- 1880 - C George “Mooney” Gibson was born in London, Canada. He played a dozen years for the Bucs (1905-16) as a defense-first catcher, batting .238 but tossing out 949 runners. He had a 46% throw-out rate back in the days when baseball was a go-go league - 1,101 runners actually did steal off him against the Pirates. He was durable, too, once catching 140 straight games. Mooney finished his career as a NY Giant and later returned to Pittsburgh as a manager, first in 1920-22, then from 1932-34, finishing second three times with a record of 401-330. Gibson was the first baseball player elected to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Per Wiki, his nickname may have been inspired by his round, moon-shaped face, though other sources claim he picked it up because he had played on a sandlot team known as the Mooneys.
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| Elmer Kentzer - 1914 Cracker Jacks |
- 1885 - LHP Elmer Knetzer was born in Carrick. He tossed for the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League from 1914-15 with a 38-26/2.73 slash, with six years in the NL sandwiched on either end of that stint. Knetzer was the first active player to jump from the NL to the FL after Brooklyn lowballed him during contract time. He went by “Pretzel” and “The Baron” - Pretzel because of the way his curveball twisted, while Baron goes unexplained. He stayed a hometown boy, and when he died in 1975, he was buried in St Wendelin Cemetery in Carrick.
- 1885 - OF Sheldon “Larry” LeJeune was born in Chicago. He played for brief parts of two seasons in the show, his last being in 1915 for the Pirates, hitting .161 and committing five errors in 61 chances. Still, he came to Pittsburgh with a pretty good resume - he had led the Central League in batting from 1912-1915 and in homers in 1910 and 1912. Larry did make the record books, tho - in 1910, he hurled a baseball 426’ 9”, a record that stood until minor-leaguer Don Grates broke it (434’) in 1952. 1899 - The Pirates rolled over the Philadelphia Quakers by an 18-4 count at Exposition Park. OF Ginger Beaumont went 6-for-6 at leadoff and scored six times without hitting a ball out of the infield. Rookie second baseman Jimmy Williams drove in three runs with a pair of triples.
- 1908 - The Pirates scored twice in the first inning and those runs held up as they beat the Brooklyn Superbas 2-1 at Exposition Park. As described by the Pittsburgh Press “Howie Camnitz was on the rubber for the Pirates and pitched in faultless style, allowing only four hits and having his opponents at his mercy the whole way.” One of those hits was a bomb by Brooklyn 1B Tim Jordan, who “...laced the sphere over the right field fence...It was a terrific swat and the Superba star was cheered to the echo by the spectators.” He was the first batter to put one into the seats on the fly at the Expo since 1899.
- 1910 - Deacon Phillippe hit a second-inning inside-the-park grand slam off Brooklyn’s Fred Miller as part of a 14-1 win at Washington Park as the Pirates swept the Superbas in a four game set. Mel Stottlemyre was the next MLB pitcher to hit an inside the park grannie - in 1965! Phillippe was the first Bucs hurler to empty jammed bases; there are only five in franchise history with grand slams.
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| Marty O'Toole - image 7/23/1911 Pittsburgh Press |
- 1911 - The Pirates paid St. Paul of the American Association $22‚500 for RHP Marty O'Toole‚ the most expensive purchase of a player to that date. The AA ace was to join the Bucs when the minor league campaign ended (His first Bucco start was on August 30th). Barney Dreyfuss spent another $5‚000 for his battery mate Bill Kelly. In 1912‚ O'Toole went 15-17/2.71, led the NL with 159 walks and was out of Pittsburgh by 1914, winning a total of 26 games while walking 300 batters in 599-1/3 IP. Kelly was a reserve catcher, hitting .290 for Pittsburgh and out of MLB after 1913.
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