8/16 From 1950: Hebner Back; Jamo, Allie Sign; AJ Day; Cobra, Thomas Terrific; Dock Talk; Maz #1; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Rick, Al & Nick

• 1952 - LHP Al Holland was born in Roanoke, Virginia. Holland spent 10 years in the show, starting in 1977 with the Pirates (he would return for a bit in 1985) and slash 1-3-4/3.54. He had some nice seasons closing for Philly, earning an All-Star berth and the NL Rolaids Reliever of the Year award. He took a hit when he admitted to coke use during the 1985 trials and that, along with a wrist injury, ended his career after the 1987 campaign. 
• 1953 - Coach Nick Leyva was born in Ontario, California. He closed his career as an advisor in Pirates baseball operations after he was the Bucs first/third base coach, joining the staff in 2010 when Clint Hurdle was hired. Leyva is a former minor league player and manager who began coaching in 1978. He was the skipper of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1989 through early 1991. 

Billy Maz - 1956 Topps

• 1956 - 19-year-old rookie Bill Mazeroski belted his first homer and had a three-hit outing against Robin Roberts to help lead the Bucs to a 4-1 win at Connie Mack Stadium. His two runs scored and two RBI were all that Vern Law needed as he cruised to a six-hit, complete game victory. 
• 1958 - Frank Thomas bombed three consecutive HRs off three different pitchers (Harvey Haddix, Will Schmidt & Alex Kellner), drove home six runs and scored four times in a 13-4 romp over the Reds at Crosley Field. Dick Groat added four knocks and three tallies while Dick Stuart also went long. Bob Friend got the win with Bob Porterfield tossing the final two frames to ice the cake. 
• 1964 - RHP Rick Reed was born in Huntington, West Virginia. He was drafted by the Bucs and played his first four seasons (1988-91) with them, going 4-7 with a 4.98 ERA while yo-yo’ing between the minors and the big leagues. He continued to bounce around the fringes of the league and spent all of 1966 in the bushes. Then the light went on at the age of 32; he won double-digit games for six of the next seven seasons with the Mets & Twins and made a pair of All-Star teams. He was briefly the pitching coach at his old school, Marshall, but then opted for full-time retirement to raise his family. 
• 1972 - Willie Stargell showed why you play all nine innings when his two-run homer brought the Bucs back for a 3-2 win at Dodger Stadium. Don Sutton had been cruising along with a 2-0 lead going into the ninth when trouble hit. Dave Cash doubled and scored on Al Oliver’s bouncer up the middle. Pops, who was in a 1-for-21 batting funk, had the green light on a 3-0 pitch and dropped it into the RC field stands for the win. Normally, the Dodgers would have sent closer Jim Brewer to the hill to face Stargell, but the lefty was out with hand problems so Walter Alston stuck with Sutton. Cash had three hits and Scoops a pair to pace the attack. Bob Miller, who danced around Dodger runners in the last two frames thanks to a pair of DP balls, got the win in relief of Nellie Briles. 

Cap'n Willie - 1972 O-Pee-Chee

• 1975 - After being pulled from his last two starts without getting through the first inning and then refusing to pitch in relief, earning a one-day suspension, Dock Ellis called a clubhouse meeting in Cincinnati and had skipper Danny Murtaugh attend. Ellis then ripped into the Irishman and team management, earning himself an indefinite suspension and $2,000 fine. The suspension left the team short handed, but GM Joe Brown told Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Press that “We’re better off with 24 (players) than we were with 25.” The club, not too surprisingly, lost the game to the Reds 5-3. The suspension was lifted on August 30th after he apologized to Murtaugh, and Ellis was traded to the NY Yankees in December. Ellis became the UPI “Comeback Player of the Year” in 1976 with a 17-8 record, then refused to sign his 1977 contract, blasted George Steinbrenner, and was traded again. But bygones are bygones; he returned to the Pirates in 1979 and retired as a Bucco. 
• 1978 - Dave Parker homered twice, was walked intentionally two more times, had five RBI and scored three times to lead the Pirates hit parade in a 13-2 spanking of the Reds at TRS. Bill Robinson added three hits, including a long ball, with three runs chased home, four other Buccos had two hits (Omar Moreno - three runs scored; Rennie Stennett, Ed Ott & Phil Garner), and reliever Grant Jackson even added a two-run triple. John Candelaria got the win. 
• 1980 - Pittsburgh defeated Montreal, 5-0, at TRS in front of 32,390 fans. Bert Blyleven was brilliant, going the distance while giving up two hits, walking one and fanning a dozen. The Pirates scored four times in the opening frame as Blyleven cruised to his seventh victory. 
• 1982 - The Pirates purchased Richie Hebner from the Tigers, a homecoming for The Gravedigger who began his professional career with Pittsburgh and had a nine-year run with the Bucs. He hit .276 during the stretch run and 1983, then spent his final two campaigns with the Cubs. Richie’s Bucco average over 11 years was .277 with a 122 OPS+. 

The Gravedigger - 1983 Fleer

• 1989 - The Bucs took home a 5-4 win in 12 innings against Houston at the Astrodome. Bobby Bonilla hit the winning dinger off Larry Andersen. It first played out as an apparent double, but the call was changed to a home run after a quick ump’s conference; the ball had bounced off a fan’s stone hands and back into the field. John Smiley had two RBI, but wasn’t around for the final decision. The win went to Neal Heaton, with a save credited to Bill Landrum. 
• 1997 - The Pirates scored three times in the first inning and never looked back as they defeated the Florida Marlins 10-5 at Pro Player Stadium. Rookie Jose Guillen, who had been playing in High A Lynchburg the season before, homered and chased in five runs. Joe Randa collected three raps and Kevin Polcovich also went long. Francisco Cordova got the win in a game that didn’t feature many mound highlights. The two staffs used nine pitchers who gave up 19 hits and 15 walks while tossing 347 pitches. 
• 2010 - The Pirates signed top draft picks RHP Jameson Taillon and RHP Stetson Allie. Taillon was in HS and committed to Rice, but agreed to a $6.5M deal after being drafted second, just behind Bryce Harper. He went 14-10/3.20 in 2018, his only full MLB season without injury; he’s gone through two TJ and a cancer surgery already. Stetson was also a pitcher who could touch 100 in HS; the Bucs took him in the second round and reeled him in from a commitment to North Carolina for $2.25M. The club switched him from the mound to the pasture to take advantage of his bat, but neither position worked out. He was with the Dodger organization for five years and was released by his last club, Tampa Bay, in 2021. 
• 2011 - Andrew McCutchen hit a three-run homer to give Pittsburgh the early lead, Neil Walker hit another bomb to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, and Garrett Jones went yard in the 11th inning for a 5-4 win against the Cardinals at PNC Park. Chris Resop, the fifth Pirate pitcher of the game, got the win after working a pair of scoreless innings. Longtime Buc nemesis Albert Pujols took Jeff Karstens deep in the sixth to become the first player in MLB history to hit 30 homers in each of his first 11 seasons. 

AJ - 20212 Topps Update

• 2012 - AJ Burnett wasn’t at his best, but battled into the seventh to take a 10-6 win over the Dodgers at PNC Park. This contest entered Pirate folklore when Hanley Ramirez homered off Burnett in the fourth and tossed a couple of barbs at the Bucco hurler, who got his revenge in the sixth when he struck Ramirez out swinging on a 3-2 pitch and famously told him to “STFD.” Garrett Jones had a pair of three-run homers to spark the victory over LA.