Bill Mazeroski's World Series Homer, October 13, 1960 By Harvey Frommer

Bill Mazeroski's World Series Homer, October 13, 1960By Harvey Frommer

With the Fall Classic 2016 in all the sports headlines now, a flashback to one of most dramatic moments in World Series history is in order. So come along and re-live that time - -New York Yankees versus Pittsburgh Pirates.

After slipping to third place in 1959, the Yankees were back in the World Series again. The Pirates won the first game of the series. Then Yankee bats took over .The New Yorkers won Game Two 16-3, Game Three 10-0. Behind the pitching of Vern Law and Harvey Haddix, Pittsburgh won the next two to take a three games-to-two lead. The see-saw series saw New York tie things up with a 12-0 shutout from Whitey Ford.

All of that set the stage for Game 7, a contest that stands as one of the most memorable games in World Series history.

The Yankees rallied from a 4-0 deficit to take a 7-4 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. The Bucs scored five runs in the eighth inning, the final three on Hal Smith's homer, to take a 9-7 lead. A Yankee two-run rally in the top of the ninth tied the score, 9-9. Forbes Field was a madhouse.

Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski led off the home ninth against Yankee right-hander Ralph Terry. The count on Maz was 1-0. At 3:36 P.M. it seemed there was no other sound in the ballpark except for the crack of the bat of Mazeroski against the ball served up by Terry. Maz thought the ball would reach the wall so he ran all out of the batter's box.

Yogi Berra backed up in left field, then he circled away from the wall, watching the ball go over his head and over the wall. Then Yogi dropped to his knees in despair and anger. Yogi’s sour mood was the opposite of the sweet one at Forbes Field. It rocked. The Pittsburgh Pirates had their first World Championship since 1925. Bill Mazeroski became the first player to end a World Series with a home run. "It's hard to believe it hadn't been done before," Mazeroski, the greatest fielding second baseman in Pirate history, said "Every day of my life I think of that home run. Wouldn't you if you had hit it? People always are reminding me of it. I suppose it must be the most important thing I've ever done."

"I was an 8 year-old Yankee fan in 1960," Bob Costas mused." I literally wept when Bill Mazeroski's home run cleared the ivy-covered wall of Forbes Field. I believe I have come to terms with it, and can see Mazeroski for what he really was: one of baseball's all-time great players. Mickey Mantle batted .400 with three homers, 11 RBI's, eight runs scored and eight walks in the series. It was not enough. "We outscored them 55-27," Mantle complained, "and that was not enough. The best team lost."

The Yankees of New York lost more the series. Five days after their defeat they fired their beloved manager Casey Stengel.

“I’ll never make the mistake of being 70 years old again,” the grizzled Casey snarled. He never did.

Dr. Harvey Frommer, is in his 20th year as professor at Dartmouth College in the MALS program, in his 40th year of writing books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, he is the author of 42 sports books including the classics: best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-1957″ and best-selling Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, as well as his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium and best-selling Remembering Fenway Park. His highly praised When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl. A link to purchase autographed copies of Frommer Sports Books is at: http://frommerbooks.com/ The prolific author ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK is slated for publication in 2017.

Sports Bookshelf by Harvey Frommer

Sports Bookshelf by Harvey Frommer

With baseball on its way out and football and basketball and hockey primed to take over the sporting center stage, a collection of highly readable, very relevant titles are there for your gift-giving and reading enjoyment. Just read on.

Fields of Battle by Brian Curtis Flatiron Books, $29.99, 308 pages is a brilliantly told evocation of a time and a place – Pearl Harbor, the Rose Bowl and the Boys Who Went to War. The New York Times best-selling author tells the little known tale of how after Pearl Harbor was bombed the 1942 Rose Bowl was moved to Durham, North Carolina. The game pitted Duke University against
An underdog Oregon State team. This is truly a needed book for our time interweaving the war and the game and the young men who went off the field of play to battle for their country. It is all about courage and patriotism, timely and timeless. REMARKABLE READ

The Perfect Pass by S. C. Gwynne (Scribner, $27.00, 320 pages) is all about American Genius and the Reinvention of Football” and how Coach Hal Mumme over 30 years ago changed college football by going to “Air Raid” and the elemental game charming passing game. Some called what he created an “aerial circus” while other deemed it a genius approach. Whatever one call s it – the forward pass, the quick paced usage, changed the way the defense played and how the game was played/ the book is amazing.
GO FOR IT

