6/26 Through the 1960s: Mr. Slug v Splendid Splinter; Steve's Streak; Game Tales; HBD Bill, Howie, Smoky, Debs, Elmer & Babe

• 1893 - RHP Elmer Ponder was born in Reed, Oklahoma. Elmer was an Oklahoma U grad who was of Cherokee descent and was part of the early wave of Native American players (the Bucs also had Moses “Chief” Yellowhorse on the 1921 roster). He played for the Pirates in 1917, then again from 1919-21. He got into three games his first year before he left to join the Army during WW1, and didn’t return until 1919. His late July debut was special; although the Bucs lost to the Phils 6-1, Ponder tossed 5-2/3 perfect innings of relief. No Pirates reliever could claim five or more innings of perfect work until 94 years later, when Vin Mazzaro did it in 2013 against the Milwaukee Brewers. Elmer went 14-21/2.74 for the Pirates before he was traded to the Cubs in ‘21. He finished the year there before being sent to the Pacific Coast League, where he toiled through the 1928 campaign before retiring. 

Elmer Ponder - photo via RMY Auctions

• 1897 - Pittsburgh CF Steve Brodie's string of consecutive games ended at 574. His arm was so sore the Pirates went on the road without him, though he did recover. The streak was a 19th-century NL record, three games shy of the then MLB mark. Brodie was a strong two-way player that the Bucs released the following year in a move to cut salary, a fairly recurrent theme throughout franchise history. Steve was eccentric, even for the era. Per the Baltimore Sun’s Mike Kingaman “Brodie talked to baseballs, caught flies behind his back and once nabbed a line drive that had ricocheted off his head. He mumbled to himself in the outfield, passing time by reciting soliloquies from Shakespeare. Once, Brodie chastised himself for committing an error, The Sun wrote: ‘Then, as further punishment, he refused to talk to himself for the rest of the game.’ A solid fielder, he cut a hole in the pocket of his glove, believing he could better grasp the ball with his bare palm. In winter, he stayed fit by donning a catcher's mask and chest protector and wrestling a muzzled black bear in his backyard.” 
• 1903 - OF Floyd “Babe” Herman was born in Buffalo. His stories are legion, such as the time he ended up on third base with two other teammates or tales of fly balls bouncing off his body in the outfield. In actuality, Babe was an average fielder with a great stick - his lifetime BA was .324 and he retired with a 140 OPS+. Herman played part of his 13-year career in Pittsburgh, batting .235 (the lowest average of his career) in 1935, returning as a coach in 1951 and later serving as a Bucco scout. Per the New York Times, he got his nickname in the minors, playing when Babe Ruth was a star. "He was put in to pinch-hit, and the first time he got a hit, the manager of the club said, 'You're my Babe,'" as told to the paper by Charles Herman, Floyd’s son. 
• 1903 - Lost the fight and the game: Before the start of a Giants-Pirates duel at the Polo Grounds, NY catcher Frank Bowerman started a fight with Pittsburgh’s player/manager Fred Clarke. Bowerman was fined $100 for starting the brawl while Clarke escaped with his wallet intact, as the league apparently felt his shiner was punishment enough. Christy Mathewson then led the fired-up New York nine over Pittsburgh by an 8-2 tally. There are various tales of what led to the fisticuffs, the two favorites being bad blood carried over from when Clarke managed Bowerman at Louisville to John McGraw egging Bowerman into the bout to light a fire under the G-Men before their series with the Bucs (though they won that battle, they lost the war, falling 6-1/2 games short of the NL Champion Pirates at season’s end). 

Debs Garms - 1940 Louisville Slugger ad

• 1907 - OF Debs Garms was born in Bangs, Texas. Debs played 12 years in the show, mainly as a utility player although he did start three seasons for the Boston Braves. That’s where the Bucs got him from in 1940, and he hit .355 for them in 358 ABs. That was good enough for him to be awarded the batting title by Ford Frick; there was no minimum at-bat requirement and the NL President used 100 games played as the qualifier (Garms got into 103 contests). Stan Hack of the Cubs was the next highest hitter at .317, compiled in 603 at-bats, and Chicago fans cried “we wuz robbed” to no avail. Thanks to Debs, in 1950 the standard was changed to a 400 at-bat minimum and a few years later to 3.1/PA per game (502 PA). There was no controversy the next season as he hit .264 for Pittsburgh. Garms was a good stickman with a .293 career BA, and in 1941 he set the then-record of seven consecutive pinch hits. He retired after the 1945 season to become a rancher and later a quarryman. BTW, Debs wasn’t a baseball moniker - he was named after socialist politician Eugene Debs. 
• 1918 - RHP Elmer “Smoky” Singleton was born in Ogden, Utah. He came to the Pirates as part of the Bob Elliot deal, working for Pittsburgh from 1947-48 while slashing 6-8-3/5.54. Bert put parts of seven seasons in the show and his overall professional career spanned 24 years, from 1940-63, when he retired at age 45 to become a salesman. 
• 1921 - LHP Howie Pollet was born in New Orleans. After some stellar seasons with St. Louis (two World Series, three All-Star selections), he was sent to Pittsburgh in 1951, the victim of a slow start and back-to-back contract holdouts. He pitched here through 1953 and returned for his final bow in 1956, going 14-31-2/4.59 for some sad sack teams. Howie coached for the Cards and Astros from 1959-64, then retired and joined the business world. 
• 1930 - Larry French tossed a seven-hit shutout to beat Phil Collins and the Philadelphia Phils, 1-0, in the opening game of a Forbes Field DH’er. The Buc bats woke up in the second game, pounding out an 11-5 win. Paul Waner had three hits, including a double and triple, scored four times and drove in a run to lead the attack. All nine Pirates had hits; seven different Bucs scored and seven had RBI. Erv Brame went the distance for the victory. 

