PITTSBURGH - Just three kilometres from the CONSOL Energy Center, where the freshly-polished Stanley Cup will be in the house Thursday night, there is a plaque embedded in a Pittsburgh sidewalk that pays tribute to the last time this city could celebrate the winning of a major sports title on home soil.
This is the spot, on the site of the University of Pittsburgh campus, where the former home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Forbes Field, once stood. And this is the spot where Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski muscled his way into sporting legend by hitting a home run off New York’s Ralph Terry in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 to give Pittsburgh a 10-9 World Series-sealing victory over the Yankees.