Fantasy Man by Nate Jackson Harper, $26.99, 240 pages is as its sub-title declares “”A Former NFL Players’s Descent into the Brutality of Fantasy Football.”
He writes how his career was the top of the fantasy.” The former tight end for the Denver Broncos has created a book that is part stroll thru the byways of fantasy football and all worthwhile reading. A WAY WITH WORDS

Belichick and Brady by Michael Holley (Hachette Books, $27, 416 pages) is a must read for all football fans and especially New England Patriot zealots. The book in defining detail brings us up close and personal into the hearts and minds of the two of the NFL’s most stalwart and original individuals. The talented Holly mixes and matches material from dozens of past and present Patriot performers and executives. Anecdotes and insights galore is the result. A WINNER

Counting The Days While My Mind Slips Away by Ben Utecht (Howard Books, $26.00, 256 pages) is from the Super Bowl tight end for the Indianapolis
Colts. This is a painful book. This is an important book. This is a tragic book. “Counting The Days While My Mind Slips Away” is part-memoir and all love-letter to his wife and daughters who one day possibly may not recognize them because of the damage Ben Utecht suffered five major concussions playing pro football. A WORTHY READ

Friday, Saturday, Sunday in Texas by Nick Eatman, $26.99 with 16 page color insert) traces the way of life and play of the Plano Senior High School Wildcats, the Baylor University Bears and the Dallas Cowboys. Intimate, behind-the-scenes, revealing the interconnection among the three teams, veteran sports book guy Nick Eatman has out-done himself. GET THIS BOOK

BOOKENDS: ESPECIALLY worth going for is “100 Greatest Baseball Autographs” by Tom Zappala and Ellen Zappala (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 212 pages, $30.00) a beautifully produced cornucopia of amazing baseball autographs and the stories behind each one of them from Honus Wagner to Derek Jeter. For browsing, for reading, for gifting – MOST WORTHWHILE-- GO FOR IT!

And finally is my acclaimed WHEN IT WAS JUST A GAME: REMEMBERING THE FIRST SUPER BOWL, now in paperback: http://www.lyonspress.com/book/9781493026753

Dr. Harvey Frommer, is in his 20th year as professor at Dartmouth College in the MALS program, in his 40th year of writing books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, he is the author of 42 sports books including the classics: best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-1957″ and best-selling Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, as well as his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium and best-selling Remembering Fenway Park. His highly praised When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl. A link to purchase autographed copies of Frommer Sports Books is at: http://frommerbooks.com/ The prolific author ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK is slated for publication in 2017.

Stadium Voices - A New Book in the Works by Baseball Historian Michael Wagner

 I am now in the process of writing a new baseball book.  It will be called Stadium Voices:

Stadium Voices will be a book about our memories of our treasured baseball teams and stadiums. Whether going to a baseball game with your dad or friends, or taking your sons and daughters to cheer on your heroes, our home team arenas became a second home to us.

Each of us is a living encyclopedia filled with memories and experiences that we remember with love.  Whether it’s the smell of hot dogs and beer, the sight of your favorite heroes hitting home runs, stealing a base, or attending an Old Timers’ or World Series game, we cherish these recollections.  Exploring various stadiums and getting autographs bring other fond memories to your heart and mind.  Through our words and memories, the past can instantaneously become the present, for which we and baseball’s past shall forever be linked.

Sadly, many of our old stomping grounds are now a thing of the past.  Nothing lives forever, not even us.  However, our words and feelings can live on when we are gone, through our words and pictures.

Having completed my first book, “Babe’s Place: The Lives of Yankee Stadium,” in 2015, I am now on a new course of adventure.  Many people have made “Babe’s Place” a wonderful book thanks to their input, for which I and the baseball historical world shall forever be indebted.

I’m now compiling information and writing a book about baseball experiences through the eyes of its fans.  It will also include baseball players and umpires as well.  This only involves Major League baseball stadiums no longer in existence or no longer in use. Should you like to add your memories &/or photos of such stadium(s), or if you know anyone else that would like to do so, please do so on this www.baseball-fever.com thread, or contact me at my e-mail address: stadiumvoices37@yahoo.com

Please be specific in order to add more flavor to your story, if possible.  For example, add your age at the time in your life that you’re writing about, the year, and even the smallest details that you think may not matter.  Even the smallest facts can add greatly to your story, especially if many people add their experiences.  This will give a more complete picture of the overall story and bring alive the feeling of the particular stadium to which you are referring.  This will be a very exciting project!

Thank you.

