4/18 Through the Forties: Ballyard Baptism; Opening Day Twinbill; Ralph's #1; Game Stories; HBD Steverino, Larry, Bob, Jack & Fred

• 1864 - RHP Fred Doe was born in Rockport, Massachusetts. Fred was a long-time minor league player (1886-1902) who got two MLB games in, both in 1890 in the Players League. The first was with Buffalo and the second as a Pittsburgh Burgher, with him tossing four mop-up innings and giving up two runs. Doe was a player, manager, and owner over several decades in the New England League and was known as the “Father of Sunday Baseball” because of his advocacy to repeal blue laws in Massachusetts. 

The dapper Fred Doe (photo via Out of the Park Developments)

• 1872 - 1B Jack Rothfuss was born in Newark. Rothfuss tore it up in the for the Atlantic League’s Newark Colts, was bought late-season by the Bucs for $2,000 and made his MLB debut on August 2nd, 1897. Jack hit .313 and was the front runner to become Pittsburgh’s next starting first baseman. Alas, Rothfuss never played in the majors again after contracting dysentery late in the season. (He blamed on the city’s water, telling The Sporting Life “...the water in Pittsburgh is atrocious." And at that time, he may have been right.) He was loaned to minor-league Kansas City, recovered and bolted back home to play for Newark. Jack returned to KC the next year, but jumped back-and-forth among minor league/indie clubs he until finally hung up the spikes in 1907. 
• 1886 - The Alleghenys played the only Opening Day doubleheader in Pittsburgh baseball history at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The North Siders dropped both ends to the eventual American Association champion St. Louis Browns. They lost the opener 8-4 with Ed “Cannonball” Morris on the bump and went down 10-5 in the second game with Hall of Fame pitcher James “Pud” Galvin toeing the rubber. The Alleghenys team was pretty strong; they went 80-52 on the year, but still ended up 12 games behind the Browns. It was the last season the team played in the AA, moving on the the NL in 1887. 
• 1902 - C Bob Linton was born in Emerson, Arkansas. Bob’s MLB career consisted of 17 games with the 1929 Pirates, half of them behind the dish and half as a pinch hitter (not that a .111 BA got him many at bats). Bob did have a long career in pro ball, beginning in 1927 and ending in 1942, with a brief comeback in ‘45 and a spell of minor league managing in the forties. 

Howie Camitz 1909 American Tobacco

• 1909 - Howie Camnitz spun an eight-hit shutout as the Bucs whipped the Cubs 1-0 in twelve innings, besting Three Finger Brown at the West Side Grounds. The run scored when, as the Pittsburg Press wrote “(George) Gibson hit to (Chicago SS Joe) Tinker, who bungled and (Bill) Abstein scored…” but the Pirates wouldn’t need much help that season as they won 110 games and the World Series from the Ty Cobb-led Detroit Tigers. 
• 1909 - The Pirates announced that their new Oakland ballyard, which opened on June 28th, would be called Forbes Field. The team and the Pittsburgh Press held a contest for the naming rights, and out of 100,000 entries, seven (who won season tickets) chose Forbes Field. Owner Barney Dreyfuss’ name seemed to be the top vote-getter, but he passed on the honor, saying that his decision was reached after “I considered it from a historical, euphonious and appropriate viewpoint.” Seems like euphony always wins.
• 1936 - RHP Larry Foss was born in Castleton, Kansas. After bouncing around the minors, he was called up as a 25-year-old by the Bucs in September of 1961. Danny Murtaugh threw him right into the fire, telling him that was starting against Bob Gibson at Forbes Field that night. And while not exactly a classic duel, Foss outlasted him to earn an 8-6 win. He pitched a couple of more games (1-1/5.87), and was sent back to the bushes. In September of ‘62, he was waived after the minor league season and the Mets claimed him. He finished the last two weeks of the season with them, and after another year on the farm retired with arm woes. He went on to earn his daily bread in the oil and gas industry, saving enough to open a sporting goods store later. 

Larry Foss 1983 One Year Wonder

• 1942 - RHP & AT&T SportsNet talking head Steve Blass was born in Canaan, Connecticut. The Bucco announcer was an All-Star and World-Series-clinching pitcher for the Pirates from 1964-74. The righty won 103 games for Pittsburgh during his career to go with two Series victories against Earl Weaver’s Orioles in 1971 and has been associated with the Pirates in one way or another for over 50 years. 
• 1946 - Rookie Ralph Kiner smacked his first big league homer off Howie Pollet in the eighth inning of a 4-2 loss to St. Louis at Sportsman Park. He would end his career with 369 long balls, 301 belted as a Bucco. 
• 1947 - The Pirates took the home opener from the Reds 12-11. The Bucs had added Hank Greenberg to their roster and shortened LF at Forbes Field for him. Greenberg himself (and for that matter, Ralph Kiner) didn’t go long, tho the other Bucs apparently took a liking to the short porch. Pittsburgh blasted five homers - rookie Wally Westlake had a pair while Billy Cox, Roy Jarvis & Jim Russell went yard too - and three of the balls landed in the new Greenberg Gardens. Cox became the first Pirate in history to lead off a Home Opener with a dinger when he took Joe Beggs deep. The season lidlifter at Forbes Field drew a record crowd of 38,216.