Comments By Nellie King After Final Game At Forbes Field

The final game at Forbes Field was the second game of a Sunday afternoon double header with the Chicago Cubs. With Bob Prince, I was fortunate to broadcast this memorable day in the history of the City of Pittsburgh and Pirate baseball.

This photo (black and white picture shown below commentary) of the last game played at Forbes Field was a gift from Harry Cochanauer, a longtime photographer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Recently retired, eager to enjoy retirement, Harry was stricken with a terminal illness. Prior to his passing, he asked me to stop by to see him, stating he had a photo he wanted me to have. In a very kind and thoughtful gesture he handed me a photo of the final game at Forbes Field. This is a copy of that original photo. Included with the photo is a copy of the original scorecard Bob Prince and I used for the broadcast. The lineups on the scorecard were made out between games by "Radio Rich", Bob Prince's loyal statistician.

Construction of Forbes Field began on March 1, 1909. It was opened four months later, June 30, 1909. A crowd of 30,338, then the largest Pittsburgh crowd ever to see a baseball game, saw the Pirates lose 3-2 to the Cubs. In a bit of irony the last game at Forbes Field played June 28, 1970, was just two days short of 61 years of the date it opened, and against the same team, the Chicago Cubs. The largest Forbes Field crowd was 44,932 for Prize Day, September 23, 1956. I was one of seven Pirate pitchers who saw action that day in an 8-2 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers and Don Newcombe.

Forbes Field was the scene of many memorable moments in Pirate history. The most dramatic was Bill Mazeroski's historic home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the seventh and final game of the 1960 World Series. With the game tied at nine, Mazeroski homered on the second pitch from Yankee reliever Ralph Terry to give the Pirates a 10-9 win and the World Series Championship. It created the greatest spontaneous celebration ever in Pittsburgh sports history.

Mazeroski appropriately had the last Pirate hit at Forbes Field, a double to left center in the seventh inning. Fittingly he also recorded the final out in the field. Fielding a ground ball by Don Kessinger he touched second base to retire Willie Smith, who as a pinch hitter, registered the last hit at Forbes Field. Jim Nelson was the winning pitcher. Reliever Dave Giusti, the winning pitcher in the day's first game, saved the final game for the Pirates. Al Oliver hit the last home run at Forbes Field.

That's my mom, Patricia Burton, and her cousin Chookie Meyers getting an autographed ball from one of the greatest men to ever play the game of baseball, Honus Wagner, at Forbes Field in 1948. Below, she is getting another ball signed by Pirate Johnny Hopp in July of 1949. We still have that ball, also signed by Pirate Manager Honus Wagner, 2nd baseman Danny Murtaugh, announcer Rosey Rosewall and most of the 1949 Pirate team. Just for kicks, New York Giant manager Leo Durocher added his signature. That ball and countless other memories make up my mother's Forbes Field history.

Mom had an inside track. Her father, Dan McGibbeny, a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, covered Pirate games back in the 40s and 50s. Mom spent many days tagging along. My grandfather himself used to talk for hours about the "glory days" at Forbes Field. He himself had a special friendship with another Pirate legend, Ralph Kiner.

My father's memories of Forbes Field also run deep. A lifelong Pirate fan, he was selling newspapers during the 1960 World Series, and after Game 6 had one copy signed by most members of the team. It is now framed and hanging on the wall at our family home. Dad was also present when Bill Mazeroski hit the winning home run in Game 7. He never made it home that evening, having gotten stranded in the mad celebration that engulfed downtown Pittsburgh after the game.

In 1961, several members of the Brookline Little League's Kiwanis team had their special day at Forbes Field, meeting with several coaches and players, including legendary Pirates like Bob Skinner, Danny Murtaugh and Roberto Clemente. As for myself, I only remember going to one game at Forbes Field in the spring of 1970, but I vividly remember Willie Stargell "spreading some chicken on the hill" by hitting a homerun into the upper deck in right field. My most special Pirate memories happened a little later, at Three Rivers Stadium, where the Pirates helped transform Pittsburgh into the "City of Champions" in the decade of the 1970s. Among my most treasured items is a photo of myself with Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski, taken in the summer of 1971.

Getting back to Forbes Field, bits of the stadium still occupy a place in the Pittsburgh landscape. The section of the outfield wall where Mazeroski hit his epic home run still stands near the Cathedral of Learning, ivy included, and you can find home plate in its ceremonious location in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library, both monuments to the memory of one of baseball's greatest stadiums, Forbes Field.