- 1892 - RHP Pud Galvin was traded to the St Louis Browns for 2B Cub Stricker. Before Stricker played a game for the Pirates, he was traded two days later to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Adonis Terry. Galvin was near the end of his Hall of Fame career, and his MLB days were done after the season. Terry did a nice job in his stay with Pittsburgh, with a line of 30-16-1/3.42 during his three-year stint. Stricker had one more season left, batting .179 for the Senators in 1893.
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| Otis Clymer - 1905 via Chicago History Museum |
- 1907 - Christy Mathewson was plunked by Pirate pitcher Lefty Leifield in the ninth, but carried on until the 12th frame when the Pirates finally persevered, 2-1, at Exposition Park. The Bucs loaded the bases with no outs, then hit into a home-to-first DP. But pinch hitter Otis Clymer came through, singling home the winning run. Honus Wagner made a play that “the crowd went simply wild with delight” per the Pittsburgh Press. The Giants had runners on first and third in the eleventh and two down when the Dutchman raced from the SS hole to make a play on a ball hit up the middle. He tumbled after he made the grab, but still managed to flip the ball to second for the force out while flat on his back, saving a run and possibly the game for the Pirates. He was rewarded with a five minute ovation.
- 1917 - Swiss Army knife Doug Baird, 25, was sent to the Cardinals for 23-year-old LHP Bob Steele. Baird played fairly regularly for the next three seasons before hangin’ up the spikes in 1920 with a lifetime .234 BA. Steele slashed 7-14-2/2.87 in basically a year’s worth of tossing, split between starting and the pen. In 1918, he was sold to the Giants and his last season in the show was 1919; he finished with an MLB line of 16-38-3/3.05.
- 1930 - Pie Traynor drove in seven runs and C Al Bool five more to lead the Bucs to a 19-12 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in the opener of a Baker Bowl twin bill. Glenn Spencer tossed the final 5-1/3 frames for the win in relief of Leon Chagnon, who was chased in the fifth after surrendering nine runs. Every Pirate position player scored at least twice during the contest. The Pirates dropped the nitecap, 5-4, despite a homer from George Grantham and a pair of two-baggers by Adam Comorosky. Jesse Petty inherited a tie game in the ninth from Heinie Meine, and didn’t retire a batter to take the loss.
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| Al Lopez - 1942 Play Ball |
- 1940 - C Al Lopez was traded by the Boston Bees to the Pirates for C Ray Berres plus an estimated $40,000. Lopez was considered to be the top catcher in the league, and the deal was widely applauded in Pittsburgh, with the dead presidents greasing the skids for the cash-needy Bees. Berres caught for six more years with a lifetime .216 BA. Lopez caught seven seasons for Pittsburgh and hit .256 during that time. He later made the Hall of Fame, thanks to his later career as a manager. In 15 full seasons and 2,200 games as a skipper, López’s Indian/White Sox teams never posted a losing record and appeared in two World Series.
- 1949 - Wally Westlake hit for the cycle as Pittsburgh beat the Boston Braves, 4-3, at Forbes Field. Westlake ended the game with a two-run walk off double in the ninth inning while Tiny Bonham got the win in relief of Bob Chesnes. Wally drove in three runs, scored twice and threw a Brave out at third. Buc fans went a long time waiting for another Pirate to hit for the cycle at home again, until Jason Kendall did the deed on May 19th, 2000.
- 1953 - RHP Mark Lee was born in Inglewood, California. After a couple of seasons with San Diego, he came over to the Pirates in 1980-81, making 16 appearances with a slash of 0-2-2/3.20. The Pirates had acquired him as a PTBNL in the Kurt Bevacqua deal and he was sold to Detroit in 1982 after spending most of two seasons at AAA Portland.
- 1953 - OF/PH Hal Rice was traded to the Bucs by the St. Louis Cardinals with cash for IF Pete Castiglione. Hal hit .311 for the Bucs for the remainder of the campaign; he was traded exactly one year later to the Cubs after an icy ‘54 start. Castiglione didn’t hit a lick for the Cards and was released early next year.
