Reply #12: Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me [View All]

[Tansy_Gold]

And a Happy 50th Anniversary to Bill Mazeroski and the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates.




In Bing Crosby’s Wine Cellar, Vintage Baseball

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/sports/baseball/24crosby.html


How a near pristine black-and-white reel of the entire television broadcast of the deciding game of the 1960 World Series — long believed to be lost forever — came to rest in the dry and cool wine cellar of Bing Crosby’s home near San Francisco is not a mystery to those who knew him.

<snip>

The five-reel set, found in December in Crosby’s home, is the only known complete copy of the game, in which Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a game-ending home run to beat the Yankees, 10-9. It is considered one of the greatest games ever played.

<snip>

Three years ago, Major League Baseball acquired the rights to Yankees pitcher Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series — leaving the finale of the 1960 World Series high on its wish list. The hunt for old games — this one unseen on TV since its original broadcast — is constant, subject to serendipity and often futile. Great games like Game 7 in 1960 are often recalled with just a few newsreel clips.

<snip>

“How about that?” {Yankee's announcer Mel) Allen said after Mantle’s play. But just minutes later, Mazeroski stepped to the plate. NBC’s sound was good enough to hear a fan shout, “Just get on, Billy, get on!” Mazeroski did more than that. After his home run, fans poured onto the field and danced on the Pittsburgh dugout.

<end snip>


It was my 12th birthday. I was at my grandparents' house in Des Plaines, Illinois, while my mother was at a doctor's appointment; my brother was born 11 days later. IIRC, it was a cool, kinda rainy day. And I hated the Yankees then just as much as I do now.


Tansy Gold, baseball fan