July 14 - Birthdays, Rallies, Big Wins, Big Loss, A Brawl & A Bite...

Birthdays, Rallies, Big Wins, Big Loss, A Brawl & A Bite...

• 1874 - LHP Jesse “Tanny” Tannehill was born in Dayton, Kentucky. He played six seasons (1897-1902) for Pittsburgh, with a line of 116-58/2.75. Tanny won 20 games or more four times for the Pirates and led the NL in ERA in 1901 (2.18). He was also pretty handy with a stick, batting .277 and making 71 OF appearances for the Bucs. 
• 1910 - The Bucs were down 3-0 going into the ninth against Christy Mathewson and the NY Giants at Forbes Field, but scored four times to take home the win. A walk, error and two singles set the table. Matty then loaded the bases with back-to-back walks‚ and after throwing two balls to Tommy Leach was relieved by Red Ames. Ames lost Leach, forcing home the winning run and giving Deacon Phillippe the victory. 
• 1929 - RHP Bob Purkey was born in Pittsburgh, and was signed by the Bucs right after he graduated from South Hills HS. The knucklerballer spent his first four and his final seasons with the Pirates (1954-57, 1966), going 16-30/4.13. His heyday was with the Cincinnati Reds, where he won 100+ games, appearing in a World Series and three All-Star contests. After retirement, he lived in Bethel Park and ran an insurance agency. 
•  1935 - Earl Francis was born in Slab Fork, West Virginia. The hard throwing righty tossed five seasons (1960-64) for the Bucs, going 16-23/3.77 with his time split between starting and as a long man from bullpen. 
• 1940 - The Pirates won their sixth game of seven by whipping Brooklyn 6-2 at Forbes Field. Rip Sewell got the win and also cracked a homer. They dropped the nitecap of the twin bill 2-0 as the Dodgers’ Freddie Fitzsimmons got the better of Ken Heintzelman. 
• 1955 - The Pirates suffered the worst defeat of their history when the Cincinnati Reds mashed them 19-1 at Forbes Field. 
• 1961 - Roberto Clemente’s two out grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, a rising liner that carried the center field wall at the 410’ mark, erased a 4-1 deficit and led the Bucs to a 6-4 win over the SF Giants at Candlestick Park. Clem Labine got the win and ElRoy Face the save.
• 1970 - Roberto Clemente was booed by the All-Star crowd at Riverfront Stadium after saying he would only play if the game was held in Pittsburgh instead of Cincinnati. He changed his mind (actually GM Joe Brown changed it for him), and resting a chronically sore neck, was used late in the game. He hit a sac fly to tie the game and held Willie Horton to a 375’ single off the wall in right as the NL won 5-4. 
• 1974 - The nitecap of a twinbill against the rival Reds erupted into a donnybrook. The action started after a fourth inning beanball of Bruce Kison by Jack Billingham, causing both teams to rush the field. When Sparky Anderson stepped on Ed Kirkpatrick's foot‚ the Buc catcher shoved the Reds skipper and was rewarded with a sock from Andy Kosko. The best remembered bit of mayhem was when Cincy’s Pedro Borbon bit Daryl Patterson after a little hair-tugging. Patterson got a tetanus shot after the chomp (Borbon told the media afterward for Patterson not to worry about tetanus, but rabies; Patterson countered by saying Borbon "fights like a woman.") The Pirates won the spirited contest 2-1 after losing the opener 3-2.
• 1997: The Bucs came from behind three times, falling behind 1-0, 2-1, and 4-3, to beat the Mets 5-4 at TRS. Steve Cooke left after seven with a 3-2 lead, but the Mets scored twice off Clint Sadowsky in the eighth to leapfrog ahead. The Pirates scored twice in the eighth for the victory on four straight hits: doubles by Al Martin, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall sandwiched around a knock by Dale Sveum. Rich Loiselle picked up his 12th save (he finished the year with 29), tying the club rookie record set by Francisco Cordova one year earlier. Ricardo Rincon got the win.
• 2006 - Seven of the Bucs’ 15 hits went for extra bases (six doubles and a Jose Bautista homer), all banged by different players, as the club spread the offense around in a 7-4 win against the Washington Nationals at PNC Park. Bautista, Jason Bay and Jack Wilson each collected three knocks. 
• 2010 - In the Eastern League All-Star game played in Harrisburg, Altoona Curve farmhand SS Chase d'Arnaud hit a grand slam in the seventh inning to ice a 10-3 win by the West Division over the East. D’Arnaud was named the game MVP. Josh Harrison added a two run triple.