Larry French - photo/The Sporting News

• 1935 - The Bucs swept a twin bill from Boston at Braves Field by 4-2 and 5-1 scores. It was their third doubleheader in five days (they went 5-1 in the three double dippers), and one that “Little Poison” Lloyd Waner was glad to have end so he could soak his overworked dogs - he set a record by running down 18 balls over the two games (nine in each contest) while collecting five hits. Guy Bush tossed a six-hitter in the opener, and Lloyd’s three knocks led the hit parade, with Pep Young (who homered), Woody Jensen and Gus Suhr adding a pair of raps. Bill Swift spun a four-hitter in the nightcap, chipping in with a pair of doubles along with two-knock outings by Waner, Jensen and Tom Padden. 
• 1936 - Pittsburgh’s Red Lucas and Boston’s Danny MacFayden were hooked up in a scoreless duel after eight innings at Braves Field, each hurler holding his opponent to four hits with only one runner for either squad reaching as far as third. Then a ballgame broke out in the ninth. Gus Suhr banged a one-out homer to right, Bill Brubaker doubled behind him, and Al Todd seemed to ice it with his two-out, RBI knock. But the Bees buzzed; they had two outs when three straight singles made it 2-1 and left Bostonians on the corners. After a conference on the mound, manager Pie Traynor, who had Guy Bush warming up in the pen, let Lucas decide the game, and it was a good move as a grounder to second put an end to the rally. Both pitchers went the distance and ended up tossing seven-hitters with four whiffs credited to each. The win pulled the Pirates within four games of first; they finished the year with 84 wins, good for fourth place.
• 1943 - OF Bill Robinson was born in McKeesport. The Elizabeth-Forward grad played eight years for Pittsburgh, from 1975-82, batting .276 with 109 HR and 412 RBI. He was a fairly regular starter from 1976-79, and won a ring with the ‘79 Bucs. He held a variety of coaching jobs afterward as a hitting coach for the Mets, Yankees and Dodgers, a minor league skipper for the Giants and Phils (he was also a batting instructor w/Philly) and Venezuelan manager, along with a brief gig with ESPN. He passed away in 2007 in Las Vegas. 

Bill Robinson - 1977 Topps

• 1950 - The Pirates met the Boston Red Sox in the Bosox first visit to the City since the Expo Park days of the 1903 World Series, and 26,113 (a huge crowd; the team averaged about 15,000 that year) turned out for the exhibition clash for the Western PA Safety Council. The big draw was Ted Williams, who met Ralph Kiner in a pre-game home run derby that “Mr. Slug,” the Post Gazette’s nickname for Kiner, won, 8-4. The Pirates also won the game 4-3; Williams hit a two-run shot when it counted in the ninth to tie the game, but was answered by 3B Pete Castiglione, whose solo bomb took the honors in the Bucco half. 
• 1968 - In the year of the pitcher, the Bucs found themselves on the wrong end of history as St. Louis’ Bob Gibson tossed his fifth straight shutout against them, winning, 3-0, on a five-hitter at Busch Stadium. He was zoned in on one of the great hurling streaks of history. The Dodgers scored once off him in the next game, then he authored three more shutouts in his next five games, giving up one run twice. His totals for that stretch of 11 games were: 11 wins, 11 complete games, 99 innings, three runs allowed on 56 hits, with 13 walks and 82 strikeouts. 3B Maury Wills ran his hitting streak to 24 games during the loss to the Cards by beating out a ninth-inning bunt single. His string ended during the second game of the twinbill, a 3-1 Pirate win, when Larry Jaster and Wayne Granger laid an 0-for-5 on Wills. It was a good run by Wills; he hit .419 during the 24-game stretch. As for the game, Steve Blass won, with late help from Ron Kline, who was credited with the save.