Now that baseball has returned, Joe Posnanski willcount downhis top 10 moments in baseball history across the 10 weeks of the scheduled regular season — think of it as a companion piece toThe Baseball 100— with a series of essays on the most memorable, remarkable and joyous scenes of the game. This project will not contain more words than “Moby Dick,” but we hope you enjoy it.
A Game 7 home run to remember
Oct. 13, 1960
Let us, for a moment, pay the proper tribute to Hal Smith. He died earlier this year in Columbus, Texas, at the age of 89, and yes, you might have missed the news. Hal Smith never did catch a break. Even now, if you type “Hal Smith” into Google, it will point you to the actor who played Otis, the town drunk in “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Advertisem*nt
On Wikipedia, Hal Smith isn’t even the first baseball Hal Smith listed. He’s behind Hal Smith, who pitched briefly for the Pirates in the early 1930s, and in front of another catcher Hal Smith, who made three All-Star games for the Cardinals in the 1950s.
That’s right: Our hero Hal Smith wasn’t even the most famous catcher named Hal Smith in his own time.
It didn’t have to hit that way. Smith grew up in Detroit and was signed with the New York Yankees when he was 18 years old. From the start, he could really hit — he hit .363 in Class-D Newark at age 19 and looked to be one of the best prospects in baseball. The legendary Yankees catcher Bill Dickey tutored Smith on the fine art of catching, and in 1953, he hit .311 in Double-A Birmingham and the Yankees were duly impressed. Yankees manager Casey Stengel seemed ready to give him a big-league shot, but at that moment he caught mono and was hospitalized. He was sent to Columbus, where he led the league by hitting .350.
There seemed no doubt he was ready to become a big-league catcher.
But the Yankees already had a big-league catcher, a pretty good one named Yogi Berra. So they dumped him on the Orioles in a 17-player deal — yeah, 17 players in one deal — that brought back a talented but somewhat flaky pitcher named Don Larsen.
Smith wasn’t bad for Baltimore, hitting .271 in full-time duty, but the Orioles were not too happy with his defense so they quickly traded him to Kansas City. He hit .303 with some extra-base power for the lamentable A’s in 1957, but nobody really paid attention, and in 1960 Kansas City traded him to Pittsburgh for a pitcher named Dick Hall.
Some players just never get a break. Smith settled in as a backup catcher to Smoky Burgess in Pittsburgh. He continued to hit — in 1960, he hit .295/.351/.508 in 77 games. You might know: That turned out to be a really good Pirates team. Pittsburgh had been a laughingstock for so long that most people didn’t really notice it getting better in the late 1950s.
Advertisem*nt
The star was an ascendant Roberto Clemente, sure, but that 1960 team has good players all over the field. They turned more double plays than any team in the league with Bill Mazeroski at second base and Dick Groat at short. The rotation was basically two guys — Bob Friend and Vern Law — with Roy Face dominating out of the bullpen. And they led the National League in runs with Don Hoak and Bob Skinner and Dick Stuart all playing key roles.
The Pirates won 95 games and took the National League pennant. They were given no chance whatsoever against the Yankees, which was exactly right — the Yankees were a much better team. After the Pirates took Game 1 of the World Series, the Yankees won the next two games 16-3 and 10-0.
But those Pirates were plucky and lucky. Law and Face held the Yankees to just two runs in Game 4 and the Pirates somehow managed to score three (the big hit was actually Law’s RBI double — he was a good-hitting pitcher). Then in Game 5, Harvey Haddix and Face held the Yankees to two runs again, and again the Pirates found a way to win thanks in part to some sloppy New York defense.
In Game 6, the Yankees won 12-0.
And that led to Game 7. The combined score for the Yankees’ three wins was 38-3, but it was the Pirates who took a 4-0 lead in Game 7 thanks to a Rocky Nelson homer and two-run double from Bill Virdon. This time, though, the Yankees teed off on Law and Face. Moose Skowron homered. Berra homered. And in the eighth, the Yankees scored two more to make the score 7-4 going into the bottom of the eighth.
Which brings us to Hal Smith.
He didn’t start Game 7. He was, after all, the Pirates’ backup catcher. But in the inning before, starting catcher Smoky Burgess was lifted for a pinch-runner, so Smith was in the game. The Pirates began a slow, methodical rally against the Yankees bullpen. Gino Cimoli singled off Bobby Shantz. So did Virdon. Groat grounded a ball between short and third, scoring a run. Stengel pulled Shantz and brought in Jim Coates who got the next two outs. The Yankees still led by two.
Advertisem*nt
But then Clemente chopped an infield single that scored another run and made the score 7-6. And up came Hal Smith, two runners on. Coates and Smith battled until the count was 2-2.
And then Hal Smith smashed a ball over the left-field wall for a three-run home run that sent the Pittsburgh crowd into another dimension of joy. His teammates mobbed him as he got to home plate. It should be one of the most famous home runs in baseball history. As Smith rounded the bases, he couldn’t help himself from smiling — this is the dream, isn’t it? This is the hopeful music that kids across America (particularly in that time) heard as they drifted off to sleep …
“Hal Smith hits a drive to deep left field! That ball is way back there, going, going, gone! And pandemonium breaks loose at Forbes Field! The fans go wild in Pittsburgh as Hal Smith slams a long drive 425 feet over the left-field wall … to give the Pirates the lead against the New York Yankees in Game 7 of the World Series!”
Yes, Hal Smith should be a household baseball name.
And yet, I imagine there’s a decent chance you have never heard of Hal Smith or this home run. And there’s a reason for that — he never could get a break.
The Yankees tied the game in the ninth inning. Mickey Mantle hit an RBI single. Berra drove in another run with a groundout. The game went to the bottom of the ninth inning tied 9-9, and Ralph Terry had come in to pitch for New York. You’ve probably heard of Ralph Terry. The first Pirate to bat in the bottom of the ninth was Bill Mazeroski. You’ve probably heard of Bill Mazeroski.
Yes, it’s true, it is really the Bill Mazeroski home run that ranks as the eighth greatest moment in baseball history. If you are a fan of baseball history, you can see it in your mind anytime you like. It was 3:36 p.m., and Mazeroski turned on the pitch and hit it high and deep to left field.
Advertisem*nt
Berra (the very man who had kept Smith from getting a shot with the Yankees) went back to the wall and then stepped away from the wall in the hope that he might be able to get the ball on a ricochet. But the ball went high over the fence.
And then Maz raced around the bases, took off his cap, waved it around, as fans poured on the field. And at home plate, he wasn’t just mobbed by teammates. He was mobbed by all of Pittsburgh. He was one of the greatest — perhaps even the greatest — defensive second basem*n in baseball history, but it’s that home run that everyone remembers, that home run that helped get him into the Baseball Hall of Fame, that home run that pops into the imagination when you see the name “Mazeroski.”
In the next morning’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the front-page story read like so:
“Bill Mazeroski sailed a homer out of Forbes Field on the second pitch in the ninth inning and the Pirates were champions of the world of baseball.”
And Hal Smith was in the second paragraph … again and forever.
Follow the rest of the 60 Moments serieson our topic page
(Photo: Bettmann)
