“You old Irishman, you, you did it!”

Those were the words of legendary Pittsburgh Pirates radio announcer Bob Prince as he embraced manager Danny Murtaugh in the clubhouse following the team’s championship-clinching Game 7 victory over the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

The win culminated perhaps the most memorable season in the Pirates’ 137-year history — and one of the most improbable title runs in baseball history.

The Yankees had the most feared lineup in all of baseball. The Pirates had not been to the Word Series in 33 years. Their most recent appearance in the Fall Classic resulted in getting swept in four games by the vaunted Yankees in 1927.

Murtaugh was in his third season as Pirate manager. A mediocre infielder with Pittsburgh during his playing career, he guided the Pirates to an 84-70 record in his first year at the helm in 1958. The Pirates finished in second place in the National League standings that year, eight games behind the champion Milwaukee Braves.

Murtaugh received NL Manager of the Year honors as the Bucs finished among the top four in the eight-team National League for the first time since 1948. The Pirates then finished 78-76-1 in 1959, fourth place in the league.

Few were forecasting a pennant run for the team in 1960.

No Pirate drove in 100 runs that season. Bob Skinner led the team in stolen bases with only 11. The Pirates had a solid starting rotation, but not a star-filled one.

Yet the Bucs wound up with the 1960 Cy Young Award winner in Vernon Law, who went 20-9 with a 3.08 earned run average in 1960. Shortstop Dick Groat won the NL batting title by hitting .325 and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player.

The Pirates finished 91-60 in 1960, beating out the Braves by seven games to win the National League pennant. The St. Louis Cardinals were in third place, nine games behind.

The Yankees were 97-57 in winning the American League pennant for the 10th time in 12 years. They were considered heavy favorites to defeat the Pirates in the World Series.

After all, New York was bolstered by eventual Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, and pitching ace Whitey Ford. The latter shut the Pirates out twice in the Series.

The Pirates ranked sixth among the eight NL teams with 120 home runs in 1960. They played their home games at Forbes Field, a playing surface so expansive that the batting cage was nestled on the warning track in center field during games. The center field wall was 457 feet from home plate.

The power alleys at Forbes Field were 406 feet to left-center and 408 to right-center, respectively.

While the Pirates led the NL with a .276 team batting average, first baseman Dick Stuart was their only player with 20 or more home runs. He hit 23, while third baseman Don Hoak and right fielder Roberto Clemente hit 16 each. Skinner hit 15 homers.

The Pirates won with pitching depth. Behind Law in the four-man starting rotation were Bob Friend (18-12, 3.00 ERA), Harvey Haddix (11-10, 3.97) and Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. The latter was acquired in an early-season trade. His nickname came from he town he was born in, Vinegar Bend, Alabama.

Pittsburgh had a strong bullpen, led by Elroy Face, who had a 10-8 record, 2.90 ERA and 24 saves during that season. Joe Gibbon was 4-2 in relief and Fred Green was 8-4 with a 3.21 ERA.

Hungry for a winner, Pittsburgh baseball fans consistently filled Forbes Field. Despite the ballpark having a seating capacity of only 35,000, the Pirates finished third in National League attendance in 1960 with 1,705,828 fans coming through the turnstiles.

Only the Los Angeles Dodgers (2,253,000) and San Francisco Giants (1,765,000) — both franchises still relatively new to their respective cities — drew more.

After the Pirates won Game 1 of the World Series, 6-4, at Forbes Field, the Yankees quickly demonstrated their superiority by winning Game 2, 16-3, then taking Game 3 at Yankee Stadium by a 10-0 count. The Pirates won Games 4 and 5 at Yankee Stadium by scores of 3-2 and 5-2.

Returning to Forbes Field for a chance to wrap up the Series upset in Game 6, the Bucs were drubbed by the Yankees, 12-0, to set up a wacky Game 7.

Ford pitched complete games in both of his shutouts earlier in the Series, including Game 6, and was not available to pitch in Game 7. The Pirates took advantage, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. Berra drilled a three-run homer in the sixth to give the Yankees a 5-4 advantage.

That lead had expanded to 7-4 by the eighth inning and the Pirates appeared to be finished, But the Bucs rallied for five runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a 9-7 lead. The rally was fueled by a grounder to shortstop that took a bad hop and struck Yankee shortstop Tony Kubek in the larynx.

Kubek had to leave the game. Hal Smith, who entered the game in the sixth as a defensive replacement for Smoky Burgess at catcher, hit a three-run homer to left to give the Pirates a 9-7 lead. Smith hit only 11 homers during the regular season.

After the Yankees knotted the game with two runs in the top of the ninth, the stage was set for one of the most dramatic moments in baseball history.

Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth against Yankee reliever Ralph Terry. He took the first pitch for a ball, then hit the next pitch over the left field wall to win the Series. Like Smith, Mazeroski hit only 11 home runs during the regular season.

The winning home run was struck at 3:36 p.m. on Oct. 13. Game 7 lasted only two hours and 36 minutes — and shocked everyone.

“Maz is eighth in our batting order,” Hoak was quoted after the game. “That doesn’t exactly rank him as one of the greatest hitters of all-time … When he hit it, all I said was ‘Get out of here, you rotten, stinking, beautiful baseball!’”

Mazeroski said: “We always felt we could pull it out. But I didn’t think I’d be the guy to do it.”

The Yankees hit .338 as a team in the Series to the Pirates’ .256. New York scored 55 runs to the Bucs’ 27. The Yankees hit 10 home runs in the Series, the Pirates four. The Bucs hit only one homer in the first six games before Rocky Nelson, Smith and Mazeroski homered in Game 7.

Yankee third baseman Bobby Richardson was named World Series MVP, the first time that award went to a player on the losing team.

“What happened to us? For cryin’ out loud, what happened?!,” a bewildered (Roger) Maris shouted in the Yankee clubhouse after the Series.

Berra had the answer.

“We just got beat, Roger, by the damnedest baseball team that me, you, or anybody else ever played against,” he said.