1960 World Series: Confusion, and then Maz

The Teams
National League: Pittsburgh Pirates (95-59) - Fifth World Series (Won in 1909, 1925)
American League: New York Yankees (97-57) - 25th World Series (Won 18 previous times)


What Happened
Depending on what set of games they were watching, baseball fans saw two very different World Series in 1960. If anybody watched just games 2, 3, and 6, they saw a bludgeoning unlike any that had ever been seen in a World Series. Over those three games, the Yankees pounded the helpless Pirate pitchers for 38 runs, setting all sorts of team and individual records over those games. It wasn't just the offense, either, as they got two shutouts from Whitey Ford and only gave up 3 in the other (what a waste of two good pitching performances, by the way; combined score of the two games Ford pitched: 22-0).

If anybody watched just games 1, 4, and 5, they saw an opportunistic Pirate offense scrape together enough runs to take a lead into the seventh inning, then turn the game over to magnificent reliever Roy Face to close it out. Face was a year removed from compiling a truly bizarre 18-1 record as a reliever, but he might have been even better in 1960, even if he didn't go 18-1. He held the leads handed him in the 1960 World Series with little difficulty.

And for the people who watched each of the first six games, the series must have been incredibly confusing. Heading into Game 7, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46-17 and out-hit them 79-49, yet the series was tied. The Pirates had won three close games, but there hadn't really been any truly tense games. It was a truly bizarre series.

And then came Game 7.

The game started with the Pirates taking a 4-0 lead after two innings, burning through two Yankee pitchers in the process. They handed a 4-1 lead over to Face in the sixth, and Face promptly blew his first lead of the series. Yogi Berra's three-run home run was the biggest blow, and it made the score 5-4 Yankees.

But things were just getting started

After the Yankees added two more runs off Face in the 8th, that seemed to be all she wrote. The Yankee bats had won out again, and they had finally pounded the Pirates into submission. But the Pirates got five hits in the bottom of the eighth, the biggest a three-run home run by catcher Hal Smith that put Pittsburgh ahead 9-7. The Pirates went from being left for dead to being three outs from a championship. A shocking turn of events.

Now it was the Yankees' turn to face elimination. With one run in in the ninth, they had runners on the corners with one out. Berra smashed a grounder down the first base line that Pirate first baseman
Rocky Nelson snared on a hop. He stepped on first and turned to second, hoping to get the out at second that would end the World Series. Instead Mickey Mantle, who was on first, dove back to the bag, somehow avoiding the tag to get back safely. Meanwhile, Bobby Richardson was coming home with the game-tying run. The Pirates were stunned. They got the double play ball that would have won the World Series, saw it played perfectly, yet were still tied.

They barely had time to register what had happened when second baseman Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. After taking a ball, Mazeroski swung and lifted a fly ball to deep left field. Forbes Field had a pretty deep left field, leading to an ivy-covered wall facing against a small grove of trees, so as Berra (playing left field, not catcher) turned his back to chase the ball, it looked like he was going for a jog through the woods. He looked up expecting to play the ball off the wall, only to watch as it scraped the top of the ivy and bounded into the trees beyond.

Mazeroski sprinted around the bases, hat in hand, waiving his arms. The Pirate fans stormed onto the field in celebration, forcing Mazeroski to navigate a maze of fans while rounding the bases. He finally made it around and stepped on home, the first man to end a World Series with a home run. It had been an odd series, a deceivingly one-sided series. But the magnificent Game 7 made it a series for the ages.

MVP
As a sign of how odd the series was, Bobby Richardson was named MVP. In case you weren't paying attention, he played for the Yankees. A member of the losing team was named World Series MVP. The reasons seemed justified at the time - Richardson had a World Series record 12 runs batted in, including a record six in Game 3. But Mantle had 11 runs batted in and outhit and out homered Richardson. Bill Skowron had a series-high 12 hits for the Yankees, and Ford didn't give up a run in two complete-game victories. Almost any Yankee hitter could have been the MVP. Except, of course, that they lost the series. For those who think only the winning team should provide the MVP, it should have been Mazeroski. He led the Pirates in runs, hits, extra-base hits, home runs, and runs batted in. Plus he played his usual outstanding defense at second base. Oh, and he hit the first World Series-ending home run in history. The fact that he wasn't named MVP just shows how confused everybody was about the 1960 World Series.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	4	16	10	2	2	12	9
Pittsburgh	6	3	0	3	5	0	10

