9/2 Through the 1950s: Streakin'; Oooops; Game Tales; HBD Luke, Milo & Ben

• 1907 - IF Ben Sankey was born in Nauvoo, Alabama. His MLB career lasted for 72 games from 1929-31, all as a Bucco, and he hit .213 over that span. Ben stuck at it, playing minor league ball until 1941, waiting until he was 33-years-old before unlacing the spikes. The slick fielder spent six years with Montreal and three more with Baltimore of the International League, earning a spot in the IL Hall of Fame in 1947. 
• 1909 - Boston's Cliff Curtis pitched his first MLB game and beat the Pirates, 1-0, to give the Doves their only win against Pittsburgh that year. The Pirates, who would claim the NL pennant with 110 victories and then the World Series, won the twin bill’s nightcap at the South End Grounds, 5-3. Pittsburgh took all the remaining September games against Beantown and finished the season 20-1 against last-place Boston. Indeed, the only team that could compete with them that year was the NY Giants, who finished 11-11 against the Buccos. 

Hans - 2018 Panini Diamond Kings

• 1917 - The Pirates won a wild one at Redland Field as they held off the Cincinnati Reds, 8-7. Hans Wagner had three hits, including his final MLB two-bagger to send home Max Carey in the ninth with what proved to be the game-winning run. Bill Evans got the win in relief of Burleigh Grimes with Bob Steele saving it by working the final two frames. 
• 1925 - The Pirates won their ninth straight game by defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2, at Forbes Field. It was scoreless going into the sixth when the bats woke up. The Redlegs put up a pair and the Bucs answered in spades with seven tallies of their own. George Grantham led the attack, going 4-for-4 and falling a homer short of the cycle while Eddie Moore chipped in with three raps. Glenn Wight added two hits, two runs and two RBI to the cause. Johnny Morrison went the distance; he was touched up for 12 hits but stranded 11. The Pirates streak ended the next day against the Cards, who rallied in the ninth to topple the Buccos. It was a good year for Pittsburgh, which took the pennant and then the World Series in seven games from the Washington Senators. 
• 1927 - The Pirates took over first place with a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Cards at Forbes Field. Ray Kremer won against Grover Cleveland Alexander, and added an RBI to the effort. The Waner brothers went 7-for-10 with two runs scored and two RBI. The Bucs never relinquished first place after the victory, and nosed out the Cards for the title by a 1-½ game margin. 
• 1927 - Leland Milo Hamilton was born in Fairfield, Iowa. Milo had the unenviable and ultimately untenable job as Bob Prince’s replacement in the broadcast booth. His quiet demeanor was a stark contrast to the Gunner’s folksy ways and boosterism and the gig wore thin on both Hamilton and the City. He moved on to the Cubs job in 1980 and discovered that working with Harry Caray wasn’t much easier than replacing Prince. Milo finally found a home in Houston in 1985, where he broadcast for 28 years until his retirement in 2012. Hamilton was the 1992 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award and was also inducted into the National Radio and Texas Radio Halls of Fame. 

Heinie Meine - 1933 Goudey

• 1933 - Pittsburgh won its eighth straight game by a 4-1 tally over the St. Louis Cardinals at Forbes Field. Woody Jensen and Tommy Thevenow each had a pair of hits with a triple each and together drove in three runs to give Heinie Meine the win. The Cincinnati Reds ended the streak convincingly the next game by a 9-3 score. 
• 1943 - LHP Luke Walker was born in DeKalb, Texas. He worked eight years (1965-66, 1968-73) for the Bucs, with a line of 40-42-9/3.47. Walker had a breakout 1970, going 15-6 with a 3.04 ERA and was a member of the 1970-72 championship teams. He started, closed and did everything in between. The lefty worked just one more MLB campaign beyond Pittsburgh, when he was sold to the Tigers before the 1974 season. 
• 1944 - The Pirates slid by the first-place St. Louis Cards, 5-4, at Forbes Field, giving Ted Wilks his first loss after he had reeled off 11 straight victories. The Bucs walked it off in the bottom of the ninth when Bob Elliott, who was 4-for-5 with a homer, singled home Jim Russell to give Max Butcher the victory. The lead switched hands several times during the game; Dick Fortune of the Pittsburgh Press called the contest “...a ding dong battle all the way.” 
• 1948 - The Bucco hand was caught in the cookie jar... Commissioner Happy Chandler fined the Pirates $2‚000 for violating the NL bonus rule when the Pirates signed ML Lynch as a scout while offering his son Danny a $6,000 contract. Chandler saw the deal (and probably rightly so) as an attempt to sway the second baseman's decision. Lynch was declared a free agent and signed with the Cubs. It ended up much ado over nothing; he played just seven MLB games. 

Bob Friend - 1958 Hires Root Beer

• 1958 - Bob Friend and the Pirates held off the Phils at Forbes Field by a 3-2 count. The Bucs built an early lead via homers by Bill Virdon & Frank Thomas, along with a Ted Kluszewski rap that chased home Roberto Clemente after a triple. Philadelphia scored singletons in the eighth and ninth, but Friend fanned the last two batters to nail down his 19th win. Friend won 22 games before the campaign ended, the only time in his career that he would claim twenty victories. The game moved the once sad-sack Buccos into second place, albeit eight games behind Milwaukee, and that’s how they’d finish the season as they went through the growth and the growing pains that led to 1960.