4/18 Through the Fifties: Starling Suspended; Pie's #20 Retired; Ike Davis Deal; Monroe's Big Day; Game Stories; HBD Angel

• 1950 - Pittsburgh played the first MLB season opener under the lights at St. Louis' Sportsman Park. The Cards won, 4-2, as Bob Chesnes gave up homers to Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst in the loss to Gerry Staley. Johnny Hopp had both Bucco RBIs. 
• 1952 - In their home opener at Forbes Field before 29‚874‚ Bob Friend shut out the Reds‚ 3-0‚ on five hits, with the help of three Bobby Del Greco knocks. It was the second win in a row for the Pirates‚ and the “Rickey-Dinks” wouldn't have a win streak longer than two games all season (they finished 42-112), a 20th century MLB record for futility. In fact, they didn’t win back-to-back contests that year after August 9th! 
• 1955 - In his first major league appearance, 25-year-old reliever Al Grunwald got just one batter out. He gave up a single to Don Mueller‚ a double to Monte Irvin‚ a triple to Willie Mays‚ and a homer to Whitey Lockman. The NY Giants “cycle” led to an eight-run fourth frame and eventual 12-3 victory over the Pirates. But there was a bright spot. Rookie Roberto Clemente hit his first home run, an inside-the-park 445’ shot that the weirdly configured Polo Grounds kept in the yard. Grunwald got two more outings with the Bucs, tossing seven+ shutout innings, but was sent down in May.

Al Grunwald (James Elder 1966 Post Card)

• 1957 - The Bucs lost a ho-hummer to the Brooklyn Dodgers 6-1 at Ebbetts Field. The game marked the last time a Pirate pitcher batted eighth (Luis Arroyo, with Bill Mazeroski behind him) for over 50 years, until June 30th, 2008 when Paul Maholm batted ahead of Jack Wilson. Bobby Bragan made a habit of batting pitchers early in the fifties before John Russell again adopted the concept briefly. 
• 1969 - C Angelo Encarnacion was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Angelo was a back-up catcher for the Bucs from 1995-96, batting .238 over that span. He’s best know for a 1995 blooper when he scooped up a short blocked pitch with his mask with a runner on third in extra innings. That’s a no-no by the rule book and the nonchalant play allowed the winning run to score on the technical foul. He played for the Angels in 1997 and then went the minor league/indie route, shedding the tools of ignorance after the 2003 campaign. 
• 1972 - Pie Traynor’s number 20 was retired at TRS posthumously on Opening Day in front of 47,489, with his widow Eva getting his jersey from a pair of former #20’s, Bill Virdon and Richie Hebner. The Bucs could have used Pie, losing 6-4 to the Chicago Cubs despite Hebner’s homer and Manny Sanguillen’s double and triple. It was a packed pregame - Roberto Clemente received his 11th Golden Glove, Willie Stargell was presented with the Mel Ott Award for winning the 1971 HR title and Josh Gibson Jr tossed out the opening pitch. There were also protesters who unfurled a giant “Stop the War” sign. But the day ended tragically when 17-year-old Joe Farrell died trying to leap over 4’ rails between ramps (a stunt pulled off by several other youths during the game) and missed, falling to his death in the parking lot 80’ below, the second TRS fatality due to the low railing. Management finally added a high chain-link fence between the rampways to correct the deadly flaw. 

• 1987 - Mike Schmidt hit his 500th career home run‚ a three-run shot off Don Robinson in the top of the 9th inning, to give the Phillies an 8-6 win at TRS. Schmidt became the 15th MLB player to reach the 500-HR mark. And though the Pittsburgh-Philly rivalry was pretty bitter during that era, the fans give him a warm ovation. 
• 2004 - Kris Benson tied a MLB record with 4 sac bunts as the Bucs topped the Mets 8-1. He became the seventh player to accomplish the feat‚ and only the second since 1920. For all of that effort, none of the four runners Benson advanced scored. Craig Wilson did the heavy lifting, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two runs and two RBI. 
• 2009 - In the first Saturday afternoon game in Pittsburgh since 2005, Craig Monroe hit two three-run home runs in consecutive innings to give the Pirates their first back-to-back victories of the season by a 10-0 count over the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. Ian Snell went seven innings and gave up three hits for the win. 
• 2011 - Seven Pirates had two hits as the Bucs spread the attack around in drubbing the Reds 9-3 at GABP. Kevin Correia went the distance, scattering four hits. Six different Pirates scored, and six contributed RBI in a true team effort from the plate. 

Kevin Correia 2012 Topps

• 2014 - The Brewer’s Martin Maldonado drilled a sixth inning bullet to 3B Pedro Alvarez, hitting it so hard that the cover came undone. He beat El Toro’s aerodynamically-challenged knuckleball to first, and the play eventually led to a two-out run in a 5-3 Pirates loss to Milwaukee at PNC Park. It kept a couple of urban myths alive - the Pirates dismal luck against the Brew Crew held true to form and it was the kind of freak thing that always seemed to happen when losing pitcher Charlie Morton was on the bump. 
• 2014 - 1B Ike Davis was traded by the New York Mets to the Pirates for a PTBNL (LHP Blake Taylor) and RHP Zack Thornton. He hit .235 and was released at the end of the season, signing a deal with the Oakland Athletics and joining the Yankees for a brief MLB stop in 2016. Zach’s bounced around in AAA, Latin baseball & the indie league, also playing for the 2017 Israeli nine in the World Baseball Classic where he joined Ike as a teammate. 
• 2017 - It was announced that CF Starling Marte was given an 80-game PED suspension after testing positive for Nandrolone, an old-school steroid used to treat anemia but that has a history of sports abuse dating back to the sixties. With Marte out until July 18th and Jung-Ho Kang in South Korea due to legal entanglements resulting from his offseason DUI arrest, the Pirates were minus the middle of their 2017 lineup for much of the year (Marte returned; Kang didn’t) because of bad decision-making.