5/3 From 1960: Cole Deal; Gunner Returns; Turner Tumble; Squabble; K-Town; Skunky Fan; Quickie; Rally Time; Bootball; HBD Ivan & Austin

• 1964 - Big Bob Veale got knocked out of the box after getting just four outs and falling behind the Cards at Busch Stadium by a 6-1 count. But the top of the Bucco order - Gene Alley, Dick Schofield, Bill Virdon, Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell - went 9-for-19 with nine runs scored and seven RBI (five from Pops; he and Alley homered) to power the club to a 12-8 win. The bottom of the lineup, Billy Mazeroski and Jim Pagliaroni, added five hits and chased home four runs. Don Schwall staggered through 4-2/3 innings, allowing 10 runners but only two runs to earn the win, with ElRoy Face serving three zeroes for the save. 
• 1968 - 1B Ivan Cruz was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. He spent bits of four seasons in the show, getting 21 at-bats with the Bucs between 1999-2000 with a .238 BA while spending most of his time at AAA Nashville. He was busy after his Bucco days, playing a bit for the Cards, in Mexico and in Japan until he retired at 35 after the 2003 season. 

Ivan Cruz - 1999 photo Vincent Laforet Allsport/Getty

• 1973 - The Pirates trounced the San Francisco Giants 14-5 at Candlestick Park. The G-Men were generous to a fault, allowing six unearned runs and missing a couple of other catchable balls. Al Oliver (who was 1-for-20 coming into the contest) had a day, homering twice and plating six runs while slowpoke Milt May added to the festivities with a three-run inside-the-park-homer. Nellie Briles staggered to a complete game victory even though he was touched up for 11 hits. The clubhouse was not all fun and games afterwards - manager Bill Virdon had a spat with Richie Hebner over dogging a play in the field that carried over into a post-game locked door discussion; when it was done, Virdon told the media he didn’t want to talk about it and The Gravedigger fired a stool at the wall after he left The Quail’s office. Gene Clines, the Pirates fourth outfielder, chimed in with a beef about lack of playing time (he played behind Oliver, Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente and Richie Zisk during his Pirates tenure and saw roughly 300 AB/season). Dave Cash was also in a bit of a funk, but his blues were caused by a three-error game at second. 
• 1985 - The Gunner, Bob Prince, returned to the booth after a 10 year absence (he had been fired by KDKA). Prince got a standing ovation from the crowd, and when he took over the mic in the fourth frame, the Pirates erupted for nine runs, earning him another O after the inning. It was a sadly short comeback as The Gunner died of cancer on June 10th. 
• 1986 - A skunk wandered onto the field at San Diego in the 7th inning at Jack Murphy Stadium and held up the Padres-Pirates game for several minutes. It was thought that a family of polecats lived under the stadium‚ feeding on peanuts and other fan debris; apparently that was one rumor that proved true. It was the Bucs who stunk out the joint early on, but they scored three times in the eighth and added the game winner in the ninth to skunk the Padres‚ 7-6. 
• 1991 - The Pirates defeated the Astros 1-0 in a one hour‚ 45 minute contest at TRS, the NL's shortest nine inning game since 1981. Zane Smith threw a complete game four-hitter while Pete Harnisch went the distance and gave up only two knocks, one being Orlando Merced’s first homer of the year in the third inning. Zane put down 12-of-13 Astros he faced from the sixth inning on while tossing 92 pitches overall; Harnisch threw 89 pitches during the game and retired the final 17 Buccos. 

Zane Smith - 1991 Stadium Club

• 1991 - Pittsburgh traded 1B Carmelo Martinez to Kansas City for RHP Victor Cole. Jim Leyland platooned Orlando Merced and Gary Redus at first, making Martinez the third wheel. Carmelo, 30, finished his MLB career as a Red, which picked him up in July from KC. He hit .234 for the three teams combined and then played in Japan, Mexico and the minors through 1995. Cole, 23, got into eight games for the Buccaneers in 1992 and spent the rest of his pro career with five organizations in the upper minors, except for a season tossing in Taiwan. 
• 1995 - OF Austin Meadows was born in Grayson, Georgia. He was selected in the first round (ninth overall) by the Pirates in 2013, foregoing Clemson for a $3,029,600 signing bonus. He bubbled among the Top 100 Prospects, but had several injuries that delayed his journey to the majors. He got his call in May of 2018 when Starling Marte was placed on the DL and was then shipped to Tampa Bay later in the year as part of the Chris Archer deal. He blossomed into an All-Star in 2019 with 33 homers at age 24, but had trouble replicating the following campaign. 
• 1998 - Turner Ward literally crashed through the right field wall at Three Rivers Stadium while running down Mike Piazza’s long fly in a 10-5 loss to the Dodgers. And yes, he hung onto the ball in a play that is still considered one of the great all-time MLB catches and an ESPN go-to clip, though he had to leave the game with bruises and some fiberglass splinters. The kid was a gamer; he crashed through the wall while LA was ahead 9-0. Oddly enough, he was the second player to flatten the wall this day. Dodger backup outfielder Trenidad Hubbard was shagging flies before the game, backed up to the wall to snag one, and the fence gave in, leaving him flat on his back. 
• 1999 - The Bucs scored four times in the ninth on homers by Warren Morris and Brian Giles and a two-out walk off single by Brant Brown off reliever Robb Nenn to surge past the Giants 9-8 at TRS. Giles had three hits and five RBI while Jason Kendall went 5-for-5 with a pair of doubles. 
• 2012 - The Pirates set a club mark by striking out 17 in nine innings during their 6-3 win over the Cards at Busch Stadium. Erik Bedard did the heavy lifting, whiffing 11 in five frames and setting a franchise record with seven consecutive K’s. Four Pirate relievers added six more K in the final four innings, with Jason Grilli and Joel Hanrahan picking up a pair of punchouts apiece in the eighth and ninth. 

Erik Bedard - 2012 Topps Update

• 2014 - Despite making four errors and falling behind 5-0, the Pirates scored six times against the Toronto Blue Jays in the seventh and eighth innings to claim an 8-6 victory at PNC Park. Jordy Mercer’s two-out double on an 0-2 pitch tied the game with two outs in the seventh, and Neil Walker’s two-bagger off the top of the center field wall in the eighth chased home the game winners. Mark Melancon picked up the save of Bryan Morris’ third win. 
• 2015 - The Bucs ended one of the most frustrating series in their history by losing their third straight extra-inning, walk-off contest to the Cardinals by a 3-2 score after a pair of 2-1 losses. The Bucs had the lead in the 12th thanks to Pedro Alvarez’s homer, but Radhames Liz gave up a run in the St. Louis half and a homer to Kolten Wong in the 14th to absorb the defeat. The Pirates scored just four runs in 35 innings against the Redbirds, stranding 37 runners while going 2-for-25 with RISP. The Cardinals swept a three-game series with all the wins coming in extra innings for the first time in franchise history and became the first team to do so since June of 1925, when the Cincinnati Reds broomed the Boston Braves thrice in overtime.