- 1883 - OF John Owen “Chief” Wilson was born at his family's ranch in Bertram, Texas. (Chief, by the way, wasn’t a Native American.) Wilson set the organized baseball record of 36 triples in 1912, though oddly he never had more than 14 three-baggers in his other eight big league campaigns. Chief was a Pirate for six years (1908-13), driving in a league-leading 107 runs in 1911 and hitting .274 as a Bucco. He was the starting RF for the 1909 World Championship club. He played three final seasons for St. Louis and retired to his Texas ranch, passing away at age 70. His moniker has a couple of possible origins: one is that it was given by manager Fred Clarke, who thought the clean cut Wilson looked like a "Chief of the Texas Rangers." Another is that he and Hans Wagner attended a Wild West show when Wilson was a rookie, and that Honus thought the darkly tanned outfielder looked like one of the Indian chiefs in the act, per Ron Waldo in his book “Honus Wagner and His Pittsburgh Pirates...”
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| Sam Leever - 1902 photo via Hall of Fame |
- 1902 - Sam Leever outdueled Christy Mathewson, 2-0, in the opener of a doubleheader at Exposition Park; Leever surrendered three hits and Matty six. Tommy Leach and Hans Wagner each had a pair of hits and scored. The Giants bats woke up in the second game as NY earned a split with an 8-1 victory. The Pittsburgh Press astutely noted that “(Deacon) Phillippe’s steady pitching was just to the liking of the Giants.”
- 1902 - Barney Dreyfuss announced the suspension of C Rowdy Jack O’Connor because he was recruiting players from the powerhouse Pirates club to switch leagues, under the direction of AL President Ban Johnson. O’Connor even held a meeting with Johnson, who claimed he was in Pittsburgh to do spadework for an AL franchise to compete against the Pirates, and to lure some teammates to the rival American League, which was coolly interrupted by manager Fred Clarke. The main target was Hans Wagner, who refused to bite even though the junior circuit was offering $1,000 signing bonuses and hefty $15-16,000 contracts over two years (Honus topped out at $10K at Pittsburgh) to prospective jumpers. Dreyfuss found out about the raid from Jess Tannehill, who blabbed about the conspiracy while under anesthetic to have a dislocated shoulder put back into place, per Ronald Waldo’s book “The 1902 Pirates: Treachery and Triumph.” Barney was wise to foil the machinations of Johnson and keep the club together; the 1903 team won 91 games and the NL flag, meeting Boston in what’s considered baseball’s first World Series.
- 1905 - OF Jim Mosolf was born in Puyallup, Washington. Jim played the first three of his four big league seasons as a bench bat for the Pirates from 1929-31, hitting .315 over that span mainly as a deluxe pinch-hitter. Jim spent eight years in the minors where he batted .321 over his career. His brother George, an infielder, also had a four-year MLB run.
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| Wally Hebert - photo via Out of the Ballpark Developments |
- 1907 - LHP Wally “Preacher” Hebert was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Wally was the epitome of the wartime baseball warrior - the sidewinding southpaw tossed for three years for the St. Louis Browns and then returned after a decade-long stint in the Pacific Coast League to pitch for the 1943 Pirates at the age of 35, going 10-11/2.98 before retiring back to the bayou to farm and fish. His nickname, per Wikipedia, is a slightly twisted tale: Hebert got the nickname ‘Preacher’ in first grade when he wore a hat to school that his classmates thought was a preacher's hat. However, the travelog book “The Walk West, A Walk Across America 2” that included a visit to Wally has a different version. Hebert claims that he got his nickname from baseball, and that it was originally “Mississippi Mudcat.” However, another player had that moniker, so his teammates changed the nickname to “Preacher” and he never could figure out why.
- 1907 - SS Coburn “Cobe” Jones was born in Denver. Cobe played in just 26 games, all as a Pirate, from 1929-30, hitting .265 in 65 at-bats. His playing career was cut short by diabetes, diagnosed in 1929. Starting in 1932, he was director of boys programs for a hometown community center, managed Denver’s minor league club for a spell and scouted. Cobe, a four-sports star in HS, was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1973.
- 1908 - The Pittsburgh Press wrote that “Nick Maddox was pretty nearly the whole show at Exposition Park...” and the reporter was right. Maddox tossed a seven-hit complete game, had three hits and drove in both Bucco runs in a 2-1 win over the Brooklyn Superbas. It was Nick’s eighth straight win and put the Bucs in first place; they would finish the year with 98 wins, one game behind the Chicago Cubs in one of the great pennant races.
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| Murry Dickson - 1950 Bowman |
- 1916 - RHP Murry Dickson was born in Tracy, Missouri. He tossed five years (1949-53) for some sad Pirate teams, leading the league in losses in 1952-53. But he also won 34 games in 1951-52 for Buc squads that tasted victory just 106 times, so he was responsible for nearly 1/3 of the Pirate wins during that span. Murry finished with a Pittsburgh final line of 66-85/3.83 and was an All Star in 1953. The soft-tossing righty put in 18 big league years with five teams before retiring after the 1959 season. He became a carpenter after his playing days.
- 1953 - After 13 straight wins, the first place Brooklyn Dodgers finally lost, going down to birthday boy Murry Dickson and the last-place Pirates, 7-1, at Forbes Field. Frank Thomas had a homer and four RBI to lead the batsmen.
- 1953 - The Pirates Ralph Kiner and the Yankees Allie Reynolds, the NL and AL player reps of the newly formed MLBPA, announced that they had hired New York Sports attorney J. Norman Lewis for $15,000 as an advisor after baseball had rejected their proposals for an increased minimum wage and greater pension contributions. Lewis wasn’t much help; the owners refused to meet with him. Now they don’t get along much better, but they do meet.
- 1962 - Down 6-4 in the ninth against the Mets at the Polo Grounds, the Pirates loaded the bases with one out on an infield single (Bob Skinner’s 1,000th MLB rap) and two walks. Danny Murtaugh called on Jim Marshall to pinch hit. He hit a grounder to third, but Felix Mantilla’s throw to first was airmailed, allowing Skinner, Howie Goss and a sliding Roberto Clemente to score. The Bucs added another tally to win by an 8-6 count, New York’s 14th straight loss, giving Diomedes Olivo the win after a Roy Face save. The Mets finally got into the win column in the nightcap in equally dramatic style when Marvelous Marv Throneberry, who had been coaching first (he was pulling double duty), came up to pinch hit with two outs in the ninth and belted an overworked Face’s fourth pitch into the right field upper deck to earn a 5-4 split for the Metropolitans.
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| Jerry Lynch - 1964 Topps |
- 1963 - Jerry Lynch set a MLB record for pinch-hit home runs when he hit his 15th to best George Crowe’s mark, a ninth-inning blast off Lindy McDaniel. He drilled a 3-1 fastball that gave the Pirates a 7-6 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Lynch retired in 1966 with 18 pinch-hit homers, the record until Cliff Johnson broke it in 1984. Matt Stairs holds the MLB mark with 23.
- 1968 - The Bucs lit up the Reds at Forbes Field by a 19-1 count, banging out 23 hits. They were led by the top and bottom of the order - leadoff man Matty Alou and eight-hole hitter Gene Alley each had four hits; Roberto Clemente homered twice and Donn Clendenon once, with five RBI on the day. Steve Blass lasted for eight innings, with ElRoy Face sealing the deal in the ninth. Cincinnati didn’t leave empty-handed, though - Johnny Bench won a pre-game home run derby, netting $150 that was split among the three Redleg participants (the losing Bucs shared $100 among their trio of Donn Clendenon, Bill Mazeroski and Manny Jiminez).
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