9/2 Happenings:Clemente Overtakes Hans; Oooops; Veale Sold; #10,000 HR's; HBD Luke, Gaby, Milo, Sean & Ben

• 1907 - IF Ben Sankey was born in Nauvoo, Alabama. His MLB career lasted for 72 games from 1929-31, all as a Bucco, and he hit .213 over that span. Ben stuck at it, playing minor league ball until 1941, waiting until he was 33-years-old before unlacing the spikes. The slick fielder spent six years with Montreal and three more with Baltimore in the International League, earning a spot in the IL Hall of Fame in 1947. 

Milo Hamilton (photo Baseball Hall of Fame)

• 1927 - Leland Milo Hamilton was born in Fairfield, Iowa. Milo had the unenviable and ultimately untenable job as Bob Prince’s replacement in the broadcast booth. His quiet demeanor was a stark contrast to the Gunner’s folksy ways & boosterism, and the gig wore thin on both Hamilton and the City. He moved on to the Cubs job in 1980 and discovered that working with Harry Caray wasn’t much easier than replacing Prince. Milo finally found a home in Houston in 1985, where he broadcast for 28 years until his retirement in 2012. Hamilton was the 1992 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award and was also inducted into the National Radio and Texas Radio Halls of Fame. 
• 1943 - LHP Luke Walker was born in DeKalb, Texas. He worked eight years (1965-66, 1968-73) for the Bucs, with a line of 40-42-9/3.47. Walker had a breakout 1970, going 15-6 with a 3.04 ERA and was a member of the 1970-72 championship teams. He started, closed and did everything in between. The lefty worked just one more MLB campaign beyond Pittsburgh, when he was sold to the Tigers before the 1974 season. 
• 1948 - The Bucco hand was caught in the cookie jar... Commissioner Happy Chandler fined the Pirates $2‚000 for violating the NL bonus rule when the Pirates signed ML Lynch as a scout while offering his son Danny a $6,000 contract. Chandler saw the deal (and probably rightly so) as an attempt to sway the second baseman's decision. Lynch was declared a free agent and signed with the Cubs. He played just seven MLB games. 
• 1970 - LHP Sean Lawrence was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Drafted by the Pirates in the 6th round of the 1992 draft out of the College of St. Francis, his seven games in 1998 as a Bucs was the extent of his big league career, finishing with a slash of 2-1/7.32. He later pitched in the San Diego and Arizona systems, retiring in 2002 to become a police officer in the Village of Westmont.

Roberto Clemente 2000 Upper Deck

• 1972 - With his 2,971st knock as a Bucco, Roberto Clemente broke Honus Wagner's record for the most hits in the history of the franchise. The record-setting blow was a three-run homer off Giant hurler Sudden Sam McDowell in the bottom of the fourth inning during an 6-3 victory at Three Rivers Stadium. He would end his career with 3,000 hits.
• 1972 - LHP Bob Veale, 36, was sold to the Boston Red Sox after an 11-year career in Pittsburgh that saw him win 116 games and save six more, starting 255 times in his 341 Buc outings. His 1,652 strikeouts are still the Pirate mark for a LHP and second overall in Bucco history. 
• 1983 - 1B Gaby Sanchez was born in Miami. He joined the Pirates from the Marlins in 2012 as the right-hand half of a first base platoon, first with Garrett Jones and then with Ike Davis. He played for the Bucs through 2014, hitting .241, before going to Japan. He spent a year there and then dropped off the pro ball radar after the Mariners released him in camp the following spring. 
• 2009 - The Pirates were swept by the Reds 5-3, the first time they were broomed in Cincinnati since 1975. But it wasn’t all gloom (although in a 99-loss season, there weren’t many highlights) as Garrett Jones hit the club's 10,000th home run since Pittsburgh joined the NL in 1887.