4/24: Reb No-No; Fred First; Dovy, Paul, Hans, Openers & Game Tales; HBD Ryan, Bob, Dixie, Pete & Jim

• 1863 - 1B Jim Field was born in Philadelphia. He started out as a 20-year-old for Columbus in 1883, and joined the Alleghenys for the 1885 campaign when they bought the Buckeye roster. He started at first for Pittsburgh, but was released in July after hitting .239 and was claimed by Baltimore. Field spent five years in the big leagues (four in the AA) and bounced around the minors, mostly in the Eastern League, for another 15 seasons before his final hurrah in 1900. 
• 1889 - The Alleghenys took the Home Opener with a see-saw, 8-5, win over the Chicago White Stockings at Recreation Park in front of 3,000 rooters. Pud Galvin took the hill, and found himself in a 3-0 hole in the first, with a couple of costly errors and a wild pitch. The Allies tied it in the sixth on the strength of a Fred Dunlap double and two-run single by Fred Carroll; the Windy City came right back to score a pair and regain the lead, again aided by some shoddy fielding. Pittsburgh put it away in the seventh, launching a barrage of singles that led to five runs and a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Alleghenys had 12 hits on the day, led by Carroll with three knocks while Dunlap and Jake Beckley banged two hits apiece. Galvin went the distance, winning the first of 23 games on the year. The club would only win 61 times, finishing fifth and going through three managers. 

Fred Carroll - Ars Longa Art Card

• 1891 - Fred Carroll hit the first home run by a Pirate - formally, the Pittsburgh Nationals - in Exposition Park III (they played the year before in nearby Recreation Park as the Alleghenys (Jocko Fields of the Burghers was credited with the pro first home run there on June 10th, 1890), as the Bucs defeated the Chicago Colts, 11-8. They had unofficially become the Pirates in the off season in the out-of-town media when they “pirated” Lou Bierbauer from the Philadelphia A’s. 
• 1891 - Pete Falsey was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Pete’s only MLB stint was three games in 1914 with the Pirates; he went 0-for-1 with a whiff as a pinch hitter and got into two more games as a pinch runner during his two-week stay. The little lefty (5’6”, 132 lbs) joined the Bucs as a 23-year-old after playing for Yale, and following his Bucco visit, his baseball trail disappears; he doesn’t even show a position played in any of his MLB bios. 
• 1903 - Honus Wagner was having one of those days in the field, booting three balls (he had a busy afternoon at shortstop; Hans also cleanly handled 10 other chances) that helped the Cards head into the ninth with a 7-6 lead at Exposition Park. But there was no carryover with his bat. He tripled in the ninth and scored the tying run on a Kitty Bransfield single. Then with two away in the eleventh, Wagner walked, stole second and Kitty again chased him home with the game winner. The Dutchman collected four hits including two triples along with two RBI, four runs scored, and three stolen bases. 
• 1915 - Pittsburgh Rebel southpaw Frank Allen tossed a 2-0 no-hitter (four walks, four fans) against the St. Louis Terriers at Handlan Park in the last year of the Federal League, the short-lived (1913-15) major league “outlaw” option to the National and American Leagues. Terrier hurler Bob Groom kept it a tight game that was scoreless until the seventh when Ed Konetchy’s lead-off triple came home. The Rebs added an insurance run in the ninth on Rebel Oakes’ sac fly that plated Mike Mowrey. Allen went on to pitch a couple more seasons for the NL Boston Braves before calling it a career after the 1917 campaign. The Federal League was absorbed by the NL & AL, and a suit the FL filed eventually led to the still existent ruling that exempted baseball from antitrust laws. 

