Spring is moving along fast as nice weather has prevailed more often than not. It’s just a shame that there has not been a spring sports season to cap off another school year. It remains questionable whether or not summer activities will happen.
Worse yet — there might not be any activities involving people being close together for the entire 2020-2021 school year. That seems like a scenario nobody wants to see, but it could become reality.
In the meantime, lots of sports reporters and broadcasters are reflecting back on past events, revisiting some of the historic events of days gone by. I enjoy doing that myself and have been researching the high school state track and field meets from years past. I have learned a lot of interesting facts, some of which I remember.
This week marks the sixth feature in a series of articles for the four weekly papers of Johnson Publishing, which has taken the boys all the way from 1923 to 1984. The girls didn’t have a state track meet until 1972 and no area girl placed in the one-class event (‘72-75) until there were two classes in 1976. This week’s article follows up last week’s and the girls are also through 1984.
A couple of weeks ago (April 22) I had a few trivia questions in Bleacher Views about the 1960 World Series.Here are the answers to those questions.
Hal Smith was a catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was a right-handed hitter who alternated with left-handed hitting Smoky Burgess. In Game 7, Smith entered in the seventh inning when Burgess was lifted for a pinch runner. Smith came through big-time in the bottom of the eighth when he blasted a three-run homer deep over the left-field wall at Forbes Field, putting the Pirates ahead 9-7.
Smith’s time as the game hero was short-lived because the Yankees scored twice in the top of the ninth and it was Bill Mazeroski’s leadoff home run in the bottom of the inning that became the heroic blast which is most remembered, giving Pittsburgh its historic 10-9 win and the 1960 World Series Championship.
As a fourth-grader that October day, I remember well hearing about Mazeroski’s game-winner. But without Smith’s clutch home run the previous inning, the Yankees might have won the game 9-7?
Yankee leadoff hitter Bobby Richardson, who manned second base, was selected as the MVP of that ‘60 Series. Richardson had three hits and scored three runs in New Yorks’ 16-3 victory in Game 2. He played brilliantly in the field through all seven games and also shined at the plate, hitting .367 with a total of 12 RBI.
Richardson cracked a grand slam, along with a two-run single in Game 3, driving in six runs (at the time a series one-game record). He probably put a lock on the MVP award when he hit two triples and drove in three more runs in Game 6, helping the Yankees force a Game 7.
Richardson remains the only player not from the winning team to be honored as the World Series MVP.
So, while Richardson was a deserving MVP, the other second baseman — Mazeroski — remains the hero. But I think that Hal Smith may have been the true hero?
As was mentioned in the April 22 Bleacher Views, not a single batter on either team struck out in that whole high-scoring (19 runs) and exciting (several lead changes) Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, a fascinating statistic.
I will finish with a few more questions:
What was the real first name of Smoky Burgess? Who was the Yankee left fielder that watched both Smith’s and Mazeroski’s home runs sail over the wall? How many games did the Washington Senators win in that 1960 season? And finally, an easy question, where did those Senators relocate to for the 1961 season?
