Bill Mazeroski's long wait ended yesterday. So did that of his friends and former Pirates teammates. "Twenty-five years ago, his records were carved in stone," pitcher Bob Friend said. "Now they'll be carved in bronze."
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It must have seemed at times that yesterday would never come for No. 9. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
On a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., where Mazeroski will be enshrined Aug. 5.
Finally.
"I am so pleased I could cry," pitcher Bob Purkey said. "If he hadn't made it this year, I thought he'd have a problem [because of] some of the other guys coming along. He's been disappointed so many times."
"I'm really elated," pitcher Dave Giusti said. "I can see him smiling right now. When he didn't make it, he never showed how depressed he was, but right now I know he's as happy as a lark."
"A lot of people over the years have asked Maz why people in Pittsburgh loved him so much," pitcher Steve Blass said. "He'd say, 'Gee, I don't know.'
"But it's real simple. The reason why he's so special to people in Pittsburgh is because he's been a Hall of Famer to the people around Pittsburgh for years. This is just frosting on the cake."
"I'm thrilled," said Sally O'Leary, a force in the Pirates' publicity office for 32 years. "I have chills. It's been long overdue -- long overdue. And I'm sure his teammates are thrilled. They know how good he was."
Interesting that four of the first five Mazeroski admirers who returned phone calls yesterday were pitchers.
Interesting. But also meaningful.
"Pitchers love to see a guy like Maz at second base," said Giusti, who pitched for the Pirates from 1970-76. "He was such a strong defensive player that he's got to be a Hall of Famer."
However, for so many years after he fielded his last ground ball in 1972, Mazeroski wasn't a Hall of Famer. Not officially. He was eligible to be voted in by baseball writers beginning in 1978. He never made it. Never came close in his 15 years on that ballot.
And he really didn't come close to being voted in by the Veterans Committee until last year -- when he lost by one vote.
"If he didn't make it this year, I was going to be worried," Friend said. "But this is a great day for him and a great day for the franchise."
And, maybe, a great day for defense.
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Maz with his wife yesterday. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) | |
Mazeroski, whose ninth-inning home run in the seventh game at Forbes Field gave the Pirates a startling win against the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series, was a lifetime .260 hitter. He had 2,016 hits, 138 home runs and 853 RBIs in a 17-year career spent with the Pirates. Not bad for a guy who batted low in the lineup much of his career.
But Mazeroski made his mark with his defense. He won eight Gold Gloves. He holds the major-league record for most double plays by a second baseman in a single season (161 in 1966) and for most career double plays by a second baseman (1,706).
Total Baseball ranks Mazeroski as the top defensive second baseman in history.
But for years, none of that seemed to make an impression on the voters.
"I was kind of wondering about that the last couple of years," Giusti said. "I think there were a couple of reasons. One, he was on the same team for so long that not enough people saw him play consistently. And, two, there hasn't been an emphasis on defense.
"But I can't imagine why he wouldn't have been in [the Hall of Fame] if people had seen him play."
People said years ago that to really appreciate Mazeroski, one had to see him play every game for two months.
"He made plays look so easy that I don't know if people realize how hard they were," said Gene Alley, the shortstop who teamed with Mazeroski for 10 seasons. "Maz wasn't flashy. He just did it without any flair. People don't realize how many games he won or saved because of his glove."
Former Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh mused one day about that with Charley Feeney, who covered the Pirates for the Post-Gazette from 1966-86.
"Maz probably saves four or five runs a week," Murtaugh said.
"Danny, that's more than 100 runs a season," Feeney said a bit incredulously.
Unfazed, Murtaugh answered, "I can count."
Maybe a guy had to be a pitcher to fully appreciate Mazeroski's value.
"When I was with Houston, I knew a little about him," Giusti said. "I knew about the home run. But I really started taking a good look at Maz in 1965 or '66."
Giusti recalled a game in the Astrodome in which the Pirates led, 7-6, with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Astros loaded the bases. Ronnie Brand, a former Pirate, hit a ball into the hole at shortstop.
"Ronnie could run for a catcher," Giusti said. "We're thinking the game's going to at least be tied. There's no way [Alley] can get the guy at the plate. And there's no way they can turn a double play.
"And then the game was over. Double play. So quick. I was amazed the ball went from shortstop to [Mazeroski to] first base like that. We're thinking, 'What happened?'"
It was Mazeroski's catch-and-release at second base that stood out. It was as if he never really caught the ball. In the blink of an eye, he zipped the ball on to first base.
"He could turn the double play," said Alley, a standout second baseman in the minor leagues who was moved to shortstop because of Mazeroski's ability. "He was the best I've ever seen."
"He had such a quick release," Friend said. "And he was so durable. Nobody ever took him out [on a double play]."
"You couldn't knock him down," Giusti said.
"In 11 years, I never saw him leave a game because he was hurt," Friend said. "That's because he had such a quick release. He was like a quarterback, like [Dan] Marino. Nobody could get to Marino because he had such a quick release."
Those baserunners who did slide into Mazeroski in attempts to break up a double play paid dearly.
A play involving Ron Stone, a young player with the Philadelphia Phillies, always is mentioned.
"The Phillies had told Stone not to try to break up a double play," Feeney said. "They said, 'Don't hit the tree stump.'"
Stone, trying to impress as a young player, slid hard into Mazeroski's legs -- to no avail. Mazeroski completed the double play, then reached down to help Stone to his feet.
"The kid had a broken rib, and Maz is helping him up," Giusti said.
"He picked him up and helped him dust off his uniform," Pirates Hall of Famer Willie Stargell said in his version of the play.
"That's not what I remember about it," Feeney said. "What I remember is that the Phillies are in the dugout laughing because they told him not to run into Maz."
Remembering defensive plays by Mazeroski is like remembering home runs hit by Hank Aaron. There are so many.
"There was a game against the Mets at Forbes Field in 1969 ... ," Feeney began.
Tie game. Extra innings. The Mets' Tommie Agee was on second base. Cleon Jones "squibbed" a ball between first and second base.
"It was going to be a bang-bang play at first base, but Maz didn't look to first base," Feeney said. "He fielded the ball, whirled and threw it home on one hop. Agee was caught in a rundown and tagged out."
The Pirates wound up winning the game. Gil Hodges, then the Mets' manager and yesterday a strong candidate to be voted into the Hall of Fame over Mazeroski, that night cited that play as a key to the game.
"That's 14 or 15 years of experience," Hodges told the writers. "Not many guys would think to throw to home."
"Maz had great instincts," Friend said. "And he had those quick hands. But he was a great athlete period."
"Take away the pitcher and the catcher, and there would be seven guys on the field," said Purkey, who was the best man at Milene and Bill Mazeroski's wedding in 1961. "I'd want Maz at all the positions the whole time -- at every position."
In August, Mazeroski finally will be in the one position his friends and teammates feel he so richly deserves -- the room with the plaques in Cooperstown.
"You know, Maz has had such a great attitude about this," Friend said. "You never heard him complain about not making it. He never opened his mouth about it. That's the great thing about this whole thing. He had a Hall of Fame attitude about it."
"They can talk about all the great Pirates -- and there have been a lot of them," Blass said. "But Maz represents the spirit of Pittsburgh and the Pirates as well or better than any of them.
"And what's really scary is that Maz set all those records not on a carpet [Astroturf] but on the Forbes Field surface. A lot of visiting players wouldn't take infield at Forbes Field. Think about the numbers Maz would have put up if he'd have played on [Astroturf] and wouldn't have had all those bad hops.
"They might have had to put him into the Hall of Fame five years before he retired."
Former teammates, friends rejoice for Maz 
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