Baseball news: Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, known for walk-off home run in 1960 World Series, dies at 89

PITTSBURGH — Bill Mazeroski, the Hall of Fame second baseman who won eight Gold Glove Awards for his consistent work in the field and the hearts of countless Pittsburgh Pirates fans for his historic home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, has died at age 89.

Pirates owner Bob Nutting said, “Maz was one of a kind, a true Pirate legend…. His name will always be associated with the greatest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship, but I will remember him most for the person he was: humble, generous and proud to be a Pirate.”

The pirates said Mazeroski died on Friday in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The cause of death was not mentioned.

“Defensive Wizard”

Elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 2001, he was not, by some measures, a star. Mazeroski had the lowest batting average, on-base percentage and total stolen base of any Cooperstown second baseman. He hit just .260, with 138 homers and 27 stolen bases in 17 years, and had an on-base percentage of .299. He never batted .300, never got close to 100 runs batted in or 100 runs scored, and only once finished in the top 10 for the MVP.

His best qualities were both tangible and off target. His Hall of Fame plaque praises him as a “defensive wizard” with a “tenacious hustle” and “quiet work ethic.” He was a 10-time All-Star, set a major league record with 1,706 double plays, and earned the nickname “No Hands” for how quickly he fielded and moved players. He led the National League nine times in assists by a second baseman and has been cited by statistician Bill James as the greatest defensive player in the game at his position — by far.

“I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Mazeroski said defensively during his Hall of Fame induction speech. He added: “Defense deserves as much appreciation as shooting, and I am proud to participate as a defensive player.”

A home run for the ages

But Mazeroski’s signature moment occurred in the batter’s box, where the square-jawed second baseman, the son of a West Virginia coal miner, lived out the dream of many kids who thought about playing ball professionally.

The Pirates had not reached the World Series since 1927, when they were swept by the New York Yankees, and they faced the Yankees again in 1960. While New York was led by Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Pittsburgh had few notable names other than a young Roberto Clemente. They relied on hitters ranging from shortstop Dick Grote to outfielder Bob Skinner, and starting pitchers Vernon Law and Bob Friend. Mazeroski, who turned 24 that September, finished the season with a .273 average and usually ranked eighth.

The series told one story in the running column and another in the wins and losses. The Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27 and 38-3 in the three games they won. Mazeroski’s counterpart in New York, Bobby Richardson, drove in 12 runs and was named MVP of the Series — even though he was on the losing team. Whitey Ford shut out the Pirates twice, en route to 33 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in the World Series for the Yankees.

The Pirates’ first three wins weren’t particularly impressive, but they were wins — and Mazeroski helped. He hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Jim Coates for the Yankees in Game 1, a 6-4 Pirates victory, and a two-run double in the second inning off Art Ditmar in Game 5, a 5-2 Pittsburgh win. In Game 7, he saved his big hit for last.

About 36,000 fans at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, and many others listening on radio and television, agonized through one of the Fall Classic’s most brutal and emotional conclusions. The lead changed back and forth as Pittsburgh scored the first four runs of the game, but would fall behind as the Yankees rallied in the middle innings and took a 7-4 lead in the top of the eighth. Pittsburgh regained the lead with five runs in the bottom of the eighth, helped in part by what appeared to be a double play that took a bad hop and hit Yankees shortstop Tony Kubiak in the throat. But the Yankees came right back and tied the score at 9 in the top of the ninth.

The bottom of the ninth has been revived, not always by choice, by both teams and generations of fans. New York’s pitcher was Ralph Terry, a right-hander who had been brought in by manager Casey Stengel during the previous inning and later admitted that his arm was tired. Right-handed hitting Mazeroski, who had played a double play in his previous appearance, was led off first.

Terry started with a fastball that was called high to the ball. After conferring briefly with catcher Johnny Blanchard, who reminded him to keep his throws low, he threw what Mazeroski calls a slider that didn’t slide. Mazeroski got under it and hooked it to left field, and the ball rose and rose as it beat the high, ivy-covered brick wall, with Yankees left fielder Yogi Berra spinning underneath it, then walking away with the takedown. It seemed as if the whole city was revolting, as if everyone had swung the bat with him, as if he was the all-time underdog eager to beat the hated Yankees. Mazeroski raced around the bases, smiling and waving his hat, and was joined by revelers from the stands who rushed onto the field and followed him to home plate, where his teammates embraced him.

“I was just looking to get on base,” he told the New York Times in 1985. “Nothing fancy, just looking for a fastball for him to hit on me. I thought it was going to be off the wall, and I wanted to go to third if the ball bounced off Berra. But when I got to first and was looking for second, I saw the umpire waving circles over his head and I knew it was over.”

This was the first time a World Series had ended on a homer, resulting in sustained waves of celebration and despair. Pirate followers memorized the date of Thursday, October 13, 1960, and the local time of Mazeroski’s strike, 3:36 p.m. Forbes Field was demolished in the 1970s, but a decade later fans began gathering every October 13 at the park’s only remnant, the center field wall, and listened to the original broadcast.

Meanwhile, Mantle was crying on the plane ride home in 1960, insisting that the better team had lost. Ford will remain angry for years at Stengel — who was fired five days into the Series — for using him in Games 3 and 6 and making him unavailable to start for a third time. The late Bing Crosby, former co-owner of the Pirates, was so afraid of jinxing his team that he tuned in to the game with friends across the Atlantic, in Paris.

“We were in this beautiful apartment, listening on shortwave, and as the distance got closer, Bing opened a bottle of Scotch and was tapping it on the stove,” his widow, Katherine Crosby, told the Times in 2010. “When Mazeroski hit the house, he tapped it hard, and the Scotch flew into the fireplace and started a fire.”

Team player

Mazeroski was a Pirate throughout his time in the major leagues and was a member of the team off the field. His wife, Mylene Nicholson, was a front-office employee whom he met through Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh. They married in 1958, had two sons, and remained together until her death in 2024.

William Stanley Mazeroski was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, during the Great Depression, grew up in eastern Ohio, and lived for a time in a one-room house without electricity or indoor plumbing. His father, Louis Mazeroski, hoped he would become a ball player, and encouraged his son’s love of the sport, even training with him by having his son hit tennis balls against a brick wall.

Although a star in basketball and football, he preferred baseball and was good enough to be drafted by the Pirates at age 17 in 1954. Mazeroski was a shortstop for a team that had a lot of potential at the position, and he was converted to second base in his first year, 1956. Even as a part-time player at the end of his career, he was a leader and a steady presence on the 1971 team that included Clemente and Willie Stargell and defeated the Pirates. 1971 featuring Clemente and Willie Stargell. Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

After his final season, 1972, Mazeroski briefly coached for the Pirates and Seattle Mariners and was Pittsburgh’s bullpen coach during spring training. In 1987, the Pirates retired their uniform No. 9. The 50th anniversary of his Game 7 heroics was commemorated in 2010 with the unveiling — on Bill Mazeroski Drive — of a 14-foot-tall, 2,000-pound statue of one of Pittsburgh’s greats, circling the bases, on top of the world.