RJ Hamster
Saturday, February 21, 2026
| Peter, Q. Who hit the fiftieth home run in modern World Series history? Hint: #1 He played for six different minor league teams, not including semipro leagues, but when he reached the majors, he wore the uniform of that team for the next nineteen years. Hint: #2 He is the first major leaguer to have a season of six hundred at-bats without a single stolen base. In Memoriam question answered Hint: #1 He once said, “Over seventeen years, saving thousands of runs is like driving in thousands of runs.” Hint: #2 He was the first player in his franchise to have a 163-games-played season. Hint: #3 He was not as well-known for his offensive skills, but his first two career home runs were hit while he was still a teenager. Hint: #4 A legendary broadcaster came to refer to him simply as “The Glove”. Hint: #5 His fielding counterpart in the postseason one year beat him out of one prestigious award. Hint: #6 He was succeeded in his position on the team by another Hall of Fame player. Hint: #7 He received high praise for his fielding from the media & a fellow Gold Glove-winning teammate. Hint: #8 Few athletes ever enjoyed a more joyous on-field celebration. A. BILL MAZEROSKI [SABR Bio] – Ans. Maz was involved in 1,706 double plays well ahead of Nellie Fox’s 2nd-place 1,619. – #1 Mazeroski was the premier defensive second baseman of his era. With great hands, quick feet, a sure arm & great range, he turned the double play into an art form. – #2 He played in every game on the Pirates’ 1967 schedule, a record he held alone until Bobby Bonilla tied it in 1989. – #3 Mazeroski’s 20th birthday was 05-Sep-1956. The first 2 of his 138 career home run came on 16-Aug-1956 (off Robin Roberts no less!) & 19-Aug-1956(1). – #4 Ford Frick award-winning, long-time Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince coined the apt nickname. – #5 NYYs’ 2nd baseman Bobby Richardson had 11 hits, 8 runs & 12 RBI in the 1960 WS. He was selected as The Sporting News 1960 World Series MVP, the only player to win that honor playing on a losing WS team. Mazeroski was honored with the Babe Ruth Award. – #6 Mazeroski was the Pirates’ team captain from 1963 until his retirement after the 1972 season. Formidable slugger Willie Stargellwas then named team captain & served in that honored role from 1973 through 1982 – #7 Bill Virdon (1962 GG winner), marveled at Maz, ”Nobody ever played second base like he did, and I’ve been in the game 50 years. The impressive thing about Maz was that he did everything perfectly. I backed him up for 10 years and never got a ball.” Pulitzer Prize-winning sportswriter Jim Murray observed in a 1966 column, “A half-century ago, a second base combination made something like nine double plays in a season and a poet (Franklin P. Adams) immortalized them with a poem,‘Tinker to Evers to Chance… Mazeroski makes 161 and they abbreviate his name in the box score.” – #8 On 13-Oct-1960, at 3:36 PM Eastern Time, Mazeroski hit the only walk-off home run in a World Series Game Seven, when he smacked his epic bottom-of-the-ninth homer to decide the 1960 World Series. The attendance was 36,683, many of whom were at home plate ecstatically awaiting Mazeroski. FCR – John Michael Pierobon, Fort Lauderdale ~ D. Bruce Brown |
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