Bill Virdon
1931-2021
In a city and region rich in sports heritage, there is no more iconic a team in all of Pittsburgh sports history than the 1960 World Series Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, the underdog team that beat the heavily favored Yankees of Mantle, Maris, Berra, Ford, and Stengel on Bill Mazeroski's Game 7, bottom of the ninth walk-off home run. Yeah, I had to type out that entire sentence for the kids out there who may not be aware of that momentous event. So iconic is that team that the loss of any member of it is a noteworthy event and fully deserving of The Grandstander's Absent Friends treatment.
Such is the case today with the death of Bill Virdon, that Pirate team's centerfielder and leadoff man. Virdon was 90 years old. In 1955, Virdon was the NL Rookie-of-the -Year, and he came to the Pirates in a trade in 1956. There he stayed until he retired at the age of only 34 after the 1965 season. He then embarked on a managerial and coaching career that embodied the term "baseball lifer." He managed the Pirates, Astros, Yankees, and Expos in the majors, and even well into his eighties, Virdon would show up at Pirates Spring Training every year as a guest instructor sporting the same flat stomach and waistline that he carried in his playing days.
By my reckoning, Virdon's death leaves only eight players on the Buccos 25 man World Series roster still among us: Joe Christopher, Roy Face, Dick Groat, Vernon Law, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Oldis, Dick Schofield, and Bob Skinner. Bob Oldis, the eldest among them, will turn 94 in January, and the youngest, Maz, will turn 86 in 2022.
RIP Bill Virdon.
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