BRADENTON, Fla. — Bill Mazeroski pressed his right fingertips against the palm of his glove hand, demonstrating the double-play pivot that he made so famous.

The Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer shared the secret of the sleight-of-hand trick that allowed him to turn two faster than anyone who ever played second base in baseball history.

“I didn’t catch the ball,” he said. “It’s just the ricochet.”

Before you could blink Maz, even at 83 years of age, slipped his right hand under his imaginary glove and swung his right arm into a cocked position, ready for the throw to first.

“It’s quicker,” he said, “than anybody else ever did it.”

Best remembered for his heroics in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, when he hit a walk-off home run over the left-field wall at Forbes Field to beat the New York Yankees, Maz is as revered in baseball for his glove at second base.

“It’s weird,” Maz said. “I’m known for the home run and I’m in the Hall of Fame because of my defense.”

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review Pirates Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski talks with second baseman Adam Frazier in the batting cages at Pirate City in Bradenton, Fla.  

That’s why Derek Shelton personally called this winter to ask Maz to work as a special instructor at spring training, and why the new Pirates manager called it “unbelievable” that his invitation was accepted after Maz arrived Friday at Pirate City.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton shares his excitement about having Hall of Fame second baseman and 1960 World Series Game 7 hero Bill Mazeroski at spring training. pic.twitter.com/8sASomUlmG

— Kevin Gorman (@KGorman_Trib) February 21, 2020

Obviously, everyone knows about the home run in Game 7 that gives you goosebumps even thinking about it,” Shelton said, “but one of the things that stood out to me was something that I read, that he’s considered by many people to be the greatest defender at second base of all time — and not only the greatest defender at second base but maybe the greatest defender of any defensive position.

“When you talk about that and how it transcends into today’s game — and that’s with guys using advanced analytics to look at it — anytime you can have an alumni guy in camp, it’s special. But when you have a Hall of Famer who’s hit a home run in Game 7 of the World Series and also is one of the greatest defenders of all time? If he rubs off on anybody in our camp, we’re very fortunate.”

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review Pirates Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski looks out over the fields at Pirate City after arriving at the team’s spring training complex Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, in Bradenton.  

The Pirates have to hope that their celebration of the 60th anniversary of their 1960 “Beat em Bucs” team rubs off better on these players than the 40th anniversary of the ’79 “We Are Family” team did last summer.

Mazeroski is the youngest of the last nine living members from the ’60 World Series champions. That’s a good number, I told him, knowing that his No. 9 is retired by the Pirates.

Enough to make a team, he quipped.

But it’s a number that seems to dwindle with every year. The Pirates lost pitchers Bob Friend and Joe Gibbon in February 2019 and catcher Hal Smith — whose three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth gave the Pirates a 9-7 lead before the Yankees rallied to tie it in the top of the ninth — just last month.

The team has a reunion every five years, with the next scheduled for June 16 at PNC Park. It’s fitting that the Pirates are playing the Yankees, even more so that they will honor Maz with a Gold Glove bobblehead as part of the 1960 World Series celebration.

“Ooh, that’s right,” Maz said. “I go to the ballpark again.”

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review Pirates Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski walks from the batting cages Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, at Pirate City in Bradenton.  

That’s a trip he usually makes only once a year, which is more often than he visits the brick wall with the painted “457 FT” that still stands from Forbes Field on Roberto Clemente Drive in Oakland. Baseball fans known as the Game 7 Gang gather there every October 13th to listen to the radio broadcast.

Every time, it ends with Maz’s homer. It has given Maz a measure of both fame and immortality. One of the best stories Maz has told is how it helped cure a degenerate gambler who bet everything he owned on the Yankees. The guy quit cold turkey.

“You hear some funny stories, some weird stories,” Mazeroski said. “They’re all interesting. I just can’t remember them all.”

But he’s never forgotten how to turn two.

Maz claims his 161 double plays in 1966 is a major-league single-season record that will never be broken. It’s something Maz shares with Pirates infielders, both a joy and point of pride that he calls his “special reason” for coming to spring training.

“I always show them the same way I did it,” Maz said. “They can adjust to do the things that they can do. I show them the quick ways I did it. They can do most of that but they don’t get the hands as quick or feet as quick moving as they should. Some of them always left some little part of it out.”

Maz isn’t shy about saying that he benefited from a bygone era, before slow-motion instant replay could catch his cheating. (His word, not mine). Maz even demonstrated how his pivot foot never touched the bag, just gave the appearance of grazing it.

“I cheated just about every double play I made, about that much off the bag,” Maz said, holding his hands several inches apart. “That’s the God’s honest truth, too. You couldn’t see it with plain eyes. With slow motion, they slowed it down. I was about right there” — a half-step from an imaginary base — “and gone.

“It has to be quick. I was never on the bag when I made a double play. It’s just so quick that this had to be out of the way first when I caught the ball.”

This is where Maz corrected himself. He never actually caught the ball, just relayed the ricochet into his right hand. And he estimates that he didn’t drop but maybe five in his career.

“It wasn’t too quick,” he said, “but it was quick.”

The Pirates want that quick turn to rub off on second baseman Adam Frazier — and anyone else who can pick up on Maz’s incomparable ability to turn two — as Shelton attempts to instill a winning mentality into a franchise four decades removed from its last World Series championship.

It only makes sense to start with Maz, who made playing second base look as magical as hitting a World Series-winning home run. If he had to choose between them? With a sly smile, Maz answered quicker than anybody else ever did it.

“I’ll take the home run.”

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Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review Pirates Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski watches batting practice in the cages at Pirate City Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, in Bradenton.  

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