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a single to score Virdon.
    Pirate fans leaped to their feet with a roar. The home team was within one of tying the game!
    Now Hal Smith came up. Smith was a solid player but not a top hitter. No one expected him to provide the run they needed.
    Yet Smith did provide — and how! When reliever Jim Coates delivered his pitch, Smith blasted theball deep for a three-run homer! The slugfest ended with the next batter, but the Pirates were once again ahead, 9–7.

    The 1918 Boston Red Sox team photo (Babe Ruth second row, fourth from left). Ruth pitched the team to their fourth World Series
     win of the decade.

 

    Lou Gehrig crosses home, thanks to a two-run homer by Babe Ruth in the New York Yankees 1932 World Series victory.

 

    “The Catch,” made by Willie Mays during the 1954 World Series.

 

    Bill “Maz” Mazeroski comes home after hitting the first ever Series-winning homer in 1960.

 

    Carlton Fisk waves his arms, willing his blast during the 1975 World Series to drop fair. The ball struck the foul pole for
     a home run.

 

    In 1977, Reggie Jackson does what only one other player—Babe Ruth—had ever done before: hit three consecutive homers in one
     game in the World Series.

 

    Kirk Gibson, sidelined with painful injuries, came off the bench to hit a two-run, game-winning homer in the 1988 World Series.

 

    The Boston Red Sox reverse the 86-year-old “Curse of the Bambino” by winning the 2004 World Series.
     
    There was still one inning left, however, and the Yankees used their turn at bat to full advantage. The first batters singled.
     Roger Maris popped a foul ball for the first out, but the threat of two ninners on base still remained. Mickey Mantle made
     good on the threat by singling one runner home. They needed only one more to tie things up. They got it in classic fashion.
    Yogi Berra was up. He drove the ball down the first-base line. Mantle, at first, started for second just as first baseman
     Rocky Nelson gloved the ball and stepped on the bag. Berra was out — and Mantle would have been, too, if Nelson had managed
     to tag him before he returned to first base. But he didn't. Mantle dove for the bag and slid under Nelson's glove a split
     second before the tag.
    And meanwhile, the runner on third had taken off for home. When he scored, the game was tied at 9 apiece.
    That's how the score remained when the Pirates came up in the bottom of the ninth. If they couldpush across just one run, they would beat the seemingly unbeatable Yankees. If they didn't, the game would go into extra innings.
     That, they knew, could very well prove disastrous for them.
    Leading off for Pittsburgh was Bill Mazeroski. “Maz,” as he was known, had had a strong Series so far, including a two-run
     homer in game one. He ]stood at the plate, facing reliever Ralph Terry. Terry's first pitch was high. Maz let it go by for
     ball one. The second pitch was also high. This time, however, Maz swung — hard.
    Boom!
    The sound of bat hitting ball echoed around the stadium for a microsecond before being drowned out by the roar of the crowd.
     It was a home run, the first World Series–winning homer ever!
    Maz rounded the bases waving his cap and grinning ear to ear. Pittsburgh fans jumped, screamed, and danced in the stands.
     Sure, the Yankees had beaten them in stats — outhitting, outfielding, and outpitching the Pirates in nearly every game — but
     in the end, the only stat that mattered was the final score of the final game. And thanks to Maz, thatscore was Pittsburgh 10, New York 9. The Pirates were world champs for the first time since 1925.
    Unfortunately for Pirates fans, the decade would end without Pittsburgh reaching the Series again. New York returned for the
     next four years, winning back-to-back championships in 1961 and 1962, but then losing it twice in a row.

CHAPTER SEVEN
1970s
1975: The Best Sixth Game Ever
    After their second straight World Series loss in 1964, the Yankees' star finally