40 Fun Facts About 1960 World Series

Which Pirates infielder hit the ninth-inning home run that won Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth with the score tied and drove a 1–0 pitch over the left-field wall. No World Series had ever ended on a home run before.

Game 7 of the 1960 World Series is the only postseason game in which no batter did what?

Not one batter struck out in Game 7, even though nine pitchers took the mound. No other postseason game has gone without one.

Which Yankee was named MVP of the 1960 World Series even though his team lost?

Bobby Richardson drove in 12 runs across the seven games, more than anyone else on either team. No player from a beaten team had won the award before.

Which singer and Pirates part-owner had Game 7 of the 1960 World Series filmed to watch later?

Bing Crosby was too nervous to watch live, so he went abroad and followed by radio. His private film turned out to be the only complete copy of the telecast.

Which Yankees slugger said the 1960 World Series was the only loss that ever made him cry?

Mickey Mantle batted .400 with three home runs in the seven games and still lost. Decades later he told a documentary crew no other defeat, amateur or professional, had done that to him.

Which Pittsburgh ballpark, the Pirates' home since 1909, hosted Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

Forbes Field had a rock-hard infield that shaped the game: a grounder took a wild hop there in the eighth inning and turned a likely double play into a rally.

Which Yankees legend was in left field when the 1960 World Series ended on a home run over the wall?

Yogi Berra, better known as a catcher, backed off the wall expecting a carom before the ball sailed out. Earlier in Game 7 his three-run homer had put his team ahead.

Which Yankees manager, a ten-time pennant winner, was pushed out after losing the 1960 World Series?

Casey Stengel was 70 when the club retired him against his wishes, and he joked that reaching that age was a mistake he would not repeat. He never managed in another Fall Classic.

Who in 1993 became only the second player, after 1960, to end a World Series with a home run?

Joe Carter hit a three-run shot for Toronto with his team trailing in the ninth inning of Game 6. The 1960 blast, by contrast, broke a tie in a Game 7.

Which Yankees ace threw two shutouts in the 1960 World Series but was held back from starting Game 1?

Whitey Ford blanked Pittsburgh in Games 3 and 6. Because his manager saved him for the third game, he could start only twice in the seven.

Which Pirates right fielder from the 1960 World Series was still on the club for its 1971 title?

Roberto Clemente hit safely in every game in 1960, then was voted the outstanding player of the Fall Classic eleven years later. Only one other 1960 teammate was still playing beside him.

Which Yankee, a year before hitting 61 homers, homered in the first inning of the 1960 World Series?

Roger Maris, in his first season in pinstripes, was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player that autumn and won the award again a year later.

Before 1960, the Pirates' last pennant led to a 1927 sweep by a Yankees lineup with which nickname?

Murderers' Row, built around Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, beat Pittsburgh in four straight games. The Pirates then waited 33 years for another pennant and a rematch.

The Yankees manager ousted after the 1960 World Series next led which expansion team?

The New York Mets hired him for their first season in 1962, and that team lost 120 games, the most of any club in the 20th century.

The Pirate whose home run ended the 1960 World Series was best known for his glove at which position?

Second base was where he won eight Gold Gloves and turned more double plays than anyone who ever played the position. He reached the Hall of Fame largely on defense.

What was the final score of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, won by the Pirates in their last at-bat?

The 10–9 finish came after Pittsburgh let a 4–0 lead turn into a 7–4 deficit. Seven of the runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth.

Where in a California home did the only complete film of the 1960 World Series finale sit for 49 years?

A wine cellar hid the five reels until 2009, when a company executive searching for old television specials came across them.

What did the Yankees' eventual Series MVP hit in the first inning of Game 3 of the 1960 World Series?

A grand slam was the last thing anyone expected from a batter who had hit one home run all season. It capped a six-run inning before most fans had settled in.

Which Yankee hit a Game 7 walk-off home run in the 2003 ALCS, echoing how the 1960 World Series ended?

Aaron Boone beat Boston in the 11th inning, handing the franchise that lost in 1960 a Game 7 walk-off of its own.

Which Pirates pitcher, that season's Cy Young winner, won Games 1 and 4 of the 1960 World Series?

Vern Law made all three of his starts on a bad ankle, twisted when a teammate tugged at his shoe during horseplay after the pennant was clinched.

