Bill Mazeroski obit

Bill Mazeroski, Baseball Hall of Famer and Pittsburgh Pirates legend, dies at 89

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The man who will forever be known for hitting the greatest home run in baseball history - a game 7 walk-off in the World Series - Bill Mazeroski, has died at 89.

Mazeroski died on Friday, February 20.

"His name will always be tied to the biggest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship, but I will remember him most for the person he was," said Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting. "Maz was one of a kind, a true Pirates legend, a National Baseball Hall of Famer, and one of the finest defensive second basemen the game has ever seen."

Mazeroski was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2001. In his career, he was a seven-time All-Star who hit the game-winning, walk-off home run in the ninth inning of game seven against the Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

"Bill Mazeroski was synonymous with one of the greatest home runs in baseball history for more than 65 years," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. "While his bat delivered the first walk-off, series-ending home run in the history of our Fall Classic in 1960, it was Bill's glove that earned him recognition from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001."

Manfred added, "Bill understood that a run saved in the field was as important as a run driven in. Bill's lifetime of hard work and humility was a perfect illustration of the city he represented on the diamond. On behalf of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest condolences to Bill's family, his friends across our game, and all the loyal fans of Pittsburgh."

"Maz gave us one of the greatest home runs in baseball history to clinch the 1960 World Series, and set records as one of the best defensive second basemen to play the game," said Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor in a statement. "My thoughts are with the family, friends, and fans of Bill Mazeroski."

Along with hitting the most famous home run, Maz was known as one of the best defensive second basemen in the game during his 17 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He holds several records that still stand to this day, including most seasons leading the league in assists at 9, most seasons leading the league in turning double plays with 8, and most double plays turned in a single season when he had 161 in 1966.

He was also part of the inaugural class of the Pirates Hall of Fame in 2022.

In 2010, on his birthday, the Pirates unveiled a statue outside PNC Park in his honor, near the right field entrance.

seven-time All-Star known during his career primarily for his spectacular defensive play, he came to be known best for one of the most memorable home runs in baseball history, a dramatic ninth-inning drive in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series that beat the favored New York Yankees. It was the first time that the major league season ended with a home run, and remains the only walk-off home run to clinch a World Series championship in Game 7. ESPN ranked the World Series winner at the top of its list of the 100 Greatest Home Runs of All Time, while Sports Illustrated had it eighth in its compilation of the 100 Greatest Moments in Sports History. Mazeroski received the Babe Ruth Award for his play in the Series, during which he batted .320.

An eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, Mazeroski was particularly noted for his ability to make the pivot in turning double plays. His 1,706 career double plays remain a major league record for a second baseman, and were the most by any non-first baseman in history until shortstop Omar Vizquel passed him in 2009. Mazeroski led the National League (NL) in double plays eight consecutive years, and recorded over 100 double plays eleven times, both also major league records. His 161 double plays in 1966 remain the major league record for second basemen; when he retired, he held the top three marks in NL history. He led the major leagues in assists a record nine times, and led the NL in putouts five times and in fielding percentage three times. Mazeroski set NL records for career games (2,094), putouts (4,974), assists (6,685), and total chances (11,863) by a second baseman, all of which were later broken by Joe Morgan; his career fielding percentage of .983 ranked second in NL history when he retired, less than a quarter of a point behind Red Schoendienst.

Mazeroski also provided contributions on offense which were not typical for his position; his 138 career home runs and 853 runs batted in (RBI) were the most by any second baseman during the period between 1944 and 1974, with his home run total putting him behind only Rogers Hornsby among NL second basemen when his career ended. His home run production was particularly notable due to Pittsburgh's cavernous home stadium, where the distant reaches in left and center field made it typically the league's most difficult home run stadium until the mid-1960s.

He closed out his career by helping the Pirates to three consecutive division titles; he and Roberto Clemente were the only members of the 1960 champions who were on the team when they picked up another title in 1971, beating the favored Baltimore Orioles in seven games. Mazeroski later became a coach for the Pirates and the Seattle Mariners. The Pirates organization retired his uniform number in 1987. Mazeroski was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2001.