I wish to thank Brad Turnow and Chris Jones for their very helpful suggestions.  They are wonderful friends and great baseball historians, among so many others that I know.

Please visit Brad’s superb New York Yankees historical information at:

www.HistoryOfTheYankees.com and www.YankeesHistory.com and www.UltimateYankees.com

Mike Wagner

Bobby Thomson's Famous Homer Lives On - By Harvey Frommer - From the Vault

Bobby Thomson's Famous Homer Lives OnBy Harvey Frommer

From the Vault

Throughout the long history of baseball there have been poignant, exciting, dramatic moments. But very few can compare to what happened on October 3, 1951 at the old Polo Grounds in New York City.
Some refer to that time as "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff." Others, especially in Brooklyn, call it "Dat Day." But no matter what label is applied it was a time to remember.

It was a time when the Giants played out of the Polo Grounds in Manhattan and the Dodgers entertained millions in their tiny Brooklyn ballpark, Ebbets Field. It was a time of tremendous fan devotion to each team.
In July Brooklyn manager Charlie Dressen had bragged, "The Giants is dead." It seemed to aptly describe the plight of Leo Durocher's team. For on August 12 the Giants trailed the Dodgers by 13 l/2 games in the standings.

Then, incredibly, the Giants locked into what has been called "The Miracle Run." They won 37 of their final 44 games - 16 of them in one frenetic stretch - and closed the gap.
"It was a once-in-a-lifetime situation," recalls Monte Irvin, who batted .312 that year for the Giants. "We kept on winning. The Dodgers kept on losing. It seemed like we beat everybody in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning.

The Giants and Dodgers finished the season in a flat-footed tie for first-place and met on the first day of October in the first game of the first play-off in the history of the National League. The teams split the first two games setting the stage for the third and final game.
Don Newcombe of the Dodgers was pitted against Sal Maglie of the Giants. Both hurlers had won 23 games during the regular season.
The game began under overcast skies and a threat of rain. Radio play-by-play filtered into schoolrooms, factories, office buildings, city prisons, barbershops.

The Wall Street teletype intermingled stock quotations with play-by-play details of the Giant-Dodger battle.
The game was tied 1-1 after seven innings. Then Brooklyn scored three times in the top of the eighth.
Many of the Dodger fans at the Polo Grounds and the multitude listening to the game on the radio thought that the Giants would not come back.

Durocher and the Giants never gave up. "We knew that Newcombe would make the wrong pitch," said Monte Irvin. "That was his history."

The Giants came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning - only three outs remained in their miracle season.
Alvin Dark led off with a single through the right side of the infield. Don Mueller slapped the ball past Dodger first baseman Gil Hodges. Irvin fouled out. Whitey Lockman doubled down the left field line. Dark scored.
With runners on second and third Ralph Branca came in to relieve Newcombe. Bobby Thomson waited to bat. Durocher said, "I did not know whether they would pitch to Thomson or not. First base was open. Willie Mays, just a rookie, was on deck."

Veteran New York Giant announcer Russ Hodges described the moment to millions mesmerized at their radios that October afternoon:

"Bobby Thomson up there swinging.... Bobby batting at .292. Branca pitches and Bobby takes a strike call on the inside corner. Lockman without too big of a lead at second but he'll be running like the wind if Thomson hits one.

"Branca throws ... there's a long drive...it's gonna be, I believe. . .' The precise moment was 3:58 P.M., October 3, 1951.

"... the Giants win the pennant!" Hodges screamed the words at the top of his voice, all semblance of journalistic objectivity gone. "The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!"
Hodges bellowed it out eight times - and then overcome by the moment and voiceless, he had to yield the microphone.

Pandemonium was on parade at the Polo Grounds for hours after the game. For almost half an hour after the epic home run, there were so many phone calls placed by people in Manhattan and Brooklyn that the New York Telephone Company reported service almost broke down.

Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca would play out their major league careers. But the moment they shared - as hero and goat that October day at the Polo Grounds - would link them forever.

Dr. Harvey Frommer, is in his 20th year as professor at Dartmouth College in the MALS program, in his 40th year of writing books. A noted oral historian and sports journalist, he is the author of 42 sports books including the classics: best-selling “New York City Baseball, 1947-1957″ and best-selling Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball, as well as his acclaimed Remembering Yankee Stadium and best-selling Remembering Fenway Park. His highly praised When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl. A link to purchase autographed copies of Frommer Sports Books is at: http://frommerbooks.com/ The prolific author ULTIMATE YANKEE BOOK is slated for publication in 2017.