1960 World Series

“I think it was just sheer guts against power, and the guts came through.”

“It's a dilly, all right. The ball really spins around that curve, like a pill on a roulette wheel. You can't charge 'em, or they'll get past you for a home run.”

“Sure, I expect trouble. Look at that sun. How can I say I don't expect trouble? I'll tell you one thing, though. It might be an experience. I know there's a good chance I'll be lousy, but the funny thing is, I'm looking forward to it.”

“Can't beat the Bucs, can you? No sir, can't beat the bad Buccos, I'll tell you that. That's for sure. Yessir! Yessir! We got 'em, we got 'em. They broke all the records, but we won the game. How about that? Can't beat that.”

“They've been knocking me down all season in the National League and I've still gotten my share of base hits.”

“I heard him yelling too and reached up to catch it when he bumped into me. He cut my foot a little, but I told him you can cut me like that all the time if you catch the ball.”

“With lineup they have, they should have won pennant in August.”

“He pitches with his head, too. He mixes up his stuff—two speeds of curve ball, a slider and then whoosh, the fast ball. He's tough.”

“We no good when first come home off road. All time during regular season we lose first game after come back to Forbes Field. Same thing happen now. But we get hot in second game now we back—just wait and see. We go out with fire.”

“These are the best fans anywhere. They make all of this worthwhile. They are the reason I'm glad we won the World Series. They're the ones who deserve this championship.”

“They had a tunnel back to the clubhouse, and I took off and got into the champagne. I didn't even see him cross home plate.”

“Everybody said the same thing, and Maz would be the first one to admit it. We all said, "Get off the wall! Get off the wall!" Maz was running as hard as he could run to get that extra base.”

“We didn't have time to go to church before the game but Mrs. Law and I prayed in our room. We prayed that no one on either side would get hurt and that everyone would would do as well as they possibly could. We didn't pray for victory because that would be a selfish prayer.”

“Bill Skowron impressed me as the best Yankee hitter in the Series and he hit that home run off me yesterday in the fifth inning on actually a waste pitch. I tried to waste a side-arm fast ball by throwing it a foot outside but it nicked the corner and Skowron hit it into the right-field seats.”

“I had the utmost confidence in the Pirates all the way because I knew we were the better team. I thought the Yankees were playing over their heads. I didn't think they were that good.”

“I was very nervous at the start of the game but after the first out, I was normal again. I was rounding first base when I saw the ball disappear over the scoreboard in the fourth inning and I was as happy as a fellow can get. This was a dream come true.”

“That homer was one I'll always remember. The only one comparable was one off Taylor Phillips of the Cubs. That broke the home run record for a Pittsburgh second baseman. A small thrill compared to today's.”

“You keep it. The memory's good enough for me.”

“When I walked up to the plate, all I thought about was getting on base. But deep in my mind, I just knew we were going to lose. I thought, "Well, you can't feel too bad taking the Yankees into the seventh game of the World Series and losing in extra innings."”

“I was almost at second base when it finally went over. I was running so hard, just trying to make sure I'd get to third. Then it took moment or two to realize what happened. It was gone. You know, all I could think about was, "We beat the Yankeesǃ We beat themǃ We beat the damn Yankeesǃ"”

“It hasn't been said very often, but I think it was one of the greatest games ever played in a World Series, especially a Game 7.”

“Forget about the final score. If that ball had gone through, the score would have been tied, Bob Friend would have stayed in, and it would have been a different ball game. The Yankees wouldn't have scored any sixteen runs off of Bob, you can bet on that. I thought he was pretty sharp, as far as he went.”

“I've seen every ball that has been hit over the center-field wall in Forbes Field. Mickey's, I'd have to say, was the most convincing.”

“So far as I know they haven't changed the World Series rules. This thing still goes to the team that wins four games and not to the club that makes the most records.”

“They won the laughers. The easy games went to the Yankees. But when it came down to the clutch you know who was there. This was our kind of game. It was the first time in the Series we had a chance to show them our finishing kick. That's the way we won it all year and today we put it on again.”

“I got my share of homers this year and I can tell you that no one ever gets any cheap ones here. Sure, I know Mantle led the American League in homers, but we got a couple of guys besides myself who can hit home runs, too. Clemente can hit a ball as far as anyone. He leans toward left field and hits to right. And what about Hoak, Skinner and Burgess? The ball jumps off their bats also.”

