to hit this one out of here." The Series was in its 14th inning at this point and about all Mantle had done was strike out and walk—but up until then he had been swinging lefty against right-handed pitching. Now there was a big, tall southpaw named Green out on the mound. Being a switch-hitter, Mickey was hitting from the other side of the plate. I've thought for a long time that he was a better right-handed hitter than a left-handed hitter, and he proved it here. You could tell it was gone as soon as he swung, even though he didn't quite get around on it. It went into the right field stands. This was during the 16-to-3 rout at Forbes Field when there was a parade of Pittsburgh pitchers. Next time up Mantle drew a right-hander and struck out. But the time after that a left-hander named Gibbon was pitching and I said, "Here it goes again." This one sailed over the wall in deep center field where no other right-hand hitter ever put one. They got out the tape measure and nobody talked about much else for a day or two. It was enough to make anybody wonder why Mantle ever bothers to hit left-handed. In the third game, at Yankee Stadium, he came up against Green again and hit another tape-measure job. I've never seen anybody sting a ball harder than Mantle can.


Sportswriters, announcers

[edit]

Authors / speakers listed alphabetically by last name.
Quotes per author listed chronologically by date of occurrence (where available) or earliest known publication date.


  • Mickey Mantle led the awesome display of Yankee hitting with two home runs, one into the right field stands and the other over the vined wall in right center. Only three other hitters, all left-handed swatsmiths, ever put a ball out of Forbes Field at that point—Dale Long, Stan Musial and Duke Snider. Mantle, a switch-hitter, is the first to do it right-handed.
  • One important factor most people overlook, including the Yankees, is that they didn't see the Pirates at their best. Even the Pittsburgh faithful will have to admit this. Here was a team hamstrung by injuries to key men such as Dick Groat, Don Hoak, Bob Skinner and Vernon Law. Groat was far from being at his best, especially in the field. Skinner was out of five games. Hoak and Law played on nerve alone. Aside from these handicaps, facts, not results, point out the Pirates did not play good ball. The Bucs' secondary pitching, with the exception of Face, was awful. Law and Haddix upheld the starters. Hoak, Mazeroski and Billy Virdon played brilliantly and until the final game, Danny Murtaugh didn't get much out of his catching or first base departments. We can see why the Yankees and experts didn't think much of the Bucs. They were somewhat hasty in their judgment, however, since they weren't seeing Groat, Skinner,Clemente, Friend and even the brilliant Hoak and Law at their best. Clemente hit for average but we've seen him better in the field. Friend, we know, is a far better pitcher. Those putting the knock on his Series performance should remember the Bucs never would have won the pennant without his 18 victories.


  • Dick Groat on third base. Bob Clemente on first base. Two runs in, 7–6 New York. Two balls, two strikes...And Hal Smith hits a drive to deep left field...That ball is way back out there, going, going, gone!
    • Mel Allen on NBC television, calling Hal Smith's home run off Jim Coates that gave the Pirates a 9–7 lead in the eighth inning of Game 7. The Yankees would tie the game in the top of the ninth, setting up Bill Mazeroski's final at-bat in the bottom of the inning.
  • There's a drive into deep left field, look out now… that ball is going, going gone! And the World Series is over! Mazeroski… hits it over the left field fence, and the Pirates win it 10–9 and win the World Series!
    • Mel Allen on NBC television, calling Bill Mazeroski's series-winning home run in the ninth inning of Game 7.


  • ... a great play that will forever go insufficiently sung, because of what happened afterward and because it was a simple force at second. Indeed with the fleet Mantle barreling toward second on the pitch, Dick Groat's best play on Skowron's grounder into the hole was to first. Groat, however, after bobbling the ball slightly, looked to Mazeroski and rushed his throw, which went wide, surely wider than the compactly put-together Maz could stretch. But Maz, for whom second base is T.S. Eliot's "still point of the turning world," seemed to lay every fibre of his being end to end for an instant to snag Groat's throw and nip the sliding Mantle by a heartbeat. And then he jogged in toward the bottom of the ninth and immortality.


