10/16 Through the 1920s: '09 Champs; '29 Runner-Ups; Chronicle Cup; Hans Long Toss; HBD Lenny, Ed, Boom Boom, Leaping Mike, Tomatoes, Bill, George & Fred

• 1856 - 2B/OF George Strief was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Strief played in the majors for five years with a stop with the Alleghenys in 1882; he batted .199 and moved along. George, who walloped five homers during his career, was the first Pittsburgh major league batter to go deep when he went yard against Will White of the Cincinnati Red Stockings on May 3rd, 1882 during a 7-3 loss at Exposition Park. 
• 1866 - C Fred “The Baseball Tourist” Lake was born in Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia. Fred spent bits and pieces of time in MLB for five seasons, playing for the Pirates in 1898 and going 1-for-13. He also put in 13 minor-league seasons with 15 teams, hence his nickname. Lake managed both the Boston Beaneaters and Doves, scouted for St. Louis and managed several farm teams and college nines. 

Fred Lake - 1910 photo Paul Thompson/Library of Congress

• 1888 - C Jake “Tomatoes” Kafora was born in Chicago. Tomatoes tore up the minors but in a two-year stint with the Pirates, he batted .125 and discovered he couldn’t hit the curve. Jake went back to Chicago after spending a couple of years in the minors and became a local star in bowling circles, a profession he worked at during the offseason. He passed away young in 1928. His nickname dates back to his youth when he would get behind the plate, give a target and exhort his pitchers to “put the ol’ tomato in the big mitt.” 
• 1894 - OF “Leaping Mike” Menosky was born in Glen Campbell in Indiana County, and attended State Normal College (now IUP). He started his career in the Federal League for the Pittsburgh Rebels from 1914-15, hitting .242, and went on to play for the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox until 1930 with a .280 BA in the AL. Leaping Mike is famous as the guy who replaced Babe Ruth in left field after the Bambino was sold to the New York Yankees. His nickname was bestowed because of his speed and acrobatic catches. 
• 1895 - OF Bill Skiff was born in New Rochelle, New York. Skiff only played two MLB seasons - he hit .289 in 16 games with the Pirates in 1921 and sipped a cup of coffee with the Yankees five years later - but he was a baseball lifer. Skiff served 19 seasons as a player or player/manager on farm teams and another 14 solely as a minor league manager, mostly for the NYY organization. 
• 1898 - According to Charlton’s Baseball Chronology (and verified by Reach's Official Base Ball Guide of 1899), Honus Wagner hurled a baseball 403 feet 8 inches in a throwing contest at Louisville's League Park (teams often featured races and long-toss exhibitions back in the day) to beat the record of 400' 7-1/2" set by the Brooklyn Mutuals' John Hatfield in 1872. Wagner's distance throw was, in some histories, topped by Larry LeJeune’s toss of 435 feet on October 3rd, 1907, although that measurement is not universally accepted. 
• 1900 - The Bucs committed six errors against the Brooklyn Superbas at Exposition Park during the Chronicle-Telegraph Challenge series and lost 4-2 as Fred Kitson got the better of Sam Leever. Pittsburgh was held to four hits, with Honus Wagner’s double leading to one run and Jack O’Connor driving in Tom O’Brien for the other tally. 

Tom O'Brien 1901 Pgh Commercial Gazette

• 1904 - RHP Walter “Boom-Boom'' Beck was born in Decatur, Illinois. He tossed for 12 years in the show, closing out his career in Pittsburgh in 1945 with a line of 6-1/2.14 in a strong final bow at the end of the war years. He only won 38 games during his big league career, but to the best of our knowledge is the only “Boom Boom” to play for the Pirates. His moniker dates back to when he pitched a game for Casey Stengel’s Brooklyn Dodgers against the Phillies at the Baker Bowl, which had a tin outfield fence. Philadelphia had been drilling balls off that wall all afternoon, and the “boom-boom” sound of the ball hitting the tin that day gave Beck a nickname he never shook. In a sidebar story, the barrage wore out OF Hack Wilson and eventually brought on the Ol’ Perfessor to yank Beck, who didn’t approve and instead of handing the ball to the manager, he fired it off the fence. Wilson, who had been daydreaming while the mound switch was going on, was startled and thought another ball had been lined over his head and off the wall, so he chased down the carom and threw the ball to second. 
• 1909 - In a World Series showdown between two of baseball's premier players, Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb, the Pirates downed the hometown Detroit Tigers, 8-0, in game seven to become World Champions for the first time. The real star of the Series, though, was rookie pitcher Babe Adams, who notched three victories, including the decisive seventh game six-hit shutout. The Pirates were helped by Tiger wildness; the Bucs banged out just seven hits, but the 10 walks were the killers for Motown (Fred Clarke got zero official at bats; he walked four times and scored twice). Honus Wagner and Dots Miller had a pair of RBI, while Clarke and Tommy Leach scored twice. It was the first World Series to go seven games. The Flying Dutchman, battling injuries in his first World Series in 1903, bounced back this time around. Hans hit .333, with seven RBIs and six stolen bases to outshine Ty Cobb, who hit .231 with six runs driven home and two steals. 
• 1919 - RHP Ed Bahr was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. In a career that lasted from 1946-47, Bahr went 11–11/3.73 with 69 strikeouts in 46 appearances, (25 starts, eight complete games) and 219 IP. But ominously, his ERA went up by two runs per game from his rookie year to his sophomore season and he failed to make the team in 1948. He was traded to Brooklyn in 1949 and never returned to the show.
• 1928 - P and scout Lenny Yochim was born in New Orleans. He had a brief career with the Pirates (1951, 1954, 1-2/7.62 ERA), but a long and fairly shiny one in the minors, where he once tossed a no-hitter. After his playing days, Yochim rejoined the Pirates in 1966 as part of their baseball operations department. He served in various scouting positions before moving into the front office in 1994, where he worked as a senior adviser for player personnel through 2004. 

Not quite champs - photo January 1929 Post Gazette

• 1929 - The Bucs finished in second after the season, 10-½ games behind the Philadelphia Athletics, but were still awarded $29,106.50 to divvy up as runner-ups, with a full share worth $995.05. The players were pretty generous, giving out various-sized slices of the pie to coaches, trainers, groundskeepers, clubhouse attendants and part-time players.