October 9, 1960: Bill Virdon’s bat and glove spark Pirates’ rebound in Game 4

“The Pirates have had it
They’re done, they’re done
Losing four in the series
While winning just one.”

This elegy was written by a Pittsburgh Pirates fan on a mirror in a Pittsburgh bar after the Bucs lost Game Three of the 1960 World Series.1 The Pirates opened the Series at home, winning Game One, 6-4, over the heavily-favored New York Yankees.2 One of the keys to that victory was center fielder Bill Virdon’s catch against the wall in the gap in right-center, saving two runs.

But after being blown out in Game Two, 16-3, Pittsburgh suffered a similar fate when the Series shifted to New York for Game Three. The Yankees jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning, and Whitey Ford pitched a four-hit shutout. The final score was 10-0. Even the oddsmakers agreed with the would-be poet’s assessment that the Series might not last beyond five games.3

Pittsburgh’s hopes of stemming the Yankee onslaught rested on the shoulders of 30-year-old starting pitcher Vern Law, a 20-game winner with a 3.08 ERA. The right-hander, who later received the major-league Cy Young Award for 1960, was the winning pitcher in Game One, holding the Yankees to two runs in seven-plus innings of work.

New York countered with 24-year-old Ralph Terry as its Game Four starter. Although his record during the regular season was only 10-8 (3.40 ERA), Yankee catchers felt the right-hander had the best “stuff” on the club’s pitching staff.4

The temperature was forecasted to be in the low 60s with cloudy conditions,5 but skies were sunny at the 2 PM start time. The Sunday crowd of 67,812 must have initially thought it was witnessing a repeat of the beginning of the previous day’s game.

After Terry retired the Pirates in order on two strikeouts and a popup, Bob Cerv singled on Law’s first pitch. Tony Kubek doubled into the left-field corner, putting runners at second and third with no outs.

But Game Four proved to be a completely different contest from the prior two games.

AL MVP-to-be Roger Maris flied out to short right, the runners holding. Mickey Mantle was intentionally walked, and Yogi Berra hit a slow grounder to third. Don Hoak fielded the ball, stepped on the base, and threw out Berra on a close play at first for the inning-ending double play. Berra and first-base coach Ralph Houk protested. “I yelled at (first-base umpire Dusty Boggess) because I thought I was safe,” Berra said after the game. “I still think I was safe.”6

Terry held the Pirates hitless through four innings, striking out five and allowing only a two-out walk to Smoky Burgess in the second inning.

Yankees eighth-place hitter Bobby Richardson—whose first-inning grand slam had turned Game Three into a rout—hit a two-out, bases-empty double in the bottom of the second but was stranded when Terry grounded out on a slow roller between the mound and first base. Law retired the side in order in the third on two groundouts and an infield popup.

Mantle, the first Yankees batter in the fourth inning, struck out by bunting foul for the third strike. Berra grounded back to Law, who threw him out. Bill Skowron, a right-handed batter, hit Law’s 1-and-0 pitch the opposite way, 360 feet into the lower right-field stands,7 giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

Gino Cimoli, leading off the fifth, worked the count full, then lined a single to short right for the Pirates’ first hit of the game. Burgess bounced a weak grounder to first baseman Skowron, who chose to throw to second for a potential double play, but Cimoli beat the throw. His slide upended Kubek, preventing any chance for an out at first.8

“I asked (second-base umpire Johnny Stevens) whether he had called Cimoli safe because I might have had my foot off the bag,” said Kubek after the game, “but he told me that the runner had beaten the ball. I didn’t think so. I’d like to see pictures of the play.”9

With two on and nobody out, it still looked like Terry might get out of the inning unscathed after Hoak popped out attempting to bunt and Bill Mazeroski popped out to Skowron. Law, a .216 career batter, lined Terry’s first-pitch fastball into the left-field corner for a double, scoring Cimoli. Burgess held at third.

