9/12 From 1950: Smoky Dealt; Caveman Slam; 1.5 M; Hard Hats; Game Tales; HBD Frankie, Mike, Trench & Jon

• 1951 - Scout Jon Niederer was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania. He went to Duquesne University and began his baseball career as a ticket seller for the Pirates in 1973. Four years later, he became a scout, signing Stan Belinda while operating a series of “Little Pirates” camps. After leaving the Bucs in 1986, he bird-dogged for the Angels and Mariners before passing away in 2009. 
• 1952 - The Pirates split a twilight doubleheader against the Boston Braves, winning the opener, 8-1, behind a pair of Ralph Kiner home runs and Bob Friend’s seven-hitter to break an eight-game losing streak, then returning to form to absorb a 16-0 plastering in the late game. The Bucs set a new team low by suffering its 104th defeat (the old mark for damage done was 103, set in 1917) on their way to a 42-112 finish, and the match at Forbes Field drew just 2,608 fans. They also used Branch-Rickey inspired batting helmets for the first time during the regular season, plastic caps with a foam layer around the head band, both at-bat and in the field. All the Buccos but Joe Garagiola wore one; his helmet size was too big. The Post-Gazette noted the headgear with a terse “New Helmets But Same Bucs” headline. The Buc FO introduced the helmets during spring training and finally Branch Rickey ordered their use on this date. Coincidently, we’re sure, Rickey owned stock in the company that made the helmets, American Baseball Cap, that were designed by Ed Crick and Ralph Davis of Cleveland. The Pirates mellowed some after a couple of seasons, requiring them only for batting when the players bellyached about the weight in the field. It took awhile, but the headgear caught on and was mandated by MLB in 1970. 

1952 photo Post Gazette/AP Wirephoto

• 1960 - A crowd of 21,261 cheered the first-place Pirates over the Giants, 6-1, and set a new Pittsburgh home attendance record of 1‚521‚251, edging the old mark set in 1948. The final attendance for 1960 was 1,705,828, which would be the high water mark until the 1988 Pirates drew 1,866,713 at TRS. The victory put the Bucs 7-1/2 games up on the NL field and cut their magic number to 11; they clinched the National League pennant two weeks later. 
• 1960 - OF Trench Davis was born in Baltimore. He was signed in 1980 out of Southern HS as a 19-year old. He got on the radar as a speedy stolen base machine on the farm and had a cup of coffee with Pittsburgh in June. He played in 15 games for the Pirates in May 1986, hitting just .130 (he hit 4-for-30 in his Pirates stint with one stolen base), and became a Bucco footnote when he was optioned back to the minors to make room for Barry Bonds. He signed with the Braves in 1987, spent most of the season on the farm and played out his career in the Mexican League. 
• 1963 - RHP Mike Roesler was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He had a couple of brief MLB stops, tossing five games for the Pirates in 1990 with a line of 1-0/3.00 to close out his MLB work. Roesler bounced around the Pirates and Kansas City Royals’ farm systems afterward before pitching in Taiwan and then retiring in 1992. He was inducted into the Northeast Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006 for his sporting exploits at Fort Wayne’s Bishop Luer HS and later at Ball State. 
• 1964 - The Pirates waived and then sold C Smoky Burgess to the pennant-chasing Chicago White Sox for $50,000. He went 1-for-5 off the bench for the Sox that finished one game behind the Yankees in the 1964 AL race. But Smoky found his final home in the Windy City; he played there until 1967, ending his career at the age of 40 with 18 MLB seasons to his credit. 

Shake, Rattle & Roll - 1964 Topps

• 1969 - Doing it with their arms and sticks, pitchers Jerry Koosman and Don Cardwell not only pitched 1-0 wins but drove in the winning scores to lead the Mets to a DH sweep of the Bucs. Bob Moose and Dock Ellis took the hard-luck losses at Forbes Field, with Moose throwing a five-hitter with 10K and Ellis a six-hitter with 11 whiffs. Though defeats, the games were the second and third in a row that Buc starters had fanned 10+ hitters; Bob Veale started the string the day before with 12 K in a 3-2 win over the Cardinals. 
• 1979 - The Pirates whitewashed the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-0, at TRS behind John Candelaria’s six-hit, 8-1/3 innings of shutout ball and Ed Ott’s bat. Bill Madlock singled, stole second and scored on Ott’s single in the second inning before Otter tripled in the fifth and touched home on Phil Garner’s knock to give the Pirates their two runs. Kent Tekulve nailed down his 27th save of the season by retiring the last two Cards and stranding Redbirds at second and third. 
• 1981 - RHP Franquelis Osoria was born in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Osoria was waived by the Dodgers after the 2006 campaign and claimed by the Bucs. He worked his first year mainly in Indianapolis, but saw considerable time with the Bucs, going 0-2/4.76 ERA in 25 outings. He was with the big club for most of the 2008 season with a slash of 4-3/6.08 in 43 games. Frankie finished his career in the Dominican Winter League, pitching in his native land through the 2015 year. Like fellow Dominican Antonio Alfonseca, Osoria had an extra digit on his throwing hand, though it didn’t seem to give him much of an edge. 
• 1985 - The Bucs banged out three homers to rout the Cubs, 10-2, at TRS. RJ Reynolds and Mike Brown connected off Dennis Eckersley, but the big blow was a two-out grand slam by Don Robinson off of Warren Brusstar in the eighth frame. Robinson became one of just five Pirates pitchers to clean the bases, and another MLB reliever wouldn’t hit a grand slam until 2021, when Daniel Camarena of San Diego did the deed. Robby picked up the save for Rick Rhoden, tossing two innings of one-hit ball with three whiffs. Though The Caveman hit well for a hurler (.238 in ‘85), that swing produced his only homer and RBIs of the year.

Don Robinson - 1985 Fleer

• 1992 - It was a wild and wooly finish at Veterans Stadium, but the Bucs came out on top of the late-inning shootout by a 9-7 tally. Ahead, 1-0, in the bottom of the sixth, the Phils used four singles, a walk, error and passed ball to push the lead to 4-0. The Bucs took notes and in the seventh, they cobbled together three singles, a three-base error and a sac fly to tie the game. There was more weirdness in the eighth. The Pirates had runners on first and second with two away when Orlando Merced struck out swinging. But the ball got away from the catcher (wild pitch ruled), Orlando beat the throw to first, and Spanky LaValliere’s rap chased a pair home for Pittsburgh’s first lead. It didn’t last long; with two on via walks and two outs, Dave Hollins went deep off Stan Belinda and Philly was back up, 7-6. Mitch Williams came in to close it out, but Jay Bell’s triple, bookended by three more singles, a balk and a walk, put the Buccaneers back on top, and Belinda returned the game to normalcy with a 1-2-3 ninth for the blown save/win exacta.