Dixie Howell - photo from Find-A-Grave

• 1920 - C Homer “Dixie” Howell was born in Louisville, Kentucky. The journeyman backstop began his MLB career as a Pirate in 1947 after being part of the Kirby Higbe deal and hit .276, but was later lost to the Cincinnati Reds as a Rule 5 pick. He spent 1949-56 as a back-up catcher for the Reds and then the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dixie doodles: He was one of three Dixie Howells to play MLB ball, and he & pitcher Millard "Dixie" Howell, also from Kentucky, were same-name teammates on the 1949 Cincinnati squad. 
• 1934 - The Bucs rallied to defeat the Gashouse Gang from St. Louis, 5-4, at Forbes Field in their home opener. Behind 4-2 going into the ninth, Freddie Lindstrom homered over the LF wall with two aboard to lift the Pirates to victory over the future NL champs. Leon Chagnon got the win in relief of Heinie Meine. Tommy Thevenow added two hits and chased home a pair of runs for the Pirates. 
• 1948 - 1B Bob Beall was born in Portland, Oregon. After being named high school "Baseball Player of the Year" for Oregon in 1966 and earning All-PAC honors at Oregon State, Bob spent three years with the Atlanta Braves and bowed out of the majors in 1980 after a three-game stand in Pittsburgh, going 0-for-3 as a pinch hitter. He was sent to his hometown AAA Portland Beavers as a player-coach, then retired in 1981 and began working for Nike. 
• 1985 - RHP Ryan Reid was born in Portland, Maine. The Pirates signed Reid to a contract for the 2013 season as an NRI. He got the call up on June 3rd, along with Jared Hughes, and made his major league debut that day. He lasted in the bullpen until July when AJ Burnett came off the DL and was sent back to Indy even though he did pretty well (1.64 ERA in seven outings w/1.091 WHIP) in the show. It was his only MLB stint as he was DFA’ed after the season. He finished his 10-year career in 2016, sharing time between Hi-A and an indie league. 

Ryan Reid - photo from Alchetron

• 1997 - The Bucs were a pitch away from dropping a game to the Cubs at Wrigley, but Jason Kendall proved that 26-2/3 outs weren’t enough when he lined a double to left on a 1-2 offering from Mel Rojas, scoring Al Martin to tie the match, and then plated two tosses later when Jose Guillen’s bleeder to short was thrown away to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead. Rich Loiselle closed it out by working the last two innings for the win, although he created a little final-frame drama when he intentionally walked Sammy Sosa to put runners at first and second with two down before fanning Doug Glanville. Pittsburgh’s first run was a Chicago gift, too - an error left runners on the corners, and with two outs, the Buccos ran the delayed steal/drawn throw/basepath bugaloo to perfection, with Martin avoiding the tag long enough for Jermaine Allensworth to scamper home. Allensworth was on third thanks to a wild pitch third strike, a stolen base, and an error. 
• 2007 - Paul Maholm tossed his first MLB complete game, allowing three hits and throwing 99 pitches in the 3-0 shutout win over the Astros at PNC Park. The game took just one hour and 57 minutes to complete. Jason Bay had three hits and drove in a pair while Ronny Paulino added a solo shot. 
• 2010 - In the first inning of his first appearance of the year, a 5-2 loss to the Astros at Minute Maid Park, Chris Jakubauskas was struck in the head by a liner off the bat of Houston's Lance Berkman. The 31-year old right-hander was flattened and left the field on a stretcher, but was thankfully later diagnosed with just a concussion rather than a fracture. Jaku didn’t pitch for the Bucs any more during the campaign, but tossed for Baltimore the following season. Chris retired in 2014 and now coaches a Nashville youth travel team. 

Starling Marte - 2016 Topps Bunt

• 2016 - The Pirates and Diamondbacks took advantage of hitter-friendly Chase Field, with the Bucs hanging on to take a 12-10, 13-inning victory. Pittsburgh went ahead early, 8-4, after four frames (every Pirate starter had scored or chased home a run by that time) but blew two-run leads in both the ninth and 12th frames to a unrelenting D-Back attack. Both benches were shot by the end; pitchers Zack Grienke and Patrick Corbin of the Snakes along with Jon Niese for the Buccos had to pinch hit (Greinke and Niese singled; Niese had an RBI) while Arizona hurler Shelby Miller manned left field and batted. Neftali Feliz was credited with the blown save/win combo after Arquimedes Caminero ended the game, striking out a pair of pitchers. Starling Marte had four hits; David Freese and Gregory Polanco had three each while eight different Pirates scored; 10 had RBI. 
• 2017 - RHP Dovydas Neverauskas made his MLB debut, becoming the first player born and raised in Lithuania to appear in a big league game. His first outing was mop-up duty in a 14-3 loss at PNC Park, working two frames against the Chicago Cubs and giving up a run on two hits. He picked up his first MLB whiff when he punched out the opposing pitcher, Justin Grimm, and his performance was up-and-down, showing potential but not much production. He was released in 2020, signed up with Hiroshima of the Japanese League, Bonn in the German League and is tossing indie ball this year.