Which Yankee threw the pitch that ended the 1960 World Series, then was Series MVP two years later?

Ralph Terry got another Game 7 in 1962 and this time won it with a 1–0 shutout, the reverse of his walk off the mound in Pittsburgh.

Which Pirates backup catcher hit a three-run, eighth-inning homer in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

Hal Smith put Pittsburgh ahead with two out, and the crowd took it for the title winner. The lead lasted only until the visitors tied the game in the ninth.

Which Yankees shortstop was hit in the throat by a bad-hop grounder in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series?

Tony Kubek was led off the field and kept overnight in a hospital because his windpipe was swelling. The hop wrecked a likely double play and opened a five-run inning.

Which Pirates shortstop, a former Duke basketball star, was the National League MVP in 1960?

Dick Groat won the batting title at .325, then had his wrist broken by a pitch in September. He returned in time to meet the Yankees but hit only .214 against them.

Which manager guided the Pirates to the 1960 World Series title and to another championship in 1971?

Danny Murtaugh spent his 43rd birthday watching his club lose Game 3 by ten runs. Five days later he had his first title.

Which Pirates forkball reliever saved three games in the 1960 World Series?

Roy Face was the first pitcher to save three games in one Fall Classic. In Game 7, though, he gave up a three-run homer that erased his club's lead.

Which Pirate, famed for 12 perfect innings in a 1959 loss, was the winning pitcher in Game 7 in 1960?

Harvey Haddix had already won Game 5 as a starter. He relieved in the ninth inning of the finale, saw the lead slip away, and was still the pitcher of record when it ended.

Which coach became Yankees manager after the 1960 World Series and won the next two championships?

Ralph Houk, nicknamed the Major for his wartime rank, had been the first-base coach. He had already run the team for 13 games in 1960 while his boss was ill.

Before 1960, the Pirates had last won the World Series in 1925 by beating which defending champion?

The Washington Senators led that 1925 matchup three games to one. Pittsburgh then became the first team to erase such a deficit in a best-of-seven.

A nervous Pirates part-owner followed Game 7 of the 1960 World Series by radio from which city?

Paris put an ocean between him and the ballpark because he was too superstitious to watch his team live. He tuned in by shortwave with his wife and two friends.

Despite losing the 1960 World Series, the Yankees set a long-standing Series team record in which category?

Runs scored: they piled up 55, more than double Pittsburgh's 27, by winning three blowouts while dropping four close games.

Which voice of the Yankees called the second half of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series on television?

Mel Allen shared the booth with Pittsburgh's own announcer, who called the early innings and then went down to the winning clubhouse for the postgame interviews.

Which institution chose the radio broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series for preservation in 2025?

The Library of Congress added the broadcast to its registry of historic recordings, flubs included: the announcer named the wrong pitcher and at first gave the wrong final score.

A statue of the Pirate whose homer ended the 1960 World Series stands outside which Pittsburgh venue?

PNC Park got the statue in 2010, fifty years on. It shows him running with both arms stretched out and his cap in his right hand.

What prize did Sport magazine give the MVP of the 1960 World Series, a Yankee on the losing side?

A Corvette went to the award's very first winner in 1955, and a new car for the MVP became the custom from then on.

Which network televised the 1960 World Series, using each team's own announcer in the booth?

NBC aired the finale in color, yet the only copy of that telecast known to survive is a black-and-white film.

After losing the 1960 World Series, the Yankees won the title a year later by beating which team?

The Cincinnati Reds lost in five games. The Pittsburgh defeat turned out to be the first of five straight Fall Classics for the Bronx club, which won two of them.

Chuck Thompson's radio call of the final pitch of the 1960 World Series named which wrong Yankees pitcher?

Art Ditmar was only warming up in the bullpen. When a 1985 beer commercial reused the call, he sued for $500,000, saying it had tarnished his reputation, and lost.

In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, a Pirate beat out a high-bouncing infield hit known by which name?

A Baltimore chop bounced so high that the first baseman and the pitcher both went for the ball, leaving nobody to cover first. A run scored to cut the deficit to one with two out.

The only surviving telecast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series exists as which kind of film recording?

A kinescope is made by pointing a film camera at a television monitor, which was the only practical way to keep a live broadcast before videotape took over.