A look at all the Cubs walkoff home runs from 1960-64

Thanks to BCB reader KedzieKid, who in the comments to this article suggested I look into posts about Cubs walkoff home runs by decade, starting with the 1960s.

It was immediately evident just from looking at the 1960s that I would have to split it into five-year intervals instead. The Cubs had 84 walkoff wins from 1960-69, an average of 8.4 per year. Twenty-five of those were walkoff home runs, too many for just one article. Interestingly enough, they had four in 1960 and four in 1961, years in which they lost 94 and 90 games, respectively. So these are fun and totally random!

Here are the 14 walkoff home runs the Cubs had in the five seasons from 1960-64:

• August 17, 1960: The Future Hall of Famer matchup. The game was scoreless with one out in the ninth when Ernie Banks hit a walkoff homer off Don Drysdale. Drysdale had allowed just three singles up to that point.
• August 25, 1960: A pitcher walkoff homer! Glen Hobbie, who had been the winning pitcher on Banks’ homer eight days earlier, homered himself to win the game over the Pirates 2-1. He is one of just six pitchers in Cubs history to hit a walkoff homer.
• August 30, 1960: Five days later, Ernie did it again and the Cubs beat the Reds 5-4.
• August 31, 1960, first game: Don Zimmer homered with two out in the ninth to tie the game and Bob Will matched that in the 10th to beat the Braves 5-4 as the Cubs did this feat in consecutive games and for the fourth time in 15 days.
• April 14, 1961: Here’s the first of these that wasn’t a solo shot. Sammy Taylor hit a two-run walkoff as the Cubs came from behind to beat the Braves 3-2.
• April 15, 1961: Once again, back-to-back games, and this time on a grand slam! The bases were loaded on a hit batter, a single and walk, and Al Heist broke a 5-5 tie with his walkoff slam.
• April 26, 1961: Don Zimmer’s one-out homer in the 10th won this game 3-2 over the Reds, the team’s third walkoff homer of the month.
• May 20, 1961: A scoreless tie was broken up by Ed Bouchee’s walkoff homer off future Cub Larry Jackson.
• April 18, 1962: Ernie Banks hit a walkoff with two out in the 10th to beat the Houston Colt .45s 3-2 in just the seventh game in Houston franchise history.
• June 6, 1963: This one’s famous not only for the fact that another pitcher, Lindy McDaniel, hit a walkoff homer in the 10th, but for what McDaniel did in the top of that inning. McDaniel entered the game with the bases loaded and one out. He picked Willie Mays off second base and struck out Ed Bailey to end the inning, then led off the bottom of the frame with his walkoff homer for a 3-2 win over the Giants. If you wanted to say that McDaniel singlehandedly won that game, you wouldn’t be wrong.
• August 8, 1963: Ron Santo walked it off with a one-out homer in the 10th to beat the Dodgers 5-4.
• August 31, 1963: This is the David Bote feat of its era. The Cubs trailed Houston 5-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Three singles made it 5-2 and a walk loaded the bases with two out. Ellis Burton hit an ultimate grand slam to win the game 6-5. Here are all 28 ultimate slams in MLB history.
• May 31, 1964: The Cubs tied the game on a single with two out in the ninth and Billy Williams hit a two-out walkoff in the 10th for a 4-3 win over the Braves.
• July 12, 1964, first game: This game went to the ninth tied 2-2. John Roseboro of the Dodgers homered leading off the top of the ninth off Bob Buhl. The Cubs loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on a walk, bunt and booted ground ball, and Billy Williams hit a walkoff slam off Ron Perranoski for a 6-3 win.