By Philip R. Devlin
(October 13, 2025) — On this date 65 years ago, October 13, 1960, the most remarkable seventh game of the World Series took place at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh between the Pirates and the New York Yankees. The Pirates won the game in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 9th when Bill Mazeroski, their 24-year-old second baseman, hit a walk off homer to break a 9-9 tie.
I remember it well, as it was the first World Series that I had ever watched. It was a remarkable game and is still talked about; however, there is something else about that game that was arguably as remarkable, but has gotten very little attention. I am talking about the fact that in a game where 19 runs were scored in 9 innings and there were more than 70 at bats, not one batter struck out! This is remarkable when you consider that these two teams were the best two teams in the majors and presumably had the best two pitching staffs as well or they wouldn’t have been in the World Series. Consider also that 1960 was an era in baseball when there was no DH, so pitchers had to bat, and they had an enormous strikeout rate as batters. The Elias Sports Bureau, a huge reservoir of baseball stats, says that in more than 1,850 post-season games in the history of Major League Baseball, this is the only game in which not one strikeout was recorded. Simply amazing!
Eight players from both rosters of that World Series are still alive, including Mazeroski. “Maz” just turned 89 on September 5th. Bobby Shantz just turned 100 on September 26th. Tony Kubek turned 90 on October 12th. Bobby Richardson is also 90. Elroy Face is 97 as is Bob Oldis. Vern Law is 95, and Bob Skinner is 93.
The pitching coach for the Pirates that year was the recently retired major leaguer Virgil Trucks, a fire-balling right-hander from the South who had spent most of his career with the Detroit Tigers. The abysmal Tigers were 50 and 104 in 1952, and Trucks won just 4 games and lost 19; nevertheless, Trucks did something absolutely amazing: He pitched two no-hitters and a one-hitter! Trucks no-hit the Washington Senators in June of 1952, and then in August he no-hit the mighty New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium! Both winning scores were 1-0.
