- 1881 - HD “Denny” McKnight resurrected the Allegheny Baseball Club of Pittsburgh (it had disbanded after the 1877 season) and later joined the newly formed American Association. In 1887 they joined the NL and in 1891 morphed into the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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| Denny McKnight Ars Longa |
- 1892 - On the last day the season, Cincinnati pitcher Charles “Bumpus” Jones no-hit Pittsburgh at League Park in his first major league start. Bumpus won 7-1, fanning three and issuing four walks. His MLB career lasted eight games and he won just one other decision. Still, he remains the only player to pitch a no-hitter in his first MLB appearance. Bill James, according to Wikipedia, gave him the distinction of being the “mathematically least likely pitcher ever to have thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues.”
- 1900 - The Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph offered a silver cup to the winner of a best-of-five series at Exposition Park between the NL’s top two teams, the Pirates and the Brooklyn Superbas; Brooklyn won the 1900 title by 4-½ games over the Bucs during the regular season. Two future Hall of Famers faced off in the opener as NL ERA leader Rube Waddell (2.37) went against “Iron Man” Joe McGinnity, who topped the league with 28 wins. McGinnity whitewashed the Pirates for eight innings before two unearned runs in the top of the ninth cost him the shutout. Not only was he hurt by shoddy fielding, but he had been knocked out briefly the inning before during a rundown when he was accidentally kneed. He refused to come out after he regained his breath and went the distance for a five-hit, 5-2 victory. Claude Ritchey banged out a pair of knocks in a losing cause.
- 1925 - In Game Seven of the World Series at Forbes Field, played on a muddy track soaked by a two day rainstorm, Kiki Cuyler laced an eighth-inning, two-out, bases-loaded double off Washington's Walter “Big Train” Johnson to lead the Pirates to a 9-7 comeback victory and their second World Championship, made all the sweeter by rallying from an early 4-0 deficit. Ray Kremer got the win, his second of the Series, with four innings of one-run relief after pitching a complete game win two days before. Errors by SS Roger Peckinpaugh, the AL MVP, in both the seventh and eighth innings led to four unearned runs. He had a tough Series in the field, committing a record eight errors. With the victory, the Bucs became the first team to win a World Series after being down three games to one. The Series was a big financial hit‚ grossing a record-setting $1.2M. Winning shares were $5‚332.72 while the losers pocketed $3‚734.60. And though it would take awhile, Bucco manager Bill McKechnie would become the first MLB skipper to win a WS with two different teams when his Reds beat the Tigers in the 1940 Fall Classic.
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| 1971 Fleer World Series set |
- 1927 - Although the New York Yankees Murderers Row pushed the Pirates out of the spotlight with a World Series sweep, the Bucs strong season kept the Waner brothers on a big stage a little longer as the "Waner Wonders" vaudeville team toured Loew movie houses in St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and other stops for six weeks. Paul blew sax, Lloyd bowed the fiddle, and they told baseball stories between tunes. Per Bob Hersom’s Oklahoman article, "Every so often," Lloyd said, "we'd hit the same notes as the orchestra." The Waners were each paid $2,100 a week, culminating with a $3,000 payday in the Big Apple, stipends that way outstripped their baseball compensation. Even with more big money ripe for the picking, the brothers turned down a proposed extension of their tour.
- 1958 - Some joyriders sneaked into Forbes Field, hot-wired a maintenance truck parked overnight by the scoreboard and rode around the park until crashing the vehicle several rows deep into the first base boxes, causing $3,000 worth of damage to the ballyard.
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