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| Hal Rice - 1954 Topps |
- 1954 - In a backup outfielder swap, the Bucs sent Hal Rice (yah, it was moving day again for poor Hal) to the Chicago Cubs for Luis Marquez. It was a well-timed deal for the duo; the Cubs were in Pittsburgh the following day, so all the two players had to do was switch locker rooms. The trade itself was a wash - Rice had hit .311 in ‘53, but was slumping at .173 at the time of the deal; he did even worse for the Cubs (.153) and ‘54 was his last MLB year. Ditto for Luis. He hit .083 for Chicago and .111 for the Pirates, and this was also his farewell campaign. In another deal, Pittsburgh signed two-sports star Laurin Pepper of Mississippi Southern (now Southern Mississippi), as a bonus baby for $35,000; the righty lasted four years, slashing 2-8/7.06.
- 1955 - The Pirates exploded for eight runs in the fourth inning to tame the Cardinals, 10-5, but needed some dandy pitching to close the door at Busch Stadium. Ron Kline left the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh, but before St. Louis could draw blood, Bob Purkey came in and K’ed a couple of tough customers in Stan Musial and Bill Virdon, then got a diving stop of Red Schoendienst’s hot shot to third by Gene Baker to turn the Redbirds away. The Bucs sent 13 batters up in their big frame, with the Bucco led by Dale Long’s three hits, including a homer and four RBI, along with Dick Groat’s three raps and three runs chased home and a pair of knocks and three more runs plated by Freese.
- 1961 - Dick Stuart had himself a day at Forbes Field, almost single handedly beating the Reds, 5-4. Big Stu went 3-for-5 with a homer, triple and four runs driven home. His solo long ball put the Pirates ahead 2-0 in the first frame; his RBI single tied it 3-3 in the seventh and the three-bagger off Jim Brosnan was the walk-off winner in the ninth, chasing home Dick Groat and Roberto Clemente. ElRoy Face couldn’t shut the gate in relief of Bob Friend and let Cincinnati take a 4-3 lead in the eighth; Bobby Shantz tossed a clean ninth to get the win.
- 1966 - LHP Randy Tomlin was born in Bainbridge, Maryland. An 18th round draft pick in 1988 from Liberty University, he played for the Bucs from 1990-94. He won 22 games from ‘91-92, but an elbow injury that required surgery in 1993 short circuited his career. He made three appearances in the ‘91-92 NLCS, and put up a career line of 30-31/3.43.
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| Randy Tomlin - 1993 Upper Deck |
- 1968 - Bob Moose went into the eight with a no-hitter against Houston, only to be denied by light hitting Julio Gotay, whose two-out blooper to right dropped despite the leaping efforts of Billy Mazeroski to run it down. The only previous challenge for a knock came in the second when Maury Wills made a diving grab of Jim Wynn’s shot up the third base line, got up and threw the Toy Cannon out. Moose gave up an anticlimactic hit in the ninth to go with a walk and five whiffs, and went the route to claim a 3-0 win. Roberto Clemente was a four-bagger shy of the cycle and Donn Clendenon homered to lead the modest attack. Moose’s performance thrilled one section of the house - his mom, dad, sis, wife and assorted aunts and uncles were at Forbes Field to catch the apple of their eye in action.
- 1969 - The Pirates had a Bill Mazeroski Night at Forbes Field. He reaped a bundle of goodies - a car from the team, a stereo from the players, and a TV and three portraits from other Maz-lovin’ organizations. It was also announced that Billy Maz had five local amateur ballfields renamed in his honor. Bob Prince MC’ed the event in front of 18,000 fans, including Mayor Joe Barr, and Mazeroski told the crowd “I couldn’t have been treated better anywhere in the world than in Pittsburgh.” The Bucs won the game, 4-2, over Atlanta behind a Willie Stargell homer and the pitching of Dock Ellis & Bob Moose. Maz went 0-for-4, but as usual, played the field flawlessly and started two DP’s.
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