4/26: Xavier Joins; Spanky POTW; Drew, Jack & Gift Debuts; '23 Glee; Goin' Long; Maz Muscle; Rallies & Bummers; Expo Game Tales; Mr. Swat Statue; Almost Sold; Hack's Night; HBD S-Rod, Francisco, Curtis, Amos, Ron & Fire Truck

• 1900 - The Bucs drew 11,000 to the newly expanded Exposition Park, the biggest Pittsburgh baseball turnout to date, with a couple of thousand more fans trying to get in. The Pirates were fortified by the recent influx of Louisville players like Honus Wagner, but dropped a 12-11 slugfest to Cincinnati as the Reds lit up Rube Waddell and Jack Chesbro. The Bucs made a game of it by rallying for seven ninth-inning tallies and left the tying run at second base. The rooters caused a delay when the 11th run scored by showering the field with cushions to celebrate, but were a tad premature in their revelry. 
• 1905 - The Chicago Cubs beat Pittsburgh at Exposition Park, 2-1, as Cubbie center fielder Jack McCarthy became the only major league outfielder to throw out three runners trying to score in one game; all three assists were on tag-up tries on flies following triples (they whacked four three-baggers during the day; the other was stranded; so much for clutch hitting). The game story in the Pittsburgh Press stated simply in the headline that “McCarthy Made the Throws.” 
• 1917 - Coach Virgil “Fire” Trucks was born in Birmingham, Alabama. After a long pro career, he became the bullpen coach/batting practice pitcher for Pittsburgh in 1960 and stayed with the Pirates until 1963, later operating baseball camps for the Bucs. Jack House of the Birmingham News gave him the apt moniker “Fire,” not because he enjoyed chasing hook and ladder trucks but because of his blazing heater; Trucks tossed two no-hitters for Detroit in 1952. 
• 1920 - Coach Ron Northey was born in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, near Hazelton. An outfielder with some pop and a good eye (he walked more than he whiffed), Northey played 12 MLB seasons, missing some time for WW2. After his playing days, he spent three years as a coach on Danny Murtaugh’s staff from 1961-1963 before becoming a White Sox scout. 

Joe Bowman - 1940 Play Ball

• 1940 - After rallying for four runs in the eighth inning the day before but falling just short, the Bucs crossed home seven times in the eighth frame on this day to roll over the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-4, at Forbes Field. Debs Garms and Joe Bowman both had homers with three RBI to spark the comeback outburst and earn Mace Brown his second relief win in four days. 
• 1947 - OF Amos Otis was born in Mobile, Alabama. He played the final year of his 17-season career with the Pirates in 1984, coming over after 14 campaigns with the KC Royals. (He actually had been dealt to the Bucs during the 1976 off season, but as a 5 & 10 year player vetoed the trade of him and Cookie Rojas for Al Oliver.) His TRS season wasn’t much of a swan song for the 37-year-old: in 97 at-bats, he hit .165 and he was released in August. Amos then worked briefly for the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies as a hitting instructor before retiring. 
• 1958 - With Pittsburgh and Cincinnati knotted, 4-4, at Crosley Field heading into the eighth, Bill Mazeroski took the game into his hands. First, he drilled an eighth-inning solo shot to put the Pirates on top, then his three-run bomb in the top of the ninth sealed the deal, 8-4. It was the first of eight multi-homer games in his career, with his next coming less than a month later on May 10th. 1958 was also the year Maz earned his first of seven All-Star spots. Billy’s heroics gave the Bucs third pitcher, Don Gross, the win after he spun four innings of one-hit relief, with Roberto Clemente, Bob Skinner and Ted Kluszewski adding three hits apiece. 
• 1961 - IF Curtis Wilkerson was born in Petersburg, Virginia. Wilkerson spent 11 years in the show as mainly a bench guy, getting into 85 games for the Pirates in 1991 and hitting .188. After he retired, he managed for three years in the Rangers system and then three more years (1999-2001) for the Buccaneers squads in Williamsport and Lynchburg. He then skippered in the indy leagues and at last look was managing in a collegiate summer league in Texas. 

Curtis Wilkerson - 1992 Score

• 1972 - RHP Francisco Cordova was born in Cerro Azul, Mexico. He spent his five-year MLB career (1996-2000) as a Pirate, first as a reliever who notched 12 saves in his rookie year, then joining the rotation. His slash was 42-47-12/3.96. Arm injuries derailed his career, but he did continue to toss in Mexico through the 2011 campaign. He was the main man in one of the great Pirate red letter moments on July 12th, 1997 at a sold out Three Rivers Stadium when he pitched nine innings of a combined 10-inning no-hitter, with Ricardo Rincón closing out the no-no, winning the game on Mark smith’s pinch-hit home run in the extra frame. 
• 1978 - Ed Ott hit an 11th-inning home run at Shea Stadium to give the Bucs and Bert Blyleven, who pitched a complete game six-hitter, a 1-0 win. It took 35 years for another Pirate, Neil Walker, to homer for the only run in a Bucco extra inning victory in a 2014 win over the Cubs. 
• 1985 - Utilityman Sean Rodriguez was born in Miami. In his career, S-Rod played every position but pitcher and catcher. The Bucs traded for him during the 2014 off season and he played around the field for Pittsburgh. He was signed up again for 2016 after hitting .246 and playing six different spots in 2015. The super-sub had a super year, batting .270 w/18 HR and turned that into a nice FA deal with Atlanta. He missed much of the 2017 campaign due to a shoulder injury suffered in an off-season car accident and returned to the Bucs via the trade route in August. He last played with Miami in 2020. He’s now a player development instructor for the Phils. 
• 1988 - C Mike LaValliere was named the NL Player of the Week. Spanky went 12-for-17 in five games, lifting his average to .404, tops in the Senior Circuit. The honor followed Barry Bonds’ PoW award the week before, and was the Buccos first back-to-back Player of the Week recognition since 1982 when 1B Jason Thompson was given the award on consecutive weeks in May. 

Spanky - 1988 Topps

• 1995 - 34,841 fans at TRS disrupted a delayed Opening Day by throwing whatever was handy (mainly giveaway Bucco pennants) on the field to show their displeasure with the player’s strike and some shoddy play by the Bucs. The game was delayed for 17 minutes until the announcer told the unruly crowd that the contest was about to be forfeited. It might as well have been; Montreal won the game, 6-2, chasing Jon Leiber in the fifth. The team was lucky they weren’t wrapped in Jolly Rogers and tossed overboard after one of the worse innings in their history. Going into that fateful frame, it was a 1-1 game between Pittsburgh and Montreal before the floodgates opened. There were two outs, Expos on the corners (the runner on first reached when his right side, shoulda-been inning-ending nubber was fielded but nobody covered the sack) and one run already in when Roberto Kelly bled another soft roller, this one up the left side. 3B Jeff King flipped the ball into the outfield; RF Orlando Merced missed the mark on the throw home, and all three Montreal runners scored. Montreal added another run on a hit batter, single and wild pitch. Jason Christiansen added a throwing error to the pot before the Bucs got back into the dugout (and the ground crew picked up a field littered with pennants). So instead of being out of the inning, it ended up game, set and match for Montreal. C Mark Parent told the Post Gazette’s Paul Meyer “That whole fifth inning was a fiasco. It was like Murphy’s Law.” 
• 1995 - As the Pirates were bungling away at the North Shore, Mayor Tom Murphy and Vince Sarni, chairman of the Pittsburgh Associates, left the Duquesne Club and announced that they had reached a framework to sell the Pirates and keep the team in Pittsburgh with Chambers Development Company chairman John Rangos, saying that an agreement could be reached within a week. They were premature; a contract was never finalized due to long-term financial questions re: Rangos and the PA held on to the team until selling it to the McClatchy group in 1996. 
• 2008 - Alhambra, California, dedicated a bronze statue to honor one of its native sons, Ralph Kiner, for his "accomplishments and contributions to the game of professional baseball and sports broadcasting.” The former Pirates slugger, a member of the Hall of Fame, grew up in Alhambra and graduated from its high school in 1940 before moving on to Southern Cal and the Buccos. 2010 - The Brewers romped over the Bucs, 17-3, for their 22nd straight win over Pittsburgh at Miller Park after they had already swept the season’s opening series. The curse, dating back to 2007, was snapped the next day, 7-3, by the Pirates, who also took the third game of the set for good measure. 

