Tuesday, July 2, 2013

7/2 - Freddie's Monkey, Jay Bay Day and more...

Fred's monkey, deuces wild, Cub flub, big scores, Jay Bay day...

  • 1864 - C and utilityman Fred Carroll was born in Sacramento, California. In his seven years (1885-91) with Pittsburgh teams, he played for the Alleghenys, the outlaw Burghers and the Pirates, hitting .284 over his career. A bit quirky, at the beginning of the 1887 season Carroll buried his pet monkey, which had served as an unofficial team mascot for the team, under home plate at Recreation Park in a pre-game ceremony. 
  • 1927 - The Bucs score twice in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings to beat the Reds 7-6 at Forbes Field after trailing 6-1. The clinching blow was Clyde Barnhart’s two-run homer to left in the ninth off Art Nehf. Mike Cvengros tossed six shutout innings of relief for the win. 
  • 1949 - The Cubs and particularly Andy Pafko had a bad day at Wrigley Field, losing 8-3. Pafko hit into a bases loaded triple play in the third inning. He was called out in the dugout after Pete Castiglione at third knocked down his liner (actually, it popped out of his mitt), tagged the runner at third, then stepped on the base for the force. In the confusion, he then threw the ball home, and the catcher went to first for the force on Pafko, who thought his drive had been caught cleanly and was wandering his way to the bench. Even the umps had to step back to review the whole thing, but it stood. Ralph Kiner hit his 20th homer as Tiny Bonham picked up the win. 
  • 1961 - In the eighth inning, pinch hitters Johnny Logan, Rocky Nelson and Smoky Burgess banged out consecutive hits, a Pirate record, to prime a four run rally that led to a 7-6 win over the Giants at Forbes Field in the opener of a twin bill. Hal Smith added three RBI. The Bucs swept easily, rolling 9-0 in the nitecap behind Bobby Schantz’s five hitter and three RBI each from Roberto Clemente and Don Hoak. 
  • 2002 - The Pirates were run over by the Brewers at PNC Park by a 12-6 count, but did their share to help break the MLB record for homers hit in a day when 53 batters blasted 62 long balls. The Bucs hit four - Kevin Young, Jack Wilson, Abraham Nunez and Adam Hyzdu all went long in the loss. For Wilson, Nunez and Hyzdu, it was their first home run of the season. 
  • 2004 - Jason Bay drove in eight runs with a homer and three doubles as the Bucs mashed the Brewers 13-2 in the nitecap of a DH sweep at PNC Park. Pittsburgh won the opener 8-1 behind Ollie Perez, who punched out 11, and four RBI from CF Tony Alvarez, who homered and doubled. 
  • 2012 - The middle of the Pirate order was on fire against the Astros at PNC Park, leading the way to an 11-2 win. Andrew McCutchen, Garrett Jones, Neil Walker and Casey McGehee went 12-for-20 with five doubles, two homers, nine runs scored and 10 RBI. James McDonald got the win with help from Jared Hughes.

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