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

15. 1960 - Pittsburgh (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
16. 1952 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
17. 1997 - Florida (N) def. Cleveland (A) 4-3
18. 1993 - Toronto (A) def. Philadelphia (N) 4-2
19. 1956 - New York (A) def. Brooklyn (N) 4-3
Numbers 20-29
Numbers 30-39
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

3. 1960: Pittsburgh 10, New York (A) 9
5. 1997: Florida 3, Cleveland 2
7. 1946: St. Louis (N) 4, Boston (A) 3
9. 1925: Pittsburgh 9, Washington 7
12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
14. 1952: New York (A) 4, Brooklyn 2
15. 1971: Pittsburgh 2, Baltimore 1
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
23. 1973: Oakland 5, New York (N) 2
24. 2002: Anaheim 4, San Francisco 1
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
35. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0
36. 1956: New York (A) 9, Brooklyn 0

1957 World Series: Milwaukee's Best

The Teams
National League: Milwaukee Braves (95-59) - First World Series
American League: New York Yankees (98-56) - 23rd World Series (won 17 previous times)

What Happened
It was a breath of fresh air to see the Milwaukee Braves in the World Series in 1957. After all, every World Series game played since 1948 had been won by a team based in New York City. After a run like that, it was good to see a new team try to take on the Yankees. And while the Braves weren't exactly "new" - they had been based in Boston for more than 60 years, after all - they weren't the Giants or the Dodgers, so they were OK by most of America.

They were also underdogs, which seems bizarre in retrospect considering the star power that was on that team. But despite having Hall-of-Famers Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron batting back-to-back in the batting order and Warren Spahn, baseball's all-time winningest lefty, in the starting rotation, the Braves were, in fact, the underdogs. Mostly because they weren't the Yankees.

But after Whitey Ford beat Spahn in a Game 1 battle of Hall of Fame lefties, the Braves made the baseball world happy with their 4-2 win in Game 2. They were the first non-New York team to win a World Series game in nine years, and they had done so in Yankee Stadium, stealing home-field advantage away from New York.

The Yankees took the advantage right back with a 12-3 thrashing in Game 3, but even that game couldn't have upset the Braves too much; the Yankees got their 12 runs on just 9 hits, drawing 11 walks from the Braves pitchers. Milwaukee hadn't lost as much as they had given the Yankees the game. Drawing inspiration from that, the Braves won the next two in instant classics, winning Game 4 in 10 innings and getting a complete-game shutout from Lew Burdette in Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead back to New York.

After dropping Game 6, the Braves picked for their Game 7 starter not Spahn, who had pitched all 10 innings of Game 4, but Burdette, the Game 5 winner. Despite the short rest, Burdette was just as unhittable as he had been the previous game. This time, he got more support, and Milwaukee's 5-0 win ended the city of New York's monopoly on baseball championships. Milwaukee celebrated like mad, reveling in their new team's sudden success. They had good reason: the 1957 championship was the only one the Braves won in Milwaukee, and it remains the only time any Milwaukee team has won a World Series.

Defining Game
Hank Aaron had the biggest hit of Game 4, crushing a three-run home run to put the Braves ahead 3-1 in the fourth inning.

But then New York's Elston Howard had the biggest hit of Game 4, stunning Spahn and the Braves with a two-out, three-run home run that tie the game in the ninth.

Then New York's Hank Bauer had the biggest hit of Game 4, hitting a two-out triple off Spahn to give the Yankees the lead in the top of the 10th.

Then, it was Mathews' turn. In some cases, it wouldn't have been, as he came up with runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the 10th. With the game-winning run already on second, Mathews' run meant nothing, and walking him would set up a double play. But walking him would also bring Aaron to the plate, and Aaron had been lightning hot all series long. The Yankees wanted nothing to do with that, so they pitched to Mathews. And Mathews got what was truly the biggest hit of Game 4, ending the game with a three-run rocket to right.

MVP
The Yankees couldn't figure out Aaron during the series, as the future home run king batted .393 - for a Braves team that collectively hit only .208 - with a series-high three home runs and seven runs batted in. But Lew Burdette shut out the Yankees twice, including in Game 7, and won all three of his starts, giving up only two runs. In World Series MVP voting, the tie generally goes to the pitcher, and in this case, it might not have even been a tie. Burdette was the deserving winner. 