Xavier Paul - 2011 photo Doug Pensinger/Getty

• 2011 - The Pirates selected OF Xavier Paul off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Xavier proved useful off the bench, getting into 121 games, but the corner outfielder hit just .254 with little power (two homers) or patience (.293 OBP) at the plate. He was released after the campaign and played as a sub for three more MLB seasons with the Reds and D-Backs, followed by some bouncing around in the minors with side stops in Mexico and the indie leagues. 
• 2016 - Pittsburgh pounded five home runs in the thin air of Coors Field to claim a 9-4 win over the Colorado Rockies. Andrew McCutchen hit three long balls and chased home five runs. With his second career three-dinger match, Cutch joined Ralph Kiner (four), Willie Stargell (four) and Roberto Clemente (two) on the list of Pirates with multiple three-homer games. Starling Marte and David Freese (his first as a Pirate) added to the fence busting party, propelling Gerrit Cole to victory. 
• 2017 - IF Gift Ngoepe made his first MLB appearance, going 1-for-2 (he singled in his first big league at-bat) with a walk and turning the game-ending twin killing as the Pirates hung on to beat the Cubs, 6-5, at PNC Park. Ngoepe was the first African native (he’s from South Africa) to ever play in the majors, and it took the 27-year-old eight-plus minor league seasons to get the call. Pittsburgh jumped off to a 5-1 lead, started off by Josh Harrison’s lead-off homer in the first. Josh Bell later went long (both Joshes collected a pair of hits), but the Cubs kept chipping away. After an error on a potential inning-ending DP ball in the ninth left two Cubbies aboard, Tony Watson served up another grounder that did the trick to save Wade LeBlanc’s win. Ngoepe became a coach with the Newport Rams of Australian Baseball and is now a D-Back minor league coach. 
• 2017 - Ellwood City’s Hack Wilson, who banged 56 home runs and drove in a major league record 191 runs in 1930, was recognized before the Cubs’ game at PNC Park. It was the 117th anniversary of Wilson’s birth, who put up those big 1930 numbers as a Cubbie (he spent half his 12-year career in Chicago from 1926-31), the night’s opponents. It was a nice touch by the Ellwood City Area Historical Society to recognize a local boy that made good, even if the Cubs oddly didn’t opt to participate in the celebration. Proving once again that karma is a beach, Chicago lost, 6-5. 

Jack Suwinski - 2022 Bowmans Best

• 2022 - It wasn't a good day for the Bucs, as they lost the opening game of a homestand, 12-8, to the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park. But for those who wanted a peek at what was bubbling below the surface, it was a good match to catch. OF Jack Suwinski made his first MLB outing, starting in right, and banged out his first big league hit, a ninth-inning single and infielder Tucupita Marcano pinch-hit and posted his first Pirates hit, a double (he had 25 MLB games & eight hits under his belt with San Diego). He and Suwinski were brought up from AA Altoona. The duet were injury replacements after a viral surge hit the clubhouse and Suwinski broke camp with the Bucs in 2023 after a power burst (he hit 19 HR in ‘22) and late cut Marcano was called up in April. Jack is still here and an outfield fixture, while Diego was eventually sent to Arizona and is now a Twin. 
• 2023 - The PNC Park crowd 12,152 had lots of reasons to cheer on the Buccos tonight, and they sure did. The Pirates dismantled the LA Dodgers by an 8-1 count behind Roansy Contreras, but there were a couple of sidebars that the faithful also celebrated. Bryan Reynolds, in his first outing since signing his record-contract (he had been on Bereavement leave), was greeted by a “Bry-an Rey-nolds” chant by the OF faithful, stilled only after he gave the fans a grin and wave. Then 33-year-old Drew Maggi made his first MLB appearance after 13 seasons/1,100+ minor league games, pinch-hitting for Andrew McCutchen (Cutch was the DH) and drawing an ovation that even the umps stood back and allowed despite the pitch clock. Contreras went six shutout frames for the win by letting the bottom of the order do its thing. Rodolfo Castro, Ji Hwan Bae and Jason Delay, the 7-8-9 hitters, went 8-for-11 with two doubles, four stolen bases, four runs scored and six RBI. It was Pittsburgh’s eighth win in nine games as they continued their April frolic.

4/25 Through the 1950s: HoF Fred; Roberto 1st's; Wally Whacks; Howie 1-Hitter; Intros; HBD Bob, Ed, Jimmy, Fred, Dutch & Tom

• 1864 - C Tom Quinn was born in Annapolis, Maryland. He played three years in the show, getting a cup of coffee with the Alleghenys in 1886 (0-for-11) and finishing with the Players League Pittsburgh Burghers (.213) in 1890. Tom got a job with the state after he was done with baseball and lived in Swissvale. 
• 1868 - 3B Fred “Dutch” Hartman was born in Allegheny City (Northside); some other sites have his birthday as 4/21. He began his career as a Pirate in 1894 after several seasons in the Pennsylvania State League and hit a strong .319. After a couple of years of seasoning, he returned to the show in 1897 after a trade to the Browns, where he was considered a highly touted addition to the club. But his career never took off and Dutch ended up pretty much a league-average player, hitting .278 during a six-year career with Pittsburgh, St. Louis, the NY Giants and Chicago White Stockings. After baseball he lived in McKeesport, and is buried in McKeesport/Versailles Cemetery. 
• 1896 - Fred Haney was born in Albuquerque. He managed the Bucs as a favor to Branch Rickey from 1953-1955. His record reflects the fact that he was brought in during the early stages of a youth movement, losing 104, 101 and 94 games for a 163-299 (.353) slate, although he was used to the drill after managing the sad-sack St. Louis Browns from 1939-41. But he delivered when finally given some players, moving on to Milwaukee to win back-to-back NL titles and the 1956 World Series. Later, he was the Los Angeles/California Angels first GM. 
• 1899 - In a game of foes about to join forces, Pittsburgh lost to Louisville, 2-1, at Eclipse Park as future Bucco SS Honus Wagner went 4-for-4 with two homers, the second being a ninth-inning game winner. The Colonels were managed by future Pirate skipper (and player) Fred Clarke. The following season, most of Louisville’s top players followed owner Barney Dreyfuss to Pittsburgh. 

Hans Wagner - w/Louisville Ars Longa

• 1909 - Howie Camnitz tossed a one-hitter as the Pirates nosed the Reds at League Park by a 2-1 tally. The Pirates workload was carried by Bill Abstein, who had four hits, and Honus Wagner, who added three more raps; the Bucs only had one other hit. The run plated against Camnitz was tainted; the Reds got a triple on a “fan interference” call and scored on a Wagner error. 
• 1910 - IF Jimmy Brown was born in Jamesville, North Carolina. A seven-year major league vet with an All-Star game under his belt, he was signed by the Bucs in 1946 after a two-year hiatus in the Army Air Force. He played three infield spots and hit .241 off the bench in his last hurrah. In 1947 he became a manager in the Pirates farm system at Indianapolis and New Orleans before returning to the NL as a coach for the Boston Braves in 1949. After leaving Beantown in 1952, he managed minor league teams for the Cardinals, Braves and Reds. 
• 1930 - Umpire Ed Vargo was born in Butler. He was an NL ump from 1960-1983 and the umpire supervisor from 1984-1997. Vargo worked the first night World Series game in 1971, two of Sandy Koufax's no-hitters, the last games at Forbes Field & the Polo Grounds, four All-Star Games, four NLCS, four World Series, the first game at Candlestick Park and the game in which Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth's career home run record. Ed was inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame 1994. 
• 1943 - RHP Bob Johnson was born in Aurora, Illinois. He pitched for the Bucs from 1971-73, beginning as a starter and ending in the bullpen. He went 17-16-7/3.34 as a Pirate and appeared in a pair of NLCS games - he beat Juan Marichal in 1971 - and in the World Series. Out of MLB since 1977, Johnson runs a construction company and works as an American Legion coach and umpire.

