11/21 Birthdays: HBD Brian, Bill, Daryl,Freddie, Alex & Billy; Also to Donora's The Man & The Kid

• 1869 - IF Billy Clingman was born in Cincinnati. Billy played in parts of 10 big league seasons for seven teams, getting his first heavy dose of duty in Pittsburgh in 1895, playing at the hot corner in 106 games with the Alleghenys while batting .259. A good glove man who hit .246 lifetime, he retired in 1903 from the show, played through 1906 in the American Association and then got on with life in Louisville, Kentucky. He owned a print shop and an engraving business called Clingman Engraving Company, retiring in 1947 and passing on in 1958. 
• 1869 - P Alex Beam (no one recalls which hand he tossed with) was born in Johnstown. He pitched two major league games with the Alleghenys as a 19-year-old in 1889, both complete game starts, going 1-1, 6.50 with a couple of extreme stats: he walked more batters (15) than he allowed to reach via a hit (11), tossed three wild pitches and struck out one foe. His minor league record disappears after 1892 and that’s all we know of Mr. Beam until his death in 1938 in Nogales, Arizona.

Freddie Lindstrom 1933 R333 DeLong

• 1905 - OF & Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom was born in Chicago. Acquired from the NY Giants along with Larry French, Lindy played two season in Pittsburgh, hitting .302, before being sent to Chicago. Lindstrom batted .311 during a 13 year career. The Pirates got him a couple of seasons after a back injury moved him off his third base position to the outfield. 
• 1920 - Hall of Famer Stan Musial of the Cards was born in Donora. Stan the Man compiled 3,630 career hits, ranking fourth all-time and first in a career spent with only one team. With 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 on the road, he also is considered to be the most consistent hitter of his era. He hit 475 home runs, was named the NL's MVP three times, and won three World Series championship titles. He shares the MLB record for the most All-Star Games played (24) with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Musial was a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. 
• 1943 - RHP Daryl Patterson was born in Coalinga, California. Patterson worked off-and-on for five years in MLB, closing out his career with the Pirates in 1974, going 2-1-1, 7.29. He joined the club after two years in the minors and appeared in his last major league game on September 14, 1974. Patterson ended his playing days at the Pirates' AAA Charleston Charlies in 1974-75. Patterson factoid: On July 14th, 1974, he was involved in a brawl with the Cincinnati Reds where he was bitten in the neck and had his hair pulled by Cincy’s Pedro Borbón. Patterson got a tetanus shot after the incident and Borbon was dubbed “Dracula” by Pirates announcer Bob Prince. 

Bill Almon 1986 Donruss

• 1952 - IF Bill Almon was born in Warwick, Rhode Island. Bill played in Pittsburgh from 1985-87, batting .249, before being traded to the Mets for Al Pedrique. His last season was 1988 as a Phil, his 15th MLB campaign, before he retired and joined the family business. Trivia Pursuit: Bill Almon is the only Ivy Leaguer to be drafted first overall in any of the four major professional sports. The Brown grad was selected by the San Diego Padres with the first pick of the 1974 Draft.
• 1969 - Ken Griffey Jr. of Seattle and Cincinnati fame was born in Donora. The Kid (a childhood nickname given to keep him sorted from his dad, Ken Sr; he also went by “Junior”) was a 13-time All-Star, and his 630 home runs rank as the sixth-most in MLB history. Griffey also won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He's tied for the record of most consecutive games with a home run (8 games, tied with Don Mattingly and Dale Long). His pop, Ken Griffey Sr., was born there and was a multi-sport star at Donora HS, graduating the year before it merged with Monongahela to form Ringgold. 
• 1975 - RHP Brian Meadows was born in Montgomery, Alabama. He pitched for Pittsburgh from 2002-05. The Bucs converted him to a reliever in 2003, and his line with the Pirates was 8-12-2 with a 4.20 ERA. He went on to Tampa Bay in 2006 and retired the following season after failing to make it out of camp with the Reds.