Bill Virdon missed two low curveballs, falling behind in the count, 0-and-2.10 After fouling off the next pitch, he blooped another curveball past second into center for a single,11 scoring Burgess and Law. Dick Groat popped out, but the score stood at 3-1 in favor of the Pirates.

Richardson singled to start the Yankee half of the fifth inning, but Law struck out the next three batters. Terry, the first victim, fouled off a bunt attempt for a third strike. Cerv struck out after just missing a homer when his deep drive into the upper right-field stands went foul. Kubek struck out swinging.

Clemente led off the sixth with a line-drive single to right. He moved to third on two groundouts, then was stranded there when Mantle tracked down Burgess’ deep drive to center. Law retired the Yankees in order in the bottom of the inning.

The Pirates again threatened to increase their lead in the seventh. Hoak singled to center. Yankees manager Casey Stengel visited the mound and left Terry in. Hoak moved to second on a bunt. Law singled on a hard grounder that bounced off third baseman Gil McDougald’s glove, with Hoak advancing to third.12 Stengel brought in Bobby Shantz to relieve Terry. Virdon struck out, and Groat grounded into a force; the Pirates left a runner on third for the second inning in a row.

Law ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh. Skowron lined a ground-rule double into the stands in right. McDougald singled to right, but Skowron had to hold at third when Clemente threw home on a line to the catcher. Richardson grounded to Mazeroski. Unable to tag McDougald, who stopped running, the Pirates second baseman retreated to the bag at second for the force out. Richardson just beat Mazeroski’s throw to first.13 Skowron scored on the play, reducing Pittsburgh’s margin to one run, 3-2.

Johnny Blanchard, hitting for Shantz, singled to right, with Richardson holding at second.

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh called on Elroy Face to relieve Law. Cerv hit Face’s third pitch deep to right center. Virdon made a leaping catch on the warning track in front of the outfield wall’s 407-foot sign. Richardson advanced to third as Virdon tumbled to the ground. Kubek bounced out to Face for the final out.14

Jim Coates replaced Shantz on the mound in the eighth and retired the Pirates in order. Face matched him against the heart of the Yankees lineup, getting Maris on a deep fly to center, Mantle on a swinging third strike, and Berra on a groundout.

With one out in the top of the ninth, Hoak drove a ball to deep right-center. Mantle made a running one-handed catch in front of the auxiliary scoreboard. Mazeroski singled to right before Coates struck out Face to end the inning.

Skowron, the Yankees leadoff hitter in the ninth, almost tied the game when his drive down the right-field line just missed being a homer, curving foul at the last moment. Skowron pulled a hard grounder just inside the third-base line. Hoak backhanded the ball and threw him out.15 Face retired the next two batters, securing Pittsburgh’s 3-2 win and evening the Series at two games apiece.

“The fans saw a typical Pirates team win … with great pitching, timely hitting and superb defensive work,” wrote Groat in his World Series column for the Pittsburgh Press. “We’re now even with the Yankees and winning as we did, suddenly have a new lease on life.”16

The New York Daily News named Virdon the “hero” of the game. He drove in two runs with his single in the fifth and “saved the game with a tremendous catch” in the seventh.17

Despite Skowron’s home run, double, and near-miss homer in the ninth, the paper selected him as the “goat” of the game. His fifth-inning decision to throw to second instead of tagging the slow-footed Burgess overshadowed his performance at the plate.18

One sportswriter speculated that if Skowron had taken the sure out at first, New York would have won, 2-0, seizing a commanding Series lead, three games to one.19

Mantle disagreed. “We should have won it in the first inning – that’s where, in the first inning.”20

The Pirates won Game Five, 5-2. The Series shifted back to Pittsburgh for Game Six, but the Pirates suffered another blowout loss, 12-0, as Ford pitched his second shutout. The Pirates faithful were rewarded with a dramatic Game Seven win, 10-9. Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth with a home run off Terry, giving the Pirates their first World Series championship since 1925.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Bill Virdon, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA196010090.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1960/B10090NYA1960.htm

The author relied on the play-by-play published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (“World Series Detail,” October 10, 1960: 27) to augment the game logs provided by Baseball Reference and Retrosheet.