Bob Johnson - 1973 Topps Update

• 1945 - Fred Clarke was elected to the Hall of Fame (there was no induction ceremony in 1945 as it was delayed a year by the war). Selected by the Old Timers Committee, Clarke spent 15 years in Pittsburgh (1900-11, 1913-15) and hit ahead of Honus Wagner, batting .299. As a manager, he led the Bucs to the first three modern NL pennants, taking four flags in all, and finished second five times. Clarke won (1,602) and managed more games (2,829) than any other Bucco skipper while compiling the club’s highest career winning percentage (.576). 
• 1948 - Wally Westlake homered, doubled, and drove in six runs while Ed Stevens added five more RBI to lead the Bucs to a 13-10 win over the Reds in the second game of a twinbill at Crosley Field. Stevens also went deep in the opener, but the Pirates lost, 7-6, in the ninth. 
• 1954 - Roberto Clemente collected his first pro hit, a single against the International League Buffalo Bisons’ Milo Johnson, as a member of the Class AAA Montreal Royals in a 6-1 loss at Offermann Stadium. Clemente hit .257 in his only farm stop. On April 17th, 1955, he banged out his first MLB hit, a single against Brooklyn’s Johnny Podres at Forbes Field, and didn’t quit until he had 3,000 knocks, a .317 BA over 18 Pirates seasons and a place in the Hall of Fame. 
• 1958 - Roberto Clemente was in fine form as he led the Bucs to a 4-3 win against Cincinnati at Crosley Field. He scored in the sixth after a leadoff double and then smacked his first long ball of the year, a two-out, three-run shot in the seventh that stood as the game-winner. Vern Law earned the win after an ElRoy Face save while future Bucco Harvey Haddix took the loss.

4/25 From 1970: B-Rey's Big Deal; Trips Topped; Petey Pounders; Kip Rip; OT Wins; Gems; Vicente, Robby 1sts; Willie Rooftop; Danny On TV; HBD Cody, Wei-Chung, Trevor & Brad

• 1970 - Willie Stargell homered off the RF roof at Forbes Field off Hoyt Wilhelm, the second time he'd done it in a week, as the Pirates edged the Braves, 8-7. Eighteen balls carried over the Oakland yard’s roof, with seven launched by Stargell. No one else hit more than a pair. Roberto Clemente had three hits (two were doubles) and four RBI as he shared some of the offensive thunder with Cap’n Willie. Dave Giusti got the win in relief of Dock Ellis and Joe Gibbon, with Al McBean closing it out. For McBean, who had been claimed off waivers from the LA Dodgers, it was his last Pirates clincher as he was released in May, finishing with 59 Bucco saves. 
• 1971 - RHP John “Brad” (Bradley was his middle name) Clontz was born in Stuart, Virginia. Brad worked six MLB seasons, with the last two (1999-2000) in Pittsburgh, where the submarine-style sidearm reliever appeared in 61 games, going 1-3-2/3.04. It would be his last stop in the show, although he hung in through the 2006 season at the AAA level until retiring. His claim to fame: Clontz led the NL in games pitched in 1996 with 81 while with the Braves. 
• 1971 - The half-hour WIIC-TV special “The Whistling Irishman,” a bio of Danny Murtaugh, was aired. The star of the show was Murtaugh, with a big cast of Pirate connections/cameos by Katie Murtaugh, Joe Brown, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, Bill Virdon, Frank Oceak, Casey Stengel, Bob Prince, Nellie King, Al Abrams and Charley Feeney, narrated by Channel 11 sportscaster Sam Nover. If you’d like a showing, it’s still floating around on YouTube. 
• 1978 - Buc righty Don Robinson picked up his first MLB victory by tossing a complete game five-hitter with seven whiffs against the Mets at Shea Stadium to book a 2-1 win. He survived a couple of Bucco misplays and worked out of a third inning jam (New York was 0-for-7 with RISP) after Bill Robinson‘s misplayed single following two walks gave the Bucs a 2-0 lead in the top of the frame; Pittsburgh only had four hits off Mike Bruhert and two relievers. 

Vicente Palacios - 1992 Pinnacle

• 1991 - Vicente Palacios posted his first career complete game and shutout (he would toss the same combo once more in 1994 as a Card) as the Bucs finished a three-game sweep of the Expos in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium with an 8-0 whitewashing. Barry Bonds went deep in back-to-back at-bats during the sixth inning, going 3-for-4 with three RBI to help the Pirates stretch their winning streak to six games. The club went 12-6 v the Expos in ‘91 on the way to a 98-win season that ended with a seven-game loss to the Braves in the NLCS. 
• 1992 - In the Pirates 1-0 win over the host Cubs‚ the Bucs were helped by a wayward hat. With Kirk Gibson on first, Jay Bell hit a potential DP grounder that struck Gibson's bouncing helmet, which had flown off as he headed to second, and the Cubs had to settle for a force. Andy Van Slyke noted “the play goes 7-1/2 to 4 to 5 to 6" on your scorecard. Bell then scored when Van Slyke followed with a double for the game’s only run. Randy Tomlin was the winner over Greg Maddux. 
• 1992 - RHP Trevor Williams was born in San Diego. He was a second round draft pick of the Marlins in 2013 and came to Pittsburgh for a career minor-league player, Richard Mitchell. Many thought the seemingly one-sided deal was de facto compensation for the Fish signing the Pirates pitching assistant Jim Benedict earlier. His brief initial cruise in 2016 wasn’t all that smooth; after mowing down hitters in AAA, he went 1-1/7.83 for the Pirates in a handful of outings. In 2017, he broke camp with the team after a strong spring and slashed 7-9/4.07 in 25 outings as a solid back-end starter. Willy broke out the next year, going 14-10/3.11 with a career high in innings (170-1/3) and starts (31), then faded in the next couple of campaigns (9-17/5.60). He went 31-37/4.43 in five Pirates seasons before signing with the Cubs in 2021; he’s with the Nats now. 
• 1992 - LHP Wei-Chung Wang was born in Taitung, Taiwan. The Pirates signed him in 2011, found out he needed TJ surgery, voided the original contract and signed him to a new one to reflect the injury. That cost them; Milwaukee claimed him as a Rule 5 pick in 2013 as he was considered to be on his second contract. He tossed for the Brew Crew and then went to Korea in 2018 for a year. In 2019, the A’s signed him. The reliever was 1-0/3.33 in 20 games for them, but Oakland cut him loose at the end of August (four walks/five K per nine, .231 BABIP and 5.29 FIP peripherals belied his ERA) and the Pirates, with its mid-to-long bullpen in shambles beyond Bob Patterson, claimed him. He got into five games, giving up three runs in four frames and returned to Taiwan. 

