8/3 Through the 1960s: Borowy Sold; Danny Hired; Smokin' Smoky; Lucky 8; Flip-Flops; ASGs; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Kevin, Mackey, Sid, Jim, Gee Gee & Dave

• 1889 - IF Gus “Gee-Gee” Getz was born in Pittsburgh. He closed out his seven-year MLB stay with seven games for the home team in 1918, going 2-for-10 and playing some hot corner. Gus started his career back in 1908 as an 18-year-old with McKeesport and closed it out in 1927 with Scranton. 
• 1895 - Pittsburgh took over first place with a rousing 5-4 win over the Cleveland Spiders at Exposition Park in front of 6,000 fans. The Pirates were down 4-2 in the eighth when Elmer “Mike” Smith banged a two-strike, two-run triple off the wall in right to tie the score. The Bucs took it in the ninth on Jake Starzel’s double, a bunt, and Monte Cross’ walk off single. Pink Hawley, making his third start of the week, got the win. Alas, it would be the last day Pittsburgh was in first; the Pirates finished the year in the middle of the pack at 71-61. 

Dave Brain - 1909 American Tobacco

• 1905 - Pittsburgh ended the NY Giants 13-game winning streak with a 10-4 victory at a rockin’ Exposition Park. The Pittsburgh Press reported that “...after little rooting in the first five innings,” when the Pirates took the lead in the sixth “The crowd went wild with delight (and) was on its feet for five minutes cheering with might and main and waving hats, canes and handkerchiefs.” In fact, one fan had a fatal heart attack during the action, and a Giant supporter had to be removed by the police after assaulting Pirate owner Barney Dreyfuss in his box; of all things, the attacker was a seminary student decked out in his clerical garb. 3B Dave Brain had three hits and four other Buccos had a pair of knocks apiece. Sam Leever, with help from Pat Flaherty, got the win over Iron Man McGinnity and reliever Sam Wiltse. 
• 1914 - The Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federation League took their second straight 1-0 win from first-place Chicago at Exposition Park. The Pittsburgh Press noted that “The winning...was due to the great pitching and timely hit of Walter Dickson.” Dickson wasn’t much of a hitter, but the paper reported that “He was twirling such fine ball that (manager Rebel) Oakes didn’t want to take a chance on a pinch hitter.” Walt rewarded the skipper by banging the game winning hit. No box score was available, but Dickson faced just 33 batters in 10 innings and none reached third. The Rebels had to lend the Chi-Feds a catcher, Skipper Roberts, to continue their road trip, as the two Windy City receivers were laid up with appendicitis and a broken finger. He played four games for them before returning to the Pittsburgh fold. 
• 1917 (some sources have 1925 as his birth date, but 1917 is the consensus) - OF/P Dave Hoskins was born in Greenwood, Mississippi. A RHP and LH batter, Hoskins spent his early career with the Homestead Grays from 1942-44, batting .289 as a right fielder and 5-5 as a pitcher (ERA unavailable) in a dozen starts. Hoskins went on to play a couple of years of MLB with the Indians, mostly as a pitcher, slashing 9-4-1-/3.81 and hitting .227. In 1953, he and Satchel Paige made the history books when they matched up in the first MLB game that had black pitchers opposing one another. He played pro ball until he was 41, spending 11 years in the minors and closing out in Mexico in 1960. Dave then retired to his 18-acre Flint, Michigan, farm and worked at GM as his day job. 

Gus Suhr - 1933 Goudey

• 1930 - The Pirates won their seventh game in eight outings when they whipped the Chicago Cubs 12-8 at Wrigley Field, riding an eight-run, 12-batter eighth inning to victory. Gus Suhr & Adam Comorosky had three RBI, Al Bool homered and Dick Bartell scored three times as all nine Pirates in the lineup had hits for the second day in a row. Erv Brame went the distance for the win despite surrendering 14 hits to Chi-town. 
• 1941 - Ken Heintzelman started both ends of a doubleheader against the Giants at Forbes Field. The Bucs took both games, 5-4 and 10-5. Heintzelman didn’t get the decision in either contest though; he lasted two innings total and gave up seven runs. The victories went to relievers Dutch Dietz and Bob Klinger. 
• 1950 - RHP Hank Borowy was sold to the Tigers, moving from a last-place Pittsburgh club to the AL frontrunners. The 34-year-old started the season with the Chicago Cubs, was sold to the Bucs in June and so was on his way to his third team. Of course, he’s probably lucky that three teams wanted him - he went 1-3/6.25 during the year. However, he was a solid get for the Tigers down the stretch, going 1-1/3.31 from the pen in 13 outings, but even with 95 wins, Motown finished three games behind the Yankees. Detroit released him following the 1951 season. 
• 1952 - The last-place Pirates knocked the Giants 6-1/2 games behind the Dodgers by sweeping a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds, 7-0 and 10-8. The two wins matched the hapless Buccos’ longest win streak of the year. Murry Dickson came in for Paul La Palme in the third inning with the bases loaded and an out. He got a DP ball from Bobby Thompson and then cruised 6-2/3 IP with three hits and no runs. Gus Bell was a homer shy of the cycle and drove in two runs. The Pirates jumped out to a 10-1 lead in the closer, scoring four times in the sixth before the Giants answered with seven scores of their own. The Bucs managed to hang on to the win when the game was called because of darkness. 
• 1954 - At Forbes Field, Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts started RHP Bud Podbielan and Bucco skipper Fred Haney countered with an all-lefty Pirate lineup. Birdie then lifted Podbielan after one batter and brought in southpaw Joe Nuxhall. The ploy worked as the Reds won, 7-2. Haney was duped by an old gambit first pulled by manager Bucky Harris in Game 7 of the 1924 World Series. (S/O to John Thorn’s “Old News in Baseball”). 

