Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame the Yankees for Losing the 1960 World Series

[Terrence Clay]

https://unclemikesmusings.blogspot.com/2020/10/october-13-1960-bill-mazeroski-game.html

5. The Managerial Distraction. Stengel had been hospitalized for 10 days in June, with coach Houk, already a Pennant-winning manager at the Triple-A level, filling in. Casey soon turned 70, and speculation mounted -- correctly, as it turned out -- that Topping and Webb would fire him and replace him with Houk, even if he won.

Furthermore, expansion was coming, with 2 new teams in the AL the next season, and 2 new ones in the NL the year after that. Throw in the usual amount of firings, and there a good chance that, by Opening Day 1962, Houk would be managing in the major leagues somewhere, and the Yankees didn't want to lose him.

Indeed, in 1962, Casey himself was managing the expansion Mets. By 1963, another of his 1960 coaches, Eddie Lopat, was managing the Kansas City Athletics. Other Stengel players who became major league managers included Yogi, Billy Martin, and Hank Bauer, who led the Baltimore Orioles to their 1st title in 1966.

4. Transition. The Yankees were in the process of making changes. The stars of the 1950s, including the ones that had won 4 straight American League Pennants from 1955 to 1958, were on their way out. As a result, a lot of players -- 1960 AL Most Valuable Player Roger Maris, for one -- may have been good enough to be Yankees, but hadn't yet won the big one as Yankees.

The Yankees had last won the World Series in 1958, and would next win it in 1961, the year after the Mazeroski Game. How many players were on the World Series roster on both sides of this 3-year gap? Only 7: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Bill "Moose" Skowron, Elston Howard, Bobby Richardson and Tony Kubek. Bob Turley could have made it 8, but he was injured, and didn't play in the '61 Series.

The 1960 season was also the 1st in which catcher Yogi Berra and left fielder Elston Howard, whose natural position was catcher, had been switched, which is why Yogi was the left fielder tracking Mazeroski's homer, and it's his head, along with the outfield wall, that it went over.

3. Home Field Advantage. Although Forbes Field had dimensions very similar to the pre-renovation Yankee Stadium, including a right-field pole 300 feet from home plate and a center field 457 feet away, it had only 35,000 seats, making it about half the size. As a result, while the noise at Yankee Stadium could be overwhelming, the fans were much closer to the field in Pittsburgh. Hence, Thompson's declaration that it was "an insane asylum."

Forbes Field was also known for having the worst infield in the National League. Even by the standards of ballparks that went up before World War II (and there were still 13 of the 16 teams, including the Yankees, playing in such ballparks in 1960), it was known to be bad. Since the Pirates, unlike any other team, played there regularly, they knew how to handle the comparatively high grass, the hard dirt, and the pebbles that were all over the place in said dirt. Which leads us to...

2. The Pebble. In the bottom of the 8th inning, with the Yankees leading 7-4, and Cimoli on 1st, Virdon hit a grounder to short. It should have been an easy double play: Kubek to Richardson to Skowron, putting them 4 outs away from the title. But the ball hit a little rock, jumped up, and hit Kubek in the throat, knocking him down, forcing him out of the game, replaced by reserve infielder Joe DeMaestri -- and allowing Virdon to reach 1st and Cimoli to reach 2nd.

Dick Groat singled home Cimoli. Skinner moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt, making the 1st out of the inning. Rocky Nelson flew to right for the 2nd out. Coates got to 2 strikes on Clemente, but Clemente hit a Baltimore chop toward 1st, Coates couldn't cover 1st properly, and Skowron had no one to throw the ball to, allowing Virdon to score. And Smith hit a home run, capping a 5-run inning and putting the Pirates up 9-7. The Yankees would tie it in the top of the 9th, and then Mazeroski hit the winning homer. (Really, even if Mazeroski had singled or walked, and been driven in by somebody else, this would still have been one of the greatest games ever played.)

Kubek is still alive, at age 85. If you should meet him, do not mention this play. Better yet, do not mention this World Series. If that ground ball hadn't jumped up and smacked him, he would have handled the ball, and started a double play, Groat wouldn't have had anyone to single home, Skinner wouldn't have bunted with 2 outs, and, at the most, Nelson's fly would've been the 3rd out. No runs would've scored, and the Yankees would almost certainly have won the game and the Series.