Cody Ponce - 2020 image/Pirates

• 1994 - RHP Cody Ponce was born in Pompano, California. A second round pick for Milwaukee in 2015 from Cal Poly, he joined the Bucs in a deal for Jordan Lyles. A starter all his career, he was called up in 2020 and debuted from the bullpen. His first outing was a loss, but that can be forgiven - it was in the 10th inning, and the tally that beat him was the free runner on second, placed there thanks to a pace-of-play rules shuffle. Cody made another outing and was returned to the Altoona alternate site. He started 2021 on the IL, went to Indy and was released by the Bucs in November so that he could sign a deal with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese League. He’s still tossing in Japan, working now for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. 
• 2003 - Kip Wells became the second player and first pitcher to homer into the batter’s eye at PNC Park with a third-inning, 457’ tape-measure blast. But LA had the last laugh when they rallied for five ninth-inning runs off Wells and Mike Williams to snatch a 5-2 victory from the Bucs. 
• 2007 - Pittsburgh held a 3-1 lead, built on a pair of run-producing outs and a Brad Eldred dinger, in the top of the ninth inning against the Astros, but Solomon Torres couldn’t hold it; John Grabow came in to put out the fire, but not until it was a tied game. The score stayed knotted until the bottom of the 16th, when with the bases loaded, Adam LaRoche poked a single past shortstop to send John Wasdin, the Bucs eighth pitcher, and the remnants of 8,208 fans home winners. 
• 2012 - Pedro Alvarez homered in both games of Pittsburgh’s doubleheader split against Colorado, becoming the second Pittsburgh player to hit home runs for the Pirates in each end of a twinbill at PNC Park. El Toro joined Rob Mackowiak, who also went long twice in a DH on 5/28/04 against the Cubs on the memorable day his wife gave birth to their first child. Pittsburgh set an MLB record by playing its 18th straight game starting the season in which neither team scored more than five runs, passing the mark set by the 1943 Detroit Tigers with a 2-1 opening game loss, with Chris Resop taking the loss in relief of James McDonald. They finally showed some spunk by claiming the nightcap, 5-1, with Petey’s homer sparking a five-run fifth frame to back Charlie Morton on the hill. The Pirates and the Rockies also became the first teams in MLB history to add an extra player to the roster for their twin bill at PNC Park as the new CBA permitted teams to carry 26 on the active roster for doubleheaders to save the paper shuffling that a move entailed. The Bucs brought up Jared Hughes and he tossed a scoreless frame. 

Justin Wilson - 2013 Topps

• 2013 - The Bucs and Justin Wilson beat the Phillies by a 6-4 score for their third straight win at Citizens Bank Park. It was the first time in the eighteen outings that the Phils lost all three matches that Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee started back-to-back-to-back. The Pirates dropped the first contest of the four game set when they were beaten, 3-2, by unheralded  Jonathan Pettibone, who was making his first MLB start; his career was derailed by shoulder surgery. 
• 2023 - The off-and-on financial duel between the Pirates and Bryan Reynolds ended as the media reported that they agreed on an eight-year contract extension to run through 2030, with the team officially confirming the deal the next day. The numbers were: signing bonus: $2M; '23: $6.750M; '24: $10M; '25: $12M; '26: $14M; '27-'30: $15M; and in '31, it closed out with a $20M club option/$2M buyout. The guaranteed payout was $106.75M with an upper limit of $124.75M. There was also a six-team no-trade clause with no opt-out clause. It was the biggest contract in Pirates history and the club's first six-figure agreement, vaulting the previous largest payout, 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes' eight-year, $70M deal signed just last year. The Bucs also dropped off the “never gave out a $100M contract” list, with just the Athletics, Royals and White Sox left on that roster.

4/24: Jako Whacked; It Takes 27; Quail Hunt; Walk It Off; Allen No-No; Hans Give & Take; 1sts For Dovy, Paul & Fred; Shoot-Outs; HBD Bailey, Ryan, Bob, Dixie, Pete & Jim

• 1863 - 1B Jim Field was born in Philadelphia. He started out as a 20-year-old for Columbus in 1883, and joined the Alleghenys for the 1885 campaign when they bought the Buckeye roster. He started at first for Pittsburgh, but was released in July after hitting .239 and was claimed by Baltimore. Field spent five years in the big leagues (four in the AA) and bounced around the minors, mostly in the Eastern League, for another 15 seasons before his final hurrah in 1900. 
• 1889 - The Alleghenys took the Home Opener with a see-saw, 8-5, win over the Chicago White Stockings at Recreation Park in front of 3,000 rooters. Pud Galvin took the hill, and found himself in a 3-0 hole in the first, with a couple of costly errors and a wild pitch. The Allies tied it in the sixth on the strength of a Fred Dunlap double and two-run single by Fred Carroll; the Windy City came right back to score a pair and regain the lead, again aided by some shoddy fielding. Pittsburgh put it away in the seventh, launching a barrage of singles that led to five runs and a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Alleghenys had 12 hits on the day, led by Carroll with three knocks while Dunlap and Jake Beckley banged two hits apiece. Galvin went the distance, winning the first of 23 games on the year. The club would only win 61 times, finishing fifth and going through three managers. 
• 1891 - Fred Carroll hit the first home run by a Pirate - formally, the Pittsburgh Nationals - in Exposition Park III (they played the year before in nearby Recreation Park as the Alleghenys (Jocko Fields of the Burghers was credited with the first pro home run there on June 10th, 1890), as the Bucs defeated the Chicago Colts, 11-8. They had unofficially become the Pirates in the off season in the out-of-town media when they “pirated” Lou Bierbauer from the Philadelphia A’s. 
• 1891 - Pete Falsey was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Pete’s only MLB stint was three games in 1914 with the Pirates; he went 0-for-1 with a whiff as a pinch hitter and got into two more games as a pinch runner during his two-week stay. The little lefty (5’6”, 132 lbs) joined the Bucs as a 23-year-old after playing for Yale, and following his Bucco visit, his baseball trail disappears; he doesn’t even show a position played in any of his MLB bios. 

Hans - 1903 Pgh. Press photo

• 1903 - Honus Wagner was having one of those days in the field, booting three balls (he had a busy afternoon at shortstop; Hans also cleanly handled 10 other chances) that helped the Cards head into the ninth with a 7-6 lead at Exposition Park. But there was no carryover with his bat. He tripled in the ninth and scored the tying run on a Kitty Bransfield single. Then with two away in the eleventh, Wagner walked, stole second and Kitty again chased him home with the game winner. The Dutchman posted four hits w/two triples along with two RBI, four runs scored, and three stolen bases to put on a one-man show for the 3,013 Bucco rooters. 
• 1915 - Pittsburgh Rebel southpaw Frank Allen tossed a 2-0 no-hitter (four walks, four fans) against the St. Louis Terriers at Handlan Park in the last year of the Federal League, the short-lived (1913-15) major league “outlaw” option to the National and American Leagues. Terrier hurler Bob Groom kept it a tight game that was scoreless until the seventh when Ed Konetchy’s lead-off triple came home. The Rebs added an insurance run in the ninth on Rebel Oakes’ sac fly that plated Mike Mowrey. Allen went on to pitch a couple more seasons for the NL Boston Braves before calling it a career after the 1917 campaign. The Federal League was absorbed by the NL & AL, and a suit the FL filed eventually led to the still existent ruling that exempted baseball from antitrust laws. 
• 1920 - C Homer “Dixie” Howell was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The journeyman backstop began his MLB career as a Pirate in 1947 after being part of the Kirby Higbe deal and hit .276, but was later lost to the Cincinnati Reds as a Rule 5 pick. He spent 1949-56 as a back-up catcher for the Reds and then the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dixie doodles: He was one of three Dixie Howells to play MLB ball, and he & pitcher Millard "Dixie" Howell, also from Kentucky, were same-name teammates on the 1949 Cincinnati squad. 
• 1934 - The Bucs rallied to defeat the Gashouse Gang from St. Louis, 5-4, at Forbes Field in their home opener. Behind 4-2 going into the ninth, Freddie Lindstrom homered over the LF wall with two aboard to lift the Pirates to victory over the future NL champs. Leon Chagnon got the win in relief of Heinie Meine. Tommy Thevenow added two hits and chased home a pair of runs for the Pirates. 

