5/6 Through the 1950s: Cliff No-No; LCBC Forms; Lennox Cycle; Diamond Cover Unveiled; HBD Alberto, Dick, Earl, Bob, Lute & Loose

• 1883 - RHP Ed “Loose” Karger was born in San Angelo, Texas. Karger started his six-year MLB career with the Bucs in 1906, going 2-3/1.93 in six outings before being flipped to the Cards for veteran Chappie McFarlane. Bad move; McFarlane was waived in August while Karger would toss a 1907 perfecto (off the books; it was only seven innings) and won 46 games as a hard-luck hurler with a career 2.79 ERA. There’s some debate over his moniker; some say it was a description of his demeanor while others claim it was because of his easy delivery on the mound. 
• 1887 - The League of Colored Baseball Clubs, a precursor to the Negro Leagues, opened its schedule with a game at Recreation Park. The NY Gorhams beat the Pittsburgh Keystones 11-8 and a pitcher named Grosa before a crowd of 1‚200. One of the Keystone stars was King Solomon "Sol" White, an infielder, manager, executive, sportswriter and one of the pioneers of the Negro leagues. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 2006. Game day was celebrated by a parade starting at Grant and Second in town that snaked to the North Side park, then considered part of Allegheny City, behind a band that performed a concert before the ballgame. Because of rainouts and small crowds, the poorly financed LCBC (formed in large part due to the efforts of Keystones owner Walter Brown) and recognized by the National Agreement as a legitimate minor league, folded quickly on May 23rd (the Keystones finished 3-4). Though the league failed, the Keystones formed again professionally in 1921-22 as a National Negro League club before disbanding for good in 1923. 

Sol White - 1884 snip Wilberforce team photo

• 1890 - IF Lutellus "Lute" Boone was born in Hazelwood. After four years with the Yankees, the Pirates brought Lute back home in 1918 to help fill the hole left by the retired Hans Wagner. He couldn’t quite fill those shoes (he batted .198 for the Buccos) and that ended his big-league days. He continued to soldier on in the minors with 14 years in the American Association and played for four minor league pennant winners. He retired from baseball in 1936, took up residence in Brentwood and went to work for Mesta Machine Company in Homestead before retiring and going to his reward at age 92. 
• 1906 - The Pirates became the first team to use a canvas tarp to cover the infield when it stormed after the game at North Side’s Exposition Park, a damp 5-1 loss to the Cubs. Bucco skipper Fred Clarke was granted a patent for the tarp he designed, calling it a “diamond cover.” Apparently it worked; they played the next day. 
• 1914 - OF Ed Lennox of the Pittsburgh Rebels recorded the only cycle ever hit during the Federal League’s existence against the KC Packers in a 10-4 win, hitting two homers. A cycle with two long balls wouldn’t be duplicated again until 1937 when it was accomplished by The Yankee Clipper, Joe DiMaggio. 
• 1921 - RHP Bob Chesnes was born in Oakland, California. He’s a story of what coulda been. As a 27-year-old back from the service, he spent three years dazzling minor league hitters before the Pirates bought his contract from the San Francisco Seals for $100,000 and four players in 1947. He went 14-6 the next season with 15 complete games and a 3.57 ERA/.275 BA (he was a former SS). But he only won 10 games in the next two seasons, the victim of a burned out arm, and was done as an MLB player by 1950. 
• 1923 - C Earl Turner was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Earl’s MLB days were spent sipping cups of coffee in Pittsburgh in 1948 and again in 1950, hitting .240 in his 42-game career. Turner spent most of 1950-52 in the upper minors before retiring from baseball. 

Dick Cole - 1954 Topps

• 1926 - IF Dick Cole was born in Long Beach. Cole played for Pittsburgh in 1951 and again in 1953-56, batting .253 mostly as a bench player, although he was a regular in 1954. Later, after a stint with the Central Scouting Bureau, Cole became a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1970 to 1974, earning the title of Scouting Supervisor the last three years. 
• 1951 - Cliff Chambers pitched the second no-hitter in Pirates' history (Nick Maddox tossed the first in 1907), a 3-0 victory in the nitecap of a doubleheader at Boston’s Braves Field. He wasn’t exactly on top of his game, walking eight and uncorking a wild pitch, but was untouchable when he was in the strike zone. Warren Spahn won the opener handily for the Braves by a 6-0 tally. It was Chambers’ last W as a Bucco; he was traded to the Cards a month later with a 3-6/5.58 line. 
• 1956 - OF Alberto Lois was born in Hato Mayor, Dominican Republic. He played briefly for the Bucs in 1978-79. He was a big-time, five-tool prospect signed as a 17-year-old by super-scout Howie Haak, but a series of nagging injuries gave him a rep as a malingerer that dogged him in the minors. Still, he got a quick look in ‘78 and was called up during the ‘79 dog days. Lois got into 11 games, all of them as a pinch runner, and flashed his wheels by scoring six runs. The Pirates never got a chance to polish his game. One night that winter, he drove his pickup truck into a stalled train sitting at an unlit crossing that he said he never saw. The wreck killed several of his friends and permanently injured his right eye, closing the book on his career.