9/1 Happenings: All-Black Lineup; Fido Busted; Trebuchet Toss; MLSB; HBD Joe L, Sam, Shoemaker, Jim, Vic & Dave

• 1890 - C Olaf “Sam” (his middle name was Selmar) Brenegan was born in Galesville, Wisconsin. He got the briefest of time in the majors - he caught a couple innings for the 1914 Pirates, not long enough to get an at bat but long enough to allow a passed ball. Per Paul Dickson’s "Baseball Dictionary," his passed ball came about when he was hit in the hand with the pitch, which allowed a baserunner to advance. For some time afterwards, any catcher who took a ball barehanded was said to have "pulled a brenegan." Even with that rep, he played pro ball until 1919, closing out his baseball days at St. Joseph’s in the Western league. 

Mark Baldwin 1912 Yum Yum

• 1892 - Pirates P Mark "Fido" Baldwin was arrested in his hometown of Homestead (his dad sold real estate & insurance there) on charges of riot and providing the Carnegie Steel strikers with weapons. Baldwin posted a $2‚000 bond and claimed to be an onlooker, not a participant, in the mill melee. Fido was indicted on the charges but never brought to trial. On the diamond, he finished the year with a 26-27/3.47 slash, pitching 440-⅓ IP in 56 games, but had a contract squabble and was released the following season after one outing. After baseball, Fido became a MD and worked out of Passavant Hospital. 
• 1894 - OF Fred “Shoemaker” Nicholson was born in Honey Grove, Texas. He played for the Bucs from 1919-20 as a platoon outfielder and pinch-hitter, putting up a .342/.389/.505 slash during those seasons. Nicholson left the team as part of the 1921 Rabbit Maranville deal and spent a couple of years with the Boston Braves before settling into a minor league career that lasted through the 1935 campaign when he was 40 years old. 
• 1918 - GM Joe L Brown was born in New York City. Brown served as the general manager from November 1, 1955, through the end of the 1976 season, replacing mentor Branch Rickey. Under his watch, the Pirates became world champions in 1960 and 1971. Ever a loyal Pirate, after a decade of serving as a Southern California-based scout for the Bucs, Brown was called back in 1985 to serve as acting GM when the Pirates, rocked by a drug scandal, poor play and falling attendance, were sold by the Galbreath family to a local group. He oversaw the transition and acted as a bridge between GMs Pete Peterson and Syd Thrift. 

Joe Brown 2010 Pirates reunion (image via Root Sports)

• 1919 - RHP Jim Hopper was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He got has MLB games on his resume for the 1946 Pirates; he gave up five runs in four innings. Jim could be forgiven - he won 30 games in two minor league seasons, but lost his edge after serving two years in the military, returning in ‘46. He never got the edge back and was done with pro ball after the 1949 season, spent in Class D ball. 
• 1922 - IF Vic Barnhart was born in Hagerstown, Maryland. Vic got cups of coffee in 1945 & 1947, seeing almost of his playing time in 1946 for the Pirates. That was the sum of his career - 74 games and a decent .270 BA. He spent five years in the minors (he refused a 1947 trade to the Dodgers) before retiring. He then worked for the Maryland Correctional Institute where he was the Athletic Director. Vic’s dad was Clyde Barnhart, who played for the Bucs through the 20s.
• 1957 - LHP Dave Rucker was born in San Bernardino, California. Rucker was a seven-year MLB vet who tossed his last campaign in 1988 for the Pirates with an 0-2/4.76 slash in 31 games. He joined Dan Quisenberry and Ewell Blackwell as LaVerne University Leopards that made it to the show. The hurler also tossed for Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies, later becoming an instructor after he hung ‘em up at Yorba Linda’s Baseball Softball World Academy. 

• 1971 - The Pirates fielded baseball's first all-black lineup 24 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in a 10-7 win over the Phillies at TRS. The card read: Rennie Stennett (2B), Gene Clines (CF), Roberto Clemente (RF), Willie Stargell (LF), Manny Sanguillen (C), Dave Cash (3B), Al Oliver (1B), Jackie Hernández (SS) and Dock Ellis (P). Richie Hebner (3B) and Gene Alley (SS) were both injured, with Stennett (Cash moved from 2B to 3B) and Hernandez filling in. The usual 1B, Bob Robertson, got a rest day, so Scoops moved to the infield and Clines took center. They played pretty well; six starters had two hits and every position player reached base during the game. The historic lineup went almost unnoticed in Pittsburgh as both newspapers were on strike. Bob Prince and Nellie King, the radio announcers, mentioned it in passing, and Bill Guilfoile, the Pirate PR man, said they had to check the records after the game to see if it really was the first all-black lineup (in 1967, Harry Walker had a lineup with eight black position players, but Dennis Ribant was on the hill). Even Al Oliver said "When we took the field we didn’t give it any thought. It was probably about the third inning when I finally looked at Cash and said, ‘We’ve got all brothers out here, man.’" 
• 1974 - The Major League Scouting Bureau, the offspring of the Central Scouting Bureau, was founded (Pirates GM Joe Brown was one of its early proponents) to cut costs and centralizing scouting. Membership wasn’t mandatory until 1984 when the bureau was made a part of the Commissioner’s Office. 
• 2013 - The opening pitch was tossed out not by a human celebrity, but by a trebuchet (a catapult), designed by the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. The first machine to ever toss a ceremonial ball at PNC Park (it was named “Rookie of the Gear”), it delivered a strike to the designated catcher, the Pirate Pirate, 10 minutes before the game against the St. Louis Cards was to begin. The Bucs might have been better off keeping the contraption on the mound to pitch, as they lost to the Redbirds, 7-2.