by Bill Chuck
Special to CSNNE.com
Tonight, Scott Waugh goes for what he hopes will be the first of two rings this championship season. Scott has worked on obliques for the Boston Bruins as their Rehabilitation Coordinator for the past 14 years, and as the Physical Therapist for the Boston Red Sox for the past 6 years. He knows a lot about both sports.
Me? Im a baseball guy, but I do know the curve on a pitch and the curve on a stick makes flying objects do funny things and as the Stanley Cup winds down tonight in a winner take all Game 7, I also know enough to warn the Bruins to watch out for Maz.
What am I talking about? Theres nobody on the Canucks roster named Maz. Thats exactly my point. The player the Bruins need to watch for tonight is a nobody today.
To explain, I need to take you back to the 1960 World Series. It was the New York Yankees versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Yanks had some players you might have heard of: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris, and Whitey Ford, just to name a few. The Pirates had some guys you may never have heard of: Gino Cimoli, Smokey Burgess, Don Hoak, and Vinegar Bend Mizell, just to name a colorful few.
As the Bruins and Canucks enter tonights Game 7 in Vancouver, the Bruins have won Games 3, 4, and 6, while Vancouver has won Games 1, 2, and 5. The margin of victory in the Bruins three wins has been 17-3. The margin in the Canucks three wins has been 5-2.
Let me share the baseball equivalent: As the two 1960 teams entered Game 7 in Pittsburgh, in one of the greatest World Series ever, the Yankees had won Games 2, 3, and 6, while the Bucs had won Games 1, 4, and 5. The margin of victory in the Yankees three wins was 38-3. The Pirates margin of victory was 14-8.
Boston Bruins
This brings us to October 13, 1960, Game 7, Forbes Field, Pittsburgh. There would be nine innings of baseball that afternoon and hockey fans can think of those nine innings being divided into three periods, because in many ways there was that kind of rhythm to the game.
The home team scored twice each in the first two innings and held the Yankees scoreless through the first three. In hockey terms, this meant that at the end of the first period, the Pirates led New York, 4-0, about a 2-0 lead in hockey.
This was Game 7, and neither team was going to lay down. The Yankees had pulled their starting goalie (pitcher) Bob Turley early in the 2nd inning and by the time the 3rd inning started they were on their third pitcher, little Bobby Shantz. The diminutive Shantz (he was generously listed at 56) held the Pirates scoreless in innings 4, 5, and 6 as his Yankees rallied and at the end of the second period (first six innings) it was 5-4 New York.
Crunch time. Neither team scored in the 7th inning, which meant the visitors still led with the equivalent of about 13 hockey minutes left to play. In the 8th inning, the Yankees scored twice and they were now up 7-4. But the home team battled back hard. The Pirates scored five times in the bottom of the 8th inning to take a 9-7 lead. In the only sport that does not use a clock, time was running out for the Yankees entering the 9th.
With the help of either a brilliant (or a dumb luck) baserunning maneuver by Mickey Mantle, the Yankees tied the score just before they would have had to pull their goalie to get an extra player on the ice.
The two teams headed to the bottom of the 9th (or as your PA announcer would blare, last minute of play in the period) tied 9-9.
The baseball life of Yankee pitcher Ralph Terry would hold two very distinct moments in time. In 1962, Terry would be on the mound in the 9th inning of Game 7 as Willie McCovey hit a game-ending line drive that was snagged by second baseman Bobby Richardson just before it reached the outfield for a hit that would have brought in the tying and World Champion winning runs.
This 1960 day in his baseball history would be different.
The Pirates leadoff batter was a lifetime .266 in his baseball career to that point. He had hit 48 homers in his 667 game career and so far in this Series he was 7-for-24 with a homer and four RBI. Bill Mazeroski would always be known for his play at second base. Yes, my hockey friends, he was a great defenseman. Like other defenders in the pre-Bobby Orr era, he was in there for his glove.
But on this day, at this moment, he became a bold face name in baseball history. With the count 1-0, this unexpected hero hit a flyball over the ivy covered left field wall of Forbes Field as Yankee left fielder Yogi Berra could only look up in vain at the World Series championship walkoff homer.
Maz circled the bases, like a player skating around the rink holding the Stanley Cup, as the home crowd went wild.
Heres my advice: tonight, if Waugh is to get championship ring number one this season, the Bruins better watch out for somebody named Maz.