5/13 Through the 1950s: Ron K's 27 During No-No; Strickland Sold; The Man; HBD Jack, Bill, Leroy, Jimmy & Bullet

• 1883 - C Jimmy Archer was born in Dublin, Ireland. He played for five different clubs during his career, starting out and then playing his last year in Pittsburgh, first in 1904 as a rookie and then taking his bow in 1918. Archer was a strong armed catcher (his throwing strength was a trademark of Archer’s play; one bio credited it to shortened arms muscles caused by a teenage work accident) who often threw out wanna-be base stealers from a squat. In his two stints with the Pirates, he only got into 31 games and hit .154 but posted a career .249 BA. He retired and became a purchaser for Armour meats. Jimmy made the news as a hero in 1931 when he revived a pair of drivers who had been overcome by carbon dioxide while idling their rigs in the Union Stockyards.

Frank "Bullet" Miller - 1917 photo: Miller Family Collection

• 1886 - RHP Frank “Bullet” Miller was born in Salem, Michigan. Miller tossed for the Pirates from 1916-19 and put up a 41-49-2/2.75 slash. Miller sat out two full seasons (1920-21) when the Pirates wouldn’t meet his salary demands, working his farm instead. He did eventually return to baseball when the Boston Braves paid the 36-year-old $7,500 in 1922, but hung up the spikes and returned to farming after two more seasons. His nickname was a nod to his fastball. 
• 1908 - The Pirates topped the Giants and Christy Mathewson 5-1 behind Howie Camnitz, handing Matty his first loss of the year. Tommy Leach led the attack with a pair of triples. The game at Exposition Park took just 85 minutes to play. 
• 1909 - SS Leroy Morney was born in Oak Forest, Illinois. Morney had brief local stops in 1933 with the Homestead Grays (one of three teams he played for that season) and with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1934. Leroy had happy feet, playing for 15 teams in a 14-year career as a heavy-hitting shortstop who was named to three Negro League All-Star games. 
• 1910 - Umpire Bill McKinley was born in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County. He was an AL umpire from 1946-65, making the calls in 2,977 regular season games, four World Series and three All-Star Games. After his retirement (mandatory when he hit age 55), he later served as umpire-in-chief of the short-lived 1969 Global League. 
• 1931 - C Jack Shepherd was born in Clovis, California. Signed out of Stanford in 1953, his first full season was the following year when he hit .304 and was a member of The Sporting News All-Rookie team. He played for Pittsburgh through 1956, compiling a lifetime .260 BA; he retired in 1957 to devote his efforts to a career in business. 
• 1952 - RHP Ron Necciai of Gallatin struck out 27 batters while throwing a 7-0 no-hitter for the Bristol Twins, the Pirates' Class D Appalachian League team, against the Welch Miners. Four hitters reached base against him, via a walk, an error, a hit batsman and a passed ball on a swinging third strike that resulted in a four-strikeout ninth inning. Only two batters put the ball in play: a grounder to short in the second inning and an error in the ninth. Necciai pitched for the Bucs later in the year, but a torn rotator cuff and bleeding ulcers limited him to that one MLB season. 

George Strickland - 1952 Bowman

• 1953 - Pittsburgh sold SS George Strickland to the Cleveland Indians. It was a nice grab by the Tribe, which got eight seasons out of the sweet-fielding infielder, who started for four years and played 85 or more games in six Indians campaigns. Bo never had much of a stick - he hit over .238 just once in a decade-long career, but was consistently among the league leaders in fielding. Strickland’s time as a Pirate came to an end when the club signed the O’Brien twins (Eddie was a SS) as bonus babies; the rules of the time required that they stay on the MLB roster for two years or be released. George later went on to scout, coach and manage. They also sold C Ed Fitz Gerald to the Washington Senators. Fitz went on to play seven more seasons with a .264 BA; he left the Pirates without an experienced backup backstop as he was made expendable by another bonus baby signing, that of Nick Koback, who got into 16 Bucco games in three years and batted .121. Ed became a golf instructor after his baseball days, swinging a driver rather than a Louisville Slugger. 
• 1958 - A quick shout-out to the original kid from Donora: the Card’s Stan Musial got his 3,000th hit with a pinch hit double off the Cub's Moe Drabowsky at Wrigley Field.