12 Reasons To Love The Pittsburg Pirates

12 Reasons To Love The Pittsburg Pirates — page 1 — 1 MAZ’S WALK-OFF WINS WORLD SERIES The 1960 World Series got off to a bad start for the Pittsburgh Pirates They faced the mighty New York Yankees After winning Game 1 the Pirates fell behind in the series The Yankees won Games 2 and 3 Pittsburgh won the next two Then the Yankees won Game 6 And New York won with scores of 16 3 10 0 and 12 0 The National League NL champion Pirates were not out though The World Series came down to a deciding Game 7 More than 36,000 fans showed up at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh They were treated to an exciting game The Pirates went ahead early Then the Yankees charged into the lead Yet Pittsburgh came back again The Pirates took a 9 7 lead into the ninth But New 4 York again knotted it up at 9 9 in the top of the inning Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth Ralph Terry was on the mound for New York Mazeroski took a ball on the first pitch Then he swung for the fences His blast flew over the left-field fence Home run 55 27 Total score in favor of the Yankees in the seven games of the 1960 World Series The Yankees outhit the Pirates 91 60 during the Series Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson was the World Series Most Valuable Player MVP despite being on the losing team

12 Reasons To Love The Pittsburg Pirates — page 2 — Mazeroski’s hit gave the Pirates their first World Series win since 1925 And he became the first player to win the World Series on a walk-off home run Fans rush the field to celebrate with Bill Mazeroski as he approaches home plate to win the 1960 World Series 5

12 Reasons To Love The Pittsburg Pirates — page 3 — 2 POPS LEADS THE FAMILY Willie Stargell was a natural leader Pirates players looked to him for guidance and advice That’s why everyone called him Pops He was quite the player too The left fielder turned first baseman debuted with the Pirates in 1962 He quickly became one of baseball’s best power hitters Stargell was an All-Star by 1964 Over the years he was regularly in the mix for the NL MVP Award winning once He eventually made the Baseball Hall of Fame What fans remember most though is the winning The 1970s were a good time for the Pirates With Stargell leading the way they won World Series titles in 1971 and 1979 Stargell hit 296 home runs in the decade And he led the NL in home runs in 1971 and 1973 That 1979 season was a memorable one A disco song called We Are Family was popular at the time The Pirates adopted the song title as their theme that season Willie Stargell in 1969 6

12 Reasons To Love The Pittsburg Pirates — page 4 — Willie Stargell hits a two-run homer in the 1979 World Series After all they were a close bunch like family And Pops of course was like the father He led his teammates on and off the field That season he was named MVP of the NL the NL Championship Series NLCS and the World Series The Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles in that year’s Fall Classic 475 Home runs Willie Stargell hit during his career Forbes Field where the Pirates played until 1970 was a hard ballpark in which to hit home runs Stargell played all 21 of his seasons with the Pirates finally retiring in 1982 Stargell shared his 1979 NL MVP Award with St Louis Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez THINK ABOUT IT Willie Stargell was known for his great leadership Why are leaders important on a baseball team List three ways in which a good leader can help his team 7

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