Comments And Thoughts On Game 7 Of The 1960 World Series

In continuing with part 3 of comments and thoughts about the classic 7th game of the 1960 World Series, I will “let” the Baseball Almanac give details of the middle part of the game.

The vaunted New York Yankees fought back and took a (7-4) lead to the bottom of the eighth inning. The “Almanac” erroneously reported the score as (7-5) and also the Yankees did not follow “suite” but suit. Their account follows below.

Vern Law and the rest of the Pirates showed why they were still there by rolling over New York to take an early 4-0 lead. However, the Yankees came back with key performances at the plate by Bill Skowron, Mantle and Yogi Berra who shot to a 5-4 lead going into the eighth inning. They continued to lead 7-5 and looked to be in great shape as reliever Bobby Shantz appeared at the top of his game. Fortunately for the Pirates, appearances can sometimes be deceiving.

Gino Cimoli led off the Pittsburgh eighth with a pinch-single and Bill Virdon hit a sharp grounder toward Yankees’ shortstop, Tony Kubek. After the speeding ball took a bad hop and struck Kubek in the throat (resulting in a single), Joe DeMaestri was summoned to replace him as both Pirates remained on base. Dick Groat followed with another single cutting the lead to 7-5 and Roberto Clemente kept the rally going with an infield hit that scored Virdon and advanced Groat to third. Now trailing 7-6,

Click below to view the Baseball Almanac account of the 1960 World Series with their mistakes.

1960 World Series by Baseball Almanac