Spanning a century and a half of our national pastime, there's never been a bigger home run than the one off the bat of William Stanley Mazeroski,now lost to us at age 89, at exactly 3:36 p.m. on the 13th of October, 1960.
That didn't happen to Maz. He made it happen.
As he'd recounted countless times, he'd known Ralph Terry was coming upstairs with the heat. He just had to wait for the one he wanted. And once he got it ...
... he really got it.
So no, it didn't just happen. Never forget that. He wasn't just a glove guy who ran into one. He was, in that sequence on that afternoon at Forbes Field, a giant on the game's greatest stage, slaying the mighty Yankees with an even mightier swing.
But if it was ever going to happen to someone, it couldn't have been to a kinder, gentler, humbler soul than that of Maz. And that it was him, of all people, somehow, some way almost made it seem even more beautiful. As if it were sending all of us some message that even a coal miner's kid from a single-room house in Little Rush Run, Ohio, could climb to the top of the world ... and yet never have it change him in the slightest.
Imagine that. No, really, stop and at least try to imagine that.
Could anyone else, given such a colossal circumstance, have done that?
On a personal level, I'll treasure forever the times I'd spend with Maz, Bill Virdon, Kent Tekulve and other old champions on the Pirate City campus. They'd almost always be puffing stogies, seated on inverted ball buckets, swapping stories and ... I still can't believe they'd welcome me into that, but they'd actually welcome anyone.
Also today, I'm thinking of Darren Mazeroski, the son and a longtime scout with the Pirates, and another from the family I've been blessed to know. Deepest condolences to everyone.
It'll be small consolation now, but Maz made it to 89, a life that was long and well-lived, most of it blissfully alongside his beloved Milene. And on top of that, he and what he achieved, as well as the mark he made on so many ... will last forever.
By all means, please feel free to use the commenting thread here to share your own memories. This one hits us all.
THE ASYLUM
Remembering the humblest of us
Spanning a century and a half of our national pastime, there's never been a bigger home run than the one off the bat of William Stanley Mazeroski, now lost to us at age 89, at exactly 3:36 p.m. on the 13th of October, 1960.
That didn't happen to Maz. He made it happen.
As he'd recounted countless times, he'd known Ralph Terry was coming upstairs with the heat. He just had to wait for the one he wanted. And once he got it ...
... he really got it.
So no, it didn't just happen. Never forget that. He wasn't just a glove guy who ran into one. He was, in that sequence on that afternoon at Forbes Field, a giant on the game's greatest stage, slaying the mighty Yankees with an even mightier swing.
But if it was ever going to happen to someone, it couldn't have been to a kinder, gentler, humbler soul than that of Maz. And that it was him, of all people, somehow, some way almost made it seem even more beautiful. As if it were sending all of us some message that even a coal miner's kid from a single-room house in Little Rush Run, Ohio, could climb to the top of the world ... and yet never have it change him in the slightest.
Imagine that. No, really, stop and at least try to imagine that.
Could anyone else, given such a colossal circumstance, have done that?
On a personal level, I'll treasure forever the times I'd spend with Maz, Bill Virdon, Kent Tekulve and other old champions on the Pirate City campus. They'd almost always be puffing stogies, seated on inverted ball buckets, swapping stories and ... I still can't believe they'd welcome me into that, but they'd actually welcome anyone.
Also today, I'm thinking of Darren Mazeroski, the son and a longtime scout with the Pirates, and another from the family I've been blessed to know. Deepest condolences to everyone.
It'll be small consolation now, but Maz made it to 89, a life that was long and well-lived, most of it blissfully alongside his beloved Milene. And on top of that, he and what he achieved, as well as the mark he made on so many ... will last forever.
By all means, please feel free to use the commenting thread here to share your own memories. This one hits us all.
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