So, 1960 baseball, huh? I decided a while back I wanted to really dig into that season. Not just, you know, look up who won the World Series and skim a few articles. I mean, really get a feel for it.
My first thought was, “Easy, I’ll just grab some books, maybe a documentary.” But then I figured, nah, that’s too passive. I wanted to do some of the legwork myself, kind of like an archaeologist, but for baseball history. My “practice” was basically to try and piece together a more personal picture of that year in baseball.
So, I started my little project. First thing, I tried to find original newspapers from that year. Not easy! A lot of libraries have microfilms, sure, but actually holding a sports section from October 1960? That’s a different feeling. I spent hours, man, scrolling through fuzzy microfilm readers, my eyes burning. Looking for box scores, game summaries, player interviews – anything that wasn’t just a dry stat line.
Then I got into trying to find memorabilia. Not the super expensive stuff, I’m not made of money. I was looking for things like:
- Old ticket stubs, even for regular season games.
- Local team programs, the kind they sold at the ballpark.
- Maybe some obscure photos, not just the famous shots.
- Trying to find out what fans back then actually thought, beyond what the big sportswriters said.
Let me tell you, it was a grind. You’d think with the internet, everything’s at your fingertips. Nope. A lot of this stuff is buried in people’s attics, or in small town historical societies, or with collectors who don’t really advertise. I sent out so many emails, made calls, visited a few dusty antique shops. More often than not, it was a dead end. You find a promising lead, get your hopes up, and then… nothing. Or someone wants a fortune for a beat-up scorecard. It was frustrating, I tell ya.
I remember this one time, I was trying to track down any local reporting on a particular late-season game for the Pirates. Not the World Series, just some random Tuesday game. I thought it’d be straightforward. Hours at the library again, then trying to find online archives of smaller Pennsylvania papers. Found a tiny mention, that was it. All that digging for a sentence or two. It really showed me how much history just vanishes.
So why did I even bother with all this, right? Why get so worked up about baseball from over sixty years ago? Well, it’s kinda personal. My dad, he was a kid in 1960. Grew up in Pittsburgh. He used to talk about that Pirates team, especially Mazeroski’s home run, you know? His eyes would light up. He passed away a few years back, and I guess… I guess this whole deep dive into 1960 baseball was my way of trying to connect with him a little. Trying to see that season, that world, through his eyes, or at least get a little closer to what he experienced.
It’s funny what you learn when you go looking for something. I started off thinking I’d become some kind of expert on the 1960 season. What I really found was a lot of faded newsprint, a few interesting old photos, and a whole heap of appreciation for how hard it is to really touch the past. It’s not like they tell you in the movies. It’s messy. And most of it is gone. But the little bits you do find, they feel pretty special. So yeah, that was my little adventure with 1960 baseball. More of a journey than a destination, for sure.
