9/27 Through the 1900’s: '01 Clincher; 16 Straight; HBD Alan, Joe, Willie, Doug & Marty

• 1859 - 1B/OF Joe Visner was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Joe, part of the league’s first wave of Native American players, had a good year in 1889 for the Brooklyn Bridegrooms and in 1890 jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players' League where he was the starting right fielder. He batted .267, scored 110 runs and hit 22 triples. Joe played one more big league season after that and got on with his life after three more minor league campaigns. His post-baseball life was a story in itself; he inherited 400 acres of land and moved his family there. He tired of the farm life and disappeared for long stretches; he’d ride his bike across Canada, augmenting his fur-trapping skills with handyman chores. 

Allen Stroke 1909 American Caramel

• 1884 - 1B Alan Storke was born in Auburn, New York. He was a Bucco from 1906-09 and while primarily a first baseman, he played every infield position with a .255 BA while a Pirate. He attended Harvard Law School in the off season, joining the Pirates in early June after classes ended per his understanding with Barney Dreyfuss. The 25 year-old Amherst grad sadly never got to see a degree; he died in 1910 of a lung infection stemming from the flu (or "grippe" as it was then known) during his final term at school. 
• 1890 - RHP Jim “Willie” Adams was born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Willie worked two seasons for the St Louis Browns before joining the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League in 1914, going 1-1-2, 3.74 in 15 outings (two starts). He yo-yo’ed between the bigs and the farm until 1922, when he suffered a heart attack that ended his baseball career. 
• 1891 - Utilityman Doug Baird was born in St. Charles, Missouri. He played for five teams in six years, starting his career in 1915-17 (in part) with Pittsburgh where he saw a lot of action (2B, 3B, LF, RF, CF) and hit .223 in 316 games. After his last MLB gig in 1920, Baird played for seven more years in the minors through the 1927 campaign. 
• 1901 - Deacon Phillippe tossed the Pirates past the Brooklyn Superbas 5-4 at Exposition Park to clinch the NL pennant, the first of three straight NL titles for the Bucs. Pittsburgh scored three times in the bottom of the eighth after Brooklyn had taken the lead in the top half of the inning. Kitty Bransfield’s single to left chased home Honus Wagner, who had doubled home a pair, with the pennant-clinching run. From August 31st to this date, the Pirates had won 26-of-30 games. It was Pittsburgh’s first NL flag and first title since the Alleghenys began playing major league ball in the American Association in 1882. 

Deacon Phillippe Pittsburgh Heroes Deck

• 1905 - LHP Marty Lang was born in Hooper, Nebraska. He had a brief MLB stay with the 1930 Pirates, getting into two games covering 1-2/3 IP and being rattled for 10 runs. Lang spent a decade in the minors, mostly in the Western league, before last toeing the slab in 1938. 
• 1907 - In a game that ended a 5-5 draw, the Bucs lost Honus Wagner for the last dozen games of the season when he was hit in the hand in the first inning by the Boston Dove’s Rube Dessau and broke a bone. The contest went 11 innings at Exposition Park before darkness claimed it. The injury was moot so far as affecting the pennant chase. Although the Bucs won 91 games that season, they still finished second, 17 games behind the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance Chicago Cubs, the winners of the 1907 World Series. 
• 1909 - The Bucs won their 16th straight game, the longest winning streak a Pirate club has ever put together. They beat the Giants 6-1 in the first game of a twinbill at Exposition Park, finally losing when they dropped the nitecap, 8-7. That powerhouse club took the NL pennant by 6-½ games over the Cubs with 110 wins and defeated the Detroit Tigers in the World Series.