Pittsburgh Baseball 5/17

Cool Papa Bell, Goshen Sam, very late rally, Greenberg & Robinson meet, The Quail, The Great One & Hideo Nomo

• 1903 - James “Cool Papa” Bell was born in Starkville, Mississippi. He played for both the Homestead Grays (1932, 1943–1946) and Pittsburgh Crawfords (1933–1938), and compiled a .337 BA in the Negro Leagues. His speed was legendary. One Satch Paige story goes that when facing Bell, the outfielder hit a liner up that went zipping past Satch's ear and hit Bell in the butt as he was sliding into second base. That’s fast! The first Mexican League Triple Crown winner (he played there for three years), Bell was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.
• 1906 - “The Goshen Schoolmaster" Sam Leever tossed a three hit shutout against Iron Man Joe McGinnity as the Bucs defeated the Giants 2-0. Leever faced just 27 NY batters at the Polo Grounds. Two of the three runners were erased on DPs and one was caught stealing. 
• 1920 - The Pirates scored three runs in the bottom of the 15th to edge the Giants‚ 7-6 at Forbes Field. NY plated their pair in the 15th when C Walter Schmidt refused to chase a wild pitch by P Elmer Ponder, allowing not one, but two Giants to score. Pittsburgh rallied and won the contest in their half when Charlie Grimm singled in Possum Whitted with two down for the game winner. With all that, the game took just 2:43 to complete. 
• 1947 - Hank Greenberg, who had heard an anti-semitic slur or three during his career, made Jackie Robinson’s transition a little easier when he asked if he was OK after a collision at first, then advised Jackie to “hang in there” during a 4-0 Bucco win at Forbes Field over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Da Bums outhit Pittsburgh 12-4, but one of the Pirate knocks was a two-run homer by Greenberg. 
• 1956 - The Pirates traded for CF Bill Virdon with St. Louis, sending LHP Dick Littlefield and OF Bobby Del Greco to the Red Birds. The Quail, who was Rookie of the Year in 1955 for the Cards, played 11 seasons for the Pirates, roaming the spacious center field pasture of Forbes Field for a decade while hitting .266. 
• 1971 - Roberto Clemente's two-out, two-run, walk-off triple off Mike Marshall carried the Bucs to a 6-5 win over the Expos at TRS. Clemente had three hits, including a homer, and three RBI. Montreal had jumped to a 5-0 lead in the third off Luke Walker, but the bullpen work of Jim Nelson, Nellie Briles and Mudcat Grant shut them down the remainder of the game. 
• 1995 - Hideo Nomo tossed seven innings of two hit shutout ball‚ fanning 14 batters, but the Bucs scored three times in the last two frames off four LA relievers to take home a 3-2 win at Dodger Stadium. Orlando Merced was intentionally walked in the ninth to get to Jacob Brumfield, who lined a single to center off Antonio Osuna to score Angel Encarcion with the winning run