1960

“But immortality is nontransferable. The papers said that the other players, and even the umpires on the field, begged him to come out and acknowledge us in some way, but he never had and did not now. Gods do not answer letters.” – JOHN UPDIKE, author of Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu published in the New Yorker, The New Yorker magazine publishes Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu, an article by 28 year-old John Updike which chronicles Ted Williams’ last game in the major leagues. The future Pulitzer Prize-winning author, among the 10,000 fans to watch the fabled game in Boston, ends the much-celebrated baseball essay with, “Gods do not answer letters,” as an explanation of why the 41 year-old superstar did not acknowledge the Fenway faithful after homering in his final major league at-bat.

1960 – In the first structural change since 1900, the National League votes to admit Houston and New York into the Senior Circuit. The two expansion teams will begin play in 1962.

1960 – Branch Rickey once again rewrites the history of his involvement with Roberto Clemente. Just as he did in the March 20, 1957 issue of The Sporting News, in the wake of Clemente’s dramatically improved sophomore season, the one-time Pirate GM once again proves an unreliable witness with regard to the level of his involvement in Pittsburgh’s acquisition of its emerging superstar. Rickey is quoted by the Baltimore Afro-American as follows: “I was with the Dodgers when we acquired Clemente after scouting him in Puerto Rico.” In fact, Rickey was long gone from Brooklyn and safely ensconced in Pittsburgh long before Clemente was seen, much less signed. Having left Brooklyn after the 1950 season, Rickey was promptly picked up by Pittsburgh, where he labored for five years. Clemente, by contrast, was discovered in Puerto Rico by the Dodgers’ Al Campanis in August 1952 and signed with Brooklyn on February 19, 1954. Rickey continues: “So I was thoroughly acquainted with the boy when the major league draft came up in the winter of 1954, after I had come to Pittsburgh from Brooklyn.” In point of fact, Rickey’s only acquaintance with Clemente as of the 1954 Winter Meetings came second-hand, via rave reviews from his staff, chief among them Clyde Sukeforth.

1960 – Giddy following their team’s Game 1 win over the heavily favored Yankees, Pirate fans are in for a brutal reality check, as the Big Apple Goliath walks over Steeltown’s David, 16 – 3, to even the World Series at one all. This utterly uncontested affair is little more than batting practice for the Bombers, highlighted by two tremendous opposite field blasts by Mickey Mantle, the latter of which, measured at 478 feet, proves historic – the first time within memory that any right-handed batter has hit a ball out of Forbes Field to the right of dead center.