4/20: Teke-Holland; So Close...; Roof Rocket; Wakefield Waived; Hans House; Post Dated; All-Timers; Basebrawl, Gems & Game Tales; HBD Chris, Steamer & Sam

• 1869 - OF Sam Nicholl was born in County Antrim, Ireland (recently, John Dreker of Pirates Prospects has found the date to be 4/18/1865). After a strong year at Wheeling, Nicholl finished out the 1888 campaign with the Alleghenys. He went 1-for-22, but his BA was considered bad ball luck as he hit the ball well, and he was also a plus defender. He was a late cut in camp the next season and sent back to Wheeling. Sam got one more shot in 1890 with Columbus, then closed out with five years in the Western Association before a leg injury effectively ended his career. 
• 1881 - OF Jim “Steamer” Flanagan was born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, across the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre. He was rumored to have turned down a scholarship to Notre Dame to turn pro in 1901. He played for the Pirates briefly in 1905 as September insurance, and showed well, hitting .280 with seven runs scored and three stolen bases in seven games. Steamer was considered a five-tool guy, but for reasons unknown, he never got another shot at the majors, playing in the minors through the 1915 season. After his ball-playing days, he lived in Wilkes-Barre as a cop, sandlot player, manager and umpire, while also serving as a bird dog for the Red Sox and Athletics. Per Jack Smiles of SABR, “he ran, it was said, like a steam locomotive” and hence his nickname. 
• 1916 - The Pirates lost the Home Opener at Forbes Field to St. Louis, 5-0, held to five hits by Harry “Slim” Sallee in front of 20,000 or so. But there was some early excitement. With two on and a 3-1 count on the batter, manager Jimmy Callahan, coaching third, stepped out of the box to talk with base runner Doc Johnston between pitches. He apparently placed his hand on Johnston during the chat and plate umpire Ernie Quigley called Doc out on coaches interference due to Callahan’s contact. The Bucs protested to no avail, and owner Barney Dreyfuss protested the game to NL President John Tener. Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Press wrote that at a smoker that evening, Dreyfuss went on about a conspiracy with the boys in blue having secret league instructions (he didn’t disclose their nature) and went so far as to call them “...pin-headed umpires.” Tener rejected the protest, though he did clarify that the rule was to be in effect only when the player was physically assisted leaving or returning to a base by a coach. 

Barney & the boys in blue...2015 Ars Longa Diamond Heads

• 1930 - Long-time baseball writer Irwin Howe of the Chicago Tribune picked his all-time MLB team, and it included SS Honus Wagner and 3B Pie Traynor. Howe had the background for the job - he was a baseball historian, the secretary for the Chicago chapter of BBWAA and the AL’s official statistician. 
• 1932 - Mt. Pleasant native and Pitt grad Steve Swetonic came as close as any Pirate pitcher (Bob Moose matched his feat in 1968) to tossing a no-hitter at Forbes Field. He surrendered a two-out knock in the eighth to the Card’s George Watkins that spoiled his bid. Though he gave up a couple of anti-climatic ninth inning singles, he cruised to a 7-0 victory. His career was short circuited after five years when he retired at the age of 28 because of a chronic sore arm. 
• 1936 - The Bucs’ Gus Suhr slugged a two-out, three-run homer in the ninth off Roy Henshaw to erase an early six-run deficit and give Pittsburgh a 9-8 win over the Cubs at Forbes Field. Pep Young and Cookie Lavagetto also went long, and Bill Swift worked the final four frames for the win. 
• 1946 - Rip Sewell spun a four-hitter to win a duel against the Cards Bucky Walters, 2-1. Walters was a one-man show, scoring his clubs’ only run by stealing home, but RBI doubles banged out by Bob Elliott and Elbie Fletcher sent the Forbes Field crowd of 27,891 (and Rip) home happy. 

Rip Sewell - 1946-47 Exhibits

• 1948 - Rip Sewell did it all; he tossed a complete game six-hitter and homered as the Bucs won their Home Opener, 3-2, over the Chicago Cubs at Forbes Field. Rookie second baseman Monty Basgall had the game-winning rap, his first big league homer, in the sixth inning. 
• 1970 - Willie Stargell belted a sixth-inning homer off Jim Bouton that cleared the RF roof at Forbes Field as the Pirates took a 3-1 decision from Houston; Pops drove in all three Bucco tallies. Dock Ellis went six innings for the win, with Dave Giusti covering the last three frames while fanning four. The deed wasn’t witnessed by very many; there were only 4,015 fans in the house. 
• 1980 - CF Chris Duffy was born in Brattleboro, Vermont. Duffy hit .269 in his three Buc years (2005-07) but butted heads with manager Jim Tracy who wanted him to change his batting style. Duffy stormed home after a closed-door session with the skipper and his career pretty much sank after that affair. He played one more season for Pittsburgh, and in 2008 was injured and released. He would play just 13 more MLB games as a Milwaukee Brewer in 2009. 
• 1985 - Kent Tekulve’s Pirate career ended after a dozen seasons when he was traded to the Phils for Al Holland. He didn’t pout about the swap, either; the next day, he pitched two shutout innings for Philadelphia after traveling overnight to join his new club. The 38-year-old became a set-up man there and remained rubber-armed, appearing in 291 games in four years with a 24-26-25/3.01 line in Philly before finishing out his final campaign with the Cincinnati Reds. 

