10/4 From 1960 Through the 1980’s: Syd Dismissed; Dock Talk; Playoff Blues; Game Stories; HBD Joe, Billy & Lonnie

• 1960 - RHP Joe Boever was born in Kirkwood, Missouri. He closed out a 12-year career in 1996 in Pittsburgh where he appeared in 13 games, going 0-2-2, 5.40 after being a waiver claim from the Tigers. The palmballer retired after the campaign. 
• 1960 - OF Billy Hatcher was born in Williams, Arizona. Billy spent the middle of his 12-year tenure with Pittsburgh in 1989 when they got him just after the deadline from Houston for Glenn Wilson. He hit .244 for the Bucs and in April of the following season was shipped to Cincinnati for Jeff Richardson. He spend a decade after his playing days coaching in the Tampa Bay organization and since 2006 has been on the Reds MLB staff. 

Billy Hatcher - 1990 Upper Deck

• 1970 - Pittsburgh fell behind in the NLCS two games to none after being held to five hits by three pitchers and losing to the Reds 3-1 at TRS. Roberto Clemente drove in Dave Cash, who had doubled, in the sixth inning for the Bucs only tally. Luke Walker took the loss. Bobby Tolan had three hits, including a homer, three runs and an RBI for Cincinnati. 
• 1971 - Dock Ellis told the Post Gazette’s Charley Feeney that “I got something to say and I’m going to say it. The establishment around here, the brass as some call them, doesn’t deserve a winner,” a year after small TRS crowds led him to say the Pirates fans didn’t deserve a winner, either. He was triggered by a bed he thought was too small for him in his San Francisco hotel during the NLCS and that the charter plane carrying them to The Bay was also too small (it was near full passenger capacity, but included Pirates FO and the players’ wives and kids, including Dock’s). Ellis did add that manager Danny Murtaugh was “a good man” and that he wanted to remain on the team because “It is a young club. It is going to win some titles...I want to be part of it.” The Docktor won his one game against the Giants, lasting into the sixth, and only made one short appearance in the ensuing World Series, suffering from a bum elbow that had plagued him throughout September. He missed two weeks and the injury cost him a shot at 20 wins (he finished with 19). 
• 1972 - The Pirates closed out the regular season at TRS in front of 4,603 fans, scoring twice in the ninth but losing to the St Louis Cards 4-3. The defeat was immaterial as the Pirates had already clinched the pennant, but it was notable as Hall-of-Famer Bill Mazeroski’s last regular season game. He got in as a pinch hitter and grounded out (no surprise; he finished the year batting .188) in just the 34th game he appeared in that season as Dave Cash had pushed him out of the lineup during the 1971 campaign. Mazeroski told Jeff Samel’s of the Pittsburgh Press post-game that “It happens to everyone sooner or later...I can’t do it any better than the guys we’ve got.” Maz would go 1-for-2 in the NLCS against Cincinnati before hanging up the spikes after 17 seasons as a Pirate. 
• 1975 - Don Gullett hurled a complete game‚ then added a HR‚ a single‚ and three RBI at the dish to lead Cincinnati to an 8-3 win over Pittsburgh in the opening game of the NLCS at Riverfront Stadium. The Pirates had an early 2-0 lead, when with two gone in the second, Dave Parker was HBP, Richie Hebner doubled him home and Frank Taveras’ single scored the Gravedigger. But then the Reds chased Jerry Reuss and ran up a four-run fifth inning off Larry Demery to leave Pittsburgh in the dust. Bob Robertson’s knock in the ninth chased home Parker with the Bucs last run. 

See ya Syd - photo Associated Press

• 1988 - The Pirates fired GM Syd Thrift. He and the Buc ownership rarely saw eye-to-eye during his 1985-88 stint, but he hired Jim Leyland and helped lay the foundation for the successful early nineties teams, flipping veterans for young talent. Thrift was ambitious and said to have his eye on Carl Barger’s club presidency, and that was a battle he lost. He would be replaced a month later by Larry Doughty. 
• 1988 - RF/3B Lonnie Chisenhall was born in Morehead City, North Carolina. The Pirates signed him to a $2.75M deal in the 2018 off season with another $3M available in bonus money based on at bats. He had spent seven years with Cleveland, compiling a .262 BA/102 OPS+. He was having a breakout year in 2017 when a strained calf laid him low; it continued to haunt him in 2018, as he got into just 111 games over those two years but put up a strong .272 BA/127 OPS+ line when healthy. But par for the course, he was hit by a pitch the day before 2019 camp ended and broke a finger, then aggravated his calf during rehab and never played an inning for Pittsburgh.