From a radio piece I wrote last July, on the occasion of the New York Yankees playing the Pittsburgh Pirates for the first time since the 1960 World Series:

[Maybe 20 years ago] the Missus asked me in an offhand way what my all-time favorite [baseball] team was. She had come across a mail-order company that sold reproductions of the hometown paper’s front page the day after a World Series win, and she wanted to get me one for my birthday.

I told her the 1960 New York Yankees.

Shortly thereafter, the Missus received the October 14, 1960 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette front page with the headline “BUCS ARE CHAMPS” in umpteen-point all-caps boldface. The Missus was, understandably, somewhat confused. She called the mail-order company and said, “No, I wanted the 1960 World Series front page.”

The mail-order gal replied, “Honey, you got the 1960 World Series front page.”

The 1960 World Series was one of the oddest – and greatest – ever. The Yankees won three laughers by a combined 35 runs, while the Pirates won three squeakers by a combined six runs.

Everyone knew which was the better team going into Game 7.

And then the Pirates prevailed.

Bill Mazeroski hit his legendary walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth, breaking a 9-9 tie and the hearts of untold New York schoolboys, who learned one October afternoon that baseball is a beautiful, pitiless game.

Fast-forward twenty years to tonight, when the Missus gave me my presents for what most people would call a landmark birthday (suffice it to say I’ll no longer be using the great Raymond Chandler line “pushing 60 hard enough to break a wrist”). And what did I get?

A pristine ticket to the 1960 World Series Game 7 at Forbes Field (Sec. 18, Row D, Seat 17, First Floor Reserved, $7.70 tax included) – which is almost impossible to find – and a Pittsburgh Pirates World Series 1960 Official Souvenir Program with the Game 7 Scorecard filled in – which is almost almost impossible to find.

Bucs Are Champs?

Hell, the Missus is the real champ.