Freddie Lindstrom - 1934 Conlon Collection photo

• 1948 - 1B Bob Beall was born in Portland, Oregon. After being named high school "Baseball Player of the Year" for Oregon in 1966 and earning All-PAC honors at Oregon State, Bob spent three years with the Atlanta Braves and bowed out of the majors in 1980 after a three-game stand in Pittsburgh, going 0-for-3 as a pinch hitter. He was sent to his hometown AAA Portland Beavers as a player-coach, then retired in 1981 and began working for Nike. 
• 1964 - The Pirates beat the Mets, 9-4, at Forbes Field behind Bill Virdon, who went 4-for-4 with a home run, two RBI and three runs scored, and four other Bucs with a pair of knocks (Roberto Clemente, Donn Clendenon, Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell, who also went yard). Bob Friend went the distance for the victory before 7,903 fans on a Friday night. Pittsburgh broke it open with five runs in the fifth and sixth innings to unknot an early 3-3 tie with the New Yorkers. 
• 1985 - RHP Ryan Reid was born in Portland, Maine. The Pirates signed Reid to a contract for the 2013 season as an NRI. He got the call up on June 3rd, along with Jared Hughes, and made his major league debut that day. He lasted in the bullpen until July when AJ Burnett came off the DL and was sent back to Indy even though he did pretty well (1.64 ERA in seven outings w/1.091 WHIP) in the show. It was his only MLB stint as he was DFA’ed after the season. He finished his 10-year career in 2016, sharing time between Hi-A and an indie league. 
• 1997 - The Bucs were a pitch away from dropping a game to the Cubs at Wrigley, but Jason Kendall proved that 26-2/3 outs weren’t quite enough when he lined a double to left on a 1-2 offering from Mel Rojas, scoring Al Martin to tie the match, and then plated two tosses later when Jose Guillen’s bleeder to short was thrown away to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead. Rich Loiselle closed it out by working the last two innings for the win, although he created a little final-frame drama when he intentionally walked Sammy Sosa to put runners at first and second with two down before fanning Doug Glanville. Pittsburgh’s first run was a Chicago gift, too - an error left runners on the corners, and with two outs, the Buccos ran the delayed steal/drawn throw/basepath bugaloo to perfection, with Martin avoiding the tag long enough for Jermaine Allensworth to scamper home. Allensworth was on third thanks to a wild pitch third strike, a stolen base, and an error. 
• 1997 - LHP Bailey Falter was born in Chino Hills, California. He joined the Bucs in 2023 in a swap with Philly for Rudolfo Castro. Falter, a 26-year-old starter, was 8-12/4.56 in 24 Philly starts (50 outings) over three years, and was a 2015, fifth-round high school pick of the Phils. 

Paul Maholm - 2007 Topps

• 2007 - Paul Maholm tossed his first MLB complete game, allowing three hits and throwing 99 pitches in the 3-0 shutout win over the Astros at PNC Park. The game took just one hour and 57 minutes to complete. Jason Bay had three hits and drove in a pair while Ronny Paulino added a solo shot. 
• 2010 - In the first inning of his first appearance of the year, a 5-2 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park, Chris Jakubauskas was struck in the head by a liner off the bat of Houston's Lance Berkman. The 31-year old right-hander was flattened and left the field on a stretcher, but was thankfully later diagnosed with just a concussion rather than a fracture. Jaku didn’t pitch for the Bucs any more during the campaign, but tossed for Baltimore the following season. Chris retired in 2014 and now coaches a Nashville youth travel team. 
• 2016 - The Pirates and Diamondbacks took advantage of hitter-friendly Chase Field, with the Bucs hanging on to take a 12-10, 13-inning victory. Pittsburgh went ahead early, 8-4, after four frames (every Pirate starter had scored or chased home a run by that time) but blew two-run leads in both the ninth and 12th frames to a unrelenting D-Back attack. Both benches were shot by the end; pitchers Zack Grienke and Patrick Corbin of the Snakes along with Jon Niese for the Buccos had to pinch hit (Greinke and Niese singled; Niese had an RBI) while Arizona hurler Shelby Miller manned left field and batted. Neftali Feliz was credited with the blown save/win combo after Arquimedes Caminero ended the game, striking out a pair of pitchers. Starling Marte had four hits; David Freese and Gregory Polanco had three each while eight different Pirates scored; 10 had RBI. 
• 2017 - RHP Dovydas Neverauskas made his MLB debut, becoming the first player born and raised in Lithuania to appear in a big league game. He saw mop-up duty in a 14-3 loss at PNC Park, working two frames against the Chicago Cubs and giving up a run on two hits. He picked up his first MLB whiff when he punched out the opposing pitcher, Justin Grimm, and his performance was up-and-down since then, showing potential but not much production. He was released in 2020, signed up with Hiroshima of the Japanese League, Bonn in the German League, tossed an indie campaign, and is pitching in the Mexican League this season.

4/23: Babe Gone; Happy Jack HoF; Cotton Fiver; TV Game; Rec Romp; Quick Start; Rallies; Big Bats; Trip Dip; Awards Day; Beatdown; Betting Odds; RIP Art; HBD Dave, Blackie, Genie, Iron Man, Connie & Bob

• 1875 - OF Bob Ganley was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. Bob started his five-year MLB run with the Pirates in 1905-06, hitting .270 off the bench as a rookie and started in his second year before losing his spot to rookie Goat Anderson. Bob’s last MLB campaign was in 1909 with the Philadelphia A’s and he was out of baseball after spending the 1912 season with Atlanta of the Southern Association. Per BR Bullpen, he moved around so much as a player that he was called "the globetrotter of organized baseball." He played for Pittsburgh, Washington and Philadelphia as a big leaguer and for New Haven, Albany, Brockton, Columbus, Toledo, Marion, Schenectady, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oakland, Johnstown, Des Moines, Newark and Atlanta as a farm hand. Bob also managed the Fredericton Pets in 1913 and the Perth Amboy Pacers in 1914. 
• 1882 - RHP Cornelius “Connie” Walsh was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Walsh got his big league call in 1907 for the Pirates and apparently one was his magic number: he got into one game, pitched one inning, and gave up one run on one hit with one walk. Connie went to Cedar Rapids in the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League the following year and found a home there, pitching for six different IIIL clubs over the next seven seasons before retiring after the 1914 campaign. 
• 1890 - Charlie Gray and the Alleghenys beat the Cleveland Spiders, 20-12, at Recreation Park in front of an alleged crowd of 17 (with six paid) in a yard that held 17,000 (spoiler: that figure isn’t confirmed but anecdotal as a part of a Frederck Leib team history written decades after the fact; the Press just called the attendance “meager.”). The Alleghenys set another franchise record that day; five batters were beaned by the Spiders. Don’t fault the fans for the low turnout - the team finished last in the NL with a record of 23–113, 66-1/2 games behind the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. Recreation Park was also known as Union Park and later, the Allegheny Athletic Association Grounds. It was tucked between Allegheny Ave, Pennsylvania Ave, Galveston Ave and Behan St in Allegheny West. No pictures of it as a baseball yard are known to exist, though there are a couple of field-level newspaper shots of Pitt playing football there. The baseball team left for Exposition Park in 1891 and Pitt followed suit in 1904, also playing their games at Expo Park. 
• 1902 - St. Louis Cardinals owner Frank Robison reportedly put up a $10‚000 challenge that the Pirates wouldn’t repeat as NL champions. Pittsburgh players pooled their money to meet the bet and then collected easily as they won the pennant by 27-1/2 games. St Louis finished sixth, 44-1/2 games back. 

Iron Man - photo via Find-A-Grave

• 1906 - RHP Ray “Iron Man” Starr was born in Nowatka, Oklahoma. Ray tossed for the Bucs during the second half of his career between 1944-45 in his age 38-39 seasons with a line of 6-7-3/5.33. He was a product of wartime baseball; after tossing for three years in the show, he spent from 1934-40 in the minors (in all, he spent 15 years on various farm clubs) before he was called back up by the Reds in 1941. Ray picked up his nickname because he was said to have tossed both ends of more than 40 double-headers while in the minor leagues. 
• 1913 - The Pirates were held to three hits by St Louis hurler Bill Steel and lost, 3-1, despite Claude Hendrix’s two-hitter (six walks hurt) at Robison Field. The runs were hard earned; the Cardinals scored on a bases loaded walk, steal of home and sac fly while the Bucco run came on an error. The bright spot of the Pirates’ day was a nifty triple play. With the bases loaded, Hendrix speared a comebacker and went home to catcher Billy Kelly for a force; his relay to Dots Miller at first beat the batter to the sack, and Miller’s return throw home nailed the Card runner who had kept on truckin’ from second, trying to steal a score during the exchange. 
• 1917 - RHP Gene “Genie” Smith was born in Ashley, Louisiana. He pitched for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays between 1946–1947. During his career, he threw three no-hitters, played in the East-West All Star game and in the Negro World Series, although not with Homestead. He joined the local nines after spending two years in the service and never had another big season afterward, retiring from the low minors after the 1953 campaign with a bad arm. 
• 1922 - Second baseman Cotton Tierney collected a career-high five hits, doubled three times, and knocked in a game-high four runs in Pittsburgh’s 14-3 rout of the Cubs in Chicago. The Bucs broke the game open with an eight-run second inning and then added two more tallies an inning later to make it 10-0. It was Pittsburgh’s sixth straight win after beginning the season with losses in each of the first three games. Hal Carlson cruised to the victory at Wrigley. 