“Why did you come in here if you didn't expect to get wet?”

“I was gonna hit one. Can I help it if Maz got cute?”

“I heard Clemente yell something like "Got it" but I wasn't sure. I felt as I went back that it was a tough one but that I had a chance. I caught it up here (over his shoulder) and stepped on Roberto's heel as I bumped him into the wall.”

“I don't know about everyone else, but I'd certainly agree [with Tony Kubek]. I'm not sure if we belonged on the same field with those fellas. But something special was happening all year for us, and it happened again in the World Series.”

“I gotta shake hands with himǃ That's one guy I know I'm better lookin' than.”

“Worst park in baseball for a batter. I warned the Pirates and they wouldn't believe me but I'll bet they do now. It gets worse late in a game and if a pitcher gets an early lead, he's in clover. Why, I could pitch the last three innings there and get the side out. But this place is a hitter's paradise. Great background, no shadows, no haze coming in from the stands. A hitter's paradise, like I told you. Man, do we love to hit here.”

“I dunno. This game is getting funnier and funnier. We do everything but punch 'em in the nose and here we are all tied up in the Series. We flatten 'em by scores of 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0 and we still need one more to win. How do you figure that? Don't write this, but even if they beat us tomorrow, we're the better club.”

“We just got beat, Roger—by the damndest baseball team that me or you or anybody else ever played against.”

“We didn't win, anyway, did we? I hit a slider, I think it was, and then I worried all the way to first base if it would stay fair.”

“He pitched a hell of a ball game. Tremendous. He's out of the inning if the ball doesn't take that bad hop. That's the play. And if he's out there, he gets that ball that Clemente hit.”

“I don't know what to think, what to say. I'm still flabbergasted. Maybe I'm not the best hitter in the world, but I didn't think I was that bad. When Casey called me back, I thought it was to tell me something, maybe to ask me to try to hit to right or to give me a hint on what kind of pitcher Vernon Law is. But he never said another word to me. All he did was to tell Dale Long to grab a bat. I just don’t know and I just can’t figure it out.”

“When he called me back, I wanted to die. I was ready to crawl all the way home. At first I thought he wanted to tell me to pop it to right or how many pitches to take, but when I saw Dale...I never felt so bad in my life.”

“Not only did that ball take a bad hop, but I was in the right position only because Casey moved me back two steps just one pitch before. If I had been up two steps, I wouldn't have got it, and the Pirates would have either scored or had the bases loaded with nobody out. I didn't allow enough for that fast infield. It's a good thing he moved me. You can't tell what would have happened then. It might have been a different ball game.”

“Casey, I'll tell you; he always bragged about me at third base. We had that little spat there in the 1960 World Series when he took me out for a pinch hitter in the second inning of the first game, but with Casey it was nothing personal. It was like whipping one of your kids. The next day you still love him.”

“I made only seventeen pitches and I felt fine. I wanted them to hit grounders. They did, but don't tell me they're that good that they can hit them where nobody is all the time. I'm ready to pitch again tomorrow, but I guess Casey has a different idea.”

“If they hit in the holes, there's nothing you can do about it. The guy that hit the ball the hardest was the only out I got. Skinner swung and missed on two low pitches and he just chopped at the one he hit. It came off the infield like a shot.”

“This is the most disappointing defeat we ever had. Look at Stengel over there. Imagine how bad he feels. Look at him talking and holding back the tears.”

“He stayed so far away from the plate. I have a little sinking fastball that would go away from him. I thought I could throw it on the outside corner and he wouldn’t be able to reach it, but he knew exactly what he was doing up there. He would just move in toward the plate as you were releasing the ball – he could reach over and hit it to right field with almost as much power as to left field.”

“Whitey Ford, who pitched against him twice in that Series, recalls that Roberto Clemente actually made himself look bad on an outside pitch to encourage Whitey to come in with it again. "I did," recalls Whitey, "and he unloaded."”

“Only time I was ever mad at Casey in my life. I couldn't figure it out. Sure, I missed some time during the season with a sore arm, but I had gotten back for a few games and I was all right. I was used to pitching every fifth day, but I could have pitched the first, fourth and seventh games in the Series. It wasn't as if Forbes Field had a short left field like Fenway Park or Ebbets Field.”

“I'm going to invest most of it in stocks and bonds. I'll take the rest and take my wife on a Caribbean vacation.”

