7/19 From the 30’s Through the 70’s: Arky Cycle; Duke Bought; ASG; Game Stories; HBD Vincente & Nick

• 1935 - C Nick Koback was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1953, at the age of 17, Koback signed with Pittsburgh as a bonus baby out of Hartford HS. He made his MLB debut before playing in the minors as the youngest player in the league and as you might imagine, he wasn’t quite ready for showtime. He got some quick sips of coffee with the Bucs from 1953-55 and went 4-for-33 (.121). It was his only big league time; most of his career was spent in the minors and Mexico. He earned a reputation of a good hitter - of Titleists, not baseballs (his minor league lifetime BA was .243), and he became a golf pro after he left baseball. 

• 1939 - Arky Vaughan went 5-for-5 and hit for his second career cycle against the Giants at the Polo Grounds, scoring four times and driving home a pair of runs. Fern Bell added three RBI in the 10-3 Pirate win. Mace Brown went the distance for the victory, supported by a hearty 19 hit Bucco attack. 
• 1950 - Frank E. McKinney resigned as president of the Pirates. He sold his interests in the club to partners John Galbreath and Tom Johnson‚ with Galbreath assuming the presidency. Vice President Bing Crosby retained his minority interest. McKinney and the group had bought the Bucs in 1946 from Barney Dreyfuss’ family. 
• 1950 - The Pirates purchased 3B Bob “Duke” Dillinger from the Philadelphia Athletics for $35,000. The 31-year-old slap-hitter played 70 games from 1950-51 for the Bucs, batting .279. An All-Star (1949) and league hits leader (1948) for the St Louis Browns, Bob had also claimed the AL stolen base crown from 1947-49, but his wheels were wearing thin and he only swiped six sacks as a Bucco. The Pirates sold him to the White Sox in 1951, and that was his last hurrah after six MLB seasons. Two things conspired against Dillinger - he got to the show late, spending three years in the service, and toward the end he developed an early case of “Steve Sax” disease, often finding himself unable to make the throw across the infield. He spent his final four years in the PCL before becoming an inspector for Los Angeles. 
• 1952 - It wasn’t a very good day for Pittsburgh as the Brooklyn Dodgers routed them at Forbes Field by a 9-1 score. But it was another good day for Ralph Kiner. The Pirates slugger homered for the fourth time in four games and the seventh time in his past dozen outings. He would claim the HR title for a seventh straight year with 37 bombs and make his fifth consecutive All-Star appearance playing for a horrible Bucco club that won just 42 games and finished 54-½ games behind the Dodgers. 

Vern Law 1955 Bowman

• 1955 - Vern Law pitched 18 innings against the Milwaukee Braves in front of 10,000 Forbes Field fans. And he didn’t even get the win; Bob Friend worked the 19th frame of the 4-3 victory. Law left giving up two runs - one was unearned - on nine hits with two walks and 12 whiffs. Friend came in and gave up a score, but the Bucs came back with a pair of tallies on Gene Freese’s single, Dale Long’s double that plated Freese and the game winning knock by Frank Thomas. Law took the hill on just two days rest; he got the start when the scheduled hurler, Joe Gibbon, became ill. 
• 1963 - RHP Vincente Palacios was born in Manlio Fabio Altamirano, Mexico. He tossed five years (1987-88, 1990-92) for the Bucs as a spot starter and long man while a member of the powerhouse 1990-92 teams of Jimmy Leyland. Palacios went 12-8-6/4.03 during his time in Pittsburgh. His career was hampered by a pair of shoulder surgeries, and after his Pirate days he yo-yo’ed between MLB and the Mexican League, mostly working south of the border. 
• 1967 - The Pirates Dennis Ribant and the Giants Mike McCormack hooked up in an epic Forbes Field pitchers duel that wasn’t decided until the 11th frame. Pittsburgh scored in the first inning on a passed ball and the G-Men got a homer from Tom Haller in the second frame; it was a long line of zeroes after that. Ribant scattered nine hits while his teammates left the bases loaded three times after plating that first run. The fourth try proved the charm when Jerry May led off the 11th with a triple and a pair of intentional walks jammed the sacks again. Frank Linzy took McCormack’s spot to face Gene Alley, who singled home the game winner.

Ken Brett 1974 (photo Focus on Sports/Getty)

• 1974 - Ken Brett worked 8-⅓ frames while leading the Pirates to a 2-0 shutout against the Braves at Atlanta Stadium. The Pirates scored first in the fifth inning when Frank Taveras led off with a triple and scored on Brett’s sacrifice fly, adding an insurance marker in the ninth on Bob Robertson’s two-out double that plated Ed Kirkpatrick. The five-hit win upped Brett’s record to 12-6 as Dave Giusti picked up his fifth save. 
• 1977 - The NL outslugged the AL 7-5 at Yankee Stadium during the All Star game. Dave Parker went 1-for-3, while Bucco closer Goose Gossage made it interesting by giving up a two-run homer in the ninth. John Candelaria was also on the squad, but didn’t see any action.