Ron Blackburn - 1958 Topps

• 1935 - RHP Ron “Blackie” Blackburn was born in Mt. Airy, North Carolina. His MLB career lasted two years, from 1958-59, both spent with the Bucs where Blackie slashed 3-2-4/3.50. Blackburn spent 11 campaigns in the minors, the last for Asheville from which he retired after the 1964 season to become a teacher and baseball coach at Western Carolina University, and from there he became the recreation director at the Western Correction Center in North Carolina. 
• 1946 - RHP “Happy Jack” (he was an upbeat guy) Chesbro was elected to the Hall of Fame. A spitballer who won 41 games in 1904 for the NY Highlanders, he tossed for the Pirates at the beginning of his career from 1899-1902 with a line of 70-38/2.89. Also selected was Rube Waddell, a colorful hurler who started his career with Pittsburgh in 1900-01. They were inducted on June 12th. 
• 1946 - The Bucs sold 1B Ellsworth “Babe” Dahlgren to the St. Louis Browns. Dahlgren hit .271 with 176 RBI in his two-year stint with the Bucs, but faded badly with the Browns as a 34-year-old and ‘46 was his last season in the show after 12 big league campaigns with eight clubs. He’s noted as the man who replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939 while with the Yankees. 
• 1947 - The Pirates broke out of the gate in a hurry, winning their sixth of the first seven games of the season by an 8-5 count over the Cards at Sportsman’s Park. Billy Cox and Eddie Basinski each homered and combined for seven RBI. Ed Bahr tossed 6-1/3 shutout innings to win in relief. But it’s how you finish that counts, and 62 wins on the year netted the Bucs seventh place in the NL. 
• 1959 - The Pirates were awarded trophies like it was Little League appreciation day at Forbes Field - Joe Brown was presented with The Sporting News’ GM of the Year honor, Bill Mazeroski and Harvey Haddix were given Golden Gloves, and the local Baseball Writers named Danny Murtaugh the Outstanding Sportsman of the Year with George “Red” Witt winning the Rookie of the Year nod. The team, with Witt on the hill, didn’t win any prizes for their performance on the awards day though, eking out just five hits in a 5-2 loss to the Reds in front of 18,819 fans. 

Pete Mikkelson - 1981 TCMA 60's Baseball Series 2

• 1966 - The Pirates homered three times in the ninth inning to pull out a 5-4 win against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Pittsburgh trailed, 4-2, heading into the ninth before Bob Bailey, Jim Pagliaroni, and Jose Pagan each hit solo homers off Dennis Aust and Hal Woodeshick to power the Bucs past the Cards. Pete Mikkelson got the win after tossing two scoreless frames and ElRoy Face worked the ninth for the save. The Bucs were hot; the win pumped their record to 9-2. 
• 1982 - C Tony Peña went 2-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI in the Pirates 12-10 victory over Chicago at Wrigley Field. The Pirates kept the Cubbies alive with three errors that led to four unearned runs, but the Buc bats atoned for the threadbare leather by banging out 17 hits as every starter tallied at least one rap, including starting pitcher Eddie Solomon, who came away with the victory. Kent Tekulve pitched the final 1-1/3 innings to earn his first save of the season. Bill Madlock and Mike Easler each had three hits while Jason Thompson homered to pace the attack. Pena (3), Easler (3) and Omar Moreno (4) combined to chase home 10 of the 12 runs. 
• 1984 - LHP Dave Davidson was born in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The Pirates drafted him out of HS in 2002 and he got a September call up in 2007, giving up five earned runs in two innings. He was sent to Altoona, playing in the Summer Olympics and the 2009 WBC for Canada before the Pirates released him. He was picked up by the Marlins, where he had a sore arm and was let go after the 2009 campaign, ending his career in the indie leagues before retiring in 2011. 
• 1988 - The Pirates-Cubs match at TRS was the NBC Game of the Week, the Buccos first GOTW slot since 1985. The network brass knew what they were doing as the game ended up a 5-4 squeaker in favor of the Buccos. Pittsburgh overcame a 2-0 deficit when Bobby Bonilla and RJ Reynolds homered in the sixth to put the Buccaneers up by a run. The Cubs struck back quickly in the next frame, putting up a pair off Jeff Robinson to retake the lead. The Bucs loaded the bases with an out in the eighth, and Spanky LaValliere came through, dropping a two-run single into short center to make it a 5-4 game. Jim Gott made it hold up to claim the win, the Pirates 12th in 16 games. 

Mike LaValliere - 1988 Donruss

• 1996 - Ballpark announcer Art McKennan passed away at age 89. Starting out as a Forbes Field errand boy, he did odd jobs around the park, eventually working his way up to bat boy and scoreboard runner. Art got a job in the real world while moonlighting as an usher. In 1930, he was diagnosed with polio, but it didn’t stop him. Art was the voice of the Pirates at Forbes Field from 1948 until it closed, and then at Three Rivers Stadium until 1987 (he did Sunday games after that until 1993). He also had stints with the Penguins, Pitt football & Duquesne hoops along with a 30-year career in Pittsburgh’s Parks Department, becoming the director of the City-sponsored youth sports organizations. 
• 2005 - The Pirates rallied to win, 4-3, against Chicago at Wrigley Field. The game-time temperature was 36 degrees with a wind chill of 24, and the Buc bats were almost as cold as the weather, with the Pirates down by a 3-2 count going into the ninth after the Cubs broke a two-all tie in the eighth on Corey Patterson’s dinger. Then came the needed thaw: a one-out homer by Jason Bay knotted the score and an out later, Freddy Sanchez banged a pinch-hit triple to right center, chasing home Craig Wilson, who had walked and stole second, with the eventual game-winner. John Grabow picked up his first win of the season and Jose Mesa earned his sixth save of the campaign, stranding Cubbies on the corners by whiffing Patterson on three pitches. 
• 2022 - The Pirates had taken the first two games of the Chicago series at Wrigley, and the Cubs were having no more of it. They laid the worst defeat in franchise history on the Bucs, walloping them, 21-0. Four Pittsburgh pitchers, the last being utilityman Diego Castillo, gave up 23 hits (and oddly enough, only one left the yard), four walks and a bopped batter while Kevin Newman booted a pair of DP balls to allow four unearned runs to plate. The Pirates had no answer; they were held to three hits, and that’s all the runners they had aboard during the game. Prior to today, the worst Bucco loss was a 20-0 beating at the hands of the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010. Starter Zach Thompson took the loss while Miguel Yajure and poor Diego just took some lumps.

