OnlyBucs

The capacity to recover from difficulty.

Recent 17-4 blowout and then 2-1 win got me thinking about 1960WS.

Yeah I'm old.

Game 1 bucs win 6-4. Games 2&3 Yanks outscore bucs 26-3!

Game 4 bucs win 3-2 and game 5 bucs again win 5-2. Game6 Yanks in another blowout 12-0. Maz walks it off in game 7. Bucs beat the mighty Yanks at their own game!

My point is you just can't get to high when things are good and to low when things are bad.

Welcome to OBN Buccobill. Great first post. Sounds like you have been through the good ol' Pirates baseball wringer just like me. I just hope these 2019 Bucs can build on their early season resilience and become more consistent on the + side of many wins.

As Possum said, welcome Buccobill. The 1960 Bucs are my specialty. Always glad to discuss. Altho the 2019 Bucs are no threat to win a WS, they also feature a power hitting, poor fielding first baseman, an excellent defensive center fielder, a strong rotation and only a couple reliable relievers. But that 1960 Pirate team was the best hitting team in the NL and a much better defensive team. For those who were around at that time, the 1960 WS will probably always be the most special.

Hey Bobster, speaking of the 60 Bucs I dug out my yearbook from that season and managed to scan it into PDF format. Will be glad to email you a copy if you want.

58797158737B1C0 wrote: Hey Bobster, speaking of the 60 Bucs I dug out my yearbook from that season and managed to scan it into PDF format.  Will be glad to email you a copy if you want.
We did that a couple years ago. Thanks! I had it printed on glossy paper and it looks like new!

little tidbit on 1960 7th game. amazingly there was not one single strikeout. believe it is the only time in WS history.

5E697F7F737E7570701C0 wrote: little tidbit on 1960 7th game. amazingly there was not one single strikeout. believe it is the only time in WS history.
A couple factors contributed to that. The Pirates struck out the fewest times in the NL in 1960. The only Pirate who frequently struck out was Dick Stuart and he didn't play in game 7. Vern Law was the Pirates' starting pitcher and he was a good hitter who struck out only 19 times all season in 94 ABs. The pitcher's spot in the order only came up 1 time after Law left and Gino Cimoli got a PH single. The Yankees' pitching staff did not strike out many batters all season. Only 2 staffs in MLB struck out fewer batters than the Yankees. They had only 1 legit power pitcher and that was Ryne Duren who was not used in that game. 



On the other side, it was unusual that no Yankee batters struck out. But Law did not typically strike out a lot of batters. He averaged only 4 Ks per 9 innings in 1960. And he was tired, pitching his 3rd game on a sprained ankle in a 9-day span. He went 5 innings. Face was also not a power pitcher and was also overworked. Game 7 was his 4th game in the series involving 10.1 innings. He was hit hard in game 7, probably the result of being overworked and, by then, pretty familiar to the Yankee hitters. Friend was the next pitcher but he only faced 2 batters after having started the day before. He was replaced by Haddix, also not a power pitcher, who retired the side on a foul pop up and 2 ground outs. The top strike out relievers for the Pirates were Gibbon, Green and Cheney and none of them appeared in game 7.



Another unusual thing about that game is that despite scoring 10 runs, the 9th spot in the order came up the minimum 3 times. The Pirates scored 10 runs on 11 hits. They also drew 3 walks but hit into 3 DPs. Bill Virdon was stranded at 1B in the 2nd inning. He was the only Pirate stranded the entire game.