By Bobby Richardson as told to Marty Appel
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tNot many players can name their biggest hit and their biggest catch, and have the good fortune for both to have been in a World Series with millions looking on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe biggest catch I ever made was the final out of the 1962 World Series, when I moved quickly to my left to snare a line drive by San Francisco\u2019s Willie McCovey, which gave the Yankees their last world championship in what would prove to be a 15 year span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tIt was sure an important catch, and it wasn\u2019t easy – it was really hit hard by a Hall of Fame slugger, but let\u2019s face it, it was a play you had to make, it was obviously within my range, and oh boy, if I hadn\u2019t caught it, we would have lost that Series and I would be tucked away in baseball infamy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSo it was good that I made the play, and good that it is well remembered (except by Giants fans) all these years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBut the game I\u2019ll never forget – because it was so improbable! – was the third game of the 1960 World Series, Yankees vs. Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThis was actually my fifth World Series. I\u2019d had cups of coffee in 1955 and 1956 with the Yankees, but wasn\u2019t on the eligible roster for those Subway Series against Brooklyn. I had been on the roster in both 1957 and 1958 against Milwaukee, but hadn\u2019t played much – a total of just six of those 14 games, all as a late inning defensive replacement or pinch runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI had become a regular in 1959, but we finished third that year. So 1960 was my first opportunity to start every game of the World Series, and hopefully, be a key contributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe first two games of the 1960 World Series were played at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The city had not hosted a World Series since 1927 when the legendary \u201cMurderer\u2019s Row\u201d Yankees had swept the Pirates in four straight. \u201cBeat \u2018em Bucs\u201d signs were everywhere; the city was basking in pennant fever. We split those games, losing the first one 6-4 before winning the second game 16-3. Much of the talk around the first game was Casey Stengel\u2019s decision to bypass his veteran ace Whitey Ford, and instead start Art Ditmar, who had led our pitching staff with 15 wins. (Whitey was only 12-9). Ditmar didn\u2019t have it, and the second-guessing goes on to this day. I batted eighth in both games and went 3-for-4 with a couple of RBIs in game two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe flew back to New York after the 16-3 win, and we were obviously in a great state of mind, having split the games in Pittsburgh and were now back in Yankee Stadium. My wife Betsy was with me – we had sent our kids home to South Carolina – and we still had our season\u2019s rental home in Ridgewood, New Jersey. With the kids\u2019 bedrooms vacant, a couple of teammates stayed with us out there rather than have to pay for hotel rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tSo on Tuesday morning, October 8, we all drove over the George Washington Bridge, down the Major Deegan Expressway, and into the player\u2019s lot on the first base side of the stadium. It was business as usual in terms of these routines, but it was different. The chill in the air meant \u201cWorld Series weather,\u201d and it meant we would wear our dark blue sweatshirts under our jerseys. I liked that look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI looked at the lineup card taped to the wall of the dugout as we headed out for batting practice, and, predictably, I was slotted in at eighth again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI was the team\u2019s player representative, so I had some last minute duties involving family tickets. I was still embarrassed that as player rep, I had the job of organizing the team photo for the cover of the World Series program – and then I forgot the time and wasn\u2019t in the picture. The programs were sitting in our lockers. I really felt dumb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI loved all the pre-game pageantry, including lining up along the baselines for introductions. It was all part of what made the World Series magical. Perfect sunny October baseball weather, Yankee Stadium, wrapped in red white and blue bunting, packed with over 70,000 people; Mel Allen doing pre-game interviews on the field; P.A. announcer Bob Sheppard calling out names like \u201cMic-key Man-tle,\u201d \u201cRo-ger Mar-is,\u201d \u201cYog-i Ber-ra,\u201d and \u201cWhit-ey Ford,\u201d — it just felt like baseball at its finest. When I heard \u201cbatting eighth, the second baseman, number one, Bob-by Rich-ard-son,\u201d I smiled proudly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWhitey started for us at last, and easily retired three straight Pirates in the top of the first, with Dick Groat, the second hitter, grounding out to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe came up in the last of the first to face an old friend of mine, Wilmer \u201cVinegar Bend\u201d Mizell. But Mizell faced only five batters, as Bob Cerv, Mantle and Skowron singled and Gil McDougald walked. It was only 1-0 at that point, but the Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh went to his bullpen and brought in the old Brooklyn Dodger righthander Clem Labine. Labine had faced the Yankees in the World Series in both 1955 and 1956.