9/25 Through the 1940’s: Westlake Deal; Hans Hot; 23 Skidoo; Game Stories; HBD Dave

• 1890 - Boston defeated the Alleghenys by a 4-3 score in Pittsburgh in front of 23 fans, the lowest attendance in NL history. The team was gutted before the season when most of their better players defected to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players League. John “Phenomenal” Smith took the tough loss (Beaneaters’ manager Frank Seelye called the win “a fluke” in the Pittsburgh Press thanks to an ump’s blown ninth-inning call.) Poor attendance (they played in three yards - Exposition Park, Island Grounds (Wheeling, WV) & Mahaffey Park (Canton, Ohio), drawing just over 16,000 fans during the year) led to the squad playing 97 of their 136 games away. They finished with a road record of 9-88, and their .093 road winning percentage is the worst in MLB history. The 1906 New Castle News wrote, probably tongue-in-cheek, that the term 23 Skidoo came about because of the team’s 23 fans and 23 wins during the campaign. 
• 1889 - OF Dave Robertson was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He played nine big league seasons, stopping in Pittsburgh near the end in 1921, starting 58 games and hitting .322. The Pirates picked him up from the Cubs for P Elmer Ponder and released him at the end of the year. Robertson played through 1922; Ponder was done after ‘21. 

Honus Wagner - Wagner Family Collection via SCP Auctions

• 1901 - The Dutchman, Hans Wagner, drove in six runs against Christy Mathewson at Exposition Park with a double and triple as the Pirates defeated the NY Giants for the 12th straight time during the season by a 10-5 score. The top three men in the lineup - Lefty Davis, Fred Clarke and Ginger Beaumont - banged six hits, walked four times and scored seven runs. Jesse Tannehill was touched for 13 hits but was never really threatened; Pittsburgh scored three runs in the opening frame and was up 10-1 after six. 
• 1907 - Honus Wagner swiped four bases at Forbes Field, including second, third, and home in the second inning against the New York Giants during a 14-1 victory. The Flying Dutchman duplicated that deed four times in his career. Fred Clarke also swiped four bags; only Tony Womack would join the pair in stealing four bases in a single game for Pittsburgh. The game itself was a laugher after the Bucs put up a seven-run second inning, with Nick Maddux coasting on a six-hitter. Umpire Bill Klem had his work cut out, though, ejecting three Giants during the game; Klem ended up giving the heave-ho to eight G-Men during the three game series. 
• 1920 - Jimmy Zinn went the distance in the Pirates 12-inning, 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Forbes Field. Zinn gave up six hits in just his second MLB start; before the game, he had 10 big-league innings under his belt. Zinn’s only full season came the following year, when he went 7-6 for the Pirates. He was the epitome of a AAAA player and spent 25 years hurling in the minors. Elmer Riddle wasn’t as sharp in the second game as the Cards came back to take a 3-1 win and a split. 
• 1923 - The Pirates turned the Phillies every which way but loose in an 18-5 romp at Forbes Field. SS Eddie Moore made his MLB debut at the leadoff spot, and had three hits, drew two walks, and scored five times. Pie Traynor had chased home four runs and Johnny Rawlings went 4-for-5. Ray Steineder got the win, and chipped in with two hits, two runs, two RBI and a sac bunt. 

Eddie Moore - photo World Wide

• 1927 - The Pirates took a pair from the Cubs at Wrigley Field by 2-1 and 6-1 counts. It was a big sweep as the St Louis Cards, breathing down their necks, also claimed a doubleheader win. The Bucs lead remained at two games with the NY Giants 2-½ back with five games to go, and Pittsburgh would hang on to win the NL crown by a game in the loss column. Vic Aldridge and Ray Kremer got the wins for Pittsburgh. Aldridge helped his own cause with an RBI in the opening squeaker while the Pirates banged out 13 hits in the second game to smooth Kremer’s road. 
• 1932 - Paul Waner stroked a pair of two-baggers at Sportsman's Park to set the NL mark for doubles (62) during Pittsburgh’s 7-1 win over the St. Louis Cards in the opener of a twinbill. Big Poison and Arky Vaughan each had three hits, Gus Dugas homered and Bill Harris scattered seven hits for the win. The Redbirds took the second game 7-4, overcoming Dugas who had three hits and another long ball. 
• 1941 - Max Butcher and Elbie Fletcher eliminated the St. Louis Cards from the NL race with a 3-1 win at Forbes Field. Butcher tossed a five hitter, and the only run he was allowed was when he surrendered a bases-loaded walk in the seventh; he came back to strike out the next two Redbirds to limit the damage. Fletcher drilled a two-run, inside the park homer to straight center, with Billy Cox scoring the other tally after a triple followed by Arky Vaughan’s sac fly. 
• 1946 - The Pirates traded with the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks for OF Wally Westlake, sending them a PTBNL (RHP Johnny Hutchings) and $35,000. In five years with the Bucs (1947-51), Westlake slashed .281/97 HR/378 RBI in 580 games while Hutchings never tossed in the majors again.