This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/30/2023
In 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates captured the franchise's third World Series title in a seven-game thriller over the New York Yankees. Bill Mazeroski famously won it with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 at Forbes Field, the only time a winner-take-all Fall Classic ended with a home run and the first World Series ever to end on a game-winning homer (the only one since was Joe Carter's GW blast for Toronto in 1993). Yanks second baseman Bobby Richardson was Series MVP in a losing effort. Amazingly, this star-studded martchup featured seven past, present and future league MVPs: the late Dick Groat (1960) and Roberto Clemente (1966) for the Bucs; Yogi Berra (1951, '54 & '55), Bobby Shantz (1952), Mickey Mantle (1956, '57, and '62), Roger Maris (1960 & '61) and Elston Howard (1963) for the Bronx Bombers.
This is the smaller version of the coveted trophy awarded to the World Series champion every year. This particular one, made by Balfour, was presented to a member of the Pirates front office. It is arranged upon a 2 1/2-inch tall, 7 1/4-inch in diameter wooden base, whose surrounding gold-colored band reads "WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS PITTSBURGH PIRATES 1960." Atop the black base, a 5" (diameter) gold-colored band has a silver-colored baseball at its base and a very detailed crown figure at the top. Standing prominently at the front of the display are the press pins representing the two respective AL and NL World Series combatants. Surrounding the base are 16 gold-colored flags bearing the names of each Major League Baseball team in alphabetical order; the banners gradually ascend in size from 6” to 8.5” tall. The bottom of the wooden base is properly padded for easy, problem-free shelf display. The trophy seems to be well-preserved and essentially as-issued.