“Mayo Smith had scouted the Pirates, and warned us about Groat. So if Virdon got on, Bobby Richardson and I were not supposed to cover the base, but were supposed to hold our positions.”

“It was a terrible infield. It was like the beach at Normandy, half sand, half pebbles, and they never dragged it.”

“We were so much the better team than they were. Anyone who doubts who was the best team doesn't know anything about baseball.”

“He told me one time he got up six or seven different times in the bullpen. He was a starting pitcher and didn't know how to warm up so he threw hard every time he did. Jim Turner, our bullpen coach, said Ralph was tired by the time he got into the game.”

“The irony about it is that people compare our '61 team to the '27 Yankees as being the best of all the time. But to tell you the truth, that '60 team was the best I ever played on. I know Pittsburgh won it, but I'd think they'd be the first to say they (beat) the better team.”

“Maybe we lost, but I was on the better team this time.”

“The best team lost. Imagine Hal Smith hitting a homer.”

“That's the way they played all yearǃ I don't care, they still aren't the best club. They all ought to start going to church. That shows you that damned Face can get hit like the rest of them. That————immortal.”

“What go they want? I just gave them a dose of the same sliders and curves they'll see when Haddix gets out here.”

“There is no substitute for experience and stuff, and Ditmar had both. But he didn't have any luck, just like in the game at Forbes Field.”

“I was sure scared after that first strikeout, especially after getting struck out twice in the first game. I thought it would be another of those games where I'd strike out four times. I'm the man to do it. I was talking to myself. [...] They don't mean a thing to me, really. What's the good of homers in the middle of a game when you get 16 runs? I've hit homers in Series games that won them. Then they mean something. Now they don't.”

“Hell, it's true, isn't it? If you don't want to be quoted on that, he can quote me.”

“That's the worst thing about it. We hit so much better, but we lost anyhow. This is a lot better club than they are.”

“But we lost. That's all that counts. I never thought we would. We had it won, too. We got nobody to blame but ourselves. Years from now, all they'll know is that we lost.”

“Well, a lot of stories have been written about that play. Actually, I don't know why I did that. Tony Kubek said it was the dumbest play he ever saw.”

“I have always said this and I never second-guessed Casey in my life, but I believe the whole Series revolved around that decision.”

“The Pirates should never beat our club. I think if we played this team all season we'd beat them real bad. They were real lucky. I think it is impossible to get any more breaks than they had in this Series.”

“That's the luckiest team I ever saw. They hit the two home runs, but those two grounders... one hits Tony in the neck and that miserable one Clemente hit. That Law was throwing 'at 'em' balls. Every line drive we hit, a little man was there to catch it. He better be a minister with all the luck he had.”

“Tony made a perfect throw and I should have had Smoky Burgess out at third. It should have been easy, but in my anxiety to make the tag, I neglected to wait until I had the ball. When I did catch it, I failed to hold it. I have no excuse. It was my error.”

“I guess you'd like me to tell you why I did so well in the World Series. I guess you'd like an explanation. It was the power of prayer. When I stepped into the batter's box in the World Series, thousands of people were praying for me and wishing me well. I like to think this is one of the reasons I do so well in World Series play. I like to think it is the fundamental reason.”

“We gave 'em a little thrill. We hit a home run off each of their best pitchers, and the Pittsburgh club found out we was still around in the ninth inning. We ain't squealin' and cryin'. I thought our infield played as well as theirs, and you'd have to say our hittin' was fairly good out there. In fact we outhit 'em. Now when you come right down to what beat us, I'll say that man [Bill Virdon] made a helluva catch off Yogi Berra. Things would have been a lot different without it.”

“Richardson didn't make the right play, but he got the man, and it did do one thing: showed us that Skinner can run. Where was the man [Clemente] who hit the ball? He's the fastest man, ain't he? Now if that play had decided the game, they'd all be asking why he didn't go to second. And if I was the manager I wouldn't have an answer.”

“Berra could last five more years hitting in this park.”

“Well, tomorrow will be it and you are a very nice gentleman whether you win, lose or draw.”

“I don't know what pitch it was. All I know is, it was the wrong one.”

“It was like a slow-pitch softball game. It all came down to who had the last ups.”

