History of the World Series – 1960
The Series rivals had used vastly different methods while fashioning a 3-3 standoff: The Yankees wielded a bludgeon, while the Pirates relied on finesse.
After the Pirates won the opener, 6-4, at Forbes Field, the Yankees unloaded in Games 2 and 3. New York, led by Mickey Mantle’s two home runs and five runs batted in, clubbed six Pirates pitchers for 19 hits and rolled to a 16-3 victory in the second game. Then, as the Series shifted to Yankee Stadium, the Yankees’ Bobby Richardson flexed his muscles. Having driven in only seven runs in the last 75 games of the American League season and just 26 overall in ’60, the little second baseman connected for a bases-loaded home run off reliever Clem Labine in the first inning of Game 3. Richardson later contributed a two-run single, giving him a Series-record six RBIs, and Mantle stung the Pirates with a two-run homer and three other hits. New York was a 10-0 winner, with Whitey Ford pitching a four-hitter.
Battered and bruised from the successive drubbings, the Pirates gave the ball to first-game winner Vern Law in Game 4. Law, a 20-game winner in ’60 and the NL’s Cy Young Award winner, combined with relief ace Roy Face to beat back the Yankees, 3-2. Bill Virdon’s looping single to center field in the fifth knocked in two of Pittsburgh’s runs.
Art Ditmar, who lasted only one-third inning as the Game 1 starter for the Yankees, received another chance in Game 5 and lasted 1 1/3 innings this time. Bill Mazeroski’s double was the key hit in the Pirates’ three-run second inning, the smash scoring two runs and driving Ditmar from the mound. Face turned in 2 2/3 innings of hitless relief after replacing starter and winner Harvey Haddix to nail down the 5-2 triumph, which thrust the Pirates ahead in the Series.
The Yankees, though, called on a proven combination in Game 6 — their big bats and the pitching guile of Ford. Richardson’s two triples and Johnny Blanchard’s two doubles highlighted a 17-hit Yankee spree — Roger Maris, Yogi Berra and Blanchard each collected three hits — and Ford again shut out the Pirates, this time silencing the NL champions on seven hits. Hoping to clinch their first Series championship in 35 years, the Pirates instead wound up 12-0 losers at Forbes Field.
While the first six games of the ’60 Series had been notable because of their general wackiness (the Yankees’ victories, for instance, coming by the combined score of 38-3), Game 7 proved memorable because it unfolded along classic lines.
Law, drawing his third start of the Series, was staked to a 4-0 lead when Rocky Nelson cracked a two-run homer in the first inning off Turley and Virdon stroked a two-run single in the second against reliever Bill Stafford. The Yankees nicked Law for a run in the fifth when Skowron powered a homer into the lower right-field stands, and drove the righthander from the game during a go-ahead rally in the sixth. Richardson began the inning with a single and Tony Kubek drew a base on balls. Law gave way to Face, who got Maris to foul out. Mantle, though, singled home a run and Berra followed with a three-run homer that shot New York into a 5-4 lead.
Clinging to its one-run lead with two out in the eighth, New York went to work against Face. A walk to Berra, singles by Skowron and Blanchard and a double by Clete Boyer netted two runs and, with Yankee reliever Bobby Shantz at the top of his game (as evidenced by his five scoreless innings of pitching since taking over in the third), New York appeared to be in good shape.
Appearances were deceiving, however. Gino Cimoli led off the Pittsburgh eighth with a pinch single and Virdon hit a sharp grounder toward Kubek, the Yankees’ shortstop. The ball took a bad hop, striking Kubek in the throat and forcing him out of the game. Virdon was alive at first with an infield single, Cimoli was stationed at second and Joe DeMaestri was summoned to replace the injured Kubek. Dick Groat’s single cut the lead to 7-5, and Roberto Clemente’s infield hit scored Virdon and advanced Groat to third. Now trailing 7-6, 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 home run over the left-field wall.
The Yankees were down but not out. Bob Friend, an 18-game winner for the Pirates and the Bucs’ starter in Games 2 and 6, came on in the ninth to try to protect the 9-7 lead. Richardson and pinch-hitter Dale Long greeted Friend with singles and Pirates Manager Danny Murtaugh lifted the veteran pitcher in favor of Haddix. Maris fouled out, but Mantle delivered a single that scored Richardson and moved Long to third. Berra followed with a strong grounder to first, with Nelson stepping on the base for 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 McDougald raced home to tie the score, 9-9. Skowron’s grounder forced Berra, ending the Yankees’ inning.
Ralph Terry, who had gotten the final out in the Pirates’ eighth, returned to the mound in the bottom of the ninth. The first man he faced was Mazeroski. With a count of one ball and no strikes, the Pirates’ second baseman smashed a drive over the wall in left that made the NL champions — outscored, 55-27, and outhit, 91-60, in the seven games — 10-9 winners and improbable champions.
