Feb 22, 2026
3 min read
Bill Mazeroski, the second Hall of Fame player who won the hearts of many Pittsburgh Pirates, has died at the age of 89.
The Hall of Fame second baseman, who won eight Gold Glove Awards for his consistent work on the field and won the hearts of countless Pittsburgh Pirates fans with his historic walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, has died at age 89.
Pirates owner Bob Nutting said, "Maz was one of a kind, a true Pirates legend...His name will always be associated with the greatest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship, but I will remember him most for the man he was: humble, kind and proud to be a Pirate."
Mazrowski died Friday in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, the Pirates said.No cause of death was given.
Elected to the Hall by the Veterans Committee in 2001, he was by some measures no superstar.Majerowski had the lowest batting average, on-base percentage and stolen base total of any second baseman in Cooperstown.He hit just .260 in 17 years with 138 homers and 27 stolen bases and a .299 slugging percentage.He never batted.He hit .300, never had more than 100 at-bats or 100 runs scored, and finished in the top 10 for Most Valuable Player.
Its best qualities are tangible and go beyond expectations.His Hall of Fame panel praises him as a “defensive assistant” with a “flat career” and a “quiet work ethic.”The 10-time All-Star has made a massive league-record 1,706 appearances twice, earning the nickname "No Hands" five times in the National League.He assists second basemen and is cited by statistician Bill James as the best defensive player in the game at his position.
"I think defense belongs in the Hall of Fame," Mazeroski said during his Hall of Fame induction."The defense deserves as much credit as the pitching, and I'm proud to play defensively."
But Mazeroski's signature moment occurred in the battery box.On October 13, 1960, Mazeroski blasted a home run over the wall in left field in the bottom of the ninth at old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, giving the Pirates a 10-9 victory in Game 7 of the World Series against the New York Yankees.The fans booed him on the pitch as he crossed his home ground.
“I don't know it's an out.I don't know if this is a home run.But I know I'm going to end up on third if he doesn't make a mistake with the ball over the wall,'' Mazeroski recalled in 2015.
This is the first time a World Series has ended in a homer, causing an eternal wave of celebration and frustration.Forbes Field was demolished in the 1970s, but for the next decade, fans gathered every October 13 at the park's center field wall to hear the original broadcast.
Singer Bing Crosby, former co-owner of the Pirates, was afraid of upsetting the team, so he listened to the game with friends across the Atlantic in Paris.
"We were in this beautiful house, listening to shortwave, and when it was almost over Bing opened a bottle of scotch and tapped it on the mantel," his wife, Kathryn Crosby, told The New York Times in 2010.
Majerowski was a Pirate throughout his time in the majors and a team player off the field.His wife, Mylene Nicholson, is a front office employee he met through Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh.They married in 1958, had two sons, and were together until his death in 2024.
Born in Wheeling, West Virginia during the Great Depression, Mazeroski grew up in Eastern Ohio, which at one point was confined to a one-room house without electricity or plumbing. While he was a basketball and football star, he preferred baseball and was drafted by the Pirates in 1954 at the age of 17. Mazeroski made a brief stint on a team that had high expectations at the position and moved to second base as a rookie in 1956. Even as a part-time player late in his careerHe remained a leader and a steady presence in the 1971 team that produced victory in Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell.
After his final season in 1972, Mazeroski coached briefly with the Pirates and Seattle Mariners and was Pittsburgh's pitching instructor during spring training. His No. 9 jersey was retired by the Pirates in 1987. The 50th anniversary of his Game 7 heroics was celebrated in 2010 with a statue of one of the Pittsburgh greats around the base on top of the world at Bill Mazeroski Road.