Dick Groat - 1956 Topps pin

• 1956 - Dick Groat’s single up the middle chased home a pair of Buccos in a 4-3 walkoff win against the Milwaukee Braves at Forbes Field. The Pirates had lost eight straight games, but manager Bobby Bragan said before the game that the streak would end tonight. The first eight innings were a duel between Vern Law and Warren Spahn with Pittsburgh holding a 2-1 edge. With two gone in the ninth, the Braves got back-to-back singles and took the lead when Del Crandall doubled them home. Groat, who scored the Bucs first run, cancelled that shot with his base-loaded knock, plating Bill Virdon and Dick Cole. Most of the 17,479 fans went home happy; a group of about 100 Brave fans who had spent the afternoon snake-dancing through the ballyard presumably went to their hotel to cry in their beer. 
• 1956 - During the NL meetings, the Pirates were awarded the 1959 All-Star game as they and the Giants switched home dates. The Bucs original 1961 All-Star slot was swapped out to the G-Men, who were scheduled to host the ASG at the Polo Grounds in New York; the Giants would leave that yard after the 1957 campaign for the Bay and eventually Candlestick Park. The flipped date was quite copacetic for Pittsburgh, falling during the City’s bicentennial celebration. The Pirates had last hosted an ASG in 1944. 
• 1957 - The news that Danny Murtaugh replaced Bobby Bragan as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates leaked to the press ahead of time, and Bragan heard it on the radio before GM Joe L. Brown could reach him. It wasn’t much of a surprise; the quirky Bragan had greased his own skids with an outre incident in Milwaukee when he strolled onto the field sipping a drink through a straw and offered it to the umps a couple of days earlier. 
• 1958 - The Cards finally scored against Pittsburgh in a 2-1 loss in the second game of a twin bill at Forbes Field as George “Red” Witt beat Vinegar Bend Mizell. Bob Skinner had both RBI. The Bucs took the lidlifter 2-0 as Bob Friend outdueled Sal Maglie, supported by a Bill Virdon homer and run producing knock from Frank Thomas. St. Louis had nine hits in each game, but found home plate a difficult destination to reach. The day before, Vern Law beat Sam Jones 1-0 on a three-hitter, making a lone first-inning run stand. In the series opener, Ronnie Kline beat Bob Mabe 2-0, tossing a four-hitter in a game that was scoreless until Pittsburgh plated in the eighth. The Bucs whitewashed the Cards for 33 straight innings in the four-game set, and gave up one run on 25 hits. 

Ron Kline - 1958 Hires Root Beer

• 1959 - The second All Star Game of the year was held at LA Memorial Stadium with P Roy Face, C Smoky Burgess, SS Dick Groat and 2B Bill Mazeroski representing Pittsburgh. The AL won 5-3. Face went two innings, striking out two but was touched up by a solo shot off Rocky Colavito’s bat. Burgess and Groat both went 0-for-1 and Maz was planted on the bench. 
• 1959 - RHP Jim Gott was born in Hollywood. Obtained from the Giants off waivers in mid-1987, the Bucs used him as a closer, and he saved 13 games with a 1.45 ERA. In 1988, he broke Teke’s franchise record with 34 saves. But he only appeared once the following year after an elbow injury, and signed with the Dodgers as a free agent for 1990. Gott came back to Pittsburgh for his final season in 1995. 
• 1960 - 1B Sid Bream, the harbinger of the Bucco dark ages, was born in Carlisle, PA. Sid played first from 1985-90 for the Pirates with a .269 average, having three pretty solid years from 1986-88. He signed with the Braves in 1990, and in 1992...let’s not talk about it. Sid played into 1994, retiring during the player’s strike. Despite that soul-crushing slide, he sank roots in the area and lives in the northern suburbs. He’s now a Christian motivational speaker. 
• 1961 - The Pirates ran away with a 19-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium for the largest shutout score in an NL night game. The Bucs banged out 24 hits against Al Cicotte, Bob Miller and Lindy McDaniel while Harvey Haddix tossed a four-hitter for Pittsburgh. It was the most lopsided shutout in modern NL history at the time, tying a record first set in 1906. Smoky Burgess had six RBI with a pair of homers and Dick Stuart drove in five more, adding a long ball. Bob Skinner and Roberto Clemente scored four times. Clemente had five hits and Bill Mazeroski four. 

Shake, Rattle & Roll - 1961 Topps

• 1962 - C Mackey Sasser was born in Fort Gaines, Georgia. He joined the Pirates in 1987 as the return from the Giants for Don Robinson, got into a dozen games (.217 BA), and was moved in the offseason as a piece of the Randy Milligan swap with the Mets. There he developed a case of the yips, known as Sasser Syndrome, when returning the ball to the pitcher (although oddly enough not on steal attempts) and it stayed with him through the rest of his career. Sasser re-signed with the Pirates for the 1995 season but played in only fourteen games, getting four hits in 26 at-bats before being released in mid-May. He retired and became the coach at Wallace JC in Alabama. 
• 1964 - IF Kevin Elster was born in San Pedro, California. The 13-year vet spent 1997 with the Bucs, hitting .225. He had just won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award as a Texas Ranger in 1996 and signed a $1.65M contract with the Pirates as a free agent, but he broke his left wrist in a collision at first base with and missed all but 39 games of the season. Kevin returned to the Rangers the following year.