Fiftieth Anniversary of Iconic World Series Win Celebrated

Several thousand people gathered in Oakland Wednesday at the spot where Pittsburgh Pirate Bill Mazeroski hit the home run that beat the Yankees in the final inning of the last game of the 1960 World Series.

Among those gathered were Mazeroski and 1960 teammates Dick Groat, Bill Virdon, Bob Friend, Vernon Law, Hal Smith, Joe Christopher, George Witt, Joe Gibbon, Bob Oldis and ElRoy Face were there. Vera Clemente, widow of Roberto, and their son Luis also attended.

A sidewalk plaque commemorating the 50th anniversary of the World Series -clinching home run was dedicated near where the Forbes Field Wall used to be. It shows an image of Mazeroski hitting third base and going for home.

Every year, hundreds of fans gather at the spot at the same time of the game to listen to a recording of the game in real-time.

Tribe Celebrates Pennsylvania Connection

Tomorrow, at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg and in Conestoga Town, Lancaster County, the Tuscarora Indians, who now live in western New York, will commemorate the 300th anniversary of a meeting at which they sought permission to re-locate from North Carolina, where they were being persecuted by colonists and the British government.

The actual move didn’t start until 1713 or -14 because war broke out in North Carolina, and the tribe "was badly mauled," in the words of State Museum archaeological curator Kurt Carr. As it turned out, the Tuscarora, originally Iroquoians, did not stay in Pennsylvania but over several decades, continued on to New York, their ancestral homeland, where they were welcomed as the sixth nation of the Iroquois confederacy.

Carr says Pennsylvania historians have largely overlooked the Tuscarora move through the state, but the tribe considers it very significant, and tomorrow’s observance may lead to a search for new details. While most of the movement was up the Susquehanna Valley, the Tuscarora say some members of the tribe went up the Allegheny River Valley.

Tomorrow’s events will include dancers, a Clan Mother, and young men who will retrace the whole journey on foot.

Pres. Washington Exhibit Opens Fri

The Heinz History Center is set open a new traveling exhibit focused on the life of the Nation’s first president. Discover the Real George Washington: New Views from Mount Vernon, opens Friday and runs through mid July. History Center CEO Andy Masich says visitors will get to see forensic reconstructions of George Washington in three phases of his life; As a teenaged surveyor in what is now know as Western Pennsylvania, as a Revolutionary War hero atop his horse, and during his Presidential inauguration ceremony at Federal Hall in New York City. Nearly 100 objects from Washington’s life are spread over 10,000 square feet including an original set of Washington’s dentures, made of ivory, human teeth, and animal teeth. Masich says the dentures include a set of springs that forced the teeth open, “Washington had to clamp down just to keep his mouth shut.” The exhibition shows Washington in all phases of his life, including a more pastoral Washington, through five books from Washington’s personal library, complete with the signature of his ownership, that cover such topics as farming, botanical plants, and gristmills, and his family Bible. Among some of the larger items is a full-size replica of the Washington family pew from Pohick Church. Masich says it is fitting that the traveling exhibition opens in Pittsburgh given the amount of time Washington spent in the area and the roll he played in the region’s history. The exhibition will visit eight other cities after leaving Pittsburgh.

Lincoln Exhibit to Open at History Center

Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his impact on the US constitution will be explored in a new exhibition set to open this weekend at the Heinz History Center. The traveling display will be augmented with a local twist. Visitors will see the History Center’s addition of a recreation of the hotel room where Lincoln slept in Pittsburgh on his way to his first inauguration. The bed, chamber pot, dresser and other items were saved when the Monongahela House was torn down in 1935. They were transferred to a museum in South Park. That museum closed during World War Two and the items were placed in storage. History center Executive Director Andy Masich says a fire destroyed a county building where they artifacts were believed to have been stored and everyone thought they were lost forever. All of the furniture was discovered by a maintenance work just a few years ago in a different county owned building as he was investigating a leaky roof. Blueprints of how the room was configured at the time of Lincoln’s visit were discovered in the drawer of the dresser. The traveling portion of the exhibit from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia investigates how Lincoln used the constitution during his presidency and how his actions and the war transformed our understanding of the document. The exhibit explores issues of state sovereignty, civil liberties and slavery. Visitors are asked if they think Lincoln went too far in his interpretation of the constitution including his decision to suspend the writ of habeas corpus… a topic being hotly contested today. The exhibit also includes a slew of photographs, two life masks and several interactive exhibits where visitors are asked to decide if Lincoln’s action as president were fair interpretations of the constitution. See more ictures and listen to a preview tour on our Facebook page.