Tuesday, October 14, 2008

A Pilgrimage to Mecca, Pirate Style

Joining a couple of hundred other devoted Pirates' fans, Joey Porter's Pit Bulls made the pilgrimage yesterday to the Forbes Field Wall to celebrate the 48th anniversary of Bill Mazeroski's legendary home run to clinch the Buccos' epic 10 to 9 victory over the Yankees in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series.

The image above shows the scene, which included a re-broadcast of the game in near-live time; some of the Pirates' players who played in the game; fans in lawn chairs with little "shrines" spread before them; loud cheering and applause at key moments of the game, such as Hal Smith's three-run homer in the seventh inning; and even a lone New York fan wearing a Yankees cap.

It was a lot of fun and ... well, I'm not going to tell the Pirates' management hierarchy what to do, but if they're not involved in this, they should be.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be great if one of these years (decades) the pirates were actually playing a game on this day and before the actual game, they rebroadcast the one from 1960.
They could do a whole promotion with past players. And do something for the folks that actually bring a ticket stub from Forbes Field. Whoever shows one from that day, gets to thow out the first pitch in the game, or if there are more than a few, put in a raffle for all kinds of memorabelia from that era.
The marketing possibilities are endless.

I always wanted to go listen to the broadcast, but year after year,I never seem to make it.