More than two decades after Bill Mazeroski’s famous home run in the 1960 World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates legend was at the center of what many believe was the beginning of the end of Democratic control of Westmoreland County politics.
In the spring of 1987, Mazeroski, then a Hempfield resident, ran in the primary as a Democratic candidate for Westmoreland County commissioner. He aligned with longtime friend and three-term incumbent Ted Simon to fight off a challenge from another wing of the party.
“Everybody thought Maz would win, that the people who didn’t know politics would vote for him and he would lead the ticket,” said Ken Burkley, a Greensburg lawyer who has spent decades around Westmoreland County’s political scene. Burkley served in the late 1990s as chairman of the Democratic committee.
Mazeroski didn’t win.
He finished third, just 631 votes behind Simon for the second Democratic nomination to run in November at a time when Democrats were considered shoo-ins for victory to continue the party’s decades-long control over local politics.
After word of Mazeroski’s death Feb. 21, many recalled the circumstances of the future baseball Hall of Famer’s only run for public office and its lasting impact.
The 1987 campaign came at a time when Democrats held a majority on the board of commissioners, but in title only. Simon, who had been in office since 1974 had been the man in charge until fellow Democrat John Regoli resigned two years earlier to take a job in the state government.
Richard Vidmer, a former star quarterback at Hempfield Area High School and at the University of Michigan, was appointed in 1985 to replace Regoli and formed a bipartisan alliance with Republican Terry Marolt to run the county government, leaving Simon out of the mix.
“Ted Simon and Dick Vidmer did not get along. It wasn’t Ted’s pick for Vidmer to be there,” said John Pallone, who as a law student returned home that spring to volunteer on Vidmer’s first campaign. He later was hired by both Simon and Vidmer to serve as the county’s top nonelected administrator before a long career as a state representative.
“That’s about the time the party was starting to break down. I didn’t see it then, but I know it now. Ted was always good friends with Bill Mazeroski, and they thought back then his name recognition would be enough to carry him,” Pallone said. “I don’t think people knew until he ran that he lived in Westmoreland County.”
Greensburg attorney Jim Antoniono served as Mazeroski’s campaign manager.
“Bill didn’t want anything to do with politics, but he did it to placate his friend. He said he did it to satisfy Ted,” Antoniono said.
As the campaign progressed Antoniono said Mazeroski overcame unease over the political demands of the race and eventually grew more comfortable with the required meet-and-greets, handshaking and public speaking required of a candidate.
By the time the campaign reached its final stages in May, Mazeroski had evolved into a more polished candidate, Antoniono said.
Burkley, who was backing high-school friend Jerry Hagen for one of the Democratic nominations in that race, said it was expected Mazeroski’s name recognition and baseball past would be enough to pace him to victory and ultimately it would be a race between Simon and Vidmer for the second nomination.
“Maz certainly had a heightened profile,” Burkley recalled.
As the votes started to be tallied in the hours after polls closed it appeared Vidmer was headed toward victory with Mazeroski running a strong second en route to the party nomination.
Simon, Mazeroski and their supporters watched the early returns in the restaurant at what was then called Westmoreland County Regional Airport in Unity.
“I‘ll never forget, Billy turned to me and said, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want this office without Ted. Holy (expletive) what am I going to do if I win and Ted loses,’” Antoniono said.
Simon eventually pulled ahead and secured the second Democratic nomination behind Vidmer. Mazeroski finished a close third.
“When Ted started to catch up and pull ahead, part of (Mazeroski) was relieved but part of him wasn’t because he had never been rejected before. He really broke down about the election results. The whole thing was way more than he anticipated,” Antoniono said.
Simon went on to serve two more terms before being ousted in 1995. Vidmer, confined to a wheelchair after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, did not run for reelection in 1999.
Mazeroski never ran for another political office.
“We were all shocked when he didn’t win,” Burkley said. “Maz (later) always said he was glad he didn’t win.”
Pallone said Mazeroski’s run for office and the intraparty split that led to his candidacy were the first signs that the local Democratic hold on county politics was fragile.
But it was two decades before Republicans made substantial inroads on the local political scene, finally taking control of the county’s board of commissioners in 2011. The GOP now holds nearly every elected countywide and state office in Westmoreland County.
“He didn’t have any bitterness after the election,” Pallone said of Mazeroski. “He was like, ‘I ran, I didn’t win.’ He was just disillusioned on how the system operates and still operates.”