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Milwaukee	1	4	3	7 (10)	1	2	5
New York	3	2	12	5	0	3	0

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

30. 1957 - Milwaukee (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
31. 1985 - Kansas City (A) def. St. Louis (N) 4-3
32. 1969 - New York (N) def. Baltimore (A) 4-1
33. 1935 - Detroit (A) def. Chicago (N) 4-2
34. 1934 - St. Louis (N) def. Detroit (A) 4-3
35. 1964 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
36. 2003 - Florida (N) def. New York (A) 4-2
37. 1977 - New York (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-2
38. 1996 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-2
39. 1921 - New York (N) def. New York (A) 5-3

Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles (A) 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5
30. 1957: Milwaukee 5, New York (A) 0
31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0
34. 1934: St. Louis (N) 11, Detroit 0 
36. 1985: Kansas City 11, St. Louis 0

1964 World Series: Turning Point

The Teams
National League: St. Louis Cardinals (93-69) - 10th World Series (won in 1926, 1931, 1934, 1942, 1944, 1946)
American League: New York Yankees (99-63) - 29th World Series (won 20 previous times)

What Happened
For the 15th time in 18 seasons, the Yankees won the American League pennant in 1964. It was a tradition as reliable as baseball itself. But this year, the Yankees dynasty was sputtering to an end. Mickey Mantle was now a sore-legged right fielder, Yogi Berra was managing rather than catching, and even the great Whitey Ford was starting to reach the end of the line.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals were back on their way up. After dominating the 1940s with a team built by Branch Rickey, St. Louis fell back in the 1950s after Rickey moved on to Brooklyn and the stars he signed with the Cardinals started to retire. In 1964, though, they climbed back on top, riding the superb pitching of Bob Gibson to beat the Dodgers and Giants to the pennant.

Ford looked to give the Yankees an early lead in the series, and he took a 4-2 lead into the 6th inning. Then, suddenly, his arm went dead. With no warning or explanation, Ford lost all zip on his fastball and command of his off-speed pitches, and he left the game in the middle of the inning; he would never pitch in a World Series game again. Meanwhile, the Cardinals were mounting a comeback off Ford and reliever Al Downing. By the time they were done, they had a 9-5 win.

Ford's arm troubles turned out to be a lucky break for the Cardinals, as they lost the next two games, including Game 3 on a walk-off home run by Mantle. The Cardinals then seized the advantage in the series, winning Games 4 and 5 in Yankee Stadium. Game 4 was won on the strength of a Ken Boyer grand slam, and Gibson followed that up with a complete-game, 13-strikeout gem, which the Cardinals won on a three-run home run by Tim McCarver in the 10th.

Back home in St. Louis, the Cardinals blew their first chance to clinch by losing Game 6; Joe Pepitone's eighth-inning grand slam was the biggest blast. Game 7 was a matchup between Gibson, who was pitching just two days after throwing 10 innings in Game 5, and Mel Stottlemyre, the 22-year-old Yankee rookie who beat Gibson in Game 2. Like Gibson, Stottlemyre had also pitched in Game 7; unlike the great Cardinals' ace, he seemed to be affected by it. The Cardinals scored three runs off Stottlemyre in the 4th, then added three more off Downing in the 5th. That was enough for Gibson, but only just so - he gave up three home runs, including two in the ninth - but ended up with the 7-5 win.

The '64 series was viewed as a turning point in baseball. In a simply athletic sense, it propelled the Cardinals into dynasty stage, as they went to the World Series two more times in the 60s, while the Yankees wouldn't be back until 1976. On a larger front, it has retroactively been assigned a big racial significance, as the "blacker" National League had once again proven superior to the "whiter" American League. In reality, the Cardinals were a bad team to use as this example, as they were among the last National League teams to integrate, doing so seven years after Jackie Robinson debuted and just one year before the Yankees. Still, though, the fact remains that the National League teams were generally quick to embrace black or Hispanic players while the American League was slower to, and that seemed to change after 1964.

Defining Game
Through four innings, Game 5 was a great pitching duel between Gibson, the Cardinals ace, and Stottlemyre, the de facto Yankees ace now that Ford was out. The only threat came in the second, when the Yankees loaded the bases before Gibson struck out Clete Boyer (Ken's brother) and Stottlemyre to end the threat. That was it until Gibson started his own rally in the fifth, singling and scoring the first run. The Cardinals added one more run that inning, then sat back and let Gibson do his thing. That worked just fine until the 9th, when New York's Tom Tresh hit a stunning two-out, two-run home run to send the game into extra innings. Forced to work extra, the Cardinals bats woke up again, as McCarver's three-run home run gave Gibson a huge cushion. This time, he finished the job.

