10/5 Expo Park-Forbes Field: Bucs Win '60 Opener, Lose '27; Pud's 300; HBD Claude, Felix & Sarge; Grays Win WS

• 1873 - Middle infielder Claude Ritchey was born in Emlenton along the Allegheny River. He played for the Pirates for seven years, from 1900-06, batting .273 with 709 runs scored and 675 RBI, and was the starting 2B for the 1901 pennant winners and first World Series team in 1903. The combination of his size (5’6”) and his ability to drive in clutch runs gained him the nickname of "Little All Right." 

Claude Ritchie 1903-04 Breisch-Williams

• 1887 - IF Felix Chouinard was born in Chicago. He played infield and outfield for four big league years covering 88 games. He was with the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League for nine of those games in 1914, hitting .300. It was one of three clubs he played for that campaign; he got into four games next season with Brooklyn before joining the Navy. 
• 1888 - Pud Galvin won his 300th big league game against the Washington Nationals at Swampoodle Grounds, throwing a four-hitter in the 5-1 Allegheny win. He was the first player in MLB history to reach the 300 win total, finishing his career with 361 victories, with 138 of them earned with Pittsburgh clubs. 
• 1889 - RHP Jim Bagby Sr. was born in Marietta Georgia. He joined the Pirates in 1923 at age 34 during his last MLB campaign, going 3-2, 5.24. Jim provided the Bucs with a legacy, tho - his son, Jim Bagby Jr., also tossed for the Pirates, oddly enough also during his final big league season, 1947. The pair were the first father - son tandem to pitch in the World Series as Sr. appeared for the Indians (1920) and Jr. for the Red Sox (1946). Jim Sr. was known as “Sarge,” named after "Sergeant Jimmy Bagby,” a character in the 1919 Broadway play “Boys Will Be Boys” that his teammates took in. 
• 1927 - Pittsburgh’s Ray Kremer and the Yankees’ Waite Hoyt opened the World Series at Forbes Field. The Bucco wheels came off in the third when a pair of walks coupled with two errors and a muffed DP gave the Bronx Bombers three runs on one hit and a 4-1 lead. The Pirates kept chipping away - they had nine hits, led by Paul Waner’s 3-for-4 day - but dropped the game 5-4. 

Buck Leonard 2003 Topps Gallery

• 1948 - The Homestead Grays won their third Negro League World Series four games to one by defeating the Birmingham Black Barons and their 17-year-old rookie outfielder Willie Mays, 10-6 in Birmingham, scoring four runs in the 10th inning. The Grays were led by player/manager Sammy Bankhead and had Luke Easter, Buck Leonard and Wilmer Fields as their stars. It was the last WS for the Negro Leagues as their NL and AL divisions merged during the integration era. 
• 1960 - Roger Maris became the seventh player to homer in his first World Series at-bat. His round-tripper off Vern Law got the Yankees off to a quick 1-0 lead, but the Pirates won Game One of the Fall Classic at Forbes Field, 6-4. Pittsburgh scored three times in the first, and a two-run homer by Bill Mazeroski in the fourth was the early game winner. The score wasn’t quite as close as it looked; the Yankees’ Elston Howard hit a two-run, ninth inning homer off ElRoy Face to narrow the gap. The Bucco victory ended a 15-game Yankee winning streak and was Pittsburgh’s first WS win since 1925.