- 1883 - C Jimmy Archer was born in Dublin, Ireland. He played for five different clubs during his career, starting out and then playing his last year in Pittsburgh, first in 1904 as a rookie and then again in 1918. Archer was a strong armed catcher who often threw out would be base stealers from a squat. In his two stints with the Pirates, he only got into 31 games and hit .154 but was a career .249 batter with a 49% throw-out rate against base swipers.
- 1886 - RHP Frank “Bullet” Miller was born in Salem, Michigan. Miller tossed for the Pirates from 1916-19 and put up a 41-49-2/2.75 slash. Miller sat out two full seasons (1920-21) when the Pirates wouldn’t meet his salary demands, working his farm instead. He did eventually return to baseball when the Boston Braves paid the 36 year-old $7,500 in 1922, but hung up the spikes and returned to farming after two more seasons. His nickname was a nod to his fastball.
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| Howie Camnitz 1909 (photo Bain News Service/Library of Congress) |
- 1908 - The Pirates topped the Giants and Christy Mathewson 5-1 behind Howie Camnitz, handing Matty his first loss of the year. Tommy Leach led the attack with a pair of triples. The game at Exposition Park took just 85 minutes to play.
- 1909 - SS Leroy Morney was born in Oak Forest, Illinois. Morney had brief local stops in 1933 with the Homestead Grays (one of three teams he played for that season) and with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1934. Leroy had happy feet, playing for 15 teams in a 14-year career as a heavy-hitting shortstop who was named to three Negro League All-Star games.
- 1910 - Umpire Bill McKinley was born in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County. He was an AL umpire from 1946-65, making the calls in 2,977 regular season games, four World Series and three All-Star Games. After his retirement (mandatory when he hit age 55), he later served as umpire-in-chief of the short-lived 1969 Global League.
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| Bill McKinley 1955 Bowman |
- 1931 - C Jack Shepherd was born in Clovis, California. Signed out of Stanford in 1953, his first full season was the following year when he hit .304 and was a member of The Sporting News All-Rookie team. He played for Pittsburgh through 1956, compiling a lifetime .260 BA; he retired in 1957 to devote his efforts to a career in business.
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