5/9 Through the 40s: Plunkin' Pink, Marathon, HBD Culley & Tony, Ken Sold, Curfew Blues

• 1896 - RHP Emerson "Pink" Hawley plunked three Washington batters in the seventh inning at Exposition Park, tying a mark he set two years earlier (in justice, Washington hurler Win Mercer bopped three Pirates in the same frame, so frontier justice prevailed). Eight batters were hit in the contest‚ with a NL-record five nicked by Hawley, during the Pirates 14-9 loss. The five Senator batters hit by pitches tied the mark that wasn’t matched again until 1969. Hawley retired in 1900 after nine seasons with a still-standing NL record of 201 hit batters; he also walked 933 hitters. For all of that, he was a capable hurler, winning 31 games in 1895 and 167 over his career.

Beanball king Pink Hawley - Ars Longa Art Card

• 1901 - The Pirates beat Chicago 8-1 behind Deacon Phillippe to end a marathon series. It was the eighth game in nine days between the two clubs, with the first four in Exposition Park where the teams split a four-game set and the final four at West Side Park where the Bucs swept the Orphans. The Windy City nine probably had about enough of the Pirates by season’s end - they finished 6-14 against them as Pittsburgh won the NL with 90 victories while the Orphans could claim just 53 wins.
• 1914 - OF Culley Rickard was born in Oxford, Mississippi. Rickard played for the Bucs from 1941-42, took a three-year break to serve during the war and returned for the 1947 campaign, hitting .270 over his three years with the Buccos. In 1949, still a Pittsburgh farmhand, he was traded to the San Francisco Seals for Dino Restelli.
• 1932 - Tony Bartirome was born in Pittsburgh. The slick fielding 1B played one year for the Bucs in 1952, hitting .220. The Hill District native did have a long career with Pittsburgh as their trainer, lasting from 1967-85. One Bartirome tale involves an RBI he earned, not as a player but as a sawbones. As related in John McCollister’s Tales From The Pirate Dugout, Bartirome went out to check on Bill Robinson, who had just been knocked down by a pitch in the seventh game of the 1979 World Series. The bases were loaded in the ninth with two down when he was brushed back. Robinson told Bartirome that he was OK; the pitcher (Dennis Martinez) didn’t hit him. “The hell he didn’t” replied Bartirome, who dug his nail into Robinson’s thumb until it bled. The ump, Jerry Neudecker, saw the crimson trickle and waved him to first to bring home the Bucs’ final run in the 4-1 win.

Tony Bartirome 1953 Topps

• 1947 - The Pirates sold lefty Ken Heintzelman‚ 33‚ to the Phillies. Heintzelman worked 7-1/2 years (1937-46) for the Bucs, interrupted by the war, and had a 37-43 record with a 4.14 ERA. The swingman wasn’t done; he pitched 5-1/2 more seasons for the Phils, winning 40 games. His son, Tom went on to play major league baseball with the Cardinals and Giants as an infielder between 1973 and 1978.
• 1948 - In the second game of a Sunday doubleheader at Forbes Field between the Pirates and the Dodgers‚ umpire Jocko Conlan let the game play through a 7PM curfew because he thought Pittsburgh manager Billy Meyer was stalling while sitting on a 5-4 lead. Brooklyn went ahead 7-5‚ but Ralph Kiner hit a three run HR to give Pittsburgh the 10-8 victory. The Bucs were fined $100 by the City for violating the curfew. Brooklyn romped in the opener, 14-2, and all those Sunday runs were the reason the nightcap pushed past the curfew limits.