The author also accessed YouTube.com, “1960 World Series Game 4: Pirates vs Yankees,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFAifgfiMCM. The highlight video is 6:13 in length. For those interested in the two pivotal umpire decisions disputed by the Yankees (Berra’s groundout in the first inning and Cimoli’s safe call at second base in the fifth), you can view them at the 0:57 and 2:07 marks, respectively.

Notes

1 David Kelly, “There’s a Wake Here Because Bucs Didn’t,” Pittsburgh Press, October 9, 1960: 1.

2 “Betting Line Favors Yanks,” The Sporting News, October 5, 1960: 16.

3 “Yanks 7 ½-5,” New York Daily News, October 9, 1960: 130. The Yankees won Games Two and Three by a combined 23 runs. As of the start of the 2026 season, it was the largest consecutive two-game run differential in World Series history. The next closest margin over a two-game span was 15 runs by the Yankees in 1936 (vs. the New York Giants in Games Two and Three), the Detroit Tigers in 1968 (vs. the St. Louis Cardinals in Games Six and Seven), and the Cardinals in 1982 (vs. the Milwaukee Brewers in Games Six and Seven).

4 “Law Tries to Restore Order Against Terry,” New York Daily News, October 9, 1960: 130. Terry led the Yankees rotation in WHIP, FIP, SO per nine innings, and SO to BB ratio.

5 “Cloudy, Cool,” New York Daily News, October 9, 1960: 130. The YouTube video referenced above (“1960 World Series Game 4: Pirates vs Yankees”) shows the field bathed in sun, with many fans wearing sunglasses at the game’s start.

6 Jim McCulley, “Yankees Rap Key Calls,” New York Daily News, October 10, 1960: 62.

7 Joe Trimble, “Moose, Rich Slug, Make Boo-Boos as Law and Face Curb Bombers,” New York Daily News, October 10, 1960: 62.

8 Jack Hernon, “Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, to Even World Series,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 10, 1960: 1. Cimoli started Games Two through Six, replacing Bob Skinner, the Pirates’ regular left fielder, who jammed his thumb in the first game.

9 Louis Effrat, “Skowron Defends His Force-Out Try,” New York Times, October 10, 1960: 41. The quote in the paper has Kubek asking the umpire why he called Cimoli out, which clearly is a misprint as Cimoli was called safe.

10 “Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, to Even World Series.”

11 “Moose, Rich Slug, Make Boo-Boos as Law and Face Curb Bombers.”

12 “Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, to Even World Series.”

13 “Moose, Rich Slug, Make Boo-Boos as Law and Face Curb Bombers.”

14 “Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, to Even World Series.” Face, who led the NL in appearances and the majors in games finished, relieved Law in the eighth inning of Game One with two on and one out. He retired the next two batters to get out of the inning unscathed. Elston Howard hit a two-run homer off Face with one out in the ninth. Kubek followed with a single, but Héctor López grounded into a double play to end the game as the Pirates won, 6-4.

15 “Bucs Beat Yanks, 3-2, to Even World Series.”

16 Dick Groat, “Key Fielding Plays by Virdon, Hoak Saved Series Win,” Pittsburgh Press, October 10, 1960: 25.

17 “Moose, Rich Slug, Make Boo-Boos as Law and Face Curb Bombers.” The New York Daily News had previously named Virdon the “hero” of Game One for a similarly spectacular catch of Berra’s drive to deep right-center with two on and nobody out in the fourth inning.

18 “Moose, Rich Slug, Make Boo-Boos as Law and Face Curb Bombers.” As used in 1960, goat was a derogatory term meaning scapegoat.

19 Joe Williams, “Skowron’s Luck All Bad,” Pittsburgh Press, October 10, 1960: 25.

20 “Yankees Rap Key Calls.”