Mazeroski was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, to a Polish-American family. His parents were Mayme and Louis Mazeroski who resided in nearby Witch Hazel, Ohio. Louis had been a highly regarded baseball prospect himself—he once had a tryout with the Cleveland Indians—but a severed foot suffered in a coal mine accident ruined his dream as well as his livelihood. Along with his parents and sister Mary, Mazeroski grew up in a small one-room house that was devoid of electricity and indoor plumbing. He often went by the name of Catfish because of a penchant for fishing, which he took up out of necessity.

Success at the pro level did not come easily for Mazeroski at the outset. In 1955, the 17-year-old made his debut with the Class A Williamsport Grays, where he hit .235 in 93 games. He played exclusively at shortstop, where he was charged with 31 errors. The next spring, Pirates general manager Branch Rickey noticed how well he turned the double play as a second baseman, which prompted his move to the right side of the diamond. Mazeroski moved up to the Triple A Hollywood Stars farm club to begin the 1955 season. While he played 20 error-less games at his new position, the two-level jump proved to be too much at the plate. He was sent back to Williamsport, where he got back on track with a .293 batting average and 11 homers in 114 games.

Mazeroski returned to Hollywood at the outset of the 1956 campaign, only this time things were noticeably different. He hit .305 with an .823 OPS (on-base plus slugging) to earn a promotion to the major leagues midway through the season. At a time when the vast majority of young athletes were required to hone their skills in the minors for several years, Mazeroski got the call at 19 years of age. As expected, the transition was not a seamless one.

He made his first major league appearance on July 7, 1956, against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds in New York. His first hit was a single off Johnny Antonelli in his first at bat. But for most of the next five weeks, his batting average tumbled below the .200 mark. He hit his first home run on August 16, a 2-run shot off Robin Roberts, but a few days later, Pirates manager Bobby Bragan dropped him behind the pitcher in the batting order for 10 games. Mazeroski regrouped to hit .243 in 81 games, but later said that the drop in the lineup hurt his confidence.

After Danny Murtaugh replaced Bragan at the helm in early August 1957, Mazeroski and the Pirates showed immediate and steady improvement. In its 1958 preseason analysis, Sports Illustrated reported that he was seen as potentially "the finest young infielder in the business."

On the heels of a subpar season for Mazeroski and his fourth-place team, the 1960 campaign exceeded the wildest dreams of Pittsburgh sports fans. The Battlin' Bucs, as they would become known, dominated the National League virtually from the start to claim their first pennant since the 1927 season. Meanwhile, Mazeroski was an NL starter in both All-Star Games.

The Pirates seized control of the pennant race in August, when they won 21 of 31 games with Mazeroski in a lead role. He hit .373, drove in 16 runs and had a 26-game errorless streak in the month. The team was rewarded with a trip to the 1960 World Series, where the second baseman forged his legacy against the New York Yankees with a pair of game-winning home runs. The second came on October 13 off reliever Ralph Terry at Forbes Field, the only homer to end a World Series in major league history until 1993.

One of the wildest games in baseball history got wilder yet in the top of the ninth inning, when the Yankees plated two runs to forge a 9–9 deadlock. At that point, Mazeroski admittedly got caught up in the sudden turn of events. It seemed the second baseman had forgotten that he was to lead off the bottom half of the inning, and it wasn't until first base coach Lenny Levy reminded him of the fact that he hurriedly picked up a bat.

At precisely 3:36 p.m. local time, on a 1-0 count, Mazeroski slammed Terry's high fastball just to the left of the 406-foot marker in distant left-center field. "Here's a swing and a high fly ball going deep to left! This may do it!" NBC Radio broadcaster Chuck Thompson told the national audience. "Back to the wall goes (Yogi) Berra ... It is over the fence -- home run! The Pirates win! ... Ladies and gentlemen, Mazeroski has hit a one-nothing pitch over the left field fence at Forbes Field to win the 1960 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates!"

