Pittsburgh Baseball History 5/11

Rip Sewall, the Rebels, memorable homers and pitching, a streak, ding dong Bell, and a catcher takes the bump...

• 1907 - Truett Banks “Rip” Sewall was born in Decatur, Alabama. Sewall was the author of the “ol’ euphus” pitch, and in twelve seasons (1931-42) with the Pirates went 143-97/3.48, winning 21 games twice and selected as a member of three NL All-Star teams.
• 1915 - Pittsburgh Rebel OF Jim Kelly bopped the first pitch of the game over the wall in left for a leadoff homer to defeat the Buffalo Blue's (aka Bisons) Fred Anderson at Federal League Park 1-0. RHP Clint Rogge tossed the shutout for Pittsburgh.
• 1956 - Danny Kravitz hit a walk-off grand slam, his first and only MLB granny, off Jack Meyer in the ninth to give the Pirates a 6-5 win over Philadelphia at Forbes Field.
• 1957 - Roberto Clemente hit an inside the park homer that went under the batting cage 457’ away at Forbes Field before CF Richie Ashburn could (almost literally) dig it out. The Phils, 7-2 winners, protested, but the umps ruled that there was no ground rule to cover the situation and the home run stood. The Great One lined his four bagger off future teammate Harvey Haddix.
• 1958 - Bob Porterfield, newly acquired from the Red Sox, won a duel with Curt Simmons at Forbes Field to take a 1-0 win over the Phils. RC Stevens drove home Dick Groat in the eleventh inning for the walk-off win. It was a doubleheader sweep as the Bucs won the opener 10-4 behind Bob Friend, who survived back-to-back first inning homers.
• 1962 - The Reds' Joey Jay and Al McBean matched zeroes for nine innings at Crosley Field. The Bucs scored twice in the tenth with two outs on knocks by Dick Groat and Bob Skinner, but it wasn’t enough. They fell 3-2 when Frank Robinson singled home Joe Gaines with two away off Elroy Face for the comeback win.
• 1977 - The Bucs beat the Braves 2-1 at TRS to extend their winning streak to 11 games. John Candelaria left runners at second and third in the ninth with two down for Goose Gossage, who K’ed Rowland Office to save the win. The Candy Man was saved by a big hop; Darrel Chaney’s PH, final frame drive to left center hopped over the wall with Pat Rockett at first, and he would have scored easily if the ball had stayed in play. Atlanta, which lost its 17th straight to Pittsburgh, had owner Ted Turner serving as manager. All the streaks ended the next day as the Buccos lost and Turner named third base coach Vern Benson manager until Dave Bristol returned a day later.
• 1993 - Ding dong: In the top of the seventh, Jay Bell led off the inning by grounding out to Phillies' shortstop Juan Bell. The Pirate infielder was rung up by first base umpire Wally Bell. The Pirates chimed in with an 8-4 victory at Veterans Stadium.
• 1999 - Down 15-8 to the Astros in the 8th‚ Gene Lamont put C Keith Osik on the hill at the Astrodome. He walked two‚ K’ed one‚ hit a batter and gave up two hits, allowing four runs in his inning. Houston belted out 10 doubles against five Pirate hurlers, with two off Osik.