4/22 Through the 1940s: Craw Raid; Mace Gone, Ossy Added; Fred Banged; Expo 3 Debut; Game Tales - Hot Start, Ralph's Grannie & Openers; Anthem Played; HBD Mickey, Terrible Ted, Jake & Sandy

• 1887 - RHP Sandy Burk was born in Columbus, Ohio. He had spent parts of four seasons in the majors and made his last hurrah as a Pittsburgh Rebel in 1915, jumping leagues after beginning the year in Indianapolis. He started two games, going the distance and winning both, giving up just two runs/eight hits in 18 IP. Sandy pitched for Minneapolis of the American Association for two years after the Players League folded, winning 21 games in 1916. He then served as an infantry sergeant during WW1 and tossed one last pro season upon his return in 1919. 
• 1891 - The Pirates played their first game at Exposition Park III, located on the North Shore of the Allegheny River, not far removed from where PNC Park sits now. Pittsburgh lost to the Chicago Colts, 7-6, in front of 5,263 fans as rain before the game held down the attendance. The Pirates fell behind, 4-0, rallied in the seventh to go ahead and then saw the Colts tie it in the ninth and win it in the 10th, defeating Pud Galvin. The Pittsburgh Press printed a special “Sporting Edition” that included a game story and illustrations. The 16,000 seat yard featured 400-foot foul lines and a 450-foot center field fence; the gigantic Expo was the Bucs home field until 1909 when Forbes Field (another gargantuan playpen) opened. 
• 1892 - The Pirates set a franchise record when they scored 12 times in the first inning against St. Louis at Expo Park to beat the Browns, 14-3. Doggie Miller led the hit parade with four knocks; four other Bucs (Lou Bierbauer, Ed Swartwood, Jake Beckley & Frank Shugart) had a pair of raps. The Pittsburgh Press wrote that “Fully 3,000 people turned out in the rain to see the game. It was too one-sided for interest after the first inning but the advantage was on the right side, so everyone was pleased. (Pud) Galvin (the winning pitcher) was fairly effective and did not have to work hard.” The game provided this footnote: Pittsburgh OF Elmer Smith worked a pair of free passes in that opening frame, the first time a major league player walked twice in the same inning. 

Doggie Miller - 1888 Allen & Ginter 

• 1894 - 2B Jake Pitler was born in New York City. Jake’s major league career was spent in Pittsburgh between 1917-18. He played regularly the first season but got into just two games in the second, hitting .232 in his time as a Pirate. Pitler was raised in Pittsburgh and was a newspaper boy working in the Forbes Field area. That piqued his interest in baseball and he played semi-pro, advancing to the minor-leagues. The Pirates were looking for stability at second base so he got his shot when the Bucs picked him up from Chattanooga. He lost out in 1918 when Pittsburgh acquired vet George Grantham to play second and sent Pitler to minor-league Jersey City. He didn’t report and instead returned to his indie league roots. He eventually caught on with the Brooklyn Dodgers after his playing days and served as a long-time minor-league manager and big league coach. 
• 1897 - The Pirates won the Season Opener at Robison Park, easily defeating the St. Louis Browns by a 4-1 score. Frank “Lefty” Killen, coming off a 30-win campaign, allowed six singles, struck out four and went the distance. Steve Brodie made a sweet Pittsburgh debut in center field, banging out a pair of two-baggers and driving in two runs while player/manager Patsy Donovan, in RF, also added two hits. The only run against Lefty came on a bit of skulduggery when the Browns, with runners on the corners, executed a double steal. Despite the strong start to the season, Killen wasn’t able to duplicate his 1896 success in ‘97, winning just 17 games while his ERA jumped a full run higher. 
• 1898 - Cincinnati's Ted Breitenstein tossed a no-hitter against the Pirates, blowing the Bucs away by an 11-0 count at League Field. He struck out two, walked one, and another runner reached via error. All in all, the Pittsburgh Press declared it “...a wonderful feat.” And the result dripped of sweet revenge; Breitenstein was the pitcher the Pirates chased six years earlier to the day during a record-setting 12-run first inning when he was twirling for St. Louis. 
• 1897 - Per John Thorn’s book “Our Game,” the first major-league Opening Day at which the National Anthem was played took place in Philadelphia on this date when the Phils played the Giants at the Baker Bowl. From 1918 on, it was played at the opening of every World Series, but wasn’t universally adopted in MLB as a pre-game leadoff until 1942 and the American entry into WW2. 

Press headline 4/23/1902

• 1902 - The Pirates and their opponents, the Cincinnati Reds, marched in a festive parade led by the Grand Army of the Republic band from the downtown Monongahela House hotel to Exposition Park for the Home Opener, cheered on by thousands per the Pittsburgh Press’ front page. The Bucs raised their 1901 pennant flag over the ballyard in front of a record 15,000 fans (the overflow was given SRO space behind ropes in the outfield, but “...gave the police no trouble and never once interfered with the players...” as noted by the paper) and then overcome an early three-run deficit to edge the Reds, 4-3. Tommy Leach scored the winning run in the eighth, singling and then advancing from first-to-third on a bunt. He scored on starting (and winning) pitcher Sam Leever’s sac fly. 
• 1903 - Theodore Roosevelt “Terrible Ted” Page was born in Glasgow, Kentucky. The speedy and gritty OF’er played for the Homestead Grays (1931-32) and Pittsburgh Crawfords (1932-34). He grew up in Youngstown and turned down a football scholarship offered by Ohio State to focus on baseball. The lefty Page batted .335 for his career, but injured his knee in 1934, leading eventually to his retirement in 1937. He stayed in Pittsburgh and his sports focus switched. After baseball, Page ran bowling alleys, including Meadow Lanes (he was hired to work there by former teammate Jack Marshall), and wrote a bowling column for the Pittsburgh Courier. He met a tragic end, beaten to death at home during a robbery, and is buried at Allegheny Cemetery. According to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, he earned his nickname because of his fiery on-field (and sometimes off-field) personality. He was a rough and tumble character who “played to win,” per his bio, “and would intimidate a player with his spikes or with rough language.” 
• 1913 - Manager Fred Clarke was suspended for five days after a run in with umpire Brick Owens, who called strike three on a Red at Forbes Field for the final out of a Bucco win on 4/19, only to change his mind and decide it was a ball, after all. The Pirates had started to trot off the field, allowing a runner to scoot to third while the club was scattered about. It became a moot point when the Bucs held on for a 6-5 win over Cincinnati. Afterward, Clarke admitted that he had used “forceful language” in arguing his case, but given the circumstances of the beef, he was still upset by the time off. First-place Pittsburgh was already missing injured stars SS Hans Wagner and C George Gibson; they would shortly start a slide that dropped them out of contention, falling 10 games back by mid-June. 

Mickey Vernon - 1980 TCMA/1960 Pirates

• 1918 - Mickey Vernon was born in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Vernon spent 1960 as the Bucs' first-base coach and was actually added at age 42 to the active roster in September, going 1-for-8 in nine games. He went on to manage the Washington Senators, returning to Pittsburgh as a coach again in 1964. The first baseman’s MLB career spanned four decades (1939-60), and after Pittsburgh he coached for the St. Louis Cardinals, LA Dodgers, Montreal Expos and NY Yankees. He managed at the AAA and AA levels of the minor leagues and served as a batting instructor in the Kansas City Royals and Yankees' farm system. Mickey retired from baseball after the 1988 season at the age of 70, with 52 seasons spent as a player, coach and manager in pro baseball. 
• 1931 - RHP Bob Osborn was sold to the Pirates by the Cubs. The move was triggered because pitchers Ervin Brame, Remy Kremer and Steve Swetonic were all out of action at the time with various ailments. The Pirates used Osborn mostly as a short reliever (he started twice) and he ended the season with a slash of 6-1/5.01 with his six wins in relief tops in the NL. He was sent to the Cards the following year as part of the Bill Swift trade. The swap marked the end of his MLB career; he spent the rest of the thirties playing minor league and semi-pro ball. 
• 1937 - Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo signed several players from the Crawfords, including Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, to his Dragones of Ciudad Trujillo squad. It was one of the blows that eventually brought down the Pittsburgh team as a powerhouse Negro League club. The Crawfords were sold in 1939 and moved to Toledo. 

Mace Brown - 1941 Double Play

• 1941 - Pitcher Mace Brown was sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mace had spent seven years as a Pirate, doing everything from starting to closing, but Brooklyn converted him to one of the MLB’s first full-time relievers. He was fairly effective over the next three years, then lost 1944-45 to the war while serving in the Navy, and 1946 was his last major league campaign. 
• 1949 - The Pirates won their Forbes Field Home Opener, beating the Reds, 5-4, behind Ralph Kiner's third-inning grand slam. The Bucs had fallen behind, 4-0, in the first, but Bill Werle tossed 7-2/3 frames of scoreless relief to claim the win with help from Hugh Casey, who came on to strike out Cincinnati’s Dixie Walker for the game’s final out with Redlegs on the corners.

