4/24: Dovy Debut; Jaku Jolted; Allen No-No; Hot & Cold Hans; 1st Pirates Home-Run; Game Tales; RIP Art; HBD Ryan, Bob, Dixie & Pete

• 1891 - Fred Carroll hit the first home run by a Pirate (formally, the Pittsburgh Nationals) in Exposition Park (they played the year prior in nearby Recreation Park as the Alleghenys), to help the Bucs defeated the Chicago Colts, 11-8, for the Buccos’ first victory ever in Pittsburgh. They had unofficially become the Pirates in the off season in the out-of-town media when they “pirated” Lou Bierbauer from the Philadelphia A’s. 
• 1891 - Pete Falsey was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Pete’s only MLB stint was three games in 1914 with the Pirates; he went 0-for-1 with a whiff as a pinch hitter and got into two more games as a pinch runner during his two-week stay. The little lefty (5’6”, 132 lbs) joined the Bucs as a 23-year-old after playing for Yale, and following his Bucco visit, his baseball trail disappears; he doesn’t even show a position played in any of his MLB bios. 
• 1903 - Honus Wagner was having a bad day in the field, booting three balls that helped the Cards head into the ninth with a 7-6 lead at Exposition Park, but not with the bat. He tripled in the ninth and scored the tying run on a Kitty Bransfield single. Then with two away in the eleventh, Wagner walked, stole second and Kitty again chased him home with the game winner. Hans collected four hits including two triples along with two runs scored, four RBI‚ and three stolen bases. 

Kitty & Hans teamed up - 1903 photo Detroit Free Press/Library of Congress

• 1915 - Pittsburgh Rebel southpaw Frank Allen tossed a 2-0 no-hitter (four walks, four fans) against the St. Louis Terriers at Handlan Park in the last year of the Federal League, the short-lived (1913-15) major league “outlaw” option to the National and American Leagues. Terrier hurler Bob Groom kept it a tight game that was scoreless until the seventh when Ed Konetchy’s lead-off triple came home. The Rebs added an insurance run in the ninth on Rebel Oakes’ sac fly. Allen went on to pitch a couple more seasons for the NL Boston Braves before calling it a career after the 1917 campaign. The Federal League was absorbed by the NL & AL, and a suit the FL filed eventually led to the still existent ruling that exempted baseball from antitrust laws. 
• 1920 - C Homer “Dixie” Howell was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The journeyman backstop began his MLB career as a Pirate in 1947 after being part of the Kirby Higbe deal and hit .276, but was lost to the Cincinnati Reds as a Rule 5 pick after the campaign. He spent 1949-56 as a back-up catcher for the Reds and later the Dodgers. Dixie doodles: He was one of three Dixie Howells to play MLB ball, and he & pitcher Millard "Dixie" Howell, also from Kentucky, were teammates on the 1949 Cincinnati Reds. 
• 1934 - The Bucs rallied to defeat the Gashouse Gang from St. Louis, 5-4, at Forbes Field in their home opener. Behind 4-2 going into the ninth, Freddie Lindstrom homered over the LF wall with two aboard to lift the Pirates to victory over the future NL champs. Leon Chagnon got the win in relief of Heinie Meine. Tommy Thevenow added two hits and chased home a pair of runs for the Pirates. 
• 1948 - 1B Bob Beall was born in Portland, Oregon. After being named high school "Baseball Player of the Year" for Oregon in 1966 and earning All-PAC honors at Oregon State, Bob spent three years with the Braves and bowed out of the majors in 1980 with a three-game stand in Pittsburgh, going 0-for-3 as a pinch hitter. He was sent to his hometown AAA Portland Beavers as a player-coach, then retired in 1981 and began working for Nike. 

Ryan Reid - 2013 photo via Alchetron

• 1985 - RHP Ryan Reid was born in Portland, Maine. The Pirates signed Reid to a minor league contract for the 2013 season as an NRI. He got the call up on June 3rd, along with Jared Hughes, and made his major league debut that day. He lasted in the bullpen until July when AJ Burnett came off the DL; he was sent back to Indy even though he did pretty well (1.64 ERA in seven outings w/1.091 WHIP) in the show, then was DFA’ed after the season. He finished a 10-year pro career in 2016 with a final indie league campaign. 
• 1996 - Ballpark announcer Art McKennan passed away at age 89. Starting out as a Forbes Field errand boy, he did odd jobs around the park, working his way up to bat boy and scoreboard runner. Art got a job in the real world while moonlighting as an usher. In 1930, he was diagnosed with polio, but it didn’t stop him. Art was the voice of the Pirates at Forbes Field from 1948 until it closed, and then at TRS until 1987 (he did Sunday games after that until 1993). He also had stints with the Penguins, Pitt football and Duquesne hoops along with a 30-year career in Pittsburgh’s Parks Department and was the director of the City-sponsored youth sports organizations. 
• 2007 - Paul Maholm tossed his first major league complete game, allowing three hits and throwing 99 pitches in the 3-0 shutout victory over the Astros at PNC Park. The game took just one hour and 57 minutes to complete. Jason Bay had three hits and drove in a pair while Ronny Paulino added a solo shot. 
• 2010 - In the first inning of his first appearance of the year, a 5-2 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park, Chris Jakubauskas was struck in the head by a liner off the bat of Houston's Lance Berkman. The 31-year old right-hander left the field on a stretcher, but was later diagnosed with just a concussion and not a fracture as first feared. Jaku wouldn’t pitch for the Bucs any more that year, but tossed for Baltimore the following season. Chris retired in 2014 and now coaches a Nashville youth travel team. 

Jaku being assessed - 2010 photo Bob Levey/Getty

• 2016 - The Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks took advantage of hitter-friendly Chase Field and after the smoke cleared, the Bucs hung on for dear life to take a 12-10, 13-inning victory. Pittsburgh got ahead early, 8-4, after four frames (every Pirate starter had scored or chased home a run by that time) but blew two-run leads in both the ninth and 12th frames to a unrelenting D-Back attack. Both benches were shot by the end; pitchers Zack Grienke and Patrick Corbin of the Snakes along with Jon Niese for the Buccos had to pinch hit (Greinke and Niese singled; Niese had an RBI) while Arizona hurler Shelby Miller manned left field and batted. Neftali Feliz was credited with the blown save/win combo after Arquimedes Caminero ended the game, striking out a pair of pitchers. Starling Marte had four hits; David Freese and Gregory Polanco had three each while eight different Pirates scored; 10 had RBI. 
• 2017 - RHP Dovydas Neverauskas made his MLB debut, becoming the first player born and raised in Lithuania to appear in a big league game. He saw mop-up duty in a 14-3 loss at PNC Park, working two frames against the Chicago Cubs and giving up a run on two hits. He picked up his first MLB whiff when he punched out the opposing pitcher, Justin Grimm, and has been up-and-down since then, showing potential but not much production. He was released in 2020, signed up with Hiroshima of the Japanese League and is now with Bonn in the German League this year.