6/15 Through the 1930’s: Fletcher Joins; Game Stories; HBD Gene, Babe, Bud, Peek-A-Boo & Jerry

• 1862 - 1B/OF/P William “Peek-A-Boo” Veach was born in Indianapolis. He only played part of season with the Alleghenys in 1890 (did pretty well, too, hitting .300) and had just a brief three-year big league career with a lifetime .215 BA. He was also a Spanish-American War vet, but he made the cut for the history pages thanks to his unique nickname. When he pitched for the Kansas City Cowboys of the Union League in 1884, his club called pick-offs with hand signals from the bench for him as he became antsy with runners aboard. Veach would shift his eyes from the field to the dugout so often before a pitch that the runners caught on and dubbed him Peek-A-Boo. Afterward, the manager put a plant in the grandstands who would wave a game program to indicate when Veach should throw over to first, but that was quickly sniffed out by the opponents, too. So the ploy to hold runners never became a thing, largely explaining why Veach became a 1B/OF and his nickname.
• 1863 - C Jerry Hurley was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Jerry played three MLB campaigns, getting into 33 games. Eight of those were with the 1890 Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players League, where he hit .273 as Fred Carroll and Tom Quinn’s backup but wore out his welcome by sparring with manager Ned Hanlon. He did have an 11-year minor league career stretching from 1884-94 and managed briefly, spending most of his post-baseball days in Boston as an immigration official.
• 1897 - IF Gene DeMontreville had five hits, but it wasn’t enough as the Pirates went down to the Senators 10-8 at Washington’s Boundary Field. DeMontreville had a 36-game hitting streak from 1896 to 1897. The mark wasn’t discovered by baseball historians until 2007, and ranks as the tenth-longest hitting streak in MLB history.  
• 1909 - The Pirates defeated the Brooklyn Superbas 8-2 at Washington Park for their 14th straight victory. Sam Frock went the distance for the win despite giving up 12 raps, backed by three hits from Fred Clarke and a Tommy Leach homer. The streak was snapped the following day, but between May 24th-June 29th, Pittsburgh won 27-of-30 games on the way to the pennant and their first World Series title over Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers. 

Sam Frock - photo 1909 Pittsburgh Press

• 1912 - 1B Babe Dahlgren was born in San Francisco. He played for the Pirates from 1944-45, hitting .271 and earning an All-Star spot in 1944. Babe was famous for two things: He replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939, ending the Iron Horse’s 2,130 game playing streak, and was credited as being the first MLB player to take a drug test for a non-performance enhancing drug. He took it voluntarily (and passed) in 1943 to dispel rumors that he was smoking wacky tobacky, a false allegation that nevertheless stayed with him to play havoc with his career; he ended up playing for seven teams in six seasons. 
• 1916 - OF Eddie “Bud” Stewart was born in Sacramento, California. He started his nine-year MLB run (.268 lifetime BA) in Pittsburgh in 1941-42, hitting .242. He was considered a strong defensive player with good speed and a dependable pinch-hitter. His ball-playing days were interrupted by WW2 when he entered the Army. Bud was a gym teacher after his playing days, and as a California guy played as an extra in several Hollywood flicks. 
• 1925 - Gene Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa. The back-up infielder played for the Bucs from 1957-58 and 1960-61 with a .259 BA. In 1961, he became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia farm club in the New York-Penn League. In 1963, the Pirates promoted him to the big team as the second black coach in MLB, behind Buck O'Neil by three months. When Danny Murtaugh was tossed by an ump, Baker became the interim manager for two games, making him the first black to manage a team in a major league game. Baker managed Batavia again in 1964, and served as a minor league coach and manager. He then returned to Davenport and became the Bucs’ top midwest scout for 23 years. 
• 1929 - The Pirates lost a lumberfest to the New York Giants in 14 innings at Forbes Field by a 20-15 tally with 11 of the runs coming in the last frame, keeping the 25,000 fans in their seats til the bitter end. The Bucs overcame a five-run deficit in the final three innings capped by a three-spot in the ninth (they stranded a runner at third with an out with the chance to win) and then traded runs with the G-Men in the 11th to keep the game going on Pie Traynor’s two-out homer. Paul Waner had six hits, Rollie Hemsley added four more and Traynor chipped in three knocks; four other Buccos had two raps as the Pirates banged out 24 hits but stranded 17 runners. Pittsburgh used six pitchers with Steve Swetonic taking the loss although most of the damage was wrought against his relief man Larry French, who was charged with seven of the eight runs the Giants scored in the final go-around. 

Elbie Fletcher - 1941 Goudey Big League

• 1939 - The Pirates picked up 1B Elbie Fletcher from the Boston Bees for IF Bill Schuster and cash. Fletcher played seven seasons for Pittsburgh (he missed three because of WW2) and hit .279 with 60 HR and 464 RBI for the Bucs. Broadway Bill Schuster was a sub who also missed three war years, and hit .234 over a five-year career.