Bill Mazeroski, 89. He broke Yankee hearts

Ugh. I saw the game on our beautiful black and white TV, and remember how forlorn Yogi Berra looked, standing in left field and seeing the ball go over the fence.

It’s a nice article and includes a video of the homer. I did not know Mazeroski was in the Hall of Fame – he had a 17 year career with the Pirates. On an interesting Yankee footnote, this was the only World Series in history that a player on the losing team was named the MVP. Bobby Richardson.

It was Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, when an infielder known for his glove, not his bat, crushed the powerful Yankees with one swing, bringing joy to Pittsburgh.

What ended a seesaw contest that afternoon became one of baseball’s most re-enacted moments, though Carmen Berra, whose husband was the Yankees left fielder that afternoon, always refused to relive it.

“I still can’t watch that replay,” she later told the sportswriter Bill Madden for his 2003 book “Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee.” “The saddest moment I ever had in baseball was sitting in the stands, seeing Yogi standing there in left field, helpless to do anything but watch that ball go over the fence.”

Once they got over their shock, the Yankees, and their fans, felt robbed. The New Yorkers had won their three games by ridiculously lopsided scores — 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 — while the Pirates had squeaked by in theirs by a grand total of seven runs.