FanPost

It never gets old

Watching Maz run the bases on 10/13/60.

Went to the Waterfront last night to see Game 7 on the big screen, and you know what? That's a hell of a
ballgame, especially the last two innings, when everything weird happens.

The DVD goes on sale today and MLB Network shows it tomorrow, and I can't
recommend highly enough that you see it one way or another (especially with
someone you care about; I took my dad, and he told me about being in the
Navy at the time and rigging up a way to pull in the signal to the ship --
he was the guy up high adjusting the makeshift "attenna" and he arrived in
front of the screen just in time to see the ball hit Kubek in the throat.
I'm 53 and dad's 72 and I'd never heard that story before.).

Stuff happened that I don't think I knew about or thought much about before. For example, on the pitch before he homered, Hal Smith almost certainly struck out on a checked swing (a sort of rueful chuckle went through the crowd in the theater: "Ooooo -- hahaha!"). But in 1960 the catcher couldn't point to first base and ask that ump for a second opinion. My memory is that few if any checked swings in the game got called strikes, which maybe helps explain something else I don't think I knew: There wasn't one strikeout in the game.

One thing you notice almost immediately is how fast they played the game.
The hitter gets in the batter's box and he STAYS there, no stepping out and
pissing around with the straps on his gloves and checking his cup and all
that stuff everybody does for 30 seconds between every damn pitch now. For
one thing, nobody was wearing gloves (I assume they were all wearing cups).
Face was delivering pitches every 9-10 seconds, and that really, really
served to ratchet up the drama because things keep moving.

The drama ... it's amazing how you can feel the tension build even when
you're certain of the outcome. There are short segments every three innings
or so where Bob Costas talks with several of the players from the game while
they're watching it, and at one point in the eighth or ninth inning they
inset a close-up of Bobby Richardson turning to Dick Groat and, with a big
smile, saying, "This really IS exciting, isn't it?" It sure is.

And if you still need a deal-sealer: 4 1/2 innings of Bob Prince (plus his
postgame interviews, which are priceless) and 4 1/2 innings of Mel Allen
doing play by play, and lots of views of Forbes Field.

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