If that pebble had happened to any of the the game's legendary losers, -- such as the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cleveland Indians, or, even though they didn't exist yet, the Mets -- it would be forever known as The Pebble, Capital T, Capital P, and we would never stop talking about it.

But it happened to the Yankees, so hardly anybody makes a big deal out of it. And, of those who do, most think the Yankees had it coming.

And, of course, we must give due credit to the other team:

1. The Pittsburgh Pirates. In this exercise, the tendency is to make Reason Number 1 "The opposition was better." I'm not going to tell you that, in 1960, the Pirates were a better team than the Yankees, or a more talented one. But they were worthy champions. They led the NL in batting average, on-base percentage, OPS, runs, hits and doubles; and were 2nd in slugging percentage and triples.

Groat batted .325 in a season that got him named NL MVP. Clemente batted .314. Of their usual 8 starters, 6 had an OPS+ of 109 or higher: Clemente 121, Hoak 120, Dick Stuart 114, Groat 110, Smoky Burgess 110 and Skinner 109.

Only Stuart (23) had more than 16 home runs, a by-product of Forbes Field being a terrible park for righthanded hitters, and the team was 6th in the NL in homers. And none had at least 100 RBIs. But Clemente had 94, Skinner 86, Stuart 83, Hoak 79, and Mazeroski 64. Groat only had 50, a very low total for an MVP. Smith had only half as many plate appearances as you would get in a full season, and still had 45 RBIs.

In spite of Stuart -- not yet known as "Dr. Strangeglove" or "Stonefingers," but already known as a terrible 1st baseman, a born DH if ever there was one -- and the bad infield, the Pirates were good defensively. Mazeroski's defensive prowess was already unquestioned: He did for 2nd base what Brooks Robinson later did for 3rd base. Despite the bad infield, Hoak only made 25 errors, and that was the most on the team. Groat, at shortstop, the most error-prone position, made 24. Stuart made 14 (a bad number for a 1st baseman, especially playing only 108 games, as Nelson was a frequent sub), Mazeroski only 10 in 151 games (an astoundingly low figure for a 2nd baseman).

The Pirates' .979 fielding percentage led the NL, and their 128 errors for their entire team were 3rd in the NL. In other words, this was a team that did not beat themselves.

Then there was the pitching. Between them, Law, Friend, Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell (later a Congressman from Mississippi) and Harvey Haddix (he of the 1959 game where he pitched 12 perfect innings but lost in the 13th, but was the winning pitcher in 1960 World Series Game 7) made 123 of the Pirates' 155 starts (the standard for the time, 154, plus a rainout makeup). Law went 20-9, Friend 18-12, Mizell 13-5 and Haddix 11-10. ERAs: Friend 3.00, Law 3.08, Mizell 3.12, Haddix 3.97. ERA+: Friend 125, Law 122, Mizell 121, Haddix 95. WHIP: Law 1.126, Friend 1.128, Mizell 1.201, Haddix 1.317.

The Pirates didn't really need a bullpen: Friend completed 37 of his 38 starts, Law all 35 of his, Haddix 28 of his 29, and Mizell all 23 of his. That's 121 complete games out of 123 starts, or 98.4 percent. (Don't show this stat to Brian Cashman.) It was when a 5th starter was needed that relief ace Face was needed, appearing 68 times, all in relief, a record at the time.

Face was the apparent inventor of the forkball, the pitch that was the "father" of the split-fingered fastball, and he used it to set a record for highest winning percentage in a season with at least 13 decisions: .947, 18-1, in 1959. A year later, he helped the Pirates win the World Series with a record of 10-8, 24 saves, and a glittering WHIP of 1.064.

Think about this: Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend, whether you know it or not, lists photos of each team, each year, with its Top 12 Players according to WAR. And Clemente, a Hall-of-Famer, one of the Top 25 players of all time, is only 5th in WAR among '60 Bucs, behind Groat, Hoak, Friend and Law.

Were the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates a better team than the 1960 New York Yankees? Talent-wise, probably not. But they were good, well-balanced, and efficient. No one can say they didn't belong on the same field as Mantle, Berra, Ford and the rest. They beat the Yankees fair and square, 4 out of 7, with a little bit of luck, but without apparent cheating -- the poor condition of Forbes Field's infield doesn't count -- and that's what a World Series winner is supposed to do.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. The Yankees weren't cheated, and they didn't give the Series away. They were simply defeated by a good team.