6/15 Birthdays: Gene, Bruce, Babe, Erik, Josh, Big Wheel, Bud, Jerry & Peek-A-Boo

• 1862 - 1B/OF/P William “Peek-A-Boo” Veach was born in Indianapolis. He only played part of season with the Alleghenys in 1890 (did pretty well, too, hitting .300) and had just a brief three-year big league career with a lifetime .215 BA. He was also a Spanish-American War vet, but he made the cut for the history pages thanks to his unique nickname. When he pitched for the Kansas City Cowboys of the Union League in 1884, his club called pick-offs with hand signals from the bench for him as he became antsy with runners aboard. Veach would shift his eyes from the field to the dugout so often before a pitch that the runners caught on and dubbed him Peek-A-Boo. Afterward, the manager put a plant in the grandstands who would wave a game program to indicate when Veach should throw over to first, but that was quickly sniffed out by the opponents, too. So the ploy to hold runners never became a thing, largely explaining why Veach became a 1B/OF and his nickname. 
• 1863 - C Jerry Hurley was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Jerry played three MLB campaigns, getting into 33 games. Eight of those were with the 1890 Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players League, where he hit .273 as Fred Carroll and Tom Quinn’s backup but wore out his welcome by sparring with manager Ned Hanlon. He did have an 11-year minor league career stretching from 1884-94 and managed briefly, spending most of his post-baseball days in Boston as an immigration official. 

Babe Dahlgren (photo source Baseball Birthdays)

• 1912 - 1B Babe Dahlgren was born in San Francisco. He played for the Pirates from 1944-45, hitting .271 and earning an All-Star spot in 1944. Babe was famous for two things: He replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939, ending the Iron Horse’s 2,130 game playing streak, and was credited as being the first MLB player to take a drug test for a non-performance enhancing drug. He took it voluntarily (and passed) in 1943 to dispel rumors that he was smoking wacky tobaccy, a false allegation that nevertheless stuck to him; he ended up playing for seven teams in six seasons. 
• 1916 - OF Eddie “Bud” Stewart was born in Sacramento, California. He started his nine-year MLB run (.268 lifetime BA) in Pittsburgh in 1941-42, hitting .242. He was considered a strong defensive player with good speed and a dependable pinch-hitter. His ball-playing days were interrupted by WW2 when he entered the Army. Bud was a gym teacher after his playing days, and as a California guy played as an extra in several Hollywood flicks. 
• 1925 - Gene Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa. The back-up infielder played for the Bucs from 1957-58 and 1960-61 with a .259 BA. In 1961, he became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia farm club in the New York-Penn League. In 1963, the Pirates promoted him to the big team as the second black coach in MLB, behind Buck O'Neil by three months. When Danny Murtaugh was tossed by an ump, Baker became the interim manager for two games, making him the first black to manage a team in a major league game. Baker managed Batavia again in 1964, and served as a minor league coach and manager. He then returned to Davenport and became the Bucs’ top midwest scout for 23 years. 

Gene Baker 1960 Topps

• 1941 - RHP Bruce Dal Canton was born in California, Washington county. Dal Canton pitched for California State College and had an oddball entry to pro baseball. After graduating, he became a science teacher at Burgettstown HS and played ball in an amateur league where he was discovered by scout Rex Bowen. The team signed him in 1966 and he debuted in the majors the next year. Bruce tossed his first four big-league seasons (1967-70) in Pittsburgh to a 20-8-8, 3.57 line. He put together an 11-year career as a starter and long man, also twirling for KC, Atlanta and the White Sox. Dal Canton was a Braves minor league pitching coach for a decade when he was discovered to have cancer in 2008; he passed away six months later. 
• 1956 - C Lance “Big Wheel” Parrish was born in Clairton. Lance spent 19 years in the show, returning home near the end of the trail as a 38-year-old in 1994, putting up a .270 BA. He was an eight-time All-Star for three different teams, six-time Silver Slugger awardee and three-time Gold Glove honoree. Since retiring, he’s been both a major and minor league coach, announcer, and is now a minor league manager. The nickname “Big Wheel” came about in the early ’80s based on a Mel Allen This Week in Baseball feature. Allen opened with “...the wheels of the Motor City were turning...” and referred to Parrish as the Big Wheel, according to Baseball By the Letters. 
• 1980 - C Erik Kratz was born in Telford, Pennsylvania. The journeyman made his second appearance as a Bucco in 2016; he caught nine games in 2010 as a rookie. Defensively, he did a fine job, throwing out 50% (8-of-16) wanna-be base larcenists, but hit just .111. Pittsburgh is one of seven teams the backstop has played for in nine MLB seasons; he’s now with the Brewers. 

Josh Lindblom (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

• 1987 - RHP Josh Lindblom was born in Lafayette, Indiana. He pitched regularly for the Dodgers and Phils from 2011-12 as part of a trek that included stops at five MLB teams, seven minor league towns and two Korean nines. The Pirates liked him; they claimed him off waivers in 2014 only to release him to the Lotte Giants of the KBO, then signed him again when he returned after two years. He spent most of his time at Indianapolis, getting into four 2017 Pirates contests and giving up nine runs in 10 plus innings. He went back to Lotte and now twirls for the Doosan Bears.