This column was supposed to be about the 50th anniversary of Game 7 of the wacky but wonderful World Series of 1960. But it wasn’t going to be about Bill Mazeroski, whose ninth-inning home run won the Series and remains the only home run to win a World Series in the seventh game.

The focus of the column was going to be Hal Smith, the platooned catcher, whose three-run home run in the eighth inning made Mazeroski’s heroics possible, not to mention necessary.

Smith’s two-out home run against the Yankees’ Jim Coates climaxed a five-run Pittsburgh rally and gave the Pirates a 9-7 lead. The Yankees tied the game in the ninth, and Mazeroski led off the Pirates’ half of the ninth with a home run over Forbes Field’s red-brick left field wall against Ralph Terry.

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Southern California was not a good geographical destination for baseball players who changed addresses in the second half of the season. Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot, Scott Podsednik and Octavio Dotel moved to Los Angeles, Dan Haren and Alberto Callaspo to Anaheim and Miguel Tejada and Ryan Ludwick to San Diego. Now they have all gone home.

Their changes of address, of course were involuntary, but so were a bunch of others, and those players have had their seasons extended. That group includes Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina and Jeff Francoeur in Texas, Lance Berkman and Kerry Wood in New York, Derrek Lee, Rick Ankiel and Alex Gonzalez in Atlanta and Roy Oswalt in Philadelphia.

Contenders, as usual, were active in the trade market, and the more successful teams are still playing.

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NEWS ITEM: Roy Halladay pitches no-hitter

Whatever Cliff Lee’s price was going to be as a free agent this winter, it just went up. Not because of what he did Wednesday, pitching another great game in the post-season, allowing 5 hits and a run while striking out 10 in 7 innings against Tampa Bay. No, because of what Roy Halladay did.

Halladay pitched a no-hitter against Cincinnati, only the second no-hitter ever in post-season play. The Philadelphia ace, bolstering his luster as the best pitcher of his era, fell one batter short of matching Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers.

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