5/1 Through the 1950s: Fondy/Baker-Long/Walls; Double Slams; Hart 1-Hitter; Stu Shot; Game Tales; HBD Ray, Heinie, George, Bills & Tom

• 1859 - IF Tom Forster was born in New York City. He played four big league seasons for three teams, including a stop with the Pittsburgh Alleghenys in 1884, where he hit .222. Tom had a 10-year pro career, playing his last campaign in 1891 for Hartford of the Atlantic Association at age 31. 
• 1860 - SS Bill White was born in Bridgeport, Ohio. He played five years in the big leagues for four different clubs, spending 1884 with the Alleghenys as a bench infielder and hitting .227. He played until 1889 with a reputation as a good gloveman. Bill’s last minor league season was 1894, and he later managed the Wheeling minor league clubs on three different occasions. 
• 1885 - RHP George McQuillan was born in Brooklyn. He was a decent pitcher for low-scoring teams (10 MLB years with four clubs), going 29-33-6 from 1913-15 with a 3.06 ERA for the Pirates. In 1907 he set one of the longest-lived records in MLB history when he pitched 25 innings for the Philadelphia A’s before giving up his first earned run. The mark stood for 101 years before being broken by Oakland Athletics reliever Brad Ziegler, who extended the record to 39-1/3 IP. 
• 1886 - C Bill Kelly was born in Baltimore. He came to the Pirates from minor league St. Paul in 1911, becoming their third catcher and serving as the personal caddy for P Marty O’Toole. He played here through 1913, hitting .293 with 20 RBI’s in 102 games with a rep as a good hit, bad glove backstop. 

Bill Kelly - 1912 T207

• 1895 - Bill Hart hurled a one-hitter in a 4-1 victory over Cincinnati at Exposition Park. CF Jake Stenzel and C Joe Sugden each had a pair of knocks to lead the Pirates while SS Monte Cross made several nice running catches of short outfield flares. C Joe Sugden and CF Casey Stengel both outhit the Reds with a pair of knocks each, with Stengel driving in three runs and scoring twice. As the Pittsburgh Press noted of the Cincy club: “One hit will not win many games.” 
• 1896 - RHP Heinie Meine was born in St. Louis. The twirler spent six seasons with Pittsburgh (1929-1934), going 66-50 with a 3.95 ERA. Between 1931-33 he was a workhorse, throwing 663-2/3 frames in 96 games, going 46-30. In 1931, he led the NL in wins (19), innings pitched (284), and was fourth in ERA (2.98). He was a popular guy, known as "The Count of Luxemburg" because he ran a hometown speakeasy/tavern in the Luxembourg section of St. Louis. The watering hole in fact, was his ticket to the show. A successful pitcher in the minors, he failed a couple of big league tryouts and retired from the slab to behind the bar. Of course, baseball was a hot topic when Heine was pouring the suds, and his customers dared him to put up or shut up on the premise that he was an MLB-caliber pitcher. He finally took them up on the challenge, caught on with AA Kansas City in ’28 and next season, at 33 years old, proved himself in Pittsburgh. 
• 1917 - 2B Giovanni “Johnny” Berardino was born in Los Angeles. He made stops with the Bucs in 1950 and 1952 (.187 BA in 59 games), but his claim to fame wasn’t at the ballyard but in the back lots as he went on to become a TV soap opera star playing the role of Dr. Steve Hardy of General Hospital. 

Bill Swift - 1934 Goudey

• 1933 - The Pirates banged a pair of grand slams to back Bill Swift’s nine-hit, complete game shutout pitching and throttled the Philadelphia Phils, 10-0, at the Baker Bowl. Arky Vaughan hit an inside-the-park grannie when his ball caromed wildly off the scoreboard in the third frame, then the Bucs iced the game with a five spot in the seventh, primarily fueled by Earl Grace’s grand slam over the right field wall. Vaughan and Grace became the first pair of Pirates to hit grand salamis in the same game, with Bill Madlock & Richie Hebner matching their feat in 1982. 
• 1953 - The Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 8-3, at Forbes Field for their third win in a row, their longest streak since August, 1951. 22-year-old bonus baby Paul Pettit was the winner in his first MLB start. It was his only big league win, as he never recovered from arm injuries suffered the previous year on the farm, and spent most of his remaining career as a minor league outfielder. Pete Castiglione had a big day at the dish to back Pettit with three hits, including two homers. 
• 1955 - Pirate pitching coach Ray Searage was born in Freeport, NY. The West Liberty State grad coached for the Williamsport Crosscutters in 2003-04, the Hickory Crawdads in 2005, the Altoona Curve in 2006-07 and the Indianapolis Indians in 2008-09. In 2010, he replaced Joe Kerrigan during John Russell’s final season and remained through 2019 during Clint Hurdle’s tenure. He was a reliever in his seven-year MLB career, spinning the cowhide for four different clubs, and coached for the Miami Marlins & St. Louis Cards before joining the Pirates. 
• 1957 - The Cubs sent 1B Dee Fondy and 2B Gene Baker to the Bucs for 1B Dale Long and OF Lee Walls. Fondy hit .313 and Baker .266 as Bucs while Walls and Long combined for 44 Chicago HRs in 1958. Fondy’s last season was ‘58 while Baker lasted through 1961, but as a bench piece, he only collected 119 plate appearances after starting in ‘57. Long played through 1963, but ‘58 would be his last 20-homer campaign. Walls became an All-Star with 24 bombs in ‘58, and that campaign was the last season that he posted double-digit dingers. He played 10 seasons, his last being in 1964, for five clubs.

Frank Thomas - 1958 Topps

• 1958 - Frank Thomas banged a pair of homers in the Pirates 8-3 win over the Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum. It was the Bucs sixth straight win, including three-in-a-row in LA, with Thomas tagging four dingers in the three games before the Bucs were dropped the next day. The biggest blow was delivered by winning pitcher Vern Law, who smacked a three-run homer to pull away from the Dodgers. 
• 1959 - Dick Stuart hit one of the longest shots ever launched at Forbes Field, carrying well over the scoreboard and landing in the Schenley Plaza parking lot when he caught all of an 0-2 curve off Jim Brosnan. Alas, the almost-500’ two-run, two-out drive in the ninth only made it close as the Bucs went down to the Cards 7-6. Big Stu had three hits, including a double, in the loss.