9/16 Through the 1940’s: Rizzo Reaches 20; Suhr Streak; 12-In-A-Row; HBD Sam, Chuck & Con

• 1870 - LHP Sam Moran was born in Rochester, New York. A 22-game winner for Nashville in the Southern Association who had bested Cy Young in an exhibition game against Cleveland, the Pirates bought his contract in mid-August and he went 2-4/7.47 in 10 games, walking 51 batters in 62-⅔ IP. That ended Sam’s major league stint; he hung around in the minors for a couple of more seasons before getting on with his life’s calling. 

Rube Robinson - 1912 photo via Gail Roberson/Argenweb

• 1912 - Pittsburgh won its 12th game in a row by beating the Brooklyn Superbas 2-1 at Washington Park behind Rube Robinson’s four-hitter. The Bucs got their runs in the second inning when Honus Wagner tripled and jogged home in front of Chief Wilson’s homer. The Pirates were a strong club, finishing 93-58, but that was only good enough for second place in the NL, 10 full games behind the champion NY Giants. 
• 1922 - RHP Cornelius “Con” Dempsey was born in San Francisco. Con was a highly touted sidewinder with the old San Francisco Seal teams of the Joe DiMaggio era. He led the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts twice but never quite got over the showtime hump. In 1951, he was called up to the major leagues, pitching seven innings for the Pirates in three games (two starts, 0-2/9.00) before being released. He also attended spring training with the Philadelphia Phillies before getting cut. Dempsey pitched in the PCL through the 1953 season and then went on to coaching & teaching at San Francisco's Giannini Middle School. 
• 1935 - Mace Brown tossed 5-1/3 frames of one-hit, shutout ball from the pen to beat the Boston Braves 5-3 at Forbes Field. Gus Suhr subbed at 1B in the last inning to run his streak of consecutive games played to 619‚ breaking the old NL mark of Eddie Brown. Suhr wouldn’t miss a game until 1937, running his streak to 822 games. 
• 1938 - Johnny Rizzo became the first Pirate to hit 20 home runs in a season (Gus Suhr held the team record with 19 long balls in 1935) in a 7-6 win over the Boston Bees at Braves Field, winning the game in the 11th inning with his solo shot. Rizzo, a 25-year-old Texan who was hurt the following season and traded to the Phils in 1940, finished the campaign batting .301 with 23 round trippers and 111 RBIs. The first game was wide open with all hands on deck. The 13 runs scored by the two teams featured 11 different players plating and 11 others driving them in with Bill Swift taking the victory. The second game was a 5-4 loss, featuring ninth inning fireworks; the Pirates scored twice to take a 4-2 lead; the Braves answered with a three-spot to take the contest. Pittsburgh held on to a three-game lead in the NL with the split, but would lose 6-of-7 at the end of the month to finish second to the Cubs by two games.

Johnny Rizzo - Pirates Flickr

• 1944 - C Chuck Brinkman was born in Cincinnati. He was a member of the Ohio State 1966 NCAA championship team before turning pro. Ed finished an on-again, off-again six-year MLB career with the Pirates in 1974, getting in four games and going 1-for-7 after being brought in to replace backup catcher Mike Ryan, who was on the DL. Chuck’s brother Ed, who was a longtime MLB shortstop, coach and scout, was the better known Brinkman clansman.