4/20 From 1970: Teke Traded; Wakefield Released; Pops Clears the Roof; Big Finish; Lights Out; Zeroes Galore; Snider Shiner; Hans Home; HBD Chris

• 1970 - Willie Stargell belted a homer off Jim Bouton that cleared the RF roof at Forbes Field as the Pirates took a 3-1 decision from Houston. Dock Ellis went six innings for the win, with Dave Giusti covering the last three frames. The deed wasn’t witnessed by very many; there were only 4,015 fans in the house. 
• 1980 - CF Chris Duffy was born in Brattleboro, Vermont. Duffy hit .269 in his three Buc years (2005-07) but butted heads with manager Jim Tracy who wanted him to change his batting style. Duffy stormed home after a closed-door session with the skipper and his career pretty much sank after that affair. He played one more season for Pittsburgh, and in 2008 was injured and released. He would play just 13 more MLB games. 
• 1985 - Kent Tekulve’s Pirate career ended after a dozen seasons when he was traded to the Phils for Al Holland. He became a set-up man there and remained rubber-armed, appearing in 291 games in four years with a 24-26-25/3.01 line in Philly, then finished out with a season in Cincinnati.

Teke - 1985 Topps

• 1986 - The Pirates and Cubs played 13 innings, only to have their game at Wrigley Field suspended due to darkness after four hours and 48 minutes and the score tied 8-8. The Cubs scored three times in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings. The contest was completed on August 11th with the Bucs winning 10-8 in 17 innings. The total game time from start-to-finish was six hours and nine minutes. Johnny Ray & Joe Orsulak combined for seven hits and five runs while Sid Bream and Steve Kemp homered. Barry Jones picked up the win, going four scoreless innings while whiffing eight. Oddly, though Jones wasn’t called up until July, he set the MLB record for whiffs in a debut as a reliever (tied in 2016 by then-Astro Joe Musgrove). It was in actuality his 10th appearance, but the game date reverted back to when the contest’s first pitch was tossed, making it his first outing in the record books. 
• 1992 - The Pirates turned a pitching duel between Randy Tomlin and Montreal’s Ken Hill on its ear with a nine-run outburst in the ninth to defeat the Expos at Olympic Stadium by an 11-1 score. The inning was highlighted by a Kirk Gibson grand slam and a three-run shot by Barry Bonds. Tomlin earned the win with relief help from Dennis Lamp and Stan Belinda. 
• 1995 - Pittsburgh released knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. He was picked up a week later by Boston, where he spent the next 17 seasons, tossing over 3,000 innings and winning 186 games. He was a wild child for the Buccos, but mastered his pitch in the Red Sox system under the tutelage of Phil and Joe Niekro. 
• 1998 - Pennsylvania placed a state memorial plaque, sponsored by the local historical society, at 605 Beechwood Avenue in Carnegie, near the site of Honus Wagner's birthplace to honor the Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop. Hans had been born in Chartiers, now part of Carnegie, in 1874 to an immigrant coal mining family, playing for local sandlot and company teams until he joined the local semi-pro Mansfield Indians and began his road to Cooperstown. 

Ohlie - 2009 Topps Update

• 2009 - Ross Ohlendorf tossed the Bucs’ fourth shutout of the season (in 13 games), giving up two hits in seven innings, in an 8-0 win over Florida to end the Marlins’ seven-game winning streak. The Bucs had recorded just two shutouts in all of 2008. Nate McLouth gave Ohlie all the support he needed by driving in four runs, three touching home after a sixth-inning homer. 
• 2014 - Milwaukee topped the Pirates 3-2 in 14 frames on Easter at PNC Park, but the game took a back seat to the on-field action in the third inning. Brewer Carlos Gomez admired a ball that didn’t quite get out of the yard. He made it to third and Gerrit Cole let him have it verbally for hot-dogging it. Gomez went after Cole, the benches emptied and a basebrawl broke out. Travis Snider went after Gomez, Rickie Weeks grabbed him by the arms and Martin Maldonado took advantage to poke a defenseless Lunch Box, leaving him with a shiner. Maldonado was suspended five games, Gomez received a three-game suspension (he also threw his helmet at the Bucco mob), and Snider was suspended two games. Fran Cervelli later challenged pugilist Maldonado to an off season boxing match for charity, but was never taken up on the offer. As for the game, Neil Walker had three hits, including a homer, but Khris Davis’ extra-inning blast off Jeanmar Gomez carried the day (all three Milwaukee runs were solo dingers, including the ninth-inning game-knotter by Ryan Braun off Jason Grilli) despite eight innings of six-hit, one-run ball by Cole.