Hall of Famer Mazeroski, whose homer won 1960 WS, passes away 

Bill Mazeroski stood outside on a surprisingly chilly mid-February day a few years ago in Bradenton, Fla., making his annual Spring Training visit to see his former team at the Pirate City training complex. He could still repeat the quick, fluid movements that made him such a renowned defensive second baseman, even if he was slower at age 83 than he was in his prime.

After speaking about the pride he took in playing defense, Mazeroski -- the legend better known as “Maz” -- laughed as he reflected on the great irony of his storied, 17-year Major League career. His most famous, enduring accomplishment is the last line on his Hall of Fame plaque.

“Weird, isn’t it?” he said. “Known for the home run and in the Hall of Fame because of your defense.”

Mazeroski, who passed away on Friday at the age of 89, will be remembered for all of it. The eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, two-time World Series champion and Hall of Famer remains alone in the history books as the only player to hit a walk-off home run in Game 7 of a World Series, a singular accomplishment that lifted the Pirates to sudden victory over the Yankees in 1960.

“Bill Mazeroski was synonymous with one of the greatest home runs in baseball history for more than 65 years,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred 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. The career Pirate was an eight-time Gold Glove second baseman, a position he played upon the guidance of Hall of Fame executive Branch Rickey. 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.”

Mazeroski, who spent his entire Major League career with Pittsburgh, achieved baseball immortality due to his defense. He was a .260 hitter with 138 career home runs, but some historians regard him as one of the game’s best fielders at any position. The description on his plaque in Cooperstown begins with the following three words: “A defensive wizard.”

“I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Mazeroski said during his induction ceremony in 2001. “Defense deserves as much credit as pitching and hitting, and I’m proud and honored to be going into the Hall of Fame on the defensive side and mostly for my defensive abilities.”

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Forever modest and humble, Mazeroski only managed to say that and thank the Veterans Committee for voting him in before becoming overwhelmed with emotion. Fighting back tears and eventually losing the battle, he scrapped the 12-page speech he had planned for the ceremony. As he took his seat and rubbed his eyes, everyone who had gathered in Cooperstown -- fans and fellow Hall of Famers alike -- stood and cheered him.

William Stanley Mazeroski was born in Wheeling, W. Va., on Sept. 5, 1936, and raised in the Ohio River Valley region. He made his Pirates debut in 1956 at the age of 19. Two years later, he won the first of his eight Gold Glove Awards. Two years after that, in 1960, he had his ever-lasting moment.

The heavily favored Yankees beat the Pirates in Game 6 of the Fall Classic to force a decisive Game 7 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field on Oct. 13, 1960. The Pirates trailed, 7-4, in the eighth inning but scored five times, three on a homer by Hal Smith, to take a two-run lead -- then Harvey Haddix gave up two runs in the top of the ninth.

With the score tied, 9-9, Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth against Yankees right-hander Ralph Terry. He took the first pitch, a ball, and said later that he just wanted to get a base hit to start the inning. Then he swung at the second pitch, launched it more than 400 feet over the head of left fielder Yogi Berra and started running.

“I don’t know it’s out. I don’t know it’s a home run. But I know I’m going to end up on third if he misplays that ball off the wall,” Mazeroski recalled during a Pirates telecast in 2015, 55 years after the fact. “So I’m busting my tail getting around there, and by the time I hit second base, I looked down the line and the fans went crazy. From second base, I didn’t touch the ground all the way in.”

The Pirates' victory was an enormous upset. The Yankees, playing in the World Series for the 10th time in 12 years, outscored the Pirates 55-27 in the Series, winning their games by the scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates, woeful through most of the 1950s, had won theirs by the scores of 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2. The final in Game 7 was 10-9.

The Pirates retired Mazeroski's uniform No. 9 in 1987. But more than that, his accomplishment is memorialized all over Pittsburgh.

There’s a bronze statue of a young Mazeroski -- arms outstretched, cap in his right hand, right leg kicked up behind him -- along the Allegheny River outside PNC Park. The likeness is surrounded by a brick wall that includes an actual section of the outfield wall over which Mazeroski homered; the 406-foot marker is still visible in white.

Another part of Forbes Field’s outfield wall still stands in place in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, just off Roberto Clemente Drive, and there’s a plaque recognizing the spot where Mazeroski homered. Every Oct. 13, the “Game 7 Gang” gathers at that site, listens to the radio broadcast and celebrates the anniversary of Mazeroski’s famous home run at exactly 3:36 p.m.

“That doesn’t happen anywhere else, does it?” Mazeroski said with a smile in February 2020.

No matter how many times he was asked, Mazeroski never got tired of retelling his part in the story. Why not?

“Because it’s a fun thing. I could’ve been on the other end of it and struck out or something, Mazeroski said in 2015. “I’m glad I wasn’t on that end of it. I was on the good end of it.”

Everywhere he went after that, Mazeroski heard stories about how his home run affected others. One of his favorites was of a man who finally quit gambling after he bet everything he had on the Yankees and lost it on Mazeroski’s homer.

“You hear some funny stories, some weird stories,” Mazeroski once said. “They’re all interesting. I just can’t remember them all.”

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But Mazeroski always remembered how to play second base. Even in the spring of 2020, 48 years after his final Major League game, he showed a group of reporters how he used to “ricochet” the ball out of his glove to turn double plays so quickly. Then he lifted his left foot and held his hands a few inches apart, showing how he’d never actually touch the bag -- long before the era of instant replay -- when he’d turn two.

“It was quicker than anybody else ever did it. I don’t know how, and I’ve never seen too many do it,” Mazeroski said. Then he grinned. “They didn’t cheat like I did. I cheated just about every double play I ever made, probably, just that much off the bag. You couldn’t see it with plain eyes.”

No matter how he did it, there’s no denying that Mazeroski played second base like no other.

He led National League second basemen in double plays turned every year from 1960-67. He led NL second basemen in fielding percentage in 1960, ’65 and ’66 and retired in ’72 with a career .983 fielding percentage. He led NL second basemen in assists nine times and led all of the big leagues in five of those seasons. He still holds the Major League record for double plays turned by a second baseman, with 1,706.

Baseball analyst Bill James remarked that Mazeroski’s defensive numbers “are probably the most impressive of any player at any position,” with a significant gap between him and the second best second baseman. Former Pirates pitcher Vern Law once said Mazeroski “would constantly come up with balls we thought were base hits.” Longtime teammate Bill Virdon, a center fielder, was quoted saying he backed up Mazeroski for six years “and never got a ball.”

“I always took defense to heart, more so than offense. I played more defense than I did offense,” Mazeroski said. “If I’d have worked at my offense, maybe I’d have been a little better, too. But I didn’t work much at it. I worked at defense.”

So, that brings us back to his legacy -- and the final say belongs to the man himself. How did Mazeroski want his career to be remembered, for his Hall of Fame defense or for hitting arguably the greatest home run of all time?

“Oh,” Mazeroski said, laughing, “I’ll take the home run.”