9/8 From 1950: Smith Deal; BB POTW; SI Cutch; Triple Arriba; Stadium Plan A; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Gerritt, Mike & Jimmy

• 1954 - SS Jimmy Smith (not to be confused with Greenfield Jimmy Smith) was born in Santa Monica, California. After six years in the minors with Baltimore and the Mets, he was purchased by the Bucs in 1981. After a year at Portland, the 28-year-old spent the 1982 campaign as the Pirates back-up shortstop to Dale Berra and pinch-runner, batting .238. He played with the White Sox at AAA Denver the following year before hangin’ up the spikes. 
• 1958 - Roberto Clemente tied a modern day record held by many with three triples against Cincinnati at Forbes Field, leading the Pirates to a 4-1 win. He was stranded after the first three-bagger, thrown out at home trying for an inside-the-park HR after the second, and finally scored after the third when Dick Stuart singled him home. Curt Raydon got the win, his last in MLB, and banged out his only major league hit in 49 plate appearances. Arm troubles kept him out of the majors after a solid 8-4/3.62 debut, and after treading water in the minors for three seasons, he called it quits after the 1961 campaign. 

Roberto - 1958 Topps Classic

• 1960 - A special meeting of the County Commissioners set the estimated date for a new North Side stadium for 1964 after talks with the railroad to relocate its yards, with an estimated price tag of $18M. That was just a little off; it took until 1970 for TRS to open, and the bill was $55M. 
• 1966 - RHP Mike Dyer was born in Upland, California. He spent the middle of his four-year MLB tenure with the Pirates in 1994-95, getting a lot of work in the second campaign (55 appearances, 74+ IP) but put up a disappointing line of 5-6-4/4.60 as too few K’s and too many BBs took their toll. Mike got one more chance with Montreal in 1996, put up another so-so slash and that ended his big league run, with his last year (2000) spent in the indie leagues. 
• 1967 - The Pirates and Cardinals were in frustration mode, combining for 23 hits and 13 walks while stranding 25 runners and going 2-for-24 with RISP. But they put together a pretty good ballgame at Forbes Field, with the Bucs taking a 4-3, 10-inning decision from the Redbirds. Trailing 3-1 going into the seventh, Manny Jimenez doubled Billy Maz home to cut the lead to one and then Gene Alley tied it in the eighth, doubling home Roberto Clemente. Pittsburgh left the bases loaded in the ninth and the Cards stranded a pair in the 10th. Alley was the hero again in the Pittsburgh half. He led off with a triple and two intentional walks loaded the bases before Maury Wills singled to right an out later to give Bruce Dal Canton the win. 
• 1968 - Bob Veale outdueled Tom Terrific at Forbes Field, scattering six hits in a 3-0 Bucco victory. His main support came from an unlikely source - 33-year-old Jose Pagan, batting just .212, banged a solo homer and singled home Donn Clendenon, whose triple had plated Willie Stargell, to account for all the Pittsburgh scoring. 

Jose Martinez - 1970 Topps

• 1969 - The Bucs fell behind, 2-0, in the first against Montreal at Jarry Park, and it stayed that way for most of the chilly night. The Pirates warmed up just in time, plating an unearned run in the eighth and scoring five times in the ninth to rally past the Expos, 6-4. A single, intentional walk and two errors tied the game for Pittsburgh and loaded the bases for rookie utilityman Jose Martinez, who entered the game as a pinch runner and stayed to play short. He banged his first (and only) big league homer into the left field seats to give Chuck Hartenstein the win, with Bruce Dal Canton picking up the save. Gene Alley stretched his hitting streak to 21 games; it would reach 22 before the Cards ended his run. 
• 1974 - Dave Parker broke up a tight game with an eighth-inning grand slam off Tom Walker (yep, Neil’s dad) as the Bucs beat the Montreal Expos 8-2 at TRS. It was the Cobra’s only at-bat; he came in as a pinch hitter for Frank Taveras. Jim Rooker tossed a six-hitter for the win. It marked the Pirates sixth straight victory and 25th win in the past 31 games. 
• 1990 - RHP Gerrit Cole was born in Newport Beach, California. The UCLA grad was selected by the Pirates with the first overall selection in the 2011 MLB Draft and signed to an $8M bonus minutes before the deadline. He made his debut in the show on June 11th, 2013, going 6-1/3 IP to beat the Giants, 8-2, and now is tossing for the Yankees after being traded to Houston in early 2018 for RHP Joe Musgrove, 3B Colin Moran, RHP Michael Feliz and OF Jason Martin. In five years, his Pirates slash was 57-42/3.50. 
• 1992 - OF Barry Bonds was named the NL Player of the Week. He went 7-for-14 with four homers and 13! walks, scoring 10 runs and chasing home seven Buccos while swiping two sacks. BB had an OBP of .741, reaching base 20 times in 27 appearances. He continued to be hot by collecting three hits, including a homer, on the same day his award was announced to lead the Pirates to a 5-3 win over Chicago and a streak of six wins in seven games. 

Lonnie Smith - 1993 Upper Deck

• 1993 - OF Lonnie Smith (.286, six HR) was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for PTBNL: OF/1B Stanton Cameron and LHP Terry Farrar. Lonnie, who the Bucs had signed in January as a $1M free agent, did next to nothing for the O’s and was out of baseball after the 1994 season while the Bird’s duo were both playing indie ball by 1996. 
• 1998 - Things looked bad for the Buccos; after four innings at TRS, it was already 7-0 in favor of Milwaukee. But the Pirates pen was stellar, spinning five innings of two-hit, seven-K work in relief of Francisco Cordova and allowed the bats time to warm up. Pittsburgh tallied a pair in the fifth and then got serious in the seventh, scoring four times (Emil Brown’s two-out, bases-loaded double was the big blow) to make it a 7-6 contest. In the eighth, a double steal put Pirates at second and third with two gone, and Jose Guillen’s first-pitch knock sent them both home. Rick Loisell tossed a scoreless ninth to save the win for Mike Williams. 
• 2000 - Pittsburgh swept the Reds, 7-3 and 3-1, to run their season-best winning streak to eight games at TRS (it ended the next day, beginning a nine-game losing streak). Todd Ritchie won the opener and Marc Wilkins, one of seven Pirate pitchers, took the nitecap victory. Alex Hernandez had three hits on the day, including a homer and triple. Adam Hyzdu made his MLB debut in the second game, going 1-for-3 to post his first MLB hit, a third-inning single off Ron Villone in his first at bat. 
• 2014 - Andrew McCutchen was the cover boy on Sports Illustrated for the second time in his career. He was featured in Albert Chen’s article “Andrew McCutchen Goes Deep.” It was almost a year to the day after his first SI cover shot on September 9th, 2013. 

• 2015 - In the first game of a doubleheader against the Reds, Aramis Ramirez made his first career start at first base. Before that, A-Ram had played 18 seasons and 2,096 games at third base and nowhere else other than DH or pinch hitter. He lasted six innings, going 3-for-3 in the field and appeared at first base four more times during the campaign.