  • On October 13, 1960, the New York Yankees faced the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 7 of the World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, a game that would be Casey Stengel’s last as Yankee manager. I did watch it on NBC, and while I would have loved to have been there in person, I was fortunate to have been hired by Bob Fishel, the Yankees public relations director, seven years later. Over the years I came to know many of the players in that game. So in some ways, I not only feel as though I was “there,” but I continue to believe it was the most talked about game of the twentieth century. It certainly was by those who played in it. There was so much to it.
  • After Coates retired two batters, Roberto Clemente hit a bouncer to the right side and was safe at first, driving in a run. 7–6. For many years, Yankee players grumbled that Coates was late in covering first. But in 2010, a kinescope of the game was discovered in the archives of singer Bing Crosby, a part-owner of the Pirates. It was the first time players had seen this play in half a century, as the full play—including where the ball was hit—was not included in the World Series highlight film. The kinescope showed that the ball was hit closer to the second-base/pitcher’s mound side than many believed. Coates’s instinct to try to field the ball was correct. He was not guilty of being late covering first. The ball was just hit into a no-man’s land.
  • Up came Yogi Berra, whose three-run homer in the sixth had given the Yankees a 5–4 lead. He hit a sharp one-hopper at Rocky Nelson, the first baseman. Nelson stepped on first—canceling the force out at second, and Mantle, momentarily frozen, turned and dove back into first. He was safe. If he was out—if Nelson had executed the unassisted double play—the World Series would have ended right there, the Pirates would have won 9–8, and Hal Smith’s eighth-inning home run would have been the big blow. But Mantle was safe and the game went on. For decades the play was hailed as brilliant. But the odds were, Mantle should have been out at first on such a play. The smarter play would have been to get into a rundown between first and second, increasing the chances of extending the inning. But the dive into first was instinctive; Mantle couldn't be sure whether Nelson caught the ball on a fly or on a bounce. Nelson wore his glove on his right hand—farther away from the sliding Mantle than it would have been had he been right-handed. It was a panicked choice for Mantle and it worked out. Then again, why didn’t Nelson begin the play by throwing to second, for a more routine double play possibility? Or why, after recording the out at first, did he not throw home, seeing McDougald headed that way. He went for Mantle who was right in front of him. And it didn’t work out.


  • FIRST INNING:
    YANKS—Friend threw out Boyer. Kubek rolled out, Mazeroskl to Stuart. Maris flied to Virdon. No runs, no hits, no errors, none left.
    PIRATES—Virdon lined a single to center. Right-hander Bob Turley started to warm up for the Yankees. Groat rapped into a double play, Richardson to Kubek to Skowron. Clemente brought a roar from the crowd with a long foul into the right field stands that narrowly missed being a home run. Clemente singled sharply between first and second Into right field. Stuart struck out. No runs, two hits, no errors, one left.


  • Roberto Clemente says he's tired and is down to 165 from his customary weight of 185.
    • Les Biederman, in "The Scoreboard: Forbes Field Hitter's Paradise, Yogi Says; Yankee Park Worst" by Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (October 13, 1960), p. 35


  • For the second year in a row, the words to the national anthem were fouled up by a professional singer as the Series began. Billy Eckstine changed a word, making it "...bright stripes and bright stars." Last year in Comiskey Park, Nat Cole sang "O'er the land and o'er the sea."
  • Mickey Mantle would have been the goat in a 9 to 8 Pirate victory over New York yesterday in the final game of the World Series except for his fortunate slide back to first base. That was the last play Mantle should have attempted, according to baseball critics, after Rocky Nelson had fielded Yogi Berra's sharp grounder and stepped on first to retire Berra for the second Yankee out in the ninth inning. On the subsequent attempt to tag Mantle in his return to first base (to which he was entitled only because Berra had been retired), Gil McDougald, running for Dale Long, scored from third base. If Mantle had been tagged for the third and final out before McDougald touched home plate, the run would not have counted. Pittsburgh would have won, 9-8. [...] A run cannot score on a double play involving one or more force outs. A run can score between a second and third out if a force play is not involved, provided the runner reaches the plate before the third out. Because of this rule, Mantle made a mistake. So did Nelson, when he stepped on first base to retire Berra and thus removed the force on a possible double play. Each player undoubtedly acted instinctively. Nelson could have taken many seconds to complete a double play via second base (a force on Mantle) and McDougald could not have scored. Mantle could have created a sure tie by backing away from Nelson or heading for second base to delay any possible third out.


