- 1970 - The famous “can of corn” call was made by The Gunner Bob Prince after Willie Smith hit a routine fly to Matty Alou with the Bucs up 2-1, two outs and the bases empty in the ninth. He dropped it as the Wrigley wind was blowing in, and the Cubs rallied for the win. Despite cutting the Buc lead in the NL East to 1/2 game, the Pirates suffered no hangover effect from the tough loss. They finished out 12-5 and took the title running away, finishing with a five game cushion over the Cubbies.
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| Armando Rios - 2002 Topps Total |
- 1971 - OF Armando Rios was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. A member of LSU’s College World Series winners, he played four seasons for the Giants before coming to Pittsburgh at the 2001 deadline along with Ryan Vogelsong in exchange for Jason Schmidt and John Vander Wal. Rios was hurt at the time of the deal and played two games for Pittsburgh; in 2002 he hit .264 in 76 games with no pop and was released at the end of the year. He played one more season in the show and then went to the Latin leagues. He was one of the witnesses in the 2003 BALCO case and was associated with PED use.
- 1972 - Roberto Clemente hit his last homer, a two-run, two-out blast to center off Fergie Jenkins at Wrigley Field in the seventh to lead the Bucs to a 6-4 win at Wrigley Field. It was his 10th of the season and 240th career homer. Clemente also tripled and scored three times to help Nellie Briles to the win.
- 1978 - The Pirates only got three hits against the Cards at TRS, but two of them were three-run homers by Willie Stargell & Bill Robinson, and were more than enough to carry Bert Blyleven to a complete-game win at TRS by a 7-1 tally. In their defense, the Pirates didn’t get very many good pitches to swing at; the Redbird hurlers walked 11 batters and tossed three wild pitches.
- 1983 - 3B Andy LaRoche was born in Fort Scott, Kansas. Part of the Jason Bay deal, the much ballyhooed prospect LaRoche came to Pittsburgh from LA at the 2008 trade deadline, joining brother Adam. He was a Pirate until 2010, but hit only .226 during that time. He played briefly for Oakland and Toronto after his Buc tour of duty and last played in the indie leagues in 2015-16.
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| Brian Fisher - 1987 Topps Traded |
- 1987 - The Pirates won their seventh in a row and 15-of-18 as they dropped the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, at Veterans Stadium. Bobby Bonilla and Sid Bream had three knocks each to lead a balanced 15-hit attack that eventually wore the Phils down. Brian Fisher tossed a complete game five-hitter with 10 K for the win. Despite catching fire late, Pittsburgh ended the year with just 80 wins.
- 1988 - Bob Walk hooked up with Doc Gooden in a dandy duel, with Walkie’s eight-inning five-hitter taking the marbles in a 1-0 win at Shea Stadium. The game’s only run came in the fourth when Andy Van Slyke singled, stole second and came home on Bobby Bonilla’s double. Jim Gott earned the save but made it exciting by loading the bases (single, hit batter, walk) with two out against Howard Johnson. Johnson had bested Gott earlier in the year with a two-out, ninth-inning homer off a fastball and this time, he saw three sliders. As Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press wrote “Strike one, strike two, take a seat.”
- 2007 - The Pirates officially announced that Frank Coonelly was the team’s new CEO (a post usually held by the owner), replacing Kevin McClatchy. Coonelly, an attorney, previously served as a Senior Vice President in the Commissioner's Office, where he was in charge of various matters including arbitration hearings and draft bonuses.
- 2010 - The Pirates lost a 1-0 heartbreaker to the Mets at Citi Field in 10 innings, wasting three leadoff doubles. James McDonald went eight frames of five-hit ball, but the Mets finally plated off reliever Chan Ho Park, who took the loss.
- 2013 - Pedro Alvarez, Russ Martin and Garrett Jones hit back-to-back-to-back homers in the fourth inning off the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta, but a pair of two-run Chicago blasts carried the day as the Pirates fell, 5-4. It was the first time that the Bucs had hit three consecutive homers at PNC Park and had an improbable degree of difficulty as Pedro’s was a stand-up inside-the-park shot. (He later told Root Sports that it was the first he could remember since “...little league.”)
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| Josh Harrison - 2015 Topps Archive |
- 2015 - Josh Harrison drove in Pedro Florimon with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning for a walkoff win over the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park in front of 34,170 fans. Pittsburgh trailed 6-1 entering the bottom half of the fourth inning before producing their furthest-in-the-hole comeback win of the season. The key early blow was Travis Snider’s two-run double in the fourth and back-to-back RBI knocks by Andrew McCutchen and Jung Ho Kang in the seventh to tie the match. The victory went to the Bucs’ eighth pitcher of the game, Jared Hughes, and put the club 30 games above .500 with a record of 86-56.
Andy LaRoche could definitely pick it at third. I was impressed with his glove. I thought he had enough sock to stick at third if he could have produced a somewhat better average, but it was not to be. I heard persistent rumors that he was damaged goods when the Pirates got him from the Dodgers, something about a serious hand injury. Can you shed any light on that, Ron?
ReplyDeleteTo answer your two questions, Will, LaRoche came here with questions about range (he was bumped from SS to 3B in the minors) and he did have ligament damage to his thumb while with LA in 2008. I never heard that as being a major issue except as it affected his power, as thumb injuries tend to do.
ReplyDeleteI've never really been a fan of the Pirates medical staff, but they may be working under a cultural atmosphere (both organizational & players) that opts to let guys play through stuff rather than take a conservative approach; Pittsburgh has been noted as a hard-nosed club for decades. I don't pretend to be a medico, so there could be a whole lot of decision levels baked into how injuries are treated here. No matter what they say, I'm sure more people are involved in how injuries are treated than just the trainers.