For years, Bill Mazeroski was my hero

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All the reminiscing about what happened 50 years ago today in baseball has touched a nerve.

I remember Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series to help the Pirates beat the Yankees 10-9. It is the only Game 7 [updated] walk-off home run in the history of the World Series.

I wasn’t in the ballpark that day. Instead I was sitting in front of my family’s Admiral black-and-white TV upright console here in Los Angeles, along with my older brother, Tim, who stayed home from school that day (he says now that he’s pretty sure he was sick).

We had our baseball cards spread out in a baseball diamond pattern on the carpet in front of us, a sort of ‘living’ scorebook, because we had just about all the players from that Game 7 in our separate collections that we pooled for moments like that.

(An aside: I’ve always believed I learned how to spell and read earlier than most kids thanks to those baseball cards. I wanted -- no I needed to know how to read the backs of those cards, the stats and the bios.)

I also remember not understanding why the great Yogi Berra was playing left field in that Game 7 and repeatedly asking my brother about it. I think he ignored me on that question. And, yes, even at age 3 I was collecting baseball cards because I wanted to do everything my brother was doing.

Looking back today, and listening to Maz recall the moment, I know that home run forever tied my heart to the game. I couldn’t have been luckier.

-- Debbie Goffa