Saturday, October 2, 2010

A Time When I Was A Pirates Fan

There was a short time that I abandoned Aparicio and the White Sox. That was during the 1960 World Series and for very good reason. I become one of the many fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates who had won the National League pennant and were trying to best the mighty New York Yankees.

This may have been a pre-cursor to my switch to the Cubs in the early 1970’s. Certainly no one with any sense thought that the Pirates could beat the Yankees led by Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford. Anyone who believed in the 1960 Pirates would be qualified to be a die hard Cubs fan.

In the end, the 1960 World Series came down to a deciding 7th game. When Bill Mazeroski came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, the game was tied at 9. With one swing Mazeroski hit a home run to win the game and the series for the Pirates.

I know that I was listening to the broadcast on radio. October 13, 1960 was a Thursday. I was a 7th grader at Elwood Haynes Junior High School in Kokomo, Indiana. My memory of exactly where I was at 3:30 PM that day is a bit fuzzy. I may have been on the school bus coming home from school when Mazeroski hit the home run to end the game.

I have several items pertaining to this game on the walls of my office/hobby room. These items in clued a color copy of the World Series Program, the very familiar photo from behind home plate that captures Mazeroski’s swing that launched the ball to left field and two baseball cards featuring Mazeroski and the home run. These were all posted on October 19, 2009 in this blog. Go to my older posts to check these items out.

I have another photo that I did not put in the earlier post. The photo came from a friend who grew up in the Pittsburgh area. The photo features the entire 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team. Although the photo has a few wrinkles, it makes a great addition to my collection.

I continued to follow the Pirates after 1960 but my favorite team was still the White Sox. That was at least until 1975 when I switched to the Red Sox. But again that is another story for another post.

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