- 1865 - IF Henry Youngman was born in Dortmund, Germany and raised in Indiana, PA. He played for part of one MLB campaign, suiting up with the 1890 Alleghenys (the worst team in Pittsburgh baseball history with just 23 wins) until June; he hit .128 and committed 16 errors in 73 chances (.781 %) at third and second. Henry stayed local after his ball-playing days, passing away at age 70 and buried at Homestead Cemetery in Munhall.
- 1869 - IF Billy Clingman was born in Cincinnati. Billy played in parts of 10 big league seasons for seven teams, getting his first heavy dose of duty in Pittsburgh in 1895 when he played the hot corner for 106 games with the Pirates while batting .259. A good glove man who hit .246 lifetime, he retired in 1903 from the show, played through 1906 in the American Association and then got on with life in Louisville, Kentucky. He owned a print shop and an engraving business called Clingman Engraving Company, retiring in 1947 and passing on in 1958.
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| Billy Clingman -- 1898 Louisville team snip |
- 1869 - P Alex Beam (no one seems to recall which hand he tossed with) was born in Johnstown. He pitched two major league games with the Alleghenys as a 19-year-old in 1889, both complete game starts, going 1-1/6.50 with a couple of extreme stats: he walked more batters (15) than he allowed to reach via a hit (11), tossed three wild pitches and struck out one foe. His minor league record disappeared after 1892 and that’s all we know of Mr. Beam until his death in 1938 in Nogales, Arizona.
- 1888 - Pittsburgh purchased CF Ned Hanlon from the Detroit Wolverines for $2,500. Hanlon played for the Allegheny in 1889 and the Pirates in 1891; in between, he was one of many who jumped to the Players League, spending the year with the Pittsburgh Burghers. Known as the “Father of Modern Baseball” and “Foxy Ned” for his many stratagems, he began his Hall-of-Fame coaching career in Pittsburgh as the player/manager during his three-year stay in the City. He was a skipper for five teams/19 years and won five National League pennants during the pre-World Series era.
- 1905 - OF & Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom was born in Chicago. Acquired from the NY Giants along with Larry French, Lindy played two seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .302 before being sent to Chicago. Lindstrom batted .311 during a 13-year career. The Pirates got him a couple of seasons after a back injury moved him off his third base position to the outfield.
- 1920 - Hall of Famer Stan Musial of the Cards was born in Donora. Stan the Man compiled 3,630 career hits, ranking fourth all-time and first in a career spent with only one team. With 1,815 hits at home and 1,815 on the road, he also is considered to be the most consistent hitter of his era. He hit 475 home runs, was named the NL's MVP three times, and won three World Series championships. He shares the MLB record for the most All-Star Games played (24) with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Musial was a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.
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| Mace Brown - 1936 National Chicle Pastel |
- 1934 - The Pirates bought the contract of RHP Mace Brown from Kansas City of the American Association. It was a good deal; as a multi-role hurler (he could start, close, and do everything in between), Mace went 76-57-29/3.46 for the Bucs over seven campaigns/226 outings and earned a 1938 All-Star berth with 15 wins.
- 1935 - The Phillies sent C Al Todd to Pittsburgh for C Earl Grace, rookie RHP Claude Passeau, who worked just one game for the Pirates during the season, and what Pittsburgh Post Gazette writer Ed Ballinger called “a healthy amount of cash.” Todd caught three years for the Bucs, hitting a solid .284 before being flipped to Boston for C Ray Mueller while Grace had a couple of seasons left in the tank. Passeau, who had pitched just once for the Bucs as a rookie in 1935, was the key figure, putting up a 162-150/3.32 line during his 13-year MLB career.
- 1943 - RHP Daryl Patterson was born in Coalinga, California. Patterson worked off-and-on for five years in MLB, closing out his career with the Pirates in 1974, going 2-1-1/7.29. He joined the club after two years in the minors and appeared in his last major league game on September 14, 1974. Patterson ended his playing days at the Pirates' AAA Charleston Charlies in 1974-75. Patterson factoid: On July 14th, 1974, he was involved in a brawl with the Cincinnati Reds where he was bitten in the neck and had his hair pulled by Cincy’s Pedro Borbón. Patterson got a tetanus shot after the incident and Borbon was dubbed “Dracula” by Pirates announcer Bob Prince.
- 1952 - IF Bill Almon was born in Warwick, Rhode Island. Bill played in Pittsburgh from 1985-87, batting .249 before being traded to the Mets for Al Pedrique. His last season was 1988 as a Phil, his 15th MLB campaign, before he retired and joined the family business. Trivia Pursuit: Bill Almon was the first (and only) Ivy Leaguer to be drafted first overall in any of the four major professional sports when the Brown grad was selected by the San Diego Padres with the first pick of the 1974 Draft.
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| Bill Almon - 1985 Topps Traded |
- 1952 - Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Joe Black, who posted a 15-4/2.15 slash, ran away with the NL Rookie of the Year. Another pitcher, Hoyt Wilhelm of the Giants, claimed second, followed by Bucs SS Dick Groat (.284) and Braves 3B Eddie Mathews.
- 1956 - Bobby Bragan inked his second contract as Bucco manager after his initial one-year audition ended, and though the terms weren’t revealed, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported he had received a ”substantial raise.” Hopefully he didn’t spend it all in one place; he was relieved of duties with two months remaining in the season. Ironically, Brash Bobby’s critics said that he was a fish out of water with such a young team and was better suited to lead a veteran club, but his greatest successes as field general were claimed as a minor-league skipper. In fact, Bragan became president of the Texas League and did so well in that post that he was elected president of the MiLB National Association.
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