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThe first batter he faced, Ellie Howard, got an infield single, scoring Mantle, moving Moose Skowron to third and McDougald to second. Now it was 2-0, bases loaded, and my turn to hit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI half expected to hear Casey yell \u201cHold that gun,\u201d which was how he sometimes summoned a hitter back to the dugout to send up a pinch-hitter. Pinch-hitting for someone in the first inning could be insulting and demoralizing, but it\u2019s not like it hadn\u2019t happened before. I\u2019d been in that spot. I\u2019m sure he was thinking, \u201cI\u2019ll send up Enos Slaughter here and break up this game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI got to bat, but I was shocked to see third base coach Frank Crosetti giving me the bunt sign. Bunt? With Ford up next? He wanted me to let Ford hit with two out and the bases loaded rather than let me swing away?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI may not have been Mantle or Maris in that lineup, but this just wasn\u2019t sound baseball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tCasey could be tough to play for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI bunted Labine\u2019s first pitch foul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tOkay, I got that over with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI stepped out of the box and again looked at Cro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI couldn\u2019t believe it. And again, I fouled it off. An oh-and-two count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tNow Cro abandoned signals and just yelled to me in his high voice, \u201dHit the ball to right field! Try to stay out of a double play!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI didn\u2019t like that it was oh-and-two and I was in this spot, but at least I knew that if I could drive the ball to the right side, it would likely score Moose and we\u2019d be up 3-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tHere came Labine\u2019s third pitch to me – a high fastball, just inside a bit. I swung quickly, got ahead of the ball and drove it pretty nicely down the left field line and towards the 301 sign at the foul pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThere was no way I would assume it was gone – I had hit three career home runs at that point (two in 1959 and one on April 30, 1960, my last one) – and I had only hit one of those three in Yankee Stadium, on September 11, 1959. That made 649 at bats in Yankee Stadium with one home run. So no one in the ballpark, including me, and including Betsy in the stands, was thinking home run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tBut there it went. The Pirates left fielder Gino Cimoli, had raced over but it was beyond his reach. I looked up to see Dusty Boggess, the second base umpire, twirling his index finger, signaling home run. It settled into the third row – maybe 310 feet from home plate – and one, two, three, four runners were about to cross the plate. I had hit only the seventh grand slam in World Series history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tDid I even have a home run trot? I knew Mickey just kept his head down and ran it out – never looking to embarrass the pitcher. I guess that was my example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tMost importantly, we now had a 6-0 lead and would cruise to a 10-0 victory behind Whitey. I had two more RBIs in the game, for a record six in one game that still hasn\u2019t been bettered to this day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tThere was more to come for me. I wound up with 12 RBIs for the seven game series, which remains a record after more than half a century. I had driven in only 26 runs the whole regular season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tWe lost the Series when Bill Mazeroski homered in the last of the ninth of game seven in Pittsburgh, and that Series remains one of the most talked about in baseball history. I was named the MVP and awarded a Corvette by Sport Magazine. I\u2019m still the only player on a losing team to ever get the World Series MVP award, although in 1960, the award was only six years old and not much was made of that fact. I was also the first non-pitcher to win it, and there wasn\u2019t another one until Frank Robinson in 1966. So for the first eleven years of that award, I was the only hitter to win it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\tI\u2019m 82 now, Betsy and I have 16 grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren (more on the way), and not a day has passed when someone hasn\u2019t brought up that grand slam home run to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And you know what? I like that a lot.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bobby Richardson as told to Marty Appel Not many players can name their biggest hit and their biggest catch, and have the good fortune for both to have been in a World Series with millions looking on. The biggest… Continue Reading