6/15 Through the 1950s: Ducky Deal; Westlake Trade; Fletcher-Shuster; Parrish Signed; Minor Deals; 14 Straight; Game Tales; HBD Bruce, Gene, Bud, Babe, Peek-A-Boo & Jerry

• 1862 - 1B/OF/P William “Peek-A-Boo” Veach was born in Indianapolis. He only played part of the season with the Alleghenys in 1890 (did pretty well, too, hitting .300) and had just a brief three-year big league career with a lifetime .215 BA. He was also a Spanish-American War vet, but he made the cut for the history pages thanks to his unique nickname. When he pitched for the Kansas City Cowboys of the Union League in 1884, his club called pick-offs with hand signals from the bench for him as he became antsy with runners aboard. Veach would shift his eyes from the field to the dugout so often before a pitch that the runners caught on and dubbed him Peek-A-Boo, taken from a popular song title of the day. Afterward, the manager put a plant in the grandstands who would wave a game program to indicate when Veach should throw to first, but that was quickly sniffed out by the opponents, too. So the signaling system never became a thing, and largely explained both his nickname and conversion to 1B/OF. 

Peek-A-Boo Veach - Wiki (uncredited)

• 1863 - C Jerry Hurley was born in Boston. Jerry played three MLB campaigns, getting into 33 games. Eight of those were with the 1890 Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players League, where he hit .273 as a backup but wore out his welcome by sparring with manager Ned Hanlon. He did have an 11-year minor league career stretching from 1884-94 and managed briefly, then spent his post-baseball days in Boston as an immigration official. 
• 1897 - IF Gene DeMontreville had five hits, but the Pirates went down to the Senators, 10-8, at Washington’s Boundary Field. DeMontreville had a 36-game hitting streak from 1896 to 1897. The mark wasn’t discovered by baseball historians until 2007, and is the 10th-longest hitting streak in MLB history. 
• 1909 - The Pirates defeated the Brooklyn Superbas, 8-2, at Washington Park for their 14th straight victory. Sam Frock went the distance for the win despite giving up 12 raps, backed by three hits from Fred Clarke and a Tommy Leach homer. The streak was snapped the following day, but between May 24th-June 29th, Pittsburgh won 27-of-30 games on the way to the pennant and their first World Series title over Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers. 
• 1912 - 1B Babe Dahlgren was born in San Francisco. He played for the Pirates from 1944-45, hitting .271 and earning an All-Star spot in 1944. Babe was famous for two things: He replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939, ending the Iron Horse’s 2,130 game playing streak, and was credited as being the first MLB player to take a drug test for a non-performance enhancing drug. He took it voluntarily (and passed) in 1943 to dispel rumors that he was smoking wacky tobacco, a false allegation that nevertheless stayed with him to play havoc with his career; he ended up playing for seven teams in six seasons. 

Babe Dahlgren - 1944 Berger/Press

• 1916 - OF Eddie “Bud” Stewart was born in Sacramento, California. He started his nine-year MLB run (.268 lifetime BA) in Pittsburgh in 1941-42, hitting .242. He was considered a strong defensive player with good speed and a dependable pinch-hitter. His ball-playing days were interrupted by WW2 when he entered the Army. Bud was a gym teacher after his playing days, and as a California guy played as an extra in several Hollywood flicks. 
• 1925 - Gene Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa. The back-up infielder played for the Bucs from 1957-58 and 1960-61 with a .259 BA. In 1961, he became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia farm club in the New York-Penn League. In 1963, the Pirates promoted him to the big team as the second black coach in MLB, right behind Buck O'Neil who had been hired three months earlier. When Danny Murtaugh was tossed by an ump, Baker became the interim manager for two games, making him the first black to manage a team in a major league game. Baker managed Batavia again in 1964, and served as a minor league coach and manager. He then returned to Davenport and became the Bucs’ top midwest scout for 23 years. 
• 1929 - The Pirates lost a lumberfest to the New York Giants in 14 innings at Forbes Field by a 20-15 tally with 11 of the runs coming in the last frame, keeping the 25,000 fans in their seats until the bitter end. The Bucs overcame a five run deficit in the final three innings capped by a three-spot in the ninth (they stranded a runner at third with an out with the chance to win) and then traded runs with the G-Men in the 11th to keep the game going on Pie Traynor’s two-out homer. Paul Waner had six hits, Rollie Hemsley added four more and Traynor chipped in three knocks; four other Buccos had two raps as the Pirates banged out 24 hits but stranded 17 runners. Pittsburgh used six pitchers with Steve Swetonic taking the loss although most of the damage was wrought against his relief man Larry French, who was charged with seven of the eight runs the Giants scored in the final go-around. 