4/22 From 1950: Ward Signs; Wood Claimed; Game Tales - DD Gem, Bell Ringer; Long Taters, Rallies & Walk-Offs, Streaks; Corner Of Hope; RIP Steve

• 1951 - Led by Gus Bell, who went 5-for-5 with a homer, three doubles, and a single while scoring three times, the Pirates defeated the Reds, 7-5, at Crosley Field. Ralph Kiner was 1-for-2 with a triple and was walked three times behind Bell. Bill Werle tossed 2-1/3 scoreless relief frames to claim the win. Bell must have really impressed Cincy; they traded for him in the 1952 off season, and he played with the Redlegs for nine seasons, claiming four All-Star nods in that span. 
• 1953 - As noted by Pirates Prospects John Dreker, the Pirates lost for the 12th straight time to the New York Giants’ righty Jim Hearn. The final at Forbes Field was 4-2 with Hearn tossing a four-hitter, albeit with five walks. But the worm would turn as Hearn would lose his next five decisions against Pittsburgh, though he ended his 13-year career with a 21-10/3.45 slash v the Pirates. 
• 1957 - Hank Foiles hit a 425’ triple and a 258’ homer off the RF foul pole in a 3-1 loss to the Giants at the weirdly configured Polo Grounds. Willie Mays’ two-out, three-run homer in the third off Luis Arroyo carried NY to victory as Ruben Gomez went the distance, tossing a six-hitter. 
• 1962 - The Pirates won their 10th straight game, 4-3, over New York, equaling the best major league record to start a season, set by the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers. Bob Veale beat the Mets at Forbes Field as the NY nine tied a NL record going in the opposite direction by opening the year at 0-9, tying a record held by the 1918 Dodgers and 1920 Boston Braves. The Pirates won it in the bottom of the eighth when Bill Mazeroski’s double scored Roberto Clemente. Both streaks ended the next day when the Mets won, 9-1, behind Jay Hook’s five-hitter. It was more than a loss; it started the Pirates on a spiral of losing 13-of-17 games. Pittsburgh still had a nice season, winning 93 games, but that was only good enough for a fourth-place finish in the NL, eight games behind LA. 

Steve Swetonic - 1994 Conlon Collection

• 1974 - RHP Steve Swetonic passed away at age 70 in Canonsburg. Steve was from Mt. Pleasant and Pitt, spending his entire, too-short career with the Pirates. He tossed for five years (1929-33) after coming up from the minors and was considered a hot prospect, but a variety of injuries ground his career to a halt. He had appendicitis in 1930 and missed two months. Then he had elbow surgery the following campaign that put him on ice until late June and kept him from going longer than four innings in any outing. In 32, he again had arm pain that knocked him out for three weeks and only allowed him one start from mid-August on; some feel his injury cost the Bucs a shot at the flag. They were 1/2 game behind before he was hurt and finished four games off the pace with Steve out. In 1933, he set personal highs in wins (12), starts (21) and IP (164-2/3), but had off season hand surgery and never tossed in the show again after a short-lived 1935 comeback attempt. He retired and became a salesman for the Blaw Knox company. 
• 1978 - The Bucs did it the hard way, but they overcame a pair of late Cardinal leads to rally for an 8-7, down-to-the-wire victory at TRS. The hero was Duffy Dyer, who had been activated from the DL (he had broken his thumb) just before the game. He batted in the ninth, pinch-hitting as the last man left on the Bucco bench. After two were gone Ed Ott doubled and Phil Garner worked a walk to keep the Bucs pulse beating and give Duffy his chance. The nine-year vet came through by lining a ball barely inside the chalk in left off John Urrea to chase both runners home. Rennie Stennett had three hits, two RBI and a run; Bill Robinson added two knocks, a run driven in and plated twice, while Willie Stargell homered. Teke tossed the ninth for the win; the game was started by Bert Blyleven. 
• 1992 - The Pirates won their ninth consecutive game, defeating Montreal, 2-0, at Olympic Stadium behind Doug Drabek’s five-hitter. Expo hurler Dennis Martinez was almost as dominating, giving up just two knocks. Kirk Gibson homered off the third pitch of the game (he also had the other rap against Martinez) and Steve Buechele’s two-out single in the ninth off reliever Mel Rojas plated Andy Van Slyke with a little soft shoe - Buechele got trapped between bases, but stayed alive long enough for AVS to score. Pittsburgh’s record improved to 12-2, tying the franchise’s best 14-game start since the 1914 & 1902 teams. Montreal salvaged the last match of the four-game set the next afternoon, 6-3, whipping former teammate Zane Smith to snap the streak. 

Tim Wakefield - 1993 Upper Deck

• 1993 - Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield won his second consecutive start while walking nine batters when he ended a five-game Bucco skid with a 5-4 decision over the Cincinnati Reds at Three Rivers Stadium. He only allowed four hits while going the distance. Wakefield made it a nail biter by walking the bases loaded on 14 pitches after two outs in the ninth, but Barry Larkin inexplicably offered at the first pitch following that third free pass and tapped into a game-ending comebacker. Lonnie Smith led the Pirates attack with two RBI and a run scored, while Carrick’s John Wehner made his first MLB start in center field (he played 91 games in the Buc OF during his career), replacing Andy Van Slyke. 
• 1997 - The Pirates signed OF Turner Ward to a $300K deal after he was released by the Brewers. He had two solid years for the Bucs, including an all-time TV moment when he crashed through the TRS wall. But he hit under the Mendoza line in 1999 and was released in August. 
• 2001 - Jason Kendall gave the Bucs their first walkoff win at PNC Park with a two-run homer off Chicago’s Jeff Fassero in the 10th inning after the Cubs took a 3-2 lead in the top of the frame on a leadoff homer by Gary Matthews. In the home half, Kevin Young answered by delivering a pinch-hit single and Kendall followed with his blast to give the Bucs and Mike Williams the win. 
• 2010 - The Pirates were humiliated by the Brewers at PNC Park, 20-0, suffering the worst loss in their history. Six Bucco pitchers surrendered 25 hits and walked six more batters. The victory completed a three-game sweep of the Bucs in which the Brew Crew outscored Pittsburgh, 36-1. "It was fun..." said Brewer Ryan Braun, who homered, doubled, singled and drove in five runs. It was eclipsed in 2022 when the Pirates were pummeled, 21-0, by the Cubs at Wrigley Field. 

Brandon Wood - 2011 Topps

• 2011 - IF Brandon Wood was claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The utilityman ended up getting into 99 games during the season, starting 55, mainly at third base, although he did play all four infield spots. He got a good look, but only hit .220 and was DFA’ed at the end of the year. Wood then bounced around in various minor league systems until retiring in 2014. 
• 2016 - The Bucs held off the Diamondbacks, 8-7, in a game that featured some epic early season long taters. It was in the nineties in Arizona, and the Chase Field roof was open, setting up perfect conditions for a slugfest. Each team had three homers (Welington Castillo had two) but the Buc blasts were seismic. Sean Rodriguez and Gregory Polanco hit the longest pair of back-to-back homers since official measurements began in 2009 at 458 and 461 feet. They were topped by Jordy Mercer’s launch of 466’, the longest home run of the year to date. Those bombs were three of the six longest homers hit so far during the season. Jon Niese got the win (it was the first time the nine-year vet started a campaign with a 3-0 record) and Mark Melancon earned the save. 
• 2017 - The Perry Hilltop Citizens Council held the "Corner of Hope Celebration" to unveil nine revamped Negro League All-Star murals and open the small park the artwork is located in at the corner of Wilson Avenue and West Burgess Street in North Side. Originally dedicated in the late nineties, the faded Negro League murals were restored by students at The Pittsburgh Project who also cleared the run-down lot, with Oakglade Realty providing funding for the project. The murals are of Josh Gibson, who lived in the neighborhood, and fellow stars Ray Dandridge, Rube Foster, Gus Greenlee, Pop Lloyd, Satchel Paige, Cum Posey, Jackie Robinson, and Mule Suttles.