Associated PressMultiple AuthorsFeb 21, 2026, 08:32 AM ET
“I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame,” Mazeroski said during his Hall of Fame induction speech. “Defense deserves as much credit as pitching, and I’m proud to be going in as a defensive player.”
But his career’s signature moment took place in the batter’s box, as the square-jawed, tobacco-chewing Mazeroski, a coal miner’s son from West Virginia, lived out the dream of so many kids who thought of playing professional ball.
The series told one story in the runs column and another in wins and losses. The Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27, and 38-3 in the three games they won. Mazeroski’s counterpart on New York, Bobby Richardson, drove in a record 12 runs and was named the Series MVP — even though he was on the losing team. Yankees ace Whitey Ford shut out the Pirates twice on his way to a then-record 33⅔ straight scoreless World Series innings.
The bottom of the ninth has been relived, not always by choice, by the two teams and by generations of fans. The New York pitcher was Ralph Terry, a right hander whom manager Casey Stengel had brought in during the previous inning and would later acknowledge that he had a tired arm. The right-handed hitting Mazeroski, who had grounded into a double play in his previous appearance, was up first.
“I was just looking to get on base,″ he told The New York Times in 1985. ″Nothing fancy, just looking for a fastball until he got a strike on me. I thought it would be off the wall, and I wanted to make third if the ball ricocheted away from Berra. But when I got around first and was digging for second, I saw the umpire waving circles above his head and I knew it was over.”
Mazeroski was a Pirate for his entire time in the majors and was a team man off the field. His wife, Milene Nicholson, was a front office employee whom he met through Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh. They were married in 1958, had two sons and remained together until her death in 2024.
William Stanley Mazeroski was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, during the Great Depression, grew up in eastern Ohio, and lived for a time in a one-room house without electricity or indoor plumbing. His father, Louis Mazeroski, had hoped himself to be a ballplayer and encouraged his son’s love for sports, even practicing with him by having Bill field tennis balls thrown against a brick wall.
Although a star in basketball and football, he favored baseball and was good enough to be drafted by the Pirates at age 17, in 1954. Mazeroski was a shortstop for a team with numerous prospects at that position, and he had switched to second by his rookie year, 1956. Even as a part-time player at the end of his career, he was a leader and steady presence on the 1971 team that featured Clemente and Willie Stargell and defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.
After his final season, 1972, Mazeroski coached briefly for the Pirates and the Seattle Mariners and was an infield instructor for Pittsburgh during spring training. In 1987, the Pirates retired his uniform number, 9. The 50th anniversary of his Game 7 heroics was marked in 2010 by the unveiling — on Bill Mazeroski Way — of a 14-foot, 2,000-pound statue of one of Pittsburgh’s greatest everymen, rounding the bases, on top of the world.
His best qualities were both tangible and beyond the box score. His Hall of Fame plaque praises him as a “defensive wizard” with “hard-nosed hustle” and a “quiet work ethic.” A 10-time All-Star, he turned a major league record 1,706 double plays, earning the nickname “No Hands” for how quickly he fielded grounders and relayed them. He led the National League nine times in assists for second basemen and has been cited by statistician Bill James as the game’s greatest defensive player at his position — by far.
The Pirates had not reached the World Series since 1927, when they were swept by the New York Yankees, and again faced the Yankees in 1960. While New York was led by Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, Pittsburgh had few prominent names beyond a young Roberto Clemente. It relied on hitters ranging from shortstop Dick Groat to outfielder Bob Skinner, and the starting pitchers Vernon Law and Bob Friend. Mazeroski, who turned 24 that September, finished the season with a .273 average and usually batted eighth.
Some 36,000 fans at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, and many more tuning in on radio and television, agonized through one of the World Series’ wildest and most emotional conclusions. The lead changed back and forth as Pittsburgh scored the first four runs, only to fall behind as the Yankees rallied in the middle innings and went ahead 7-4 in the eighth. Pittsburgh retook the lead with five runs in the bottom of the eighth, helped in part by a seeming double-play grounder that took a bad hop and struck Yankees shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat. But the Yankees came right back and tied the score at 9 in the ninth.
Mazeroski died Friday, the Pirates said. No cause of death was given.
Bill Mazeroski: ‘I got to live a dream’ in MLB (1:37)After his passing on Friday, we look back at when Bill Mazeroski recounted his famous walk-off home run in the 1960 World Series for the Pirates. (1:37)