Elbie Fletcher - 1941 Goudey Big League

• 1939 - The Pirates picked up 1B Elbie Fletcher from the Boston Bees for IF Bill Schuster and cash. Fletcher played seven seasons for Pittsburgh (he missed three because of WW2) and hit .279 with 60 HR and 464 RBI for the Bucs. Broadway Bill Schuster was a sub who hit .234 over a five-year career, minus three war years. 
• 1941 - RHP Bruce Dal Canton was born in California, Washington county. Dal Canton pitched for California State College and had an oddball entry to pro baseball. After graduating, he became a science teacher at Burgettstown HS and played ball in an amateur league where he was discovered by scout Rex Bowen. The team signed him in 1966 and he debuted in the majors the next year. Bruce tossed his first four big-league seasons (1967-70) in Pittsburgh to a 20-8-8/3.57 line. He put together an 11-year career as a starter and long man, also twirling for KC, Atlanta and the White Sox. Dal Canton was a Braves minor league pitching coach for a decade when he was discovered to have cancer in 2008; he passed away six months later. 
• 1943 - The Pirates traded RHP Dutch Dietz to the Phillies for RHP Johnny Podgajny. For the 31-year-old Dietz, it was his last MLB season after 3-1/2 seasons as a Bucco (13-15-4/3.51). Podgajny slashed 0-4/4.72 in 15 appearances for Pittsburgh, then was traded in the off-season with OF Johnny Wyrostek to the Cards for Preacher Roe. He became a minor league arm after that, surfacing for six big-league outings in 1956 with the Indians.
• 1944 - Max Butcher ducked the bullets and went the distance as the Bucs edged the Reds, 1-0, at Crosley Field. The Pirates scored with two down in the ninth when Bob Elliott’s single to center sent Lee Handley home for the Pirates only tally against Cincinnati’s Tom de la Cruz. Butcher gave up eight hits during the afternoon, but the Redlegs went 0-for-8 with RISP while Handley was only the second Bucco to get into scoring position against de la Cruz.

Dino Restelli - 1949 photo via Find-A-Grave

• 1949 - Rookie OF Dino Restelli homered twice and drove in five RBI against Boston’s Warren Spahn, leading the Pirates to an 8-7, come-from-behind victory at Forbes Field and make Rip Sewell, on in relief, a winner. Despite the blazing start, Dino was back in the minors next season. Some people say his career was ruined after he wore an Ewell Blackwell fastball; another theory was that he couldn’t see because of east coast humidity - his glasses would fog up! 
• 1949 - The Pirates started a shuffle that didn’t result in much. They began the day by buying Hank Sauer’s brother Ed, an outfielder, from the Cards; before the sun set, they had sent him to the Boston Braves for C Phil Masi. Masi was solid, playing in 48 games and hitting .274, but he was sold in the off season to the White Sox. 
• 1951 - The Pirates received RHP Ted Wilks, IF Dick Cole, C Joe Garagiola, OF Bill Howerton and LHP Howie Pollet from St. Louis for LHP Cliff Chambers and OF/3B Wally Westlake. Pollet and Chambers ended up as washes as far as hill success went, but Westlake played seven more seasons and retired with a lifetime .272 BA. Wilks pitched creditably for the Bucs from 1951-52, Garagiola hit .262 for Pittsburgh from 1951-53 and Howerton batted .279 as a Pirate with 1952 being his last campaign. 
• 1954 - Les Beiderman of the Pittsburgh Press wrote that trade talks between the Bucs and Cards fizzled. The Redbirds wanted RHP Max Surkont and were willing to part with $50,000 and a couple of minor leaguers; the Pirates Branch Rickey countered with Solly Hemus as the return, and no deal was struck. Max ended up going 9-18/4.41 in 29 starts for Pittsburgh while IF Hemus hit .304 as a backup. 

Lance Parrish - 1995 Fleer

• 1956 - C Lance “Big Wheel'' Parrish was born in Clairton. Lance spent 19 years in the show, returning home near the end of the trail as a 38-year-old in 1994, putting up a .270 BA. He was an eight-time All-Star for three different teams, six-time Silver Slugger awardee and three-time Gold Glove honoree. Since retiring, he’s been both a major and minor league coach, announcer, and is now a minor league manager. The nickname “Big Wheel'' came about in the early ’80s based on a Mel Allen “This Week in Baseball” feature. Allen opened with “...the wheels of the Motor City were turning...” and referred to Parrish as the Big Wheel, according to Baseball By the Letters. 
• 1958 - SS Johnny O’Brien and 3B Gene Freese were traded to the Cardinals for IF Dick “Ducky” Schofield, who would play a key role in the Bucs 1960 NL championship as a sub for the injured Dick Groat during the stretch run for the pennant. Ducky, a lifetime .227 hitter, had a .333 BA for the 1960 Buccos and hit .248 in his eight Pittsburgh seasons. Freese ended up with a 12-year career and rejoined the Pirates from 1964-65. It was the first time Johnny and his twin brother Eddie were on different teams; for Eddie, it was his last campaign and Johnny was out of the majors a year later.