Thursday, October 03, 2002

IMAGE OF THE WEEK





Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski, approaching home plate, after hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, giving the Pirates the championship over the New York Yankees.

Bill Mazeroski is considered by many to be the greatest defensive second baseman of all time, but his single greatest play was at the plate when he became the only player to ever end a World Series by hitting a home run. (He was eventually joined in this club by Joe Carter, who ended the 1992 World Series by hitting a three-run shot for the Blue Jays.) Mazeroski's homer is one of baseball's greatest moments, and is probably the greatest moment in the history of the Pirates franchise.

(An interesting bit of trivia is that Mazeroski's shot made Harvey Haddix the winning pitcher of that World Series game. Haddix is known in baseball lore for a game he lost: a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Milwaukee Braves, that one run coming in the 13th inning -- after Haddix had pitched twelve consecutive perfect innings.)

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