9/10: HBD Neil, Chad; AVS #1,000: Burleigh's Last W; Friend Wins 20

• 1913 - Before the Bucs lost 5-2 at Forbes Field to the NY Giants, Hans Wagner was gifted with a new piece of lumber. MA Seidel, a boyhood bud of the Dutchman who moved to Erie, presented the shortstop with a bat made from a timber of Commodore Perry’s flagship The Niagara, sunk in 1813, engraved with “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” 
• 1934 - Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes, closing out his career, got his last MLB win in relief as the Pirates beat the NY Giants 9-7 at the Polo Grounds. Grimes went two innings and gave up a run to claim his 270th victory.

Burleigh Grimes 1981 Baseball Legend's series

• 1940 - The Bucs rolled 11 in consecutive games, sweeping a twin bill from the Phillies by 11-3 and 11-1 scores at Shibe Park. In the opener, Maurice Van Robays homered with four RBI while Arky Vaughan smacked two triples and drove in three runs to allow Joe Bowman to cruise to victory. Rip Sewell tossed a six hitter with lots of support in the closer. Van Robays had a double and three more RBI, Al Lopez went 2-for-2 with three runs driven in, Vaughan added four more hits and Bob Elliott homered. 
• 1958 - Dick Stuart banged a two-run, two-out 10th inning homer, atoning for an earlier error that allowed a run to score, to give Bob Friend his 20th win of the year as the Pirates beat the Giants 6-4 at Forbes Field. Roberto Clemente added three hits, a run, RBI, stolen base and threw out a runner at third. Friend finished the year at 22–14 to lead MLB in victories, and became the first Buc pitcher to win twenty since Murry Dickson (20-16) in 1951. The victory guaranteed the ‘58 Pirates a winning record, snapping a nine-season drought during the “Rickey-Dinks” era. 
• 1977 - OF Chad Hermansen was born in Salt Lake City. The first round (10th overall pick) of the 1995 draft straight out of high school, Hermansen played in parts of the 1999-2002 seasons with the Pirates, but hit only .199. 
• 1985 - 2B Neil Walker was born in Gibsonia. The switch-hitting Pine-Richland grad was a three sport star in HS, and was drafted in the first round of the 2004 draft. Playing mostly catcher and third in the minors, he got his shot in 2010 at second base after Akinori Iwamura fizzled, and never looked back. 

Neil Walker 2004 Bowman Heritage series

• 1993 - Andy Van Slyke collected his 1,000th hit as a Pirate (he finished with 1,108 hits as a Bucco) at TRS when Pittsburgh lost 9-8 in 11 innings vs Colorado. He homered, singled and drove in three runs. It was an exciting finish; the Rox scored three times in the top of the 11th, but the Bucs answered with a pair and AVS was on second as the equalizer when Dave Clark bounced into the final out of the game. Van Slyke had collected his 1,000th hit in the MLB (he spent his first four seasons in St. Louis) on May 10th, 1991 in a 5-2 Pirate win against the Atlanta Braves. 
• 2014 - Andrew McCutchen hit the first inside-the-park home run of his career and the Bucs pounded out 13 hits in a 6-3 win over Philadelphia at Citzens Bank Park. Cutch was one of six Pirates with two hits - Josh Harrison, Starling Marte, Russ Martin, Travis Snider and Jordy Mercer joined him - and Martin added a long ball as Vance Worley claimed the win.