  • In many respects, this rather prosaic ball game followed the normal patterns of the two ball clubs. The Pirates, pesky as always in piecing together runs, did everything the hard way in collecting four of their six runs. Two crossed unexpectedly when Bill Mazeroski lined a two-run homer over the scoreboard, a minor infringement on the Yankee patent. But the Bombers demonstrated that they still were the copyright owners by getting three of their four tallies by the into-the-grandstand method. The one department in which there was no letdown was in master-minding. Casey Stengel was thinking early and often. He never gave Cletis Boyer a chance to bat but used a pinch-hitter, Dale Long, for him as early as the second inning. That didn't work, though. Nothing worked.
    • Arthur Daley, in “Sports of the Times: Triumph for Law and Order” by Daley, in The New York Times (Thursday, October 6, 1960), p. 53
  • Charles Dillon Stengel, the renowned hocus-pocus artist, pulled the wrong rabbit out of the hat yesterday. All week long he had been giving with the Mumbo Jumbo as he muttered his baffling incantations in the dugout. He never identified him by name, of course, but he kept mumbling about Bill Stafford, the 23-year-old rookie pitcher who joined the Yankees after midseason. "I ain't afraid to start that kid," he said over and over in more disjointed style than usual. "Green pea. Keeps the ball low. Don't get scared. Good fast ball. Keeps the ball low. Cool customer which I ain't afraid to start but we'll see which way the thing rolls." Stengel sounded suspiciously like a man trying to convince himself. In that he failed. After hesitating between the novice, Stafford, and Art Ditmar, an old hand at World Series play, the Ol' Perfessor ceremoniously selected Ditmar to pitch the fifth game. Before he could yank Ditmar and produce Stafford, the game was lost.
    • Arthur Daley, in “Sports of the Times: Unfurling the Jolly Roger” by Daley, in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 59
  • Wiry Harvey Haddix pitched superlatively well for six and a third innings and held the straining Bombers to five hits before yielding his portfolio to ElRoy Face, who gave none at all the rest of the way. Yet any reader of omens could have foreseen that Haddix would be troublesome. Eddie Lopat was the last of the Yankee batting-practice pitchers, and he had the regulars growling angrily at him. "What go they want?" said Heady Eddie with a satisfied smile as he left the hill. "I just gave them a dose of the same sliders and curves they'll see when Haddix gets out here. This was once when practice didn't make perfect. The Yanks couldn't hit Haddix either.
    • Arthur Daley, in “Sports of the Times: Unfurling the Jolly Roger” by Daley, in The New York Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 59


  • Tony Kubek is the Yankees' regular shortstop but he's a better left fielder than either Bob Cerv or Hector Lopez and the word is that Kubek may be playing left field toward the end of any game in which New York has a lead to protect. Stengel used Kubek in left field last Sunday, something he had not done all year.
    • Roy McHugh, citing one piece of pre-Series scuttlebutt which would prove at least partially accurate (specifically regarding Games 2 and 7, New York's most decisive victories, in which Kubek moved to left for the final 4 and 2 innings, respectively); in "World Series Notes: Ditmar, Ford Knew of Casey's 'Secret'" by McHugh, in The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, October 4, 1960), p. 33
  • It was 1927 in reverse when the Pirates and Yankees took batting practice yesterday at Forbes Field. Dick Stuart's bombs were falling all over Schenley Plaza, behind the left-field wall. The Yankees had been batting for 20 minutes before anybody hit one out of the park. There's a legend that in 1927 the Yankees shell-shocked the Pirates with their batting-practice home runs. It's a fact that they won the Series in four games. Whether the home runs they hit in batting practice made any difference is open to question.
    • Roy McHugh, noting a stark contrast between the respective pre-Series BP sessions of 1927 and 1960 (a distinction which, at least vis-a-vis Dick Stuart's performance, would all but disappear once the first "Play ball!" was uttered); in "Stuart Tattos Schenley Plaza With Long Balls in Practice" by McHugh, in The Pittsburgh Press (Wednesday, October 5, 1960), p. 54


  • The unsung star of the Series? That phrase could well apply to Roberto Clemente, the Pittsburgh right fielder with the rifle arm. [...] Scores of reporters surrounded pitchers ElRoy Face and Harvey Haddix, s well as shortstop and Captain Dick Groat and Manager Danny Murtaugh. Off to one side Clemente sat in front of his locker, alone. Yet here was the player whose bullet throwing arm had stopped the Yankees from taking an extra base on hits to his territory, a feat that contributed mightily to Pittsburgh's three victories. [...] Clemente put the fear into Yankee base runners in the very first Series game in Pittsburgh. In the second inning after Yogi Berra and Moose Skowron had singled with none out, he gathered in pinch hitter Dale Long's fly and just missed doubling Berra at second with a rifle peg. [...] In Sunday's fourth game his arm again played a vital role as the Bucs squared the series. In the seventh inning of Monday's game, fear of Clemente's arm played a key role in balking the Yankees. With one down Tony Kubek singled to right, but Kubek, after rounding the bag, hustled back to second [sic—see comment #2 below]. Had he been on third when McDougald forced Lopez, he would have scored. That would have made it 4-3 Pittsburgh and who knows what would have happened after that?
    • Ted Meier, in "Unsung Star of Series is Mr. Clemente" by Meier, in The Gettysburg Times (Tuesday, October 11, 1960), p. 5
      • Comment 1: Regarding Game 4, Meier offers no specific examples of the "vital role" played by RC's arm; however, that game's PBP does contain, in innings Nos. 1 and 7, at least three examples of possibly RC-induced station-to-station baserunning—i.e. not scoring on a potential sac fly, plus not scoring from 2nd, nor going 1st to 3rd, on singles—which would cost New York two runs in a game lost by one.
      • Comment 2: Whether due to Meier himself or an overzealous editor, the third sentence from the end of this excerpt is missing some crucial information; as per Retrosheet, it should read: "With one down and Kubek on first, Lopez singled to right..."


