4/19 Through the 1950’s: Hans Debut; Bootball; Honey Boy; Game Stories; HBD Babe & RJ

• 1900 - The Pirates lost their opener to St. Louis 3-0 at Robison Field as Cy Young pitched a five-hitter and K’ed nine. The game was auspicious because it marked the Pittsburgh debut of Honus Wagner (in right field), 26, who had played for Louisville of the American Association for three seasons. He didn’t disappoint, getting two of the Bucs five hits, though he did manage to get picked off. Hans went on to hit a league-leading .381 with 22 triples and 176 OPS+.

Hans - 1903 Pittsburgh Press photo

• 1902 - The Cardinals booted 11 balls in a 10-4 loss to the Bucs at Sportsman Park‚ setting a NL record. The Pirates mishandled four more plays to help set a single game NL record for errors. The Pittsburgh Gazette described the affair as a “game that would make amateurs blush.” 
• 1908 - C Ernest “Babe” Phelps was born in Odenton, Maryland. Babe finished his 11-year big-league career as a Pirate in 1942, hitting .284 with nine homers in 257 AB while sharing catching duties with former teammate Al Lopez. He batted .310 over his MLB years with a .362 OBP & .472 slugging %, joining the NL All-Star Team from 1938-1940. His moniker of "Babe" came about because of his resemblance to the Bambino, whom he would become tight with later in his career. Cort Vitty of SABR wryly noted that “Later in his career, as his physique matured, Phelps would also be referred to as ‘Blimp.’"
• 1912 - The Pirates and Cardinals spent the evening at the Lyceum Theater on Penn Avenue taking in “George Evans’ Honey Boy Minstrels” show per the Pittsburgh Press. Evans was born in Wales, became a popular entertainer here, and like many young immigrants, developed a jones for baseball. He awarded a loving cup to baseball’s leading hitter from 1908-12 (engraved to the "World's Championship Batsman"), with Hans Wagner earning the first and Ty Cobb then running the table.
• 1935 - Cy Blanton threw a complete game, one-hit, one-walk, shutout against the St Louis Cardinals at Forbes Field, only giving up a second-inning single to Spud Davis. The Bucs won 3-0, scoring all their runs in the third inning against Wild Bill Hallahan; Blanton chipped in with an RBI. Arky Vaughan and Tom Padden backed up Cy’s gem with three hits apiece. Beat man Edward Ballinger of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote “Blanton’s fireball worked so beautifully and his curves worked so artistically that the Redbirds expressed disgust by throwing down their bats after missing strikes.”
• 1938 - Trailing 3-2 entering the ninth inning, SS Arky Vaughan hit a two-run homer to give the Pirates a 4-3, season-opening victory at St. Louis’ Sportsman Park. Paul Waner went 3-for-4 with a double, triple and two runs scored. The win marked the beginning of a seven-game winning streak to open the season. Alas, they needed that winning touch at the end of the year. Instead, they dropped 6-of-7 in the closing days of the campaign to finish two games behind the Cubs.

Arky Vaughan - 1937 Wheaties

• 1948 - The Reds opened the season with a 4-1 win over the Pirates at Crosley Field in a game delayed by a shower of bottles in the eighth frame. The Bucs went down fighting when Cincy’s Babe Young doubled after Hank Sauer’s homer and got tangled with Buc SS Stan Rojek. Young went after Rojek, failing to note that the ball was back in play, and was tagged out. The players jostled and a fan jumped the railing to go after ump Jocko Conlin, who had rung Young up. First base ump Beans Reardon came over to help get things in order, but instead got into a fight with the riled rooter. Police restored peace while the Queen City faithful pitched a few bottles the Buccos’ way. The fighting fan, btw, was allowed to return to his seat. The game was noteworthy in a couple of other ways - it marked the Pirates switch to black & gold trim from the traditional red and blue piping along with the introduction of the still-in-use block lettering instead of script, and it marked Billy Meyer’s debut as manager. Despite the bumpy baptism, he would become 1948’s The Sporting News Manager of the Year.
• 1949 - Rip Sewell whipped Dutch Leonard 1-0 in front of Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson and Chicago Mayor Martin Kennelly at Wrigley Field, marking the third time Sewell blanked the Cubbies on Opening Day. The Pirates scored in the ninth when pinch-hitter Les Fleming’s grounder scored pinch runner Jack Cassini for an unearned run; he was in for Dixie Walker, who reached on an error.
• 1959 - Robert James “RJ” Reynolds was born in Sacramento. The switch-hitter spent six seasons with the Pirates, hitting .269 as a platoon outfielder and pinch hitter from 1985-90. He often played with Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke, but age and Bobby Bo’s emergence was the beginning of the end for RJ, who finished his career playing in Japan and Mexico.