6/12 From 1980: Groat Honored; #10,000; Big KY Day; '81 Strike; Hit Man Cycle; Game Tales; HBD George; Draft - Baz, Mitchell

• 1980 - Mike Easler, The aptly named Hit Man, hit for the cycle as the Bucs won, 10-6, over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium. John Milner and Dale Berra homered while Phil Garner drilled a pair of doubles to make a winner of Jim Bibby, with help from Enrique Romo, who tossed the final four innings for the save. 
• 1981 - The players went out on strike over free agent compensation. It was the first work stoppage in MLB since the 1972 strike that resulted in regular season games (86 in all - the owners refused to play the players for the games they were on strike, so they chopped them) being canceled. The strike forced the cancellation of 713 games before the two sides reached an agreement on July 31st. The season started on August 10th, with championships determined by the hybrid “split season” title format. Ironically enough, ushers and ticket-takers at TRS agreed on their contract the same day that the players walked out. 
• 1982 - Don’t overlook the bottom of the order. The Bucs 6-7-8-9 hitters (Tony Pena, Lee Lacy, Dale Berra, Manny Sarmiento) went 8-for-16, scored seven runs, chased home five more, walked three times, stole two bases, and hit a sac fly in a 9-2 romp over the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium. Berra provided the muscle with a homer and double while Sarmiento backed up his six-hit, complete game outing with his stick, going 2-for-3. 

George Kontos - 2017 photo Pirates

• 1985 - RHP George Kontos was born in Lincolnwood, Illinois. The Pirates picked up the veteran reliever off the waiver wire from San Francisco, where he had spent six campaigns, in August of 2017. He was nearly a Bucco a decade earlier, though - he and Phil Coke were supposed to go to Pittsburgh in 2008 in the original configuration of the Xavier Nady deal. Kontos won an eighth inning set-up spot by going 1-1-1/1.84 in 15 outings but wasn’t nearly as effective in 2018 as he slashed 2-3-1/5.03. The Bucs let him go in late May; he finished the year with stints with New York and Cleveland, spent 2019 in the minors/indie ball and retired in 2020. 
• 1999 - Ed Sprague, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall homered, Al Martin had four hits and the Bucs banged out five doubles among their 17 hits to edge the KC Royals, 9-8, at TRS. Sprague singled home Adrian Brown in the ninth to earn a walk-off win for Jason Christiansen. 
• 2000 - Kevin Young was off to a hot start and so were the Bucs - KY doubled in the first, homered in the second and had six RBI after two innings as the Pirates piled up an 8-3 lead over the Braves at TRS. But Atlanta didn’t mail it in; they cut the margin to 8-6 after five frames. Then the Bravos scored twice in the eighth and twice more in the ninth to hand Jason Christiansen his sixth straight loss by a 10-8 count. It was a harbinger for the season - Atlanta won the Eastern Division while the Pirates came in last in the Central Division. 
• 2001 - The Pirates put up nine runs in the fourth inning to run away with a 13-3 win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Abraham Nunez had a bases-loaded triple, Rob Mackowiak banged a two-run homer and John Vander Wal added a two-run single in the big frame. Brian Giles homered and doubled for four RBI to match Nunez’s game total as the Bucs hammered seven extra-base hits among their 15 knocks against five Motown hurlers. 

Abraham Nunez - 2001 Upper Deck Victory

• 2013 - The Pirates/Alleghenys collected their 10,000th franchise win when they beat the Giants, 12-8, at PNC Park. 236 wins were collected as the Alleghenys of the American Association and 9,764 W were notched in the NL (which are the only ones the team officially recognizes). The top of the Pirate order (Starling Marte - Jordy Mercer - Andrew McCutchen - Gaby Sanchez) powered the win against SF, going 13-for-19 and scoring eight runs while driving in four. It marked the fourth time in the last 59 seasons that the top four hitters in the Bucs starting lineup each had at least three hits (it last happened in 2004), and Marte became the first Pirates leadoff hitter since 1916 with a four-hit, four-run, two-steal day. 
• 2015 - The Pirates took 13 innings, along with an 86 minute rain delay, to defeat the Phils, 1-0, at PNC Park. Despite the score, it wasn’t much of a pitching duel, actually - the teams were a combined 1-for-19 with RISP and stranded 30 runners; the Phils had at least two men aboard in six of the innings and the Bucs in five. Both sides used seven pitchers, with Antonio Bastardo getting his first Pirate win thanks to Starling Marte’s walk-off single that scored Chris Stewart.
• 2017 - The Pirates drafted Texas prep RHP Shane Baz first (#12, $4.1M) of Concordia Lutheran HS in the draft. They raided the high schools on the first day, also selecting RHP Steven Jennings (#42 - $1.9M/DeKalb HS, Tennessee), OF Calvin Mitchell (#50 - $1,357,300/Rancho Bernardo HS, California, with a commitment to San Diego State) and OF Conner Uselton (#72 - $804K/Southmoore HS, Oklahoma). Baz was later traded to Tampa Bay as part of the Chris Archer deal while Mitchell got his call to the show by the Bucs in 2022. 

Dick Groat presentation - 2018 photo Corey O'Connor's office

• 2018 - The City of Pittsburgh declared “Dick Groat Day.” They held a ceremony for the Swissvale HS/Duke multi-sports star in Council Chambers and presented him with a resolution that, in part, reads that he “may be the greatest athlete to come out of Pittsburgh.” Groat was a five-time MLB All-Star who played nine seasons with the Pirates and the NL-MVP in 1960. He batted .290 during nine seasons with the Pirates and as a college ballplayer, led Duke to the College World Series as a senior. Dick also played for the NBA's Fort Wayne Pistons in 1952, was the Helms National Player of the Year in 1951 as a Blue Devil and is in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame - not too shabby for a 5’11” guard/shortstop.