Tim Benz: 50 years after retirement, Bill Mazeroski uses his Pirates Hall of Fame induction to campaign for teammates

As Saturday’s master of ceremonies for the inaugural Pirates Hall of Fame inductions, team play-by-play announcer Greg Brown delivered his best line as legendary second baseman Bill Mazeroski was receiving his commemorative gold jacket.

“Maz asked me to read his speech. He didn’t want to get up here to do it … I’ve got an extra binder here,” Brown deadpanned. “To quote Bill, ‘Thank you.’”

And that was it.

Brown was playing off Mazeroski’s famous speech when he was inducted into that other Hall of Fame in 2001. The National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

It was a speech 23 years in the making, yet it lasted only two minutes, 36 seconds because Mazeroski was too overcome with emotion to get through any more of it. About 90 of those 156 seconds were Mazeroski apologizing for pausing to wipe away tears.

“I think you can kiss these 12 pages down the drain,” Mazeroski improvised. “I just want to thank all the friends and family who made the long trek up here to listen to me speak and hear this crap.”

A Pittsburgh legend for four decades by that point, and Mazeroski was somehow even more Pittsburgh than he had ever been in that one moment.

Yep. Mazeroski has always been almost as economical with his words as he was with his movement in getting rid of the ball on a double-play turn at second base. He never took long. And he almost always got the job done.

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That’s part of the reason it’s funny that Mazeroski has thrived in his unofficial 50-year role as team ambassador — and walking, talking, breathing link to the greatest moment in franchise history.

For a guy who never needed the spotlight, Mazeroski has always had a willingness to stand in it, as uncomfortable as he may be with the glare. As a shining beacon of Pirates history, Mazeroski’s humility about hitting the game-winning home run to defeat the fabled New York Yankees in 1960 has somehow managed to make the highlight even more revered in Pittsburgh lore.

The “it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy” aura resonates much more as truth than cliche when you hear “Maz” recall that moment.

“When I hit that home run, all I could think of is that I was so excited that we beat the Yankees,” Mazeroski said Saturday after the ceremonies. “But I figured in a year or two, it’d all be forgotten, and nobody will remember that. Like it was a regular game or something. But the fans kept it up. Everybody kept talking about it. It got bigger and bigger and bigger.”

So does Mazeroski ever want people to stop talking about it?

“No,” Mazeroski exclaimed with a laugh.

That’s as close as you’ll ever get to Mazeroski bragging — or even allowing himself to bask in the warmth of the memory.

But as is Mazeroski’s way, he described the importance of being in the new Pirates Hall of Fame as a duty for himself, not as an individual honor. The 85-year-old Pirates alum said he has always seen his induction into Cooperstown more as a representation for many on that 1960 team than it is an acknowledgment of his individual success.

After all, others who are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame from the Pirates of the 1960s — such as Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente — have long since passed away.

As a living link to that era, Mazeroski sees it as his job to keep alive the memories of those players who weren’t inducted on the first ballot in Pittsburgh and won’t ever be in Cooperstown.

All-Star players and award winners from that era such as Vern Law, Elroy Face, Bob Friend, Bill Virdon and Dick Groat.

“There are some very good ball players that aren’t in that big Hall of Fame that could be. Elroy Face is one of them. But it’ll be great to see that (in Pittsburgh),” Mazeroski said.

Now he sees this honor of being inducted at PNC Park the same way on a local level.

“I’m happy to be the first one. But there’s more comin’. I know that. You know that,” Mazeroski said of his teammates from the ‘60s. “And I’m just so happy that they are having (the Hall of Fame).”

Another inductee to the inaugural class on Saturday was 1971 World Series star and former Pirates broadcaster Steve Blass. As quiet and as introverted as Mazeroski is, Blass is every bit as extroverted and effervescent. Upon hearing Mazeroski’s comments about how he views the obligation of this induction, Blass summed up his former teammate as succinctly as anyone could.

“That’s typical Maz. He represents players he played with,” Blass said. “That’s all you need to hear from Bill. He didn’t say much. But when he talks, he says a lot. I go on, and on, and on. And Bill just says meaningful things.”

Hopefully, the decision-makers at the Pirates Hall of Fame hear those “meaningful things” about those teammates of Mazeroski’s from the ‘60s. Especially Groat, who is 91 years old. And Law, who is 92. And Face, who is 94.

Those three should all get to have a day like Mazeroski has had — twice. They should all get to be in a fraternity like this one with him while they are all alive to enjoy it together. If not in Cooperstown, then certainly in Pittsburgh.

Hopefully, it will happen next summer.

Because for as much as it was Mazeroski’s homer that launched that team into the history books, it was the team itself that put Mazeroski in a position to play the role of hero.

Mazeroski usually points that out. And it never takes him very long to say it.