9/12: UA, Fido, Name of the Game, Shut Down, Ralph Kiner, They Will Come, Long Ball...

UA, Fido, Name of the Game, Shut Down, Ralph Kiner, They Will Come, Long Ball...

• 1883 - The Union Association, a short lived baseball league, was formed in Pittsburgh. It had a bit of local representation - one of the original clubs was the Altoona Mountain City, which folded after 25 games, and later the Pittsburgh Stogies, a club that formed after the Chicago Browns franchise relocated to the Steel City. 
• 1891 - The Pirates and hometown pitcher Mark “Fido” Baldwin had a contentious relationship during his three year (1890-92) Buc career. At one point, the team fined him $50, leading him to request his release. Instead, manager Ned Hanlon decided to work Fido like a dog; on this date, he started and won a pair of complete game victories against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms at Eastern Park, and won 26 games during the campaign. The Penn State grad retired the following season, came back for a game, and the Bucs released him for good. He finished the season with the NY Giants and then retired from MLB, became a doctor, and lived out his days in Homestead. He’s buried at Allegheny Cemetery. 
• 1933 - Pitching is the name of the game, and the Bucs had plenty against the Brooklyn Dodgers, sweeping a twin bill by 1-0 and 2-0 tallies at Forbes Field. Heinie Meine’s five hitter topped Sloppy Thurston in the opener, with Meine scoring the game’s only run in the ninth, driven in by Pie Traynor. Lloyd Waner went 4-for-5 at the top of the order. Waite Hoyt tossed a four hitter in the nitecap to best Dutch Leonard as Traynor and Tommy Thevenow drove in seventh and eighth inning scores for the sweep. 
• 1943 - Bob Elliott's eighth inning double was the Pirates only hit as the Reds Elmer Riddle outdueled Rip Sewell 1-0. The bats woke up in the second game at Crosley Field to split the DH with a 7-0 win, powered by Jim Russell’s three run homer and Xavier Rescigno’s four hit shutout. 1947 - Ralph Kiner hit two homers against Boston Braves’ pitcher Red Barrett in a 4-3 win at Forbes Field to set a record of eight home runs in four games. Tony Lazzeri had hit seven round-trippers in four games in 1936. 
• 1948 - The Pirates whupped the Cubs 7-3 at Wrigley Field as Rip Sewell won his 11th game and the Chicago staff generously donated 14 walks to the Bucco cause. Pittsburgh was within sniffing distance of first, sitting just 2-1/2 games behind league leading Boston. But that was as close as they were to get, fading badly down the stretch to lose out to the “Spahn, Sain, and pray for rain” Braves. They finished fourth with 83 wins and 8-1/2 games out. 
• 1960 - A crowd of 21,261 cheered the first-place Pirates over the Giants 6-1 and set a new Pittsburgh home attendance record of 1‚521‚251, edging the old mark set in 1948. The final attendance for 1960 was 1,705,828, which would be the highwater mark until the 1988 Pirates drew 1,866,713 at TRS. 
• 1969 - Doing it with their arms and sticks, pitchers Jerry Koosman and Don Cardwell pitched 1-0 wins and drove in the winning scores to lead the Mets to a DH sweep of the Bucs. Bob Moose and Dock Ellis took the losses at Forbes Field. 
• 1985 - The Bucs banged three homers to rout the Cubs 10-2 at TRS. RJ Reynolds and Mike Brown connected off Dennis Eckersley, but the big blow was a two out grand slam by reliever Don Robinson off Warren Brusstar in the eighth frame. He also picked up the save for Rick Rhoden, tossing two innings of one hit ball with three whiffs.