10 Chicago Tribune|Chicago Sports|Section 3|Monday, February 24, 2020
eNEWSPAPER BONUS COVERAGE
BRADENTON, Fla. — Bill Mazeroski pressed his right fingertips
against the palm of his glove hand, demonstrating the double-play pivot
that he made so famous.
The Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer shared the secret of the
sleight-of-hand trick that allowed him to turn two faster than anyone
who ever played second base in baseball history.
“I didn’t catch the ball,” he said. “It’s just the ricochet.”
Before you could blink Maz, even at 83 years of age, slipped his right
hand under his imaginary glove and swung his right arm into a cocked
position, ready for the throw to first.
“It’s quicker,” he said, “than anybody else ever did it.”
Best remembered for his heroics in Game 7 the 1960 World Series,
when he hit a walk-off home run over the left-field wall at Forbes Field
to beat the New York Yankees, Maz is as revered in baseball for his glove
at second base.
“It’s weird,” Maz said. “I’m known for the home run and I’m in the
Hall of Fame because of my defense.”That’s why Derek Shelton per-
sonally called this winter to ask
Maz to work as a special instruc-
tor at spring training, and why the
new Pirates manager called it
“unbelievable” that his invitation
was accepted after Maz arrived
Friday at Pirate City.
Obviously, everyone knows
about the home run in Game 7 that
gives you goosebumps even think-
ing about it,” Shelton said, “but
one of the things that stood out to
me was something that I read, that
he’s considered by many people to
be the greatest defender at second
base of all time — and not only the
greatest defender at second base
but maybe the greatest defender
of any defensive position.
“When you talk about that and
how it transcends into today’s
game — and that’s with guys using
advanced analytics to look at it —
anytime you can have an alumni
guy in camp, it’s special. But when
you have a Hall of Famer who’s hit
a home run in Game 7 of the
World Series and also is one of the
greatest defenders of all time? If
he rubs off on anybody in our
camp, we’re very fortunate.”
The Pirates have to hope that
their celebration of the 60th
anniversary of their 1960 “Beat em
Bucs” team rubs off better on
these players than the 40th anni-
versary of the ’79 “We Are Family”
team did last summer.
Mazeroski is the youngest of
the last nine living members from
the ’60 World Series champions.
That’s a good number, I told him,
knowing that his No. 9 is retired by
the Pirates.
Enough to make a team, he
quipped.
But it’s a number that seems to
dwindle with every year. ThePirates lost pitchers Bob Friend
and Joe Gibbon in February 2019
and catcher Hal Smith — whose
three-run homer in the bottom of
the eighth gave the Pirates a 9-7
lead before the Yankees rallied to
tie it in the top of the ninth — just
last month.
The team has a reunion every
five years, with the next scheduled
for June 16 at PNC Park. It’s fitting
that the Pirates are playing the
Yankees, even more so that they
will honor Maz with a Gold Glove
bobblehead as part of the 1960
World Series celebration.
“Ooh, that’s right,” Maz said. “I
go to the ballpark again.”
That’s a trip he usually makes
only once a year, which is more
often than he visits the brick wall
with the painted “457 FT” that
still stands from Forbes Field on
Roberto Clemente Drive.
Baseball fans known as the
Game 7 Gang gather there every
October 13th to listen to the radio
broadcast.
Every time, it ends with Maz’s
homer. It has given Maz a measure
of both fame and immortality. One
of the best stories Maz has told is
how it helped cure a degenerate
gambler who bet everything he
owned on the Yankees. The guy
quit cold turkey.
“You hear some funny stories,
some weird stories,” Mazeroski
said. “They’re all interesting. I just
can’t remember them all.”
But he’s never forgotten how to
turn two.
Maz claims his 161 double plays
in 1966 is a major-league single-
season record that will never be
broken. It’s something Maz shares
with Pirates infielders, both a joy
and point of pride that he calls his
“special reason” for coming tospring training.
“I always show them the same
way I did it,” Maz said. “They canadjust to do the things that they
can do. I show them the quick
ways I did it. They can do most of
that but they don’t get the hands as
quick or feet as quick moving as
they should. Some of them always
left some little part of it out.”
Maz isn’t shy about saying that
he benefited from a bygone era,
before slow-motion instant replay
could catch his cheating. (His
word, not mine). Maz even dem-
onstrated how his pivot foot never
touched the bag, just gave the
appearance of grazing it.
“I cheated just about every
double play I made, about that
much off the bag,” Maz said,
holding his hands several inches
apart. “That’s the God’s honest
truth, too. You couldn’t see it with
plain eyes. With slow motion, they
slowed it down. I was about right
there” — a half-step from an
imaginary base — “and gone.
“It has to be quick. I was never
on the bag when I made a double
play. It’s just so quick that this hadto be out of the way first when I
caught the ball.”
This is where Maz corrected
himself. He never actually caught
the ball, just relayed the ricochet
into his right hand. And he
estimates that he didn’t drop but
maybe five in his career.
“It wasn’t too quick,“ he said,
“but it was quick.”
The Pirates want that quick
turn to rub off on second baseman
Adam Frazier — and anyone else
who can pick up on Maz’s incom-
parable ability to turn two — as
Shelton attempts to instill a win-
ning mentality into a franchise
four decades removed from its last
World Series championship.
It only makes sense to start with
Maz, who made playing second
base look as magical as hitting a
World Series-winning home run.
If he had to choose between them?
With a sly smile, Maz answered
quicker than anybody else ever
did it.
“I’ll take the home run.”New Pirates manager Derek Shelton talks to players Feb. 17 in Bradenton, Fla. Shelton invited Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski, below, to spring training to serve as a special instructor.FRANK FRANKLIN II/APShelton hopes Mazeroski’s
magic rubs off on Pirates
By Kevin Gorman |The Pittsburgh Tribune-ReviewMazeroski is mobbed by his Pirates teammates as he nears home after hitting the World Series-clinching
home run against the Yankees in 1960. Mazeroski made it to the Hall of Fame due to his defense at second.HARRY HARRIS/APMazeroski throws out a first pitch
against the Yankees in 2008.GENE J. PUSKAR/AP