  • That split-second, extraordinarily heads-up base-running play Mickey Mantle performed in the top of the ninth of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, it turns out, was senseless. And as Manhattan’s Marc Salis and Walter “Wally From The Bronx” Kellermann last week pointed out — separately and in duplicate detail — Mantle’s base-running could have ended the game and the Series in Pittsburgh’s favor, at that moment — before Bill Mazeroski ever got a chance to homer in the bottom of the ninth to give the Pirates’ a 10-9 win. With one out in the ninth, the Bucs led, 9-8, Mantle on first, pinch runner Gil McDougald on third. Yogi Berra hit a grounder to first baseman Rocky Nelson, who stepped on first for the second out. Mantle, realizing he had no chance to make it to second, dived back into first base, avoiding Nelson’s tag, which would have been the third out and likely would have ended the game, because it’s highly unlikely McDougald could have scored before that tag. But because McDougald scored to tie the game, Mantle always has been given credit for a fabulous decision. But had Mantle simply run to second he would have removed all risk of ending the game by being tagged by Nelson before McDougald scored. Nelson, in no position to throw home after stepping on first, had removed the force at second, thus Mantle would have had to have been tagged out at second or after a run down, allowing McDougald to easily score. The “spectacular” and legendary part of the play — Mantle diving back into first and eluding Nelson’s tag — was unnecessary, senseless. Had Nelson made that tag Mantle would have made one of the worst base-running errors in history.


  • As we reached the street, conversation suddenly stopped. A crowd spotted Clemente and the deluge began. Before we had gone 10 steps Roberto was surrounded by humanity. They patted him on the back and kept up a steady chant of endearments. Clewmente smiled and kept walking. Finally, after what seemed like hours, we reached the car. By now Clemente was all smiles and he seemed to radiate happiness. In the car he said aloud, "These are the best fans anywhere. They make all of this worthwhile. They are the reason I'm glad we won the World Series. They are the ones who deserve this championship." And, as the auto pulled slowly away from the curb and Clemente sat back and relaxed, it was obvious that here was a player who enjoyed his victory celebration a lot better on the streets of Pittsburgh than in the clubhouse he shares with his teammates.
    • Bill Nunn, Jr., in "Change of Pace" by Nunn, in The Pittsburgh Courier (October 22, 1960), p. 26


  • The big guy's been dead a dozen years, but it's funny how his name keeps bobbing up at World Series time. When Mickey hit his home runs it was first "three behind Ruth," then "two behind Ruth." And when Yogi Berra bounced one foul atop the right-field roof the memory was of Ruth smacking one fair in this fashion in his fading days as a National Leaguer.
    • Harold Rosenthal, in “Parking Lots, Pickpockets Take All Traffic Will Bear” by Rosenthal, in The New York Herald Tribune (Friday, October 7, 1960), p. 31


  • A couple of gentlemen who are old hands at crises sat in Yankee Stadium this balmy afternoon and watched the Pirates precipitate a most acute one for themselves. Mr. Nehru and Mr. Herbert Hoover arrived a trifle late, and both left a short time before Gino Cimoli struck out on a pitch that almost untied one of his shoe laces. It closed down a game that was utterly devoid of suspense and deserves mention only because of the heroics performed by certain members of the Casey Stengel troupe. Now the Pirates had better win tomorrow or be ready for the guillotine. The Yanks have them, two to one, and if they make it three there could be no return to Forbes Field before next April.


