Tuesday of last week was the anniversary of Bill Mazeroski\u2019s walk-off home run to win Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. It was celebrated with a sync\u2019d-up replay of the game\u2019s radio broadcast at the base of Forbes Field\u2019s left-field wall, which still stands in Oakland. It\u2019s a wonderful annual tradition.<\/p>\n
By way of indulging cliched debate, make no mistake: Mazeroski\u2019s home run is the No. 1 moment in Pittsburgh sports history.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s second isn\u2019t close.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s second is probably the Immaculate Reception.<\/p>\n
But while the Immaculate Reception may have launched a dynasty, it didn\u2019t win a championship.<\/p>\n
It did occur in Pittsburgh. On-site. That adds black-and-gold luster.<\/p>\n
Mazeroski\u2019s homer did win a championship. It, too, was on-site.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the only walk-off Game 7 home run in World Series history.<\/p>\n
It completed the biggest upset in World Series history.<\/p>\n
Nobody thought the Pirates could beat Mickey Mantle\u2019s Yankees, who were prohibitive favorites.<\/p>\n
The Yankees got their three wins in that Series by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0.<\/p>\n
But the Pirates won four times, including 10-9 in Game 7.<\/p>\n
Their run differential over seven games was minus-28. But they were world champions.<\/p>\n
Mazeroski\u2019s homer might be the most famous in MLB history, and would be considered definitely such had it won a World Series for a New York team instead of beating one.<\/p>\n
Baseball in 1960 was just as big in Pittsburgh as football was in the \u201970s. Baseball was still the national pastime.<\/p>\n
Mazeroski\u2019s homer won a championship then and there. The second that ball cleared the wall. Big result, big event, big rush.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t a lucky bounce.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t need to be romanticized, or exaggerated.<\/p>\n
The Immaculate Reception was big. Just not as big.<\/p>\n
You could make an argument for James Harrison\u2019s 100-yard interception return at Super Bowl XLIII in 2009.<\/p>\n
It provided a 14-point swing in a game decided by four points. The ball was about to cross one goal line, then suddenly and spectacularly crossed the other, and as the first half ended.<\/p>\n
Harrison\u2019s rumble down the field was epic.<\/p>\n
You could stump for the game-winning touchdown pass in that same Super Bowl from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes. Clutch and precise.<\/p>\n
But that pass wasn\u2019t even the most memorable play in that game.<\/p>\n
The Steelers\u2019 four Super Bowl wins in the \u201970s are right in the wheelhouse of my childhood.<\/p>\n
But no one play from those games jumps immediately and easily to mind.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a Penguins lifer.<\/p>\n
Mario Lemieux had so many moments that could be in a top 10 of Pittsburgh sports happenings:<\/p>\n
\u2022 First shift, first shot, first goal.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Five goals, five ways.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Eight points in a playoff game against Philadelphia, the old enemy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 End-to-end goal vs. Minnesota in the 1991 Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Game-winning goal at the death in Game 1 of the 1992 Final against Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Comeback from cancer in 1993.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Comeback from retirement in 2000.<\/p>\n
Lemieux saved the Penguins twice somewhere in there, too.<\/p>\n
Five of the moments listed occurred in Pittsburgh. Thanks for the house, Mario.<\/p>\n
Sidney Crosby is more cumulative. His biggest individual moment is for Canada, the golden goal in the 2010 Olympics.<\/p>\n
Marc-Andre Fleury\u2019s save at the end of Game 7 at Detroit in 2009 makes any list.<\/p>\n
But Mazeroski\u2019s home run is a clear-cut No. 1. The greatest moment in Pittsburgh sports history.<\/p>\n
Johnny Cueto dropping the ball is small potatoes.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s all a whole generation of Pirates fans has. <\/p>\n
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