10/10 From 1970: '79 Series Loss; '90 Playoff Win; '92, '91, '72 Playoff Losses; Roberto - Latino HoF; TSN Danny; RIP Lefty; HBD Cutch, David & Shelby

• 1970 - LHP Albert “Lefty” Leifield passed away at the age of 87 in Fairfax, Virginia. Leifield tossed for the Pirates from 1905-12. From 1906-11, he was a regular in the Pittsburgh rotation, winning 15 or more games each season and slashing 109-84-7/2.38 with 28 shutout victories. In 1909, he went 19-8 to help the Pirates win the National League pennant although he lost his only World Series outing that year; he was the last remaining member of that Fall Classic club. Lefty spent five more years in the majors after the Pirates traded him to the Cubs with several minor league stops, fighting a sore arm in his later years. Per SABR’s Lenny Jacobson, after his playing career, Leifield coached for the Browns, Red Sox, and Tigers, also managing in the minors for seven years. Lefty then worked in the St. Louis water department before spending his last years fishing, betting on horses, and taking in an occasional game at Busch Stadium. 

TSN 10/10/1970

• 1970 - Danny Murtaugh was featured on the cover of The Sporting News for the story “Bucs’ Secret Weapon.” His ‘70 team made the transition from Forbes Field to Three Rivers Stadium and won the National League East, only to be swept by the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS. 
• 1972 - Cincinnati, facing elimination, took the Pirates behind the woodshed at Riverfront Stadium, winning, 7-1, to force a winner-take-all showdown for the NLCS crown. Ross Grimsley tossed a two-hitter, with both hits posted by Roberto Clemente, including a solo homer. Dock Ellis went five frames, giving up three unearned runs on a pair of two-out errors. The Big Red Machine then teed off on relievers Bob Johnson and Luke Walker to run away with the contest. 
• 1979 - The Orioles rocked Bruce Kison for five first-inning runs (Buster got one out before being yanked) and then hung on to take the first game of the World Series, 5-4. Willie Stargell homered with a pair of RBI and Dave Parker banged out four knocks while Jim Rooker, Enrique Romo, Don Robinson and Grant Jackson pitched three-hit ball over the last 8-2/3 innings. Mike Flanagan gave up 11 hits, but went the distance for Baltimore’s win at Memorial Stadium. 
• 1986 - Andrew McCutchen was born in Fort Meade, Florida. Cutch, a five-time All-Star and MVP selected in the first round (#11) of the 2005 draft, was the face of the team after replacing Nate McLouth during the 2009 season until he was traded after the 2017 campaign. Andrew slashed .291/203 HR/725 RBI as a Bucco and won Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year, four Silver Sluggers, a Golden Glove, two Player’s Choice Outstanding Player of the Year and the Roberto Clemente award during his Bucco tenure. In 2018, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants and then moved to the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and now he’s with the Milwaukee Brewers. 

Shelby Miller - 2021 photo Archie Carpenter/UPI

• 1990 - RHP Shelby Miller was born in Round Rock, Texas. A first round pick (19th overall) of the Cards in 2009 out of high school, he debuted in 2012. After a nice three-year run, injuries piled up on him and he underwent TJ surgery, making only 16 starts over the next five years (he opted out of the Covid-shortened 2020 season). The Cubs cut him loose in 2021 and the Pirates signed him in July as a long man option, calling him up from Indy in September. He got into 10 games and signed with the Yankees in 2022, was released, and is now with the Giants. 
• 1990 - Pittsburgh stayed alive in the NLCS by edging the Reds, 3-2, at TRS to cut the Cincinnati margin to three games to two. Doug Drabek worked into the ninth, then Bob Patterson came on to get the last two outs to save the victory. Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds each chased home a run and scored a run against Tom Browning to lead Pittsburgh’s attack. The Pirates also rewarded the field bosses by announcing that Jim Leyland’s staff of Rich Donnelly, Bruce Kimm, Gene Lamont, Ray Miller, Milt May and Tommy Sandt, would return intact for the 1991 campaign. 
• 1991 - Steve Avery and Alejandro Pena combined to stop the Bucs, 1-0, on four hits at TRS and knot the NLCS at three games apiece in front of 57,533 fans, the largest crowd in Pirates history. Mark Lemke’s two-out, bad-hop double that bounded over 3B Steve Buechele’s shoulder in the sixth scored David Justice, who had walked & then stole second, to send Zane Smith to a tough defeat. Bobby Bonilla doubled to lead off the ninth and took third on a wild pitch with one away, but Pena got Buechele on a comebacker and caught Curtis Wilkerson looking on three pitches to save the game. 

Andy Van Slyke - 1992 Classic 2

• 1992 - John Smoltz won his second NLCS game, 6-4, at TRS to put the Bucs in a 3-1 hole as Doug Drabek took the loss. The Bucs managed just six hits, with Andy Van Slyke banging out a double and triple. Drabek had a rare rough outing and Randy Tomlin was touched for a pair of runs in relief. 
• 1994 - RHP Dave Bednar was born in Mars and is a grad of Mars Area HS. He was a late-round pick of the Padres in the 2016 draft from Lafayette College and joined the hometown nine in 2021 as part of the Joe Musgrove package. He only worked 17 innings total for San Diego, but was dominating in the spring for the Pirates, and even with an option to burn made the Opening Day roster. The Pirates slowly slid him into high leverage situations and moved him into the closer’s role when Richard Rodriguez was traded. Despite missing much of August/September of 2022 with a bad back, he earned 19 saves over the year and was selected to Team USA for the 2023 WBC. 
• 2010 - Pirates RF Roberto Clemente and Cuban/Negro Leagues Martin “El Immortal” Dihigo, who played for the Homestead Grays in 1927-28, were inducted into the inaugural class of the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame.