6/27 Through 1984: Pizarro-Henry; 9 Straight; Clemente Clang; Movie Star Maz; Game Tales; HBD Daryle, Lee, Elmo, Roy, Hank, Jackie & Minute Man

• 1861 - C Jackie Hayes was born in Brooklyn. Hayes played in three leagues - the National League, the American Association and the Players League - and spent two of his seven big league campaigns with the Alleghenys from 1883-84. Primarily a catcher, Jackie also played three infield positions and the corner outfield for Pittsburgh, batting .253. He fit right in with the rowdy bunch on the team at that time, gaining some notoriety for a late-evening brawl in a Cincinnati saloon. Hayes’ story had a sad ending as he died at the age of 43, deaf and suffering from locomotor ataxia, a condition that prevented him from walking unaided.

Tommy Leach - 1903 photo/Carl Horner

• 1903 - The Pirates banged 15 hits off Iron Man Joe McGinnity, including four knocks by Honus Wagner, and it still took the Bucs extra innings to topple the Giants, 4-2, at the Polo Grounds. Tommy Leach hit a two-run double in the 11th, drilling a McGinnity curve off the LF wall, to earn a win for Deacon Phillippe, who notched his seventh straight victory. Hans stayed hot in the Big Apple; he had four hits in his next game against Brooklyn. 
• 1916 - P Cecil “Minute Man” Kaiser was born in New York. Per BR Bullpen, Kaiser got his start on the sandlots of West Virginia and debuted in 1945 with the Homestead Grays before heading south to play. Lured by a $700 per month paycheck, he returned to the Grays in 1947 and worked through the 1949 season for the club. He spent the majority of his time in the Latino leagues, getting a shot in the minors when he was 35; unfortunately, his arm was gone by then. He was a small guy in stature at 5’6” but with great control and a killer curve. He got his “Minute Man” moniker because it was said that’s how long it took for him to strike out a batter. 
• 1921 - RHP Hank Behrman was born in Brooklyn. The righty pitched for four seasons, splitting 1947 between his hometown nine and the Pirates. The Bucs got him as part of the Al Gionfriddo deal, and used him for 10 outings (0-2/9.12) before selling him back to Brooklyn. He had a strong year for da Bums in 1946, showing a strong heater/curve combo, but as Rob Edelman of SABR wrote “His career was all promise and little delivery.” His last MLB campaign was in 1949 with the NY Giants and he tossed his last pro game in 1953 in the American Association, before his arm went bad. He retired and became a teamster. 

Roy Jarvis - photo via Find-A-Grave

• 1926 - C Roy Jarvis was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma. A 17-year-old bonus baby when he played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Jarvis then served in the Navy during WW2 and then returned to baseball with the Pirates which had claimed his rights in the 1944 Rule 5 draft. (Roy was the last Pirate to lose a full season to WW2 military duty. Pittsburgh sent 28 MLB players and 15 minor-leaguers to the service in WW2 per “Baseball in Wartime.”) He got a couple of cups of coffee with the Buccos in 1946-47, hitting .163 in 20 games and spent the rest of his career in the minors, retiring after the 1955 campaign. 
• 1938 - C Elmo Plaskett was born in Frederiksted, Virgin Islands. Elmo played in 17 games for the Bucs between 1962-63, hitting .200. He was a great hitter in the minors, winning a batting title and being named “Player of the Year'' with Asheville of the Sally League but it didn’t carry over to the show. He played other positions beside catcher, but wasn’t much with the mitt and when he broke his leg in a winter league game in 1964, it spelled the end of his MLB days in the pre-DH era. He played in the minors through 1969, then retired to operate beisbol programs as a rec specialist for St. Croix, developing Midre Cummings for the Pirates. Plaskett, who died in 1998 at the age of 60, had a sunny, Manny Sanguillen-type personality, was dedicated to baseball throughout his life, and is still a hero in the Virgin Islands. The city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, inducted Elmo into the Museo Pancho Coímbre (Sporting Hall of Fame), and the Little League program on St. Croix is named after him, per SABR. 
• 1967 - Bill Mazeroski hit into the only triple play of his career (although he participated in a pair as a fielder) at Shea Stadium. It didn’t hurt the Bucs, though - it was staged before the game and filmed in ten minutes as a scene for the film “The Odd Couple.” Roberto Clemente was first called on for the shot; there are two stories regarding that per Rob Edelman's 2018 "The National Pastime: Steel City Stories." First, he thought it was for a children's promotional film and agreed to the scene for the minimum fee, and pulled out when he discovered it was a regular Hollywood film. The second was that he couldn't help but beat the throw to first, either through pride or ability, and so they switched to Maz. 

Lee Hancock - 1996 Leaf Signature

• 1967 - LHP Lee Hancock was born in North Hollywood, California. He got into 24 games from 1995-96 for the Pirates, with no decisions and a 4.45 ERA, and that was the extent of his MLB resume. Lee joined the Pirates in 1990 from the Mariners, swapped straight up for Scott Medvin, but spent most of his Bucco time on the farm at Buffalo and Calgary. The Cal-Poly alum finished his pro career the following year, split between the Giants and Cubs systems. 
• 1968 - The Bucs rearranged their bullpen by selling LHP Juan Pizarro to the Boston Red Sox and purchasing 40-year-old LHP Bill Henry from the San Francisco Giants. Pizarro pitched through 1974, closing out his baseball days as a Pirate, while Henry was released by the Bucs in mid-August and got three more outings in ‘69 with Houston before his curtain fell. 
• 1971 - Roberto Clemente bombed a pinch hit homer in the eighth to give the Bucs a wild win, 11-9, at Philadelphia. He became the first player to “ring the bell” as his drive hit the duplicate Liberty Bell in the second level of center field at Veterans Stadium, chiming in to celebrate his 1,200 RBI. But Jose Pagan earned the game’s gold star with a pair of home runs and five RBI. Dave Giusti saved the win, despite giving up a three-run homer to Tim McCarver, for Dock Ellis, who had been cruising after a slow start until a late push in the ninth by Philly. 
• 1975 - 1B Daryle Ward was born in Lynwood, California. He played from 2004-05 for the Bucs, with a slash of .256/27/120. Ward joined his father, Gary, to become the first father-son combination in major league history to hit for the cycle after he matched his dad’s feat in 2004 against the Cards. Ward was also the first player to hit one into the Allegheny from PNC Park while he was a member of the Astros, launching his shot off Kip Wells in 2002.

Cecilio Guante - 1984 Topps/Nestle

• 1983 - The Pirates ran their winning streak to nine games while the Cardinals dropped their seventh straight as Pittsburgh won, 6-1, at Busch Stadium. The game did have some early excitement when Joaquin Andujar buzzed Marvell Wynne; payback came quickly when John Candelaria dusted him, earning an ejection from umpire Joe West and a near brawl. It devolved into a bench-clearing coffee clatch due to Chuck Tanner’s peacemaking intervention with the Buccos all lined up to take a shot at Andujar. Tanner was also booted (it was automatic; West had warned the clubs after Wynne bit the dust) as was Jim Bibby, who was a bit too rambunctious. A two hour and 20 minute rain delay gave both sides a chance to regain their cool, and Cecilio Guante’s work in relief kept the Cards at bay the rest of the way. The win capped the Pirates victory skein; they lost the next day at Wrigley Field. In other news, GM Pete Peterson announced that he wouldn’t talk contract during the season, leaving Kent Tekulve, Dave Parker and Bibby in the cold during their walk year; only Teke would return in 1984.