MVP
Not surprisingly, Gibson won the award after winning Games 5 and 7, even though of the three World Series he would eventually pitch in, this one was his worst. Still, you can't argue with 31 strikeouts in 27 innings. Well, unless you're McCarver. The Cardinals catcher batted .478 in the series with 11 hits and five runs batted in. He even added a steal of home in Game 7. Think of that the next time he says something asinine on a national baseball broadcast.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

New York	5	8	2	3	2	8	5
St. Louis	9	3	1	4	5 (10)	3	7

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

35. 1964 - St. Louis (N) def. New York (A) 4-3
36. 2003 - Florida (N) def. New York (A) 4-2
37. 1977 - New York (A) def. Los Angeles (N) 4-2
38. 1996 - New York (A) def. Atlanta (N) 4-2
39. 1921 - New York (N) def. New York (A) 5-3
Numbers 40-49
Numbers 50-59
Numbers 60-69
Numbers 70-79
Numbers 80-89
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107

Game 7s
Simultaneously, I'll rank all the Game 7s. The ones that have appeared in my countdown so far:

12. 1979: Pittsburgh 4, Baltimore 1
13. 1955: Brooklyn 2, New York (A) 0
16. 1940: Cincinnati 2, Detroit 1
18. 1987: Minnesota 4, St. Louis 2
19. 1958: New York 6, Milwaukee 2
21. 1968: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1
22. 1931: St. Louis (N) 4, Philadelphia (A) 2
26. 1982: St. Louis 6, Milwaukee 3
28. 1965: Los Angeles 2, Minnesota 0
29. 1964: St. Louis 7, New York (A) 5

31. 1967: St. Louis 7, Boston 2
32. 1945: Detroit 9, Chicago (N) 3
33. 1909: Pittsburgh 8, Detroit 0

1961 World Series: One for the role players

The Teams
American League: New York Yankees (109-53) - 26th World Series (won 18 previous times)
National League: Cincinnati Reds (93-61) - Fourth World Series (won in 1919, 1940)

What Happened
The 1961 regular season was all about the M&M boys. Two Yankees outfielders chased Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs, with Roger Maris catching and passing Ruth and Mickey Mantle falling just short.

Once the regular season was over, though, those two stopped being the focus of the Yankees. Mantle was injured and could only play in two games in the '61 World Series, and while Maris played the whole series, he was a non-factor with only two hits. Instead, the Yankees had to rely on their role players. Luckily for them, they had plenty of good ones, as would be expected for a 109-win team. Even without a healthy Mantle or an effective Maris, the Yankees were still better than the Reds.

A big reason for that was Whitey Ford. The 1961 season was the best of Ford's career, as he went a sublime 25-4, and he carried that momentum into the World Series with a two-hit shutout in Game 1. The Yankees gave away Game 2 with three errors that led to three unearned runs for Cincinnati. Game 3 featured Maris' only significant contribution to the narrative of the series, as his go-ahead home run in the ninth inning gave New York a 2-1 series lead.

Entering Game 4, Cincinnati had every reason to be optimistic. Sure, they were losing the series, but they had held the Yankees to just seven runs in the first three games; in fact, they had outscored them. They had every reason to believe they could hang with New York. But then they ran into Ford in Game 4. Though Ford only threw five innings, they were five more shutout innings. Reliever Jim Coates finished the shutout, and the Yankees bats came alive for 7 runs.

With the Yankees a win away from the championship, Game 5 turned early. With two outs in the first, Bobby Richardson was picked off first base, only to be safe when Gordy Coleman dropped the ball. Given a reprieve, the Yankees exploded for five runs in the first. Another five run inning in the third put the World Series to bed. A year after dominating the World Series but losing, the Yankees again dominated the World Series, but this time finished the job.

Defining Game
Game 3 was by far the best game of the series. The Reds took a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning, only to see that lead disappear on a two-out pinch-hit home run by Yankees backup catcher Johnny Blanchard. Maris then led off the ninth with his only extra-base hit of the series, a blast to deep right that gave the Yankees the lead. The Reds got a one-out double from Leo Cardenas in the bottom of the ninth but couldn't bring him home.

MVP
Ford was named MVP for his 14 shutout innings, but it just as easily could have been Richardson - who had nine hits, though all but one were singles - or Blanchard - who batted .400 with three extra-base hits.

Scores
(Home team shaded; winners in Bold)

Cincinnati	0	6	2	0	5
New York	2	2	3	7	13

---

The List
I'm ranking all the World Series, from worst to best. Here are the ones I've done so far:

89. 1961 - New York (A) def. Cincinnati (N) 4-1
Numbers 90-99
Numbers 100-107