7/28 Through the 1970s: Butcher Trade; Piet Seven Spot; McBean Blast; Prince Night; Cover Boy Frank; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Carmelo, Chet, Duke & Bill

• 1867 - LHP Duke Esper (birth name: Charles H. Esbacher) was born in Salem, New Jersey. Duke spent nine seasons in the show and made a pair of brief stops with the Alleghenys (1890: 0-2/5.29) and the Pirates (1892: 2-0/5.40). In between those stints, Duke won 36 games, including 20 with Philadelphia in 1891, in 59 outings. He ended up with a workmanlike 101-100/4.39 lifetime slash before retiring after the 1898 campaign. 
• 1867 - RHP Bill Day was born in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. Bill had a 14-game major league career working for the Phils from 1889-90 and then finishing up with the ‘90 Alleghenys, going 0-6/5.52 in six starts after the North Siders had sent OF Billy Sunday to the Quakers for him and $1,000 in an early salary dump. He hung around pro ball until 1904, closing out his ballplaying days in the Connecticut League. 
• 1908 - In much ado over nothing, Vic Willis and the NY Giants Hooks Wiltsie battled to a 2-2 tie at the Polo Grounds after 16 frames as the game was called because of darkness. The Pittsburgh Press called it “A fitting finish to a great baseball series. Willis and Wiltse pitched high class baseball and their comrades supported them in grand style. The twirlers were cheered to the echo on leaving the slab after innings of excitement where they had baffled their foes.” The Pirates had taken 2-of-3 against their rivals while drawing 70,000 fans during the four-game series, a huge gate for old-timey baseball.

Vic Willis - 1909 Philadelphia Caramel

• 1932 - Scout Chet Montgomery was born in Warsaw, Kentucky. The Western Kentucky alum was known as “Chet the Jet” for his speed on the diamond and basketball court, but never played organized pro ball. After graduation, he became a HS hoops coach, then scouted for the Bucs (1963-67), Reds, and Indians before returning to the Pirates as Special Assistant to the General Manager and Director of Player Development for a decade. 
• 1932 - Pittsburgh swept a twin bill from the NY Giants, winning 10-7 and 9-1. Earl Grace had three hits and three RBI during the lidlifter to pace the Pirate attack. Paul Waner and Adam Comorosky also had three raps as the Bucs banged out 16 hits, 14 of which were singles. Erv Brame got the win in relief of Steve Swetonic while Larry French picked up the save. In the nitecap, Tony Piet smacked a grand slam and three-run homer to go along with two more hits for a seven RBI, three-run day to plow the road for Heinie Meine. 
• 1938 - At Zanesville, Ohio’s Mark Grey Park (admittedly a bandbox), Josh Gibson led the Grays to a 17-4 win over the Memphis Red Sox with four home runs (two in one inning), the only four-homer game ever recorded in the Negro Leagues. The Negro National League champion Homestead Grays absolutely dominated the Red Sox, going 10-0 against them, including nine wins in a late July barnstorming series through the Midwest that included this game. Because no official box score or score card has been found, the game wasn’t counted in Gibson’s statistics. 
• 1939 - The Pirates traded veteran 1B Gus Suhr to the Phillies for RHP Max Butcher. Suhr was nearing the end of his career (he was released after playing just 10 games in 1940, his last MLB season), but Butcher became a mainstay for the Bucs, pitching for seven years, making 154 starts and winning 67 games in Pittsburgh. 

Maurice Van Robays - 1940 photo/Retro Images

• 1940 - The Pirates won their eighth of nine games and fifth in a row after sweeping Boston at Braves Field by 5-2 and 7-3 scores. Maurice Van Robays was the hero of the opening match, homering and driving in three runs to give Dick Lanahan all the support he needed. The Bucs used a balanced attack to support Max Butcher’s four-hitter in the nitecap. 
• 1958 - Frank Thomas was featured as the cover story of Sports Illustrated in an article titled “Nobody Knows Him But Everybody Wants Him.” In case you’re among the gang that doesn’t know him, the Pittsburgh native hit 163 HR in eight years as a Bucco and 286 bombs in his 16 seasons in the majors. 
• 1960 - 1B/OF Carmelo Martinez was born in Dorado, Puerto Rico. Carmelo (he’s Edgar’s cousin) spent parts of the tail end of his nine-year career with the Pirates. The Pirates got him in 1990 as part of the Wes Chamberlain deal with the Phillies and then sent him to KC for Victor Coles in May of the following year. Martinez didn’t see much action in that span, getting in 23 games and hitting .229. He works for the Cubs now as their Latin Field Coordinator. 
• 1968 - Al McBean had one of those can-do-no-wrong Sundays. He gave up 13 hits to the Cards at Forbes Field, but still went the distance for a 7-1 win as the Redbirds stranded a dozen and went 1-for-14 with RISP. The big blow? McBean’s grand slam in the fifth off Larry Jaster, coming with two down after Milt May was walked to get to Alvin. He also had fun on the hill, tossing several blooper pitches to the Giants in the ninth. Donn Clendenon added a two-run blast to the cause. McBean became one of six Pirates pitchers in franchise history to bang out a grand slam. 
• 1971 - Luke Walker spun a four-hit, complete game whitewash at Los Angeles in a 4-0 win at Dodger Stadium. Bob Robertson homered and had a sac fly to bring home two runs. The Bucs nickled and dimed the Dodgers; every position player had a hit, four different guys scored and three had RBI as the club put up their runs one at a time in four different frames. 

Prince Night - photo 7/29/1972 Robert Pavuchak/Pgh Press

• 1972 - “It was “Bob Prince Night” at TRS and 39,035 fans turned out for the event. As Bob Smizik wrote in the Pittsburgh Press “...he is listened to by just about everyone. And there are some who don’t like him. But many, many more see through his exterior to the man inside.” The colorful broadcaster requested that any money raised be forwarded to his pet project, the Allegheny Valley School for Exceptional Children, and Pirates nation kicked in over $75,000 for the institute. The Bucs joined in the celebration by defeating Tom Seaver and the NY Mets 3-1 behind Dock Ellis’ complete game seven-hitter, a Willie Stargell homer and a timely DP started by Dave Cash off an Ed Kranepool smash to bail the Docktor out of his biggest jam. 
• 1977 - Twelve Bucco batters reached against Dan Larsen of the Astros in the first two innings (Pittsburgh rattled off six straight hits in the first frame alone) to open up a 5-1 lead and added on thanks to a Bill Robinson grand slam to claim a 9-4 decision over Houston at TRS. Robinson had three hits while Phil Garner, Dave Parker, Al Oliver and Ed Ott added a pair of knocks to back a sometimes shaky Jim Rooker (he gave up nine hits, including a pair of long balls), who went tape-to-tape for the win. Pittsburgh was en fuego at home; the victory gave them a 38-14 record at Three Rivers for the year.