1960 WS vs New York Yankees
The 1960 World Series: The Pirates' improbable triumph over the Yankees' record-setting offense.
The 1960 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1960 season. The 57th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates against the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees.
Quick Facts
- Series result
- Pirates win, 4 games to 3
- Defining moment
- Bill Mazeroski walk-off 2-run HR
- Game 7
- bottom of the 9th
- Opponent
- New York Yankees (AL champions)
- Mazeroski's position
- Second baseman
Lore & Background
Despite losing the series, the Yankees scored 55 runs, the most runs scored by any one team in World Series history, and more than twice as many as the Pirates, who scored 27. The Yankees won three blowouts (16–3, 10–0, and 12–0), while the Pirates won four close games (6–4, 3–2, 5–2, and 10–9) to win the series. The Pirates' run differential of minus 28 is the lowest ever by any team, winner or loser, in a World Series. The Series MVP was Bobby Richardson of the Yankees, the only time in history that the award has been given to a member of the losing team, though the rules were different at this time.
Votes had to be in by the start of the 8th inning of Game 7, at which point the Yankees were in the lead, and this was the first time since the series MVP award was created in 1955 that the team leading at that point did not go on to win. Richardson was also the first non-pitcher to be named MVP.
Reader's Guide
In Game 7, Bill Mazeroski hit the series winning ninth-inning home run, the first time a winner-take-all World Series game ended with a home run, and the first World Series to end on a home run. Mazeroski's home run gave the Pirates their third title overall and their first since 1925. The Yankees committed twice as many errors as the Pirates in the series: the Yankees had 8 errors while the Pirates had four errors.
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