- 1880 - LHP/OF Henry “Irish” McIlveen was born in Belfast, Ireland. His family later settled in the Pittsburgh area and McIlveen attended Penn State. He got his start in the majors with the Pirates in 1906, pitching two games and slashing 0-1/7.71. He was wisely converted to the outfield and caught on with the NY Highlanders, seeing some action in 1908 and getting into four games the following year to end his MLB days.
- 1897 - C Biz Mackey was born in Eagle Pass, Texas. The 2006 Hall of Famer played for 24 seasons in the Negro Leagues and made a brief stop in the area in 1927, playing for the Homestead Grays when they were an independent team. He put together a .329 lifetime BA and is considered one of the two top catchers in black baseball history, along with Josh Gibson.
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| Chief Wilson 1908 - photo via American Memories |
- 1908 - Honus Wagner and Chief Wilson led the Bucs to a 4-3 win over the NY Giants and Christy Mathewson at the Polo Grounds. The Flying Dutchman had a pair of doubles good for two runs and an RBI while Wilson had two knocks including a triple, scored once and drove in a pair. Nick Maddox got the win while Irv Young came on the get the last out in the ninth.
- 1927 - Vic Aldridge tossed a five-hitter and the Bucs scored twice in the eighth to beat Dazzy Vance and the Brooklyn Robins‚ 2-1 at Forbes Field to take over undisputed possession of first place. Kiki Cuyler’s single scored Paul Waner, who had three hits on the day, and George Grantham for the win.
- 1932 - Bill Harris notched a pair of wins in a twinbill against the Giants at the Polo Grounds‚ tossing three innings in the opening 9-8 win followed by two perfect frames in a 4-2 nitecap victory. In the first game, Lloyd Waner had four knocks while Arky Vaughan and Tony Piet homered. The Pirates scored three in the ninth to take the second match with C Earl Grace knocking home two of his three RBI and Harris singling in another. The Pirates increased their NL lead over the Cubs to five games, but would finish the season four games behind Chicago in the pennant race.
- 1941 - Homestead Gray 1B Buck Leonard launched a three-run homer at Comiskey Park to lead the East to an 8-3 win over the West in the Negro League All-Star Game. The contest drew a record crowd of 50,256.
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| Buck Leonard 1990- Eclipse Stars of the Negro Leagues (Mark Chiarello artist) |
- 1942 - Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bill Benswanger planned a tryout for Negro League players Roy Campanella, Sammy T. Hughes, and David Barnhill as reported by thee NY Daily Worker. The August tryout date was pushed back to September while Benswanger added Josh Gibson, Willie Wells, Sam Bankhead, Leon Day and several others to the list. But the new September showcase never happened for unknown reasons (it was thought that most owners were opposed to the idea and Benswanger didn’t want to go solo, but he never gave a public reason for the inaction) and a black ballplayer wouldn’t join MLB until Jackie Robinson in 1947.
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