"I thought it would go over (the wall). I was hoping it would," Mazeroski told reporters in the jubilant home team clubhouse afterward. "But I was too happy to think. All year we've been a fighting, come-from-behind ballclub. We always felt we could pull it out even after the Yankees tied it in the ninth, but I didn't think I'd be the guy to do it." The legendary homer gave the Pirates their first World Series championship in 35 years and set off a raucous celebration in the Steel City that lasted for days.

n 1961, Mazeroski recorded 144 double plays, breaking the NL record of 137 shared by Jackie Robinson and Red Schoendienst. On April 28, 1966, Mazeroski became the second NL player to hit 100 home runs as a second baseman when he took Chicago Cubs starter Ferguson Jenkins deep in a 9–6, 10-inning road win. Later that year, he shattered Jerry Priddy's single-season major league record of 150 double plays at second base, which was set with the Detroit Tigers in the 1950 campaign. In 1967, Mazeroski broke Schoendienst's NL record of 1,368 career double plays. On August 19, 1968, in an 8–3 road loss to the Cincinnati Reds, he broke Schoendienst's league record of 1,834 games at second base. In 1969, he broke Frankie Frisch's NL record of 6,026 assists and Billy Herman's league record of 10,815 total chances; in 1970, he broke Nellie Fox's major league record of 1,619 double plays, and Herman's NL record of 4,780 putouts.

In the second game of a doubleheader on June 28, 1970, in the final game played at Forbes Field, Mazeroski fielded a Don Kessinger ground ball near second base and stepped on the bag to force out Willie Smith for the final out in a 4–1 victory over the Cubs. On July 16, he fielded the first batted ball in the history of Three Rivers Stadium, a ground ball off the bat of Ty Cline that opened a 3–2 loss to the Reds. On August 17, 1971, Mazeroski doubled in the second inning of a 6–5 loss to the Houston Astros for his 2,000th career hit. On July 23, 1972, against the Reds, he singled in the first inning of a 3–2 win; it was the last regular-season hit of his career, as he went hit-less in his final 30 at bats as his playing time was gradually reduced to occasional pinch hitting.

At the end of his career, Mazeroski ranked fourth in Pirates history in games played (2,163), fifth in home runs (138) and at bats (7,755), sixth in RBI (853) and doubles (294), and seventh in hits (2,016) and total bases (2,848). Modern sabermetrics credit him with 27.6 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) in the 1960s, the most of any major leaguer at his position. Joe Morgan broke Mazeroski's NL record for games at second base on September 28, 1980, his record for putouts in 1981, his record for total chances in 1982 and his record for assists in 1983.

Mazeroski was the focus of a staged game-ending triple play as part of a cameo appearance in the 1968 film The Odd Couple. In the scene, Oscar Madison is distracted from witnessing the play by an annoying phone call from Felix Unger (immediately after predicting to fellow sportswriter Heywood Hale Broun the Mets still have a chance to win if Mazeroski hits into a triple play). Reportedly, the scene was actually filmed just prior to the start of a regular game at Shea Stadium on June 27, 1967. Maz reported that he was given only 10 minutes to get it done:

They had a guy out there pitching and he was throwing fastballs. I knew I had to hit a liner to the third baseman. It only took two takes. The first pitch, I hit a line drive that went just foul. The second one, I hit a one-hopper right to third. He caught it, stepped on third, threw to second, threw to first, a triple play. Now that took talent!"

Jack Fisher was the pitcher for the Mets in that scene. In reality, Mazeroski never suffered such an inglorious moment during his playing days, but he did record two triple plays as a fielder, both against the Cincinnati Reds. On April 18, 1966, in the seventh inning of a home game, Vada Pinson struck out during a double steal attempt. Catcher Jesse Gonder threw to third baseman Bob Bailey, who then threw to Mazeroski to retire Tommy Harper off second base, and Mazeroski then threw to first baseman Donn Clendenon to retire Pete Rose off first base; the Pirates went on to win 4–3. And on July 31, 1968, in the second game of a doubleheader, Tommy Helms lined out to shortstop Gene Alley in the fourth inning of a 10-1 Pirates victory; Alley threw to Mazeroski, who then threw to Clendenon, retiring Lee May and Tony Pérez before they could return to their bases.

Mazeroski is survived by his sons, Darren and David, and his four grandchildren.