Bucco History 6/11

Deacon Phillippe, Len Levy, Roy Sanders, Big Poison, Frank Thomas, Dave Cash, rally at KC and bye-bye Cam...

• 1903 - Deacon Phillippe tossed his third straight whitewash, defeating Brooklyn 9-0 at Exposition Park. Phillippe won 25 games that season, but only ended up with one more shutout. 
• 1913 - Len Levy was born in Squirrel Hill. The Allderdice grad did about everything you could do for the Pirates without playing. He was a batboy, a Forbes Field ticket-taker, a minor league player, scout and coach in both the Pirate system and for the Bucs; he’s the guy that you saw in the first base box as Bill Mazeroski galloped by after his Series-winning homer in 1960. Older fans might remember him from his days after baseball when he ran an auto lot. 
• 1918 - Pittsburgh’s Roy Sanders and Boston's Bunny Hearn battled for each other for 16 innings before the Bucs won 3-2 on a bases-loaded squeeze play by Howdy Caton. Sanders allowed just one hit over the last eight innings at Braves Field after Boston had taken an early 2-0 lead. 
• 1927 - The Brooklyn Robins crashed Big Poison’s party to take an 11-10 win at Forbes Field by scoring four runs in the ninth. Waner had just been married the day before, and the Pirates held a “Paul Waner Day” for him. He was gifted with a car and joined in the fun with three hits, but though it was indeed his day in many ways, it wasn’t for the Bucs. 
• 1929 - OF/3B Frank Thomas was born in Pittsburgh. The local kid spent half of his 16 year career as a Pirate (1951-58) before being traded to the Reds. While a Buc, his line was .275/163/562 and he was a three time All-Star. 
• 1948 - Dave Cash was born in Utica, New York. Drafted in 1966, he played his first five seasons in Pittsburgh (1969-73) and replaced Bill Mazeroski at second base in 1970. He hit .285 as a Bucco and was in the league for a dozen campaigns, having three All-Star seasons with Philadelphia. 
• 1958 - Birthday boy Frank Thomas hit two homers‚ one a grand slam‚ and drove in seven runs as the Pirates pounded the Giants 14-6 at Seals Stadium. 
• 2000 - The Bucs scored three runs in the first and five in the tenth to down the KC Royals 10-6 at Kauffman Stadium. Warren Morris and Adrian Brown combined for eight hits, three RBI and six runs from the top of the lineup while Brian Giles drove in three clutch runs with a game-tying double in the ninth and a two run homer in the tenth. 
• 2001 - Kevin McClatchy fired Cam Bonifay after seven losing seasons and several costly and questionable free agent signings. Dave Littlefield was named his replacement a month later.