4/18 From 1955: We Like Ike; #20 Retired; Red Letter Day at TRS; Buntin' Benson; Starling Suspended; B-2-Bs; Notable Losing Causes; HBD Angelo

• 1955 - In his first major league appearance, 25-year-old reliever Al Grunwald got just one batter out. He gave up a single to Don Mueller‚ a double to Monte Irvin‚ a triple to Willie Mays‚ and a homer to Whitey Lockman. The NY Giants “cycle” led to an eight-run fourth frame and eventual 12-3 victory over the Pirates. But there was a bright spot. Rookie Roberto Clemente hit his first home run, an inside-the-park 445’ shot that the weirdly configured Polo Grounds kept in the yard. Grunwald got two more outings with the Bucs, tossing seven+ shutout innings, but was sent down in May. 
• 1957 - The Bucs lost a ho-hummer to the Brooklyn Dodgers 6-1 at Ebbets Field. The game marked the last time a Pirate pitcher batted eighth (Luis Arroyo, with Bill Mazeroski behind him) for over 50 years, until June 30th, 2008 when Paul Maholm batted ahead of Jack Wilson. Bobby Bragan made a habit of batting pitchers eighth back in the fifties before John Russell again adopted the concept briefly. 

Angelo Encarnacion - 1996 Fleer Ultra

• 1969 - C Angelo Encarnacion was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Angelo was a back-up catcher for the Bucs from 1995-96, batting .238 over that span. He’s best known for a 1995 blooper when he scooped up a short blocked pitch with his mask with a runner on third in extra innings. That’s a no-no by the rule book and the nonchalant play allowed the winning run to score on the technical foul. He played for the Angels in 1997 and then went the minor league/indie route, shedding the tools of ignorance after the 2003 campaign. 
• 1972 - Pie Traynor’s number 20 was retired at TRS posthumously on Opening Day in front of 47,489, with his widow Eva getting his jersey from manager Bill Virdon and former #20 Richie Hebner. The Bucs could have used Pie, losing 6-4 to the Chicago Cubs despite Hebner’s homer and Manny Sanguillen’s double and triple. It was a packed pregame - Roberto Clemente received his 11th Golden Glove, Willie Stargell was presented with the Mel Ott Award for winning the 1971 HR title and Josh Gibson Jr tossed out the opening pitch. There were also protesters who unfurled a giant “Stop the War” sign. But the day ended tragically when a 17-year-old died trying to leap over 4’ rails between ramps (a stunt pulled off by several other youths during the game) and missed, falling to his death in the parking lot 80’ below, the second TRS fatality due to the low railing. Management finally added a high chain-link fence between the ramp ways to correct the deadly flaw. 
• 1980 - It was a day of baseball feats at TRS: before the game, Willie Stargell was presented with his 1979 Man of the Year Award by TSN, prompting Bucco owner Dan Galbreath to name one of his ponies Captain Willie, then both Bill Robinson and Bill Madlock collected their 1,000th hit during the game. The Bucs came away with a 12-10 win, making it exciting by almost blowing a six-run first inning lead and then surviving a two-run, ninth-inning Redbird rally. Mad Dog and Robinson had three hits, as did Dave Parker and Tim Foli. Grants Jackson got the win and Teke the save after Jim Bibby’s start. 
• 1987 - Mike Schmidt hit his 500th career home run‚ a three-run shot off Don Robinson in the top of the 9th inning, to give the Phillies an 8-6 win at TRS. Schmidt became the 15th MLB player to reach the 500-HR mark. And though the Pittsburgh-Philly rivalry was pretty bitter during that era, the fans gave him a warm ovation. 

Nelson Liriano - 1996 Fleer Ultra (reverse)

• 1996 - Al Martin and Orlando Merced homered in back-to-back at bats as part of a three-run fourth inning in Pittsburgh’s 6-2 win at Busch Stadium against the St. Louis Cards. Leadoff batter Nelson Liriano went 4-for-5 with two runs scored to set the table while starter Paul Wagner upped his record to 3-0 after allowing two runs in seven innings of work. 
• 2004 - Kris Benson tied a MLB record with four sac bunts as the Bucs topped the Mets 8-1. He became the seventh player to accomplish the feat‚ and only the second since 1920. For all of that effort, none of the four runners Benson advanced scored. Craig Wilson did the heavy lifting, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two runs and two RBI. 
• 2009 - In the first Saturday afternoon game in Pittsburgh since 2005, Craig Monroe hit three-run home runs in consecutive innings to give the Pirates their first back-to-back victories of the season by a 10-0 count over the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. Ian Snell went seven innings and gave up three hits for the win. Craig only hit one more homer and was released in July to end his MLB career; fame is indeed fleeting. 
• 2014 - The Brewer’s Martin Maldonado drilled a sixth-inning bullet to 3B Pedro Alvarez, hitting it so hard that the cover came undone. He beat El Toro’s aerodynamically-challenged knuckleball to first, and the play eventually led to a two-out run in a 5-3 Pirates loss to Milwaukee at PNC Park. It kept a couple of urban myths alive - the Pirates dismal luck against the Brew Crew held true to form and it was the kind of freak thing that always seemed to happen when losing pitcher Charlie Morton was on the bump. 

Ike Davis - 2014 Topps Update

• 2014 - 1B Ike Davis was traded by the New York Mets to the Pirates for a PTBNL (LHP Blake Taylor) and RHP Zack Thornton. He hit .235 and was released at the end of the season, signing a deal with the Oakland Athletics and joining the Yankees for a brief MLB stop in 2016. Ike then joined the Dodger system and pitched some before retiring in 2018. Zach’s bounced around in AAA, Latin baseball & the indie league, also playing for the 2017 Israeli nine in the World Baseball Classic where he joined Ike as a teammate. At last look, he was UC-Santa Barbara’s pitching coach. Taylor has bounced around in the minors and is currently with the Astros. 
• 2017 - It was announced that CF Starling Marte was given an 80-game PED suspension after testing positive for Nandrolone, an old-school steroid used to treat anemia but with a history of sports abuse dating back to the sixties. With Marte out until July 18th and Jung-Ho Kang in South Korea due to legal entanglements resulting from his offseason DUI arrest, the Pirates were minus the planned middle of their 2017 lineup for much of the year (Marte returned; Kang didn’t until 2018) because of bad decision-making. Neither guy is still with the club; JHK was released and Starling was Ben Cherington’s first big trade.