Pirates World Series Champion Dies at 97

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the 1960 World Series on Oct. 13, but they'll do so without one of the players on the team.

Bob Oldis, a catcher on that winning 1960 World Series team, died on Sept. 21 at 97 years old in his home in Gilbert, Ariz.

He joined the Pirates in November 1959, after they selected him in the Rule 5 Draft and spent $25,000, around $278,329.90 in today's money, to land him, according to his SABR biography.

Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh liked to have three or even four catchers on the MLB roster and Oldis was one of four to start the season, along with Hal Smith, Smokey Burgess and Danny Kravitz.

Oldis became the third catching option for the Pirates midway through the 1960 season, as they traded Kravitz to the Kansas City Athletics on June 1, after he caught just one game for them.

He held a key, platoon role for the Pirates, with Burgess and Smith handling most of the game responsibilities. Smith started 66 games, Burgess started 89 games and Oldis started just three games, with four hits in 20 at-bats for a .200 batting average, along with a double, an RBI, a walk and two strikeouts.

Oldis played in 22 games as catcher for the Pirates that season, with no errors on 44 chances. He would come into the game when the Pirates replaced Burgess or Smith with pinch-runner Joe Christopher, or when the Pirates had a big lead in the game.

The Pirates finished with the best record in the National League that season, 95-59, thanks to a 26-22 record in one-run games and winning 15 games in the final at-bat, with 12 of them coming with two outs.

They took on the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series, who six World Series Championships in the 1950s and had 18 total at that point.

Oldis came in for two World Series games as a ninth-inning defensive substitute at catcher, a 3-2 win in Game 4 and a 5-2 win in Game 5, both at Yankees Stadium.

The Yankees outscored the Pirates 55-27 that series, but the Pirates prevailed in seven games, with Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski hitting the walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning at Forbes Field in Game 7.