The Best Game Ever: Pirates VS Yankees: October 13, 1960 by Jim Reisler

From the Publisher

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.

Albany Times Union

Reisler has crafted a love story with a fast pace...His book is a gift to sporting history...The book reads and feels like we're at Forbes Field that afternoon and we're watching some amazing Yankees and Pirates in action.

New York Times

You don't have to be a Pirates fan to enjoy this captivating book.

Publishers Weekly

The nine innings of 1960's World Series' seventh game provide baseball historian Reisler with all the framework he needs to paint an exciting and detailed picture of a sport and its milieu. Reisler (Babe Ruth: Launching a Legend, among others) calls a good game, deftly intertwining the dramatic backstories and subplots of the World Series showdown between each pitch. With cinematic flourish, Reisler breaks from the game's action to zoom in on all the bit players and supporting cast of the competition, including the announcers, children playing hooky, the photographers, random spectators, and the individuals who pillaged the field for souvenirs. Reisler puts together a visually nuanced account without the aid of a video record (the tapes have been lost). As the drama mounts, each pitch and swing takes on greater meaning as Reisler illuminates the events leading up to the game and follows its reverberations into the future. He delivers an account that succeeds in creating suspense when the outcome is already known, and by the time Mazeroski's home run sails over the wall at Forbes Field, each Pirate and Yankee player feels like an old friend. As evidenced by the faithful who still congregate at what used to be Forbes Field's left field wall every October to listen to the rebroadcast, this is a story worth hearing. (Oct.)

Kirkus Reviews

Baseball writer Reisler (Black Writers/Black Baseball, 2007, etc.) analyzes one of the greatest upsets in World Series history. The 1960 World Series was not expected to be much of a contest. The Yankees had won six championships in the 1950s and boasted one of the most impressive lineups in baseball, including Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle. Pittsburgh, while fielding greats Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, did not approach that star power. After six games, the Yankees had outscored the Pirates 46-16. Relying on timely hits and exemplary defense to make up for their lack of home-run power, the Pirates managed to extend the series to a seventh and deciding game, which they won. But the Yankees came back to nail the Series in 1961 and 1962, while the Pirates only won two more titles over the next 47 years (and counting)-so the 1960 upset didn't prompt a paradigm shift in how teams were made or managed. Lacking any compelling evidence that this game was especially significant to baseball or beyond, Reisler bulks up his chronicle by adding information already familiar to most baseball fans: Talented hitter Roger Maris was a private person who disdained big-city pleasures; Mickey Mantle liked the night life; Roberto Clemente was treated poorly by fans and the press despite his tremendous skills because he was a dark-skinned Latino, etc. Reisler also takes the conventional path in depicting the Yankees as a corporate behemoth and the Pirates as a group of misfits and rebels who wrested the top prize from a team often compared to U.S. Steel. The story of the game itself reads like an expanded box score. Shows great love for the underdog, but doesn't make a great casefor the game's larger importance.

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