“Pirates heroes dust off reel classic Game 7 of the 1960 Series - USA Today” |
| Pirates heroes dust off reel classic Game 7 of the 1960 Series - USA Today Posted: 15 Nov 2010 03:44 PM PST By Mike Dodd, USA TODAY The same could be said for the audience of 1,300 that packed the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh on Saturday for the first screening of the long-lost telecast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series. Eight members of the Pirates' championship team and Richardson attended the premiere that was 50 years in the making. Ever since the existence of the television broadcast of Don Larsen's perfect game was revealed four years ago, the Holy Grail for baseball TV archivists was the game won by Bucs second baseman Bill Mazeroski with the only Game 7 walk-off homer in Series history. Discovered last December in the wine cellar of the late singer Bing Crosby, the telecast lives up to its reputation. It was not just a classic finish; it was a remarkable game with multiple lead changes, turning points and grist for second guessers. MLB Network staged last weekend's event, bringing together the players to tape interviews with Bob Costas that will complement the telecast when the game is first aired Dec. 15. (Mazeroski was forced to miss the screening because he was hospitalized with kidney stones). "It was one of the greatest games ever played here," said Pittsburgh reliever Elroy Face, of the city's continuing connection with that Pirates team. Smith, who will turn 80 next month, said his sons had to convince him to come up from his home in Columbus, Texas, for the screening. When his eighth-inning, three-run home run that gave the Pirates a 9-7 lead was shown, the audience erupted in a standing ovation. Smith's old teammates, seated with him in the front row of the theater, nudged him to stand up and take a curtain call — which wasn't in vogue in 1960. The comments of game announcer Mel Allen, who shared play-by-play duties with Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince, brought a chuckle from the crowd. Allen called the Smith homer "one of the most dramatic base hits in the history of the World Series. … That base hit will long be remembered." It soon became one of the more overlooked heroics in Series history, as the Yankees tied the game in the ninth to set the stage for Mazeroski's game-winning shot off New York reliever Ralph Terry. Sitting on stage, Richardson looked as if seeing the Pirates' five-run eighth inning re-opened an old wound and acknowledged afterwards it was difficult to watch. "You can see some things that could have turned it around," he said. The eighth was the inning in which Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek was felled by a bad-hop grounder on a double-play ball and pitcher Jim Coates failed to cover first base on a slow roller to the right side of the infield. "I always remember that Kubek play the most," said actor Michael Keaton, 59, a Pittsburgh-area native who flew in from California for the premiere. "I was with Jack Nicholson about two weeks ago. I hadn't seen him in five years and said, 'I'm going back to Pittsburgh to watch this game.' He grabs his head and says, 'Oh, Tony Kubek got hit in the throat.' That's the first thing he remembered." The telecast provides ample ammunition for second-guessers of Casey Stengel, in what proved to be his last game as Yankees manager. Yankees fans have long lamented Stengel's pitching rotation for the Series — not starting ace Whitey Ford until Game 3 and thus making him unavailable to start Game 7. Ford, who threw shutouts in Games 3 and 6, warmed up in the bullpen but wasn't brought in even though he said later he could have pitched to a couple of batters. The film also reinforces Terry's comments that he left his game in the bullpen after warming up about five times. It shows him up in the pen as early as the second inning and every inning from the sixth on. And Stengel didn't pinch-hit for tiring pitcher Bobby Shantz in the eighth with two outs Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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