“Everybody remembers I hadn't pitched since the fourth game. But people don't know I warmed up with Bill Stafford in the second, with Shantzie in the third, with Jim Coates in the eighth, before I replaced Coates. After the second warmup, I didn't have anything.”

“I didn't have a thing left and I knew it. It's funny. I even started thinking, "Geez, why didn't Casey start Whitey Ford in Game 1? Then he could be pitching now. But we didn't have anyone. The whole staff was tired.”

“Good thing for the Pirates Kubek's ball hit the bag; otherwise it would have gone for a double and there would have been two runs. That was a slow change-up Maris hit.”

“Ditmar didn't have a thing on the ball, not a thing.”

“Don't put that tag on the poor fellow. He's young and he'll grow out of it.”

“That Coatesǃ How can he give Mazeroski a fastball waist-high with the count, two strikes and no balls?.”

“Wouldn't it be something if the Pirates did to the Yanks what the Yanks did to them in 1927—sweep them in four games?”

“There goes Stengel, putting on his usual show. He'll be out there 100 times this afternoon.”

“This'll probably be Yogi's last year behind the plate..”

“Dale was part of Mr. Rickey's great experiment. Trying to make a catcher, a left-handed catcher at that, out of him. It set him back four years.”

“Groat didn't make up his mind soon enough to try for third.... I'm glad Dick won the batting championship. Not only because he's such a great guy, but because it would have been unfair if Norm Larker had beaten him out. After all, the Dodgers only used Larker against right-handed pitchers.”

“More power to Richardson. Records are made to be broken and I think the little guy is making one helluva showing. But I'm really surprised at the way the Pirates are pitching him. They're keeping the ball up on him and in Chicago we never pitch him high. That homer he hit with the bases full in the third game was on a high fast ball that was in on him. And both those triples he hit yesterday were on high fast balls. We keep the ball down on him and away.”

“The Pirates are a good pressure ball club themselves. All season long they had the ability to come from behind in the late innings and win games. I don't believe it will be any different in the Series.”

“Mickey Mantle led the awesome display of Yankee hitting with two home runs, one into the right field stands and the other over the vined wall in right center. Only three other hitters, all left-handed swatsmiths, ever put a ball out of Forbes Field at that point—Dale Long, Stan Musial and Duke Snider. Mantle, a switch-hitter, is the first to do it right-handed.”

“Dick Groat on third base. Bob Clemente on first base. Two runs in, 7–6 New York. Two balls, two strikes...And Hal Smith hits a drive to deep left field...That ball is way back out there, going, going, gone!”

“There's a drive into deep left field, look out now… that ball is going, going gone! And the World Series is over! Mazeroski… hits it over the left field fence, and the Pirates win it 10–9 and win the World Series!”

“Roberto Clemente says he's tired and is down to 165 from his customary weight of 185.”

“For the second year in a row, the words to the national anthem were fouled up by a professional singer as the Series began. Billy Eckstine changed a word, making it "...bright stripes and bright stars." Last year in Comiskey Park, Nat Cole sang "O'er the land and o'er the sea."”

“Tony Kubek is the Yankees' regular shortstop but he's a better left fielder than either Bob Cerv or Hector Lopez and the word is that Kubek may be playing left field toward the end of any game in which New York has a lead to protect. Stengel used Kubek in left field last Sunday, something he had not done all year.”

“The big guy's been dead a dozen years, but it's funny how his name keeps bobbing up at World Series time. When Mickey hit his home runs it was first "three behind Ruth," then "two behind Ruth." And when Yogi Berra bounced one foul atop the right-field roof the memory was of Ruth smacking one fair in this fashion in his fading days as a National Leaguer.”

“Mantle safe at first base, on one of the weirdest plays, but we'll go back and tell you what happened. Berra ripped a line drive down the first base line. Stuart (or, rather, Nelson), the first baseman, fielded the ball on one hop and tagged up. That made Berra the second out of the inning. Then he tried to tag Mantle, going back to the bag, and he missed him. And while so doing, the tying run scored.”

“"There was some action in the bullpen at the time, and I made that mistake," said broadcaster Thompson, 79, recalling how he started to describe Art Ditmar throwing in the Yankees’ bullpen just as Ralph Terry delivered the final pitch.”

“You know I'm a Pirate fan, Win. That's why I'm betting against them." According to the former professional baseball player turned actor, he has never won a bet. "I figure, therefore, the best thing I can possibly do to help the Bucs is to bet against them.”