9/23 From 1930 Through the 1960’s: Scoops #1; Parade Day; Ralph's #51; Game Stories; HBD Rook, Jim, Mo & Dennis

• 1935 - Behind the four-hit pitching of Jim Weaver and Pep Young’s three knocks and seven RBI, the Bucs left the St. Louis Cardinals pennant hopes on life support, taking a 12-0 over the Redbirds at Sportsman’s Park to drop the Redbirds four games behind the Cubs in the loss column with four games to go. Woody Jensen had four hits, including a pair of doubles, while Lloyd Waner and Arky Vaughan added three hits and runs apiece. 
• 1942 - LHP Jim Rooker was born in Lakeview, Oregon. Rook pitched eight years (1973-80) for the Bucs with a line of 82-65/3.29, which he equalled in playoff time with a 3.20 ERA, including a strong start in Game #5 of the 1979 Series, a crucial match that the Pirates, down 3 games to one, won. He was also a Pirate TV color analyst from 1981 through 1993, and worked for ESPN from 1994 to 1997. Rooker’s most memorable TV moment came when he said on air that he’d walk home from Philadelphia if the Pirates lost, which they did. True to his word, he staged a charity walk after the season. Retired now, he’s an author of children’s books. 

Jim Rooker - 1981 Fleer

• 1947 - Ralph Kiner hit his franchise record 51st homer (he would break that mark in 1949) against Jim Kearns of the Cards at Forbes Field in an 8-4 loss to the Redbirds. It was the only hittable ball he saw that night. He walked on four pitches in three other at-bats and was ahead 2-0 before his swat. 
• 1951 - Murry Dickson tossed a five-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field to win his 20th game 3-0. Gus Bell had a pair of hits and two RBI to back Dickson. Murry was the only Bucco pitcher to win more than eight games that season; the team only won 64 contests. 
• 1952 - IF Jim Morrison was born in Pensacola, Florida. He spent half (1982-87) of his 12 year career as a Pirate, hitting .274 as a Bucco with a standout 1986 campaign. That year, Morrison together a line of .274/23/88 as Pittsburgh’s starting third baseman. He had his most memorable outing on June 1st, 1986, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, when Jim chased home seven runs with a double, a triple and a grand slam, the only granny of his career. After he quit playing, he managed in the Phillies system for a couple of years and has been with the Tampa Bay organization since 2007. 
• 1952 - RHP Dennis Lamp was born in Los Angeles. He worked in Pittsburgh in 1992 as a 40-year-old, finishing out his 16-year MLB career going 1-1, 5.14 in 21 appearances until his June release. Dennis has worked behind the seafood counter at Bristol Farms in Newport Beach since 2004. According to his store manager, "He talks sports. He sells fish. He works hard." Lamp, for his part, shrugs and says he doesn’t really need the money, but just likes to work. 
• 1956 - With the Dodgers leading the Pirates 8-3, 44,932 fans, the largest crowd in Forbes Field's history (with several thousand turned away at the gates), lured by a “prize day” promotion, left early when a ninth inning rain delay postponed the game with two outs, triggering the Sunday curfew with the Dodgers up 8-2. Brooklyn officially won the game the next day. Don Newcombe got the win in a match that saw seven Bucco hurlers take the bump. 

The manager and the mayor - photo 9/24/1958 Pittsburgh Press

• 1958 - Pittsburgh loves a parade, and they threw one for their Buccos. Finishing in second place after being cellar-dwellers the year before was plenty enough reason, and a motorcade rode through town at lunchtime bearing various Pirates, coaches, suits and announcers. An estimated 75-100,000 people lined the streets, with others watching from their office windows, all the while cheering and showering their baseball heroes with roses and confetti. Lee McInerney of the Post Gazette wrote ”Caesar, returning victorious from the Gallic Wars, couldn’t have had a sweeter reception than the one given at noon time to the Pirates.” The hour-long affair featured the players tossing baseballs to the crowd and some speechifying at the City-County building portico by team members and Mayor Davey Lawrence. It was the first time since 1944 that the Bucs finished that high in the standings and presaged the bedlam that would occur in town a couple of years later. 
• 1959 - RHP Jim Winn was born in Stockton, California. A first round draft pick (14th overall) of Pittsburgh in 1981, the reliever never quite panned out, plagued by a series of injuries. He tossed from 1983-86 for the Bucs with a 7-11-4/4.47 line, then spent a couple of years in the AL to end his career, which was short-circuited by TJ surgery back in the day when it was a new and not always successful procedure. After his baseball days were done, he became a salesman. 
• 1968 - In his Bucco debut, Al Oliver spanked his first MLB hit in the second game of a twilight doubleheader at Forbes Field, singling and scoring off Clay Carroll in the fourth inning of a 2-1, 10-inning win over the San Diego Padres. He started in right field and got into four games that season after a September call-up. Al would spend a decade in Pittsburgh and collect 1,490 hits with a .296 BA here; in all, Scoops put together an 18-year, seven-team MLB run and piled up 2,743 hits, a lifetime .303 average, seven All-Star caps and a World Series ring (1971).