8/28 From 1960: Neagle-Schmidt; Byrd Bomb; El Toro Air Mail; Freddy, Matt Show; Shepard Returns; Game Tales; HBD TJ & Mark

• 1960 - OF/1B Mark Ryal was born in Henryetta, Oklahoma. Mark closed out a bits-and-pieces five-team, six-year MLB career with the Bucs in 1990, going 1-for-12. He went to Japan for a couple of years afterward. He scouted briefly and got into college coaching; he’s now the softball skipper for Midwestern State in Texas. Mark’s main claim to fame is that he was the last lefty to play shortstop in MLB, manning the spot in 1987 as a California Angel. 
• 1964 - Joe Gibbon and the Phils’ Jim Bunning traded zeroes for the first seven innings at Forbes Field. Then Bunning led a charge of four straight Philadelphia hits in the eighth as the Brotherly Love nine pulled ahead, 2-0, before Tommie Sisk and Roy Face could quiet their bats. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth. A Bill Virdon knock and one-out Jerry Lynch walk was followed by a Willie Stargell single to make it 2-1, and then old Shake, Rattle and Roll, Smoky Burgess, lifted an Ed Roebuck offering into the seats to walk off a 4-2 win. 
• 1967 - Roberto Clemente had three hits, including two homers, to lead the Bucs to a 4-3 win over the Braves. He hit the game winner with two outs in the 10th at Atlanta Stadium. Denny Ribant got the win and Juan Pizarro the save. 

Larry Shepard - 1968 Topps

• 1968 - The Bucs gave Larry Shepard a new contract. GM Joe Brown said “I’m making the announcement now to give the players an incentive to finish higher, knowing Larry will be back.” The incentive didn’t light much of a fire under the players - Larry managed the Pirates to an 80-82 record in 1968, and the Pirates were 84-73 when the team fired him late in the 1969 campaign and replaced him with Alex Grammas, who was bumped by Danny Murtaugh in 1970. 
• 1972 - Willie Stargell single-handedly carried the Bucs to a 5-3 win over San Diego at TRS with a pair of two-run blasts off Mike Caldwell. His bombs gave Bob Moose a 5-1 lead to work with, and until the ninth he was cruising before the Padres banged back-to-back long balls with one out; he then gave up a single. Ramon Hernandez was waved in; he gave up another knock to bring the winning run to the plate. Ramon settled down, and a whiff & a pop into short right closed the book. Pops’ blasts were big; the Pirates only had six hits during the contest. 
• 1974 - The Giants banged out 14 hits at Candlestick Park, but the Bucs took home the bacon with a 3-1 in 11 innings on Ed Kirkpatrick’s two-out double. San Francisco stranded 16 runners as Jerry Reuss and game winner Dave Giusti bent but didn’t break. It was Pittsburgh’s sixth straight win and nudged them 1-1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals. 
• 1978 - John Candelaria, pitching through a bad elbow (he had to skip some starts to let it calm down), went six innings of two-hit, one-run, six-strikeout ball and Ed Whitson followed with three no-hit frames as the Bucs tossed their way past the Reds 3-1 at Riverfront Stadium. It wasn’t much of an attack by the Pirates - Dave Parker’s triple sent home Omar Morena while Bill Robinson had a sac fly & blooper to plate Parker and later, Steve Brye. Pittsburgh stranded 10 runners during the contest, leaving the bases loaded twice to allow the Redlegs some false hope. 

TJ Beam - 2008 Topps Update

• 1980 - RHP TJ Beam was born in Scottsdale, Arizona. TJ put his second and last MLB campaign in with the Pirates in 2008, slashing 2-2-1/4.14 in 32 appearances. He afterward inked a couple of minor league deals and closed out his playing days in an indie league. Beam served as a pitching coach for Ole Miss for two seasons when he returned to campus to complete his degree. 
• 1996 - LHP Denny Neagle was traded to the Atlanta Braves for RHP Jason Schmidt, OF Corey Pointer and 1B Ron Wright. Schmidt continued the series of starters who would be developed by the Bucs (like Neagle) just to blossom elsewhere because of salary constraints in Pittsburgh. Schmidt went 44-47/4.39 in six Bucco seasons before breaking out as a Giant (three All-Star nods & a World Series); Neagle had gone 43-35/4.02 for his five seasons as a Pirate before five strong campaigns with the Braves (All-Star) and Reds, with two World Series. With that deal done, the Bucs and Cards, along with Cleveland, began talking turkey regarding Jeff King, but they couldn’t agree on a return and Jeff made it through the season before being sent to KC in the winter. 
• 2002 - Atlanta’s Greg Maddux hooked up with Brian Meadows in a pitching duel at PNC Park; Maddux went nine innings and Meadows eight, leaving a 0-0 game to their bullpens. Scott Sauerbeck tossed an uneventful ninth, but his next-in-line, Mike Williams, made it exciting in the 10th when he loaded the bases with two outs and went 3-2 on Rafael Furcal before getting him to fan. Mike Remlinger couldn’t match the drama. He worked the bonus frame, walking a pair with one away before Brian Giles shot a ball into the RF corner to chase home the winning run in a 1-0 cliffhanger. It would have been a tough loss to swallow; the Bucs had 10 hits but couldn’t cash anyone in until Giles came through. Family affair: it was the first time the Giles brothers, Brian and Marcus, met in an MLB game. 

Jack Wilson - 2003 Topps

• 2003 - Josh Fogg tossed a four-hitter - he didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning - en route to a 5-0 win over the Marlins and Dontre Willis at TRS. Jack Wilson had four RBI, with the game’s key blow a two-out, bases-loaded double in the fourth to give Fogg a cushion to work with. Mike Lincoln and Julian Taveras got the final four outs to preserve the whitewash. Kip Wells had shutout the Fish in the previous game as the Pirates swept the three-game series. 
• 2007 - Freddy Sanchez and Matt Capps were the Bucs’ two-headed monster at PNC Park in a twin sweep of the Reds. Freddy’s grand salami was the big blow in a 6-5 win in the opener while his eighth-inning triple in the nightcap led to the winning tally in a 3-2 victory. The Mad Capper carried his weight, too, saving both ends of the doubleheader for Tom Gorzelanny and Shawn Chacon. The Pirates were riding a bit of a wave, with 14 wins in the last 20 games. 
• 2012 - Pedro Alvarez hit the longest homer by a Pirate to date at PNC Park (he set a new Buc mark in October of 2015, blasting one 479’), bombing a sixth inning Brandon Dickson delivery an estimated 469’ for his 25th dinger. The shot cleared the seats in center and bounced onto the Riverwalk beside the Allegheny River during the Bucs 9-0 win over St. Louis. El Toro also added a 422’ shot in the third off Jake Westbrook as James McDonald got the win. 
• 2013 - Newly acquired Marlon Byrd hit a homer and tallied three RBI in his first game with the Bucs to lead Pittsburgh to a 7-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park. Charlie Morton earned the victory. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Byrd was the third Pirate player to hit a home run and have at least three RBI in his first game with the team after playing for another MLB team earlier in the season. The other quick-off-the-blocks starters: Derrek Lee hit two dingers and had three RBI on August 1st, 2011 after being traded by the Orioles and Shawon Dunston hit two long balls and drove in four runs on September 2nd, 1997 after being acquired from the Cubs.