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| View Larger Image | The Best Game Ever: Pirates 10, Yankees 9: October 13, 1960
by Jim Reisler
| | List Price: | $26.00 | | Price: | $17.16 | | You Save: | $8.84 (34%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 211883 | | Studio: | Da Capo Press | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Number Of Pages: | 320 | | Publication Date: | November 01, 2007 | | Publisher: | Da Capo Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
October 13, 1960: The hardscrabble Pirates were a hungry squad, led by Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, and a colorful bunch of overachievers who hit singles and rode solid fielding and pitching to the franchise's first World Series appearance in 35 years. The Yankees, lordly and corporate, were making their 12th trip to the World Series in 15 years and, through the managing of Casey Stengel, power hitting, and immense talent, usually found a way to win. Featuring such legends as Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Roger Maris, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46–16 through six games — only to go down, 10–9, when Mazeroski became the only player ever to decide a World Series Game 7 with a walk-off home run. From extensive personal interviews with those who were there, along with newspaper, radio, and television accounts, Reisler reconstructs this fall classic pitch by pitch, from analysis of managerial tactics and the chatter of the players on the field to the lively atmosphere within the ballpark and throughout the country. The result is the feeling of being right there from the seemingly predictable start to the truly unbelievable finish of the best game ever. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 14 reviews)
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The Title Says It All! Highly Recommended! 
Forget the complaints in prior reviews concerning a few minor errors in this book. They don't take away a bit from the story which is a very fascinating pitch by pitch chronology of one of the greatest World Series game ever played. We all know the outcome but the highlights include a biographical sketch of the participants with information most baseball fans have never heard. (For example: before game #1 Harvey Haddix told the Pirate's radio announcer that the hero of the series would be Bill Mazeroski. When asked why, he said of the light hitting 2nd baseman "Because they'll pitch to him!". Also the author provides an inside look at the strategies of both Stengel and Murtaugh in a game that had enough twists and turns to qualify for a roller coaster ride. Enjoy!
July 21, 2008 | |
A test to a reader's attention span 
Using one game as a basis for a book, even if it is one of the greatest games ever, is a challenge for any writer. Author Jim Reisler takes an inning-by-inning approach to the seventh game of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and Yankees. Of course, every serious baseball fan knows it's the game the Pirates' Bill Mazeroski hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth to win the Series.
Because the game is so well-known, there's little suspense. Like some other readers, I occasionally felt like just flipping ahead to the chapters about the eighth and ninth innings. Reisler sandwiches a lot of Pirates' history in between innings. But Reisler tests the reader's attention span as he sometimes writes 20-plus pages before returning to the account of the game.
Reisler includes some interesting nuggets, but he also commits a number of glaring errors, as noted by other reviewers. The book is heavily tilted toward the Pittsburgh perspective. Pirates fans will delight in the book, while others may find it less satisfying.
June 22, 2008 | |
Maz, the Bucs and the Eternal Clout....with many Errors 
The statistics told only part of the story; the club was outscored in runs 55-27, outhit 91-60, out-batted .338 to .256, out-homered 10-4, had two complete games pitched against them by one of the greats for the era and was not on the diamond for a World Series MVP.
But even the brilliance of New York Yankee pitching great Whitey Ford and the seven-game performance by teammate Bobby Richardson could not deny the Pittsburgh Pirates from pulling off the World Series upset.
Author Jim Reisler relives the build-up to Bill Mazeroski's shot off of Ralph Terry that cleared the Forbes Field wall in the bottom of the ninth inning in the decisive seventh game.
But his research - aside from a nifty interview with Pittsburgh shortstop Dick Groat - is hampered by a number of glaring errors. Included in the miscues are ballpark dimensions & seating capacity, batting stances and last names, along with sophomoric analysis of game strategies.
The photograph of Maz crossing home plate has a permanent place in American sports history. But Reisler dropped the ball on delivering a solid performance that would have done that moment proud.
May 12, 2008 | |
the best for Bucs fan but most disheartening for Yankee fan's
I guess this is a great game to relive on tape. It seesawed back and forth. The Yanks were in control until the easy DP ball hit Kubek in the adam's apple. He had to leave and Hal Smith followed with a three run home run to turn the game around. In the top of the ninth the Yanks scored and they were trailing 9-8 with runners on first and third. Mantle was on first and Berra was at the plate. Yogi hit a hard line drive to frist the Rocky Nelson scooped up and was going to turn into a game ending and series winning double play. He was so close to the bag that he stepped on the bag first and Mantle was frozen just a few feet off the bag because he thought Nelson would catch it on a fly and double him off the bag. After Nelson made the play at first he whirled around to throw to the shortstop to get Mantle out. Well in was no longer a force play and if they didn't tag Mantle out quickly the tying run was coming in from third base. Mantle reacted by diving back safely into first to tie the game. That was all they could muster but it looked like if they could get the Pirates out in the 9th they would surely win in extra innings even though they were in Pittsburgh.
I was in my 8th gade social studies class and my teacher let me listen on the radio. I got so excited that I dropped the radio. I couldn't get the game back and I thought I had broke it. When we finally got it back on the game was over. Mazeroski was the first batter in the bottom of the ninth and he hit Terry's second pitch (I think) over Berra's head in left field and the ivy cover wall for the game winning home run. It took me a while to figure out what happened but it was the greatest let down of my life.
This may have been the best World Series game ever because each team got breaks and capitalized on them. Neither team gave up and it went right down to the bottom of the ninth with all the drama left in the hands of Mazeroski and Terry.
As I never really saw the game it is neat to see it for the first time. The Mazeroski home run I had seen manu times and the ground ball to Kubek was shown often too. But the rest of the game I only heard on radio and only for the late innings of the game.
This was also Casey Stengel's last game as a Yankee manager. Ralph Houk took the helm in 1961 and that Yankee team was dominant and brought the World Championship back to the Bronx where Yankee fans felt it belonged. Even Mantle said that this was a series they should have won!
Others have pointed to error made in the commentary about the series. I can overlook that because I know most of the facts behind the game. But the shear drama and scoring make it great anyway.
May 11, 2008 | |
More Errors 
I'm only up to page 33. In addition to the errors mentioned elsewhere, Danny Murtaugh played 84% of his games at second base, and 8% at shortstop, so calling him a "smooth fielding shortstop for 9 years" is not quite correct (particularly as he only played short in two of those nine years); calling Bob Skinner a first baseman when he didn't play a game at first during the regular season or World Series (434 appearances in the field in 1958-1960; one at first base and 433 in the outfield) is also misleading. Not to mention typos - on page 9 there's a reference to the Yankees 75th triple of the Series (the word "hit" is missing after "seventy-fifth") and Ralph Terry being called a "sport" starter (as opposed to a "spot" starter) on page 13. Doesn't anyone proofread books any more? And don't even get me started on The Team-By-Team Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball - if there was a Hall of Fame for errors in a book, this would be the first one inducted.
March 28, 2008 | |
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