8/12 Through the 40s: Giant Win; Hot Streaks; Bats Boom; HBD Bud, Andy, Watty & Paul

• 1867 - OF Dan “Bud” Lally was born in Jersey City. He played two seasons in the majors and had a long minor league career from at least 1887 to 1905 where he put up a .308 lifetime BA. He made two stops in the show, hitting .224 as a Pirate in 1891 and then landing a one-year starting gig at St. Louis where he batted .279. After his playing days, Bud became a minor league ump, at least briefly. 
• 1871 - RHP Andy Dunning was born in New York City. Andy didn’t have much of a career with the Alleghenys, pitching two games (both complete) and losing both, giving up 19 runs on 20 hits with 16 walks and 18 stolen bases in 1889. But he could be excused; at 17, he was the youngest player to appear in a game for Pittsburgh. Dunning’s pro career covered what should have been his prep years; he first tossed professional ball for the Bridgeport Giants of the Eastern League as a 15-year-old, threw his last MLB pitch at 19 for the NY Giants and retired from baseball when he was 21 after he was released by the Brockton Shoemakers of the New England League to eventually become a coffee & tea salesman in his native NYC. 

Watty Lee 1936 (photo Washington Post)

• 1879 - LHP Wyatt “Watty” Lee was born in Lynch Station, Virginia. Lee played three campaigns as a Washington Senator before closing out his career with Pittsburgh in 1904, with a slash of 1-2/8.74 in three starts. He was a hybrid, also playing outfield, and he hit better than he tossed, going 4-for-12. Those eight games were the end of Lee's major league career, but he went on to a long run in the minors. He continued to split his time between pitching and the outfield until 1909, when he returned full time to the bump. He finished his pro career in 1917 with the Richmond Virginians of the International League, but continued to play sandlot ball until he was 52. 
• 1895 - RHP Paul Carpenter was born in Granville, Ohio. He pitched for the Bucs in 1916 as a 22-year-old, doing pretty well in five games as a reliever, giving up eight hits and four walks in 7-2/3 IP but only one earned run in his five games. But that was the end of his MLB days; he worked in the minors through the 1919 season. 
• 1915 - Al Mamaux tossed a three hitter in a 4-0 win over the NY Giants at Forbes Field, his eighth shutout of the year. Doug Baird led the offense, going 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored. Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Press noted that Giant skipper John McGraw wasn’t in the coaching boxes, and asked a NY writer about his absence. He was told that “Mac is disgusted with the bunch he is piloting this year...who are tied to long term contracts and not hustling.” 

Al Mamaux (photo Thompson Collection)

• 1918 - Pittsburgh bats boomed in a 12-1 win over the Chicago Cubs at Weeghman Field. The middle of the order (Billy Southworth, George Cutshaw and Fritz Mollwitz) went 9-for-13 with a walk, eights runs scored and four driven home. Southworth had four hits while Cutshaw and Walter Schmidt had three raps. Carmen Hill went the distance, firing a seven-hitter. 
• 1922 - The Pirates won their 13th game in a row by a 6-0 count over the Cincinnati Reds as Babe Adams tossed a whitewash at Forbes Field. The streak would end the next day when the Redlegs squeaked out a 5-4 win in 10 innings. 
• 1940 - The Bucs won their 11th-of-12 games by a 4-2 count over the Cincinnati Reds at Forbes Field. The Pirates used a balanced 10-hit attack to support Max Butcher, who scattered nine hits while going the distance for the win in front of a Monday night crowd of 42,254, setting a new attendance record.