  • Mantle safe at first base, on one of the weirdest plays, but we'll go back and tell you what happened. Berra ripped a line drive down the first base line. Stuart (or, rather, Nelson), the first baseman, fielded the ball on one hop and tagged up. That made Berra the second out of the inning. Then he tried to tag Mantle, going back to the bag, and he missed him. And while so doing, the tying run scored.
    • Chuck Thompson's radio call of the pivotal Game 7 play by which the Yankees tied the score at 9-9 in the top of the ninth.
  • Well, a little while ago, when we mentioned that this one, in typical fashion, was going right to the wire, little did we know… Art Ditmar throws—here's a swing and a high fly ball going deep to left, this may do it!… Back to the wall goes Yogi Berra, it is…over the fence, home run, the Pirates win!… (long pause for crowd noise)… Ladies and gentlemen, Mazeroski has hit a one-nothing pitch over the left field fence at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates by a score of ten-nothing!… Once again, that final score… The Pittsburgh Pirates, the 1960 world champions, defeat the New York Yankees. The Pirates ten, and the Yankees nine!
    • Chuck Thompson's radio call of the final play, including Thompson's initial flub of the final score, preceded—and perhaps precipitated—by what appears to be some confusion about the identity of Mazeroski's home run victim Ralph Terry, but is in fact simply the beginning of Thompson's extremely inopportune digression to the subject of Yankee bullpen activity (as per Thompson's 10/13/2001 quote, below).
  • "There was some action in the bullpen at the time, and I made that mistake," said broadcaster Thompson, 79, recalling how he started to describe Art Ditmar throwing in the Yankees’ bullpen just as Ralph Terry delivered the final pitch.

Others

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Authors / speakers listed alphabetically by last name.
Quotes per author listed chronologically by date of occurrence (where available) or earliest known publication date.


  • Drama is where you find it during the World Series. The time: Wednesday afternoon. The locale: First floor, box 71 at Forbes Field. The occupants: Ralph Kiner (with Nancy Chaffee Kiner) and Henry (Hank) Greenberg, two of the greatest sluggers in Pirate history. The one year the two of them played together, in 1947, Kiner, on the way up, hit 51 home runs; Greenberg, on the way down, slammed out 25. They have remained close friends ever since. Having spent all of his lifetime, barring the season of '47, in the American League and presently the vice president of the Chicago White Sox, Greenberg's riding with the Yankees. You don't have to be told where Kiner's sympathies are; the general manager of the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League is still a Pirate through and through.


  • You know I'm a Pirate fan, Win. That's why I'm betting against them." According to the former professional baseball player turned actor, he has never won a bet. "I figure, therefore, the best thing I can possibly do to help the Bucs is to bet against them.


  • I was shooting for some small publications and my goal was to sell a picture to SI. But I knew that to compete I needed camera with a motor drive. So I talked my father into loaning me the money for a Nikon F. It cost $450 and we bought it on time, though my father didn't believe in buying things on time. I took the camera to Pittsburgh. On that day—the first day I used it—I got two good pictures, a shot of Yogi Berra getting picked off second and one of Mickey Mantle waving to the crowd. I sold both to SI, one for $300, the other for $150. I remember because the total was exactly $450—which I used to pay back my father.
    • Neil Leifer, recalling a pivotal day in his own career, Game 1 of the 1960 World Series; as quoted in "Neil Leifer" in American Photo (July/August 1991), pp. 66–67


  • I was too busy screaming my head off like everybody else [to complete the scorecard to include Mazeroski's walk-off home run]. That thunderclap ... let out all that pent-up emotion and frustration. This is such a great sports town, and we've had some great triumphs -- the Immaculate Reception, the Steelers dynasty, the Penguins and their three Stanley Cups. But for those of us who were there on Oct. 13, 1960, that can never be topped. You just stood a little bit taller. You could look people in the eye and say, "Yeah, I'm a Pirates fan." It was truly a life-shaping experience. And for me, relief from a very, very difficult time in my personal life.


  • Bill Mazeroski, home-run-hitting hero of the Pirates' World Series victory, has started reaping the benefits of his long hit—and at advanced prices, too. The West Virginia second baseman posed a problem last night to the celebrity panel of "I've Got a Secret". And next month, he will be a mystery guest on another guessing show (and he's keeping the name of the program his secret for the time being). Before the second pitch of the ninth inning of the seventh World Series game, Mazeroski could have demanded a couple of hundred dollars for a television appearance. But, according to his agent, Pittsburgher Frank Scott, Mazeroski will receive $1,000 plus expenses for his mystery-guest stint (plus, no doubt, whatever figures come up on the flip cards). "I guess I'd have to say Mazeroski is the most in demand," said Scott, a Pittsburgher who started his sports career as a student at Pitt during the Jock Sutherland era. Scott, based in New York, has at least five other Pirates in his stable, in addition to many Yankees. Among other assignments for the World Series hero is a tobacco chew endorsement for a television commercial.
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