Forty-five years ago today, in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, Pittsburgh second baseman Bill Mazeroski blasted a fastball from New York reliever Ralph Terry over the left-field wall for a 10-9 victory and a shocking Pirate upset over the heavily favored Yankees.

Still the only championship-clinching, bottom-of-the-ninth Game 7 homer in Series history, Mazeroski's memorable gallop around the bases and ensuing bedlam at Forbes Field became the ultimate "walk-off" home run — more than four decades before the creation of the current catch-phrase.

And Vern Law was there.

Better put, the Pirates were there because of Law. His stellar 1960 season and World Series performances were largely responsible for giving title-starved Pittsburgh its first baseball championship in 33 years.

With the 2005 World Series on the horizon, Law's 1960 highlight film — copied from its original 16mm format to VHS and needing a transfer to DVD — will be pulled out and watched again in his Provo home with family members and friends.

Pittsburgh and the majors seemed a world away for Vernon Sanders Law, a Meridian, Idaho, farm boy and overpowering pitcher who didn't know what a change-up was until he signed with the Pirates in 1948 at age 18.

Without a draft system, teams competed head-to-head in scouting and signing prospects. Herman Welcker, a U.S. senator from Idaho who helped direct Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew to the majors, recommended Law to friend and fellow Gonzaga classmate Bing Crosby, the actor/singer and then part owner of the Pirates.

Cigar-chomping representatives from eight other teams lined up to visit the Laws, but Pittsburgh officials were savvy enough to not bring cigars into the home of the Mormon family — instead delivering a box of chocolates and a dozen roses for Law's mother. The clincher came midway in the visit, when the phone rang with Bing himself on the line, and Law inked his first contract worth $175 a month plus a $2,000 signing bonus.

"A rookie today makes more money in his first year than I made in my whole career," he says. "But that was pretty big money for a kid working on a farm, hauling hay for a dollar a day."

The 6-foot-2 right-hander reached the big leagues in 1950, going 7-9 that year. The next season, he tore his rotator muscle pitching both before and after a long rain delay in a game in Chicago. Ice wasn't used for pitchers' arms, and shoulder injuries weren't well understood. Doctors removed Law's tonsils, checked his teeth and did everything but try leeches to alleviate the shoulder pain.