Pittsburgh Baseball on May 8th

The Filipinos, no and low hit games, memorable long balls, DiMaggio becomes a Buc and some red hot sticks...

• 1912 - The Pittsburgh Filipinos of the newly formed United States League opened their home schedule at Exposition Park with a 3-2 loss to Cincinnati. The team was later a member of the Federal League, an outlaw group that operated from 1913-15. The team was first called the Pittsburgh Filipinos after their manager, Deacon Phillippe. They later became the Stogies and then the Rebels, named after skipper Rebel Oakes.
• 1929 - Carl Hubbell, in his second MLB season, became the first LHP in 13 years to throw a no-hitter when he beat the Pirates 11-0 at the Polo Grounds. Sparky Adams drew a walk for the Bucs, and NY committed three errors behind Hubbell.
• 1940 - The Pirates traded OF Johnny Rizzo to the Reds in exchange for OF Vince DiMaggio, Joe & Dom’s bro. Vince held down center for the Bucs for five seasons, and hit .255 with 79 homers and 367 RBI’s in 670 games with All-Star years in 1943-44. Rizzo joined the Navy in 1942 and had one strong season after returning.
• 1950 - Ralph Kiner hit his second grand slam in three games during a 7-5 loss to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field. It was the future Hall of Famer's eighth career grand salami.
• 1963 - Willie Stargell hit his first MLB homer, a three run shot off Lindy McDaniel at Wrigley Field, during a 9-5 loss to the Cubbies.
• 1973 - For the second time in his career‚ Willie Stargell drove a ball out of Dodger Stadium. His blast off Andy Messersmith flew over the 50-foot high right field roof, 470’ away and was one of two four baggers for Pops, who was the only player to launch a ball out of that yard.
• 1988 - Doug Drabek took a no-hitter into the 9th before allowing a pinch single to Randy Ready and a home run to ex-Pirate Marvell Wynne‚ winning a 6-2 decision over the Padres at TRS. Bobby Bo had three hits to lead the Pirate offense.
• 1994 - Andy Van Slyke went 8-for-9 in the Pirates' 9-2 and 9-3 doubleheader sweep of the Cubs at TRS with a homer, double, five runs and four RBI.
• 1997 - Jason Kendall's bases loaded double was the big blow in a Bucco eight run fourth frame as Pittsburgh outlasted Colorado 10-8. Mark Johnson had three hits and Al Martin and Kevin Elster added homers for the Bucs‚ who scored 24 runs on 31 hits in their two games at Coors Field. Love that mountain air!
• 2012 - In a see-saw game at PNC Park, Adam LaRoche erased a 3-2 ninth inning Pirate lead by blasting a homer off of Joel Hanrahan. But the Bucs had an answer. With two down in their half, Rod Barajas took a 2-0 Henry Rodriguez heater deep to left, scoring Alex Presley ahead of him to pull out a 5-4 Pittsburgh win over the Nats. Tony Watson faced two batters to get the victory.