Teke - 1985 Fleer

• 1986 - The Pirates and Cubs played 13 innings, only to have their game at Wrigley Field suspended due to darkness after four hours and 48 minutes and the score tied, 8-8, after the Cubs scored three times in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings. The contest was completed on August 11th with the Bucs winning, 10-8, in 17 innings. The total game time from start-to-finish was six hours and nine minutes. Johnny Ray & Joe Orsulak combined for seven hits and five runs while Sid Bream and Steve Kemp homered. Barry Jones picked up the win, going four scoreless innings while whiffing eight. Oddly, though Jones wasn’t called up until July, he set the MLB record for whiffs in a debut as a reliever (tied in 2016 by then-Astro Joe Musgrove). It was in actuality his 10th appearance, but the game date reverted back to when the contest’s first pitch was tossed, making it his first outing in the record books. In another similar oddity, rookie Barry Bonds got his first actual hit on May 31st, but was credited by MLB with his first knock on this date (it was actually his 51st hit of the year) when he pinch hit the game-winning single during the makeup date, with the at bat, like Jone’s appearance, reverting to the match’s original scheduled date. 
• 1992 - The Pirates turned a pitching duel between Randy Tomlin and Montreal’s Ken Hill on its ear with a nine-run outburst in the ninth to defeat the Expos at Olympic Stadium, 11-1. The inning was highlighted by a Kirk Gibson grand slam and a three-run shot by Barry Bonds, only the second time in MLB history that a team has swatted a grannie and a three-run dinger in the ninth frame. Tomlin earned the win with help from Dennis Lamp and Stan Belinda. 
• 1995 - Pittsburgh released knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. He was picked up a week later by Boston, where he spent the next 17 seasons, tossing over 3,000 innings and winning 186 games. He was a wild child for the Buccos, but mastered the flutterer in the Red Sox system under the tutelage of Phil and Joe Niekro. They also sent 1B Kevin Young & C Angel Encarnacion to the AAA Calgary Cannons and placed pitchers Steve Cooke and Rick White on the DL. Later in the week, 3B John Wehner and RHP John Ericks were also bumped down to Calgary. 

Hans - Helmar Oasis

• 1998 - Pennsylvania placed a state memorial plaque, sponsored by the local historical society, at 605 Beechwood Avenue in Carnegie, near the site of Honus Wagner's birthplace, to honor the Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop. Hans had been born in Chartiers, now part of Carnegie, in 1874 to an immigrant coal mining family, playing for local sandlot and company teams until he joined the local semi-pro Mansfield Indians and began his road to Cooperstown. 
• 2009 - Ross Ohlendorf tossed the Bucs’ fourth shutout of the season (in 13 games), giving up two hits in seven innings, in an 8-0 win over Florida to end the Marlins’ seven-game winning streak. The Bucs had recorded just two shutouts in all of 2008. Nate McLouth gave Ohlie all the support he needed by driving in four runs, three touching home after a sixth-inning homer. 
• 2014 - Milwaukee topped the Pirates, 3-2, in 14 frames on Easter at PNC Park, but the game took a back seat to the on-field action in the third inning. Brewer Carlos Gomez admired a ball that didn’t quite get out of the yard. He made it to third and Gerrit Cole let him have it verbally for hot-dogging it. Gomez went after Cole, the benches emptied and a basebrawl broke out. Travis Snider went after Gomez, Rickie Weeks grabbed him by the arms and Martin Maldonado took advantage to poke a defenseless Lunch Box, leaving him with a shiner. Maldonado was suspended five games, Gomez received a three-game suspension (he also threw his helmet at the Bucco mob), and Snider was suspended two games. Fran Cervelli later challenged pugilist Maldonado to an off season boxing match for charity, but was never taken up on the offer. As for the game, Neil Walker had three hits, including a homer, but Khris Davis’ extra-inning blast off Jeanmar Gomez carried the day (all three Milwaukee runs were solo dingers, including the ninth-inning game-knotter by Ryan Braun off Jason Grilli) despite eight innings of six-hit, one-run ball by Cole.