![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a793f9_24f2e713c7424d05a5e6e0cee00827ad~mv2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bill Mazeroski, the Pittsburgh Pirates legend, at home in Pittsburgh on June 17, 2008. Mazeroski, who hit the most famous \u2014 and surely the most decisive \u2014 home run in World Series history, a blast in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game seven in 1960, died in Lansdale, Pa. on Feb. 20, 2026. He was 89. (Jeff Swensen\/The New York Times)<\/p>\n
Bucs lifer was Roberto Clemente\u2019s teammate for 17 seasons<\/p>\n
Bill Mazeroski, who hit the most famous \u2014 and surely the most decisive \u2014 home run in World Series history, a blast in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh game in 1960 that gave the upstart, overmatched Pittsburgh Pirates a thrilling victory over the New York Yankees, died Friday in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. He was 89.<\/p>\n
The Pirates announced the death but did not provide further details.<\/p>\n
Almost as memorable as Mazeroski\u2019s historic home run \u2014 on Oct. 13 at the Pirates\u2019 Forbes Field \u2014 was the home run trot that followed.<\/p>\n
When Mazeroski hit the ball, he wasn\u2019t sure it would clear the ivy-covered left field fence 406 feet away, so he galloped toward first base. Only when he was halfway to second did he see the umpire, with a circular wave of a hand, signaling that it had.<\/p>\n
By the time he reached the bag, the Pirates second baseman began waving his cap wildly. Between second and third, Mazeroski jumped for joy, spreading out both arms as if doing the breast stroke. As he rounded third, he saw delirious Pittsburgh fans, whose team had not won a championship in 35 years, jump onto the field to greet him, forcing Mazeroski to thread his way to home plate.<\/p>\n
Mazeroski\u2019s hit, off the Yankees\u2019 Ralph Terry, still marks the only time a seven-game Series has been decided by a home run on the final pitch \u2014 a \u201cwalk-off,\u201d in current parlance. ESPN proclaimed it the greatest home run ever.<\/p>\n
What ended a seesaw contest that afternoon became one of baseball\u2019s most reenacted moments, though Carmen Berra, whose husband was the Yankees left fielder that afternoon, always refused to relive it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still can\u2019t watch that replay,\u201d she later told sportswriter Bill Madden for his 2003 book \u201cPride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee.\u201d \u201cThe saddest moment I ever had in baseball was sitting in the stands, seeing Yogi standing there in left field, helpless to do anything but watch that ball go over the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once they got over their shock, the Yankees and their fans felt robbed. The New Yorkers had won their three games by ridiculously lopsided scores \u2014 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 \u2014 while the Pirates had squeaked by in theirs by a grand total of seven runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened to us, for cryin\u2019 out loud?\u201d Roger Maris, the Yankees slugger, asked Berra afterward.<\/p>\n
Berra replied, \u201cWe just got beat, Roger, by the damnedest baseball team that me or you or anybody else ever played against.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Mazeroski was the damnedest sort of hero. Although he hit for more power than many second basemen, what had distinguished his career, and what got him elected to the Hall of Fame in 2001, was his defense.<\/p>\n
During a 17-year career \u2014 spent entirely with the Pirates \u2014 he won eight Gold Gloves and appeared in 10 All-Star games. He still holds the record for most career double plays turned by a second baseman (1,706); most seasons leading the league in double plays (eight) as a second baseman; and most double plays turned by a second baseman in a single season: 161, in 1966.<\/p>\n
A career .260 hitter, Mazeroski hit 138 home runs. But in 1960, he had hit only two at Forbes Field since July, though the second of them had won the opening game of the Series and remained the Pirates\u2019 only home run until the finale.<\/p>\n
The Pirates led that contest, 9-7, after a five-run rally in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted \u2014 at least to Yankees fans \u2014 by a sure double play ball that took a freak bounce and hit Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat.<\/p>\n
After the Yankees tied the score in the top of the ninth, Mazeroski led off the bottom of the inning. The first pitch from Terry, New York\u2019s fifth pitcher that afternoon, was high. But the next pitch was just what Mazeroski had wanted: a fastball, or so it seemed, down the middle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the guy threw me a change-up or a curve, I\u2019d have missed the thing by a mile and turned myself around \u2014 I swung so hard,\u201d he said. Terry, who had warmed up so often that day that he had little left, later insisted that the fateful pitch was a slider, but he didn\u2019t press the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what the pitch was,\u201d he said in the dressing room. \u201cAll I know is it was the wrong one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the crack of Mazeroski\u2019s bat, the problems of the world were forgotten,\u201d reporter Vince Johnson wrote the next day in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. \u201cKhrushchev became a noisy, little bore. Ballistic missiles didn\u2019t have the power of a baseball bat. And the recession took a recess.\u201d<\/p>\n
An estimated 300,000 people soon converged in Pittsburgh\u2019s Golden Triangle. More would have come had the police chief not closed off the major roads leading into the city.<\/p>\n
William Stanley Mazeroski was born Sept. 5, 1936, in Wheeling, West Virginia, and spent his early years in Tiltonsville, Ohio. His mother was Mayme (Ogden) Mazeroski. His father, Lewis, was a miner and a well-known sandlot shortstop in eastern Ohio whose own budding professional baseball career ended after he lost part of his right foot in a mining accident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was old enough to walk, Dad took me in the backyard and taught me baseball,\u201d Mazeroski recalled. \u201cHe wanted to make his dream come true through me. He showed me how to charge a ball. I remember he always taught me how to have \u2018soft hands\u2019 when going after a ball instead of fighting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After starring in baseball and basketball in high school, Mazeroski signed with the Pirates in 1954. He was a shortstop until Branch Rickey, then the Pirates general manager, decreed that his arm was better suited for second. He joined the Pirates in 1956 and made his first All Star team the next year.<\/p>\n
The secret to the double play, Mazeroski once explained, was actually not catching the ball \u2014 which took precious time \u2014 but letting it hit his glove, then grabbing and releasing as it ricocheted out. \u201cThere never was any such thing as a bad hop to Bill Mazeroski,\u201d Dick Groat, his collaborator at shortstop on innumerable double plays, later said.<\/p>\n
Mazeroski retired from playing in 1972 and briefly worked as a coach for the Pirates and the Seattle Mariners. In 1987, the Pirates retired his number, 9. Bothered by his comparatively minor offensive output, baseball writers passed him over for the Hall of Fame 15 times.<\/p>\n
Only in 2001, and only after six more tries, did a veterans committee \u2014 headed by Mazeroski\u2019s former general manager \u2014 elect him. The decision left some stars, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox among them, grumbling.<\/p>\n
Breaking down barely two minutes into his prepared remarks at his induction ceremony, Mazeroski set another major league record: for the shortest speech ever at Cooperstown. \u201cDefense belongs in the Hall of Fame \u2014 as much as pitching and hitting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His wife of 66 years, Milene (Nicholson) Mazeroski, died in 2024. Survivors include two sons, Darren and David, and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n
As oft-reported, a 14-year-old schoolboy named Andy Jerpe, who had left the game early to help his mother prepare dinner but had lingered outside the fence, retrieved Mazeroski\u2019s home run ball. When he presented it to Mazeroski in the dressing room, the Pirates second baseman signed it, then gave it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou keep it, son,\u201d he told him. \u201cThe memory is good enough for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
One sunny day the following spring, the boy lost the ball in the weeds during a pickup game. Estimates are it would have fetched up to $1 million today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Mazeroski, the Pittsburgh Pirates legend, at home in Pittsburgh on June 17, 2008. Mazeroski, who hit the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-487550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}