Yankees TidBIts: 1960 World Series - Casey Stengel's last "hurrah"

There are many stories within the Yankees team that made 1960 great ... until the 8th inning of World Series game 7 (a game which should never have had to be played).

But I will concentrate on ole' Casey, as colorful a guy as you would have ever wanted to hear. He spoke in his own form of double talk - even confounded Congress! - but he made himself crystal clear when we wanted to do so. Yogi is sharp and picked up on Casey's "Stengelese" quickly, leading to many of his own malapropisms.

Whitey had been statistically less than himself in 1960, but part of that was because Casey too often held him out an extra day to face tough opponents, thus robbing Whitey of perhaps three more 20 game winning seasons - he was unflappable!

So, with the M&M boys driving in over 200 and the team running on automatic (they actually finished the season on a fifteen game winning streak!), Casey decided to start the series with Art Ditmar 3.06 instead of Whitey Ford 3.08. Ditmar was 15-9 but only 5-7 on the road, where the series would start and end. Whitey was only 12-9 but won his last three starts, giving up 2 runs in each outing, but to be fair to Casey, Whitey was only 5-6 on the road that season. The decision came down to instinct and Casey went with the slight statistical edge, eschewing his magic crystal ball, for a change. {Many years later, Whitey would tell me he never forgave Casey for that, using less formal language.)

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, had been an also ran for years, and perhaps Casey didn't trust the scouts (or he ignored them) because they would have reported a solid team with no weak spots in their lineup in 1960. Three of the four starters won .600 or better; but they hadn't seen a World Series since 1927, when the Yankees swept them like dust with Ruth, Gehrig, and the rest of Murderer's Row! So, with a false sense of security and a fifteen game winning streak rolling, the Yankees were ripe (ready to be picked).

Sadly, history only looks through the binoculars of hindsight. Casey's very valid excuse - that a well rested Whitey couldn't be beaten by Pitt in NY and he would be the clincher for game seven, if necessary - was valid ... until the Yankees got beat at home in games 4 AND 5! Now, Casey needed Whitey in game six. Whitey did the job (and on the road, too), but then he was done because the series ended the next day!

Good pitching stops good hitting! You've heard it before, and you'll hear it time and again. It's why the current Yankees haven't been back to the last two WS, is it not?
Timing is everything! Another truism that applies here because the Yankees pounded Pittsburgh pitching in record numbers (still records today) in hitting and runs, but not at the right time!

So in game one, Pitt built a 6-2 lead, bursting Art Ditmar's bubble, made close by the 2 run pinch HR in the 9th by Elston Howard as the Yankees lost 6-4. Roger Maris' HR into the upper deck in his 1st WS AB was left to footnote history. Kubek batting 1st and Maris 3rd each had 3 hits, but Hector Lopez twice GIDP'd - bad timing. Furthermore, 2B Bobby Richardson went on to set a record with 12 RBI on 11 hits, but NONE in game one!

Game two was "according to Hoyle" as Casey would put it, with the Yankees obliterating Pitt 16-3, highlighted by the awakening Mantle, who twice went long, one of which went over the 452 foot center field fence and the tree behind it! Yes, Mickey even hit monster homers in World Series games too!

Finally, Whitey got to pitch in Game 3, but he wasn't needed then (bad timing) as the Yankees won 10-0. The Yankees might have been pooped from scoring 26 runs in two games because ...

...Game Four was Vern Law again. But Casey didn't want to try Ditmar against him and went with Ralph Terry, who pitched well , but Law pitched better and the Pirates won 3-2 to tie the series.

Game five featured a well rested Ditmar, who hadn't gotten out of the first inning in the opener. Surely he would do better in this pivotal game. Right! He didn't get out of the 2nd inning this time! The Pirates now won 5-2, all three wins saved by Elroy Face (the record until 1996 and John Wetteland).

So the whole planet knew Whitey Ford was going to win game 6, and just to make sure, the Yankees belted out a 12-0 stomp on the Pirates (also a record for the most one sided shutout).

So going into game seven, the yanks had outscored Pitt 46-17, but the series was tied 3-3 ... oh, the futility of all those wasted runs!

Game seven, the Yanks solved Law and ran him in the 6th, climbing back from 0-4 deficit to lead 5-4. (It also probably cost Law the series MVP) They extended that lead to 7-4 in the 8th, but Pitt. had one more rabbit's foot to play. An opening bloop single by Gino Cimoli was followed by the infamous routine DP grounder to short, where the baked Forbes Field infield yielded a devastating bounce as the ball seemed to leap at Tony Kubek's throat like a vampire! Now there were two on, no out, and Kubek had to leave the game. A single by Groat drove in 1 run and left the tying run on first, an obvious bunt situation.

But Casey was probably dumbfounded because he replaced his pitcher Shantz (who fielded like Mussina) with Jim Coates (who fielded like Tommy John)., and it also became pivotal. First, the sac bunt was routinely successful, then Coates got a medium fly to Maris, on whom nobody dared run! Then with two outs, Roberto Clemente grounded into the hole toward right, but Coates didn't cover in time, extending Clemente's series hit streak to all seven games (he would go on to repeat that feat in 1971, giving him the NL rec for WS hitting streak at 14 - AL mark is 17 by Hank Bauer). Now the score was 7-6. Hal smith came up to pinch hit and bombed Coates' 2-2 pitch out to left and Pitt led 9-7. Pirate fans thought that it was over for the Yankees, but 9 runs would not hold up, this game!

And the Yanks solved the great Elroy Face (there goes HIS MVP) as they scored two of their own to tie it, 9-9 in the 9th, and an awesome split second decision by Mantle as a baserunner made it happen!
After two straight singles opened the inning, Harvey Haddix (of 12 perfect inning fame) relieved and got Maris on a foul out. But Mantle next singled and it was 9-8 with men on 1st & 3rd and one out. When Yogi then drilled a hard grounder to 1st, Rocky Nelson took it, stepped on first, and wheeled to throw out Mantle at 2nd ... but he was shocked to see Mantle diving back into first under his tag, as the tying run scored!

But in the last of the 9th, the 1-0 pitch by Ralph Terry to Bill Mazeroski was blasted into the record books and every Yankee fan went into shock and sadness ... except the bookies!

Mantle sat in the clubhouse, crying openly. Whitey seethed silently (as one should), and all the Stengelese in the world wasn't going to change the result. Dan Topping and Dell Webb (owners) had enough. A crappy 1959 followed by this ridiculously bungled World Series (in their opinions) was the excuse to retire Casey and bump Ralph Houk to manager, and that's exactly what they did.

World Series MVP was relatively new in those days, and they awarded it to Yankees' Bobby Richardson for his breakout hitting performance, a decision I doubt will ever be repeated. (Hindsightedly, it should have gone to Law or Face, despite their game 7 blips, because there would never have BEEN a game 7 without their major contributions; but that's for Pirate fans to debate.)

"There was no joy in Mudville, for mighty Casey had struck out!" by Ernest Thayer comes to mind. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_at_the_Bat)