5/17 Through 1954: Rojek - Rocky; Leever Faces 27 Batters; Helpin' Hank; Game Tales; HBD Ozzie, Cool Papa, Harry, Hal, Elmer, Fred, Frank, Henry & Billy

• 1857 - IF Billy Reid was born in London, Ontario. The second baseman was part of a wave of Ontario-born Canadian players that played in the majors around the turn of the 20th century. He had a brief career, spending his second and last season with the Alleghenys, batting .243 in 1884, after a stint with the Baltimore Orioles. Billy played in the minors until 1888 before returning to London. 
• 1858 - UT Henry Oberbeck was born in St. Louis (maybe) Missouri (for sure). He played 66 matches for two leagues and four teams in two years for a short-lived but busy MLB career. Henry started out with two games at first base for the Alleghenys in 1883, going two-for-nine with a double and a run scored before moving on to the hometown St. Louis Browns. Henry left an impact on baseball when he won a suit against the Browns (Henry Oberbeck v. Sportsman’s Park and Club Association) to collect his entire contracted salary of $785 (although pro-rated by the jury to $431); the MO of the teams of that era was to quit paying a player once they had released him. The verdict was one of the early court decisions that ruled contracts not only bound the player to the team, but that the team was bound to pay its players, although owners found ways to circumvent it. 
• 1860 - RHP Frank Mountain was born in Fort Edward, New York. Frank, who was coming off a 23-win campaign with a no-hitter, was one of 10 players the Alleghenys bought from the defunct Columbus Colts club after the 1884 season. Frank only got to pitch seven games in 1985-86, going 1-6/5.23, and saw more time in his second year at 1B. After hitting .145, his MLB days were done. 

Frank Mountain - 1884 Columbus team snip via No-no Hitters

• 1868 - LHP Fred Woodcock was born in Winchendon, Massachusetts. Fred’s MLB career consisted of five games (four starts) tossed for the 1892 Pirates; he went 1-2/3.35. He was signed out of Brown (he started at Dartmouth and there were suspicions that he was a pro at some point during his college career) by Bucco manager Bill McGunnigle, who was high on him. But alas for both Gunner and Fred, Tom Burns became the Pirates skipper and Woodcock was released. He later pitched for a couple of New England League teams and then became a successful insurance broker. 
• 1886 - RHP Elmer Steele was born in Rhinebeck, New York. He spent the final two seasons of his five-year career with Pittsburgh in 1910-11, slashing 9-10-2/2.56 over that time. He left the team under unusual circumstances, being sold to Brooklyn in September although the Pirates were in a pennant race at the time. One school of thought believed he had a bad arm, though the likelier tale is that the fiery Steele had thrown several tantrums and finally pushed the Pirates to the brink when he tossed a sweater in the face of Pirates manager Fred Clarke per Bill Newlin of SABR. At any rate, 1911 was his last big league year. He played in the minors until 1914 and settled into being a player & manager in the local Hudson Valley leagues while spending 30 years as a mailman for his day job. 
• 1889 - Per John Dreker of Pirates Prospects “After issuing 10 BB in his debut (on this date), Pittsburgh P Al Krumm offered to buy a hat for any batter than drew a BB off him next game.” The Alleghenys lost that match to the NY Giants, 11-7, as Krumm went the distance. He never did get a chance to back up his bet - it was the only MLB game he ever pitched. 
• 1892 - RHP Harold “Hal” Carlson was born in Rockford, Illinois. He was with the Pirates from 1917-23, with a year off as an infantryman in WW1, posting a 42-55/3.64 line as a curve-ball specialist; he had started out as a spitballer, but wasn’t grandfathered in when the pitch was outlawed. Hal was handy with a stick, too, hitting .224. Carlson died while with the Cubs at the age of 38, the victim of a stomach hemorrhage that some speculate may have been an undiagnosed consequence of being gassed during the Battle of the Argonne Forest. 

Hal Carlson - 1921 photo George Rinhart/Getty

• 1897 - 3B Harry Riconda was born in New York City. He spent parts of six years in the majors, with a brief two-month stop in Pittsburgh in 1929, arriving as part of the Glenn Wright trade with Brooklyn. Harry got into eight games and went a pretty solid 7-for-15 with three runs scored and two RBI, but was still sent to the minors next season (Hall of Famer Pie Traynor owned third base at the time). He was lost to the Cincinnati Reds in the Rule 5 draft, got one at bat with them and then retired two years later after spending time with four farm clubs. 
• 1903 - James “Cool Papa” Bell was born in Starkville, Mississippi. He played for both the Homestead Grays (1932, 1943–1946) and Pittsburgh Crawfords (1933–1938), posting a .337 BA in the Negro Leagues. His speed was legendary. One Satch Paige story goes that when facing Bell, the outfielder hit a liner up that went zipping past Paige's ear and hit Bell in the butt as he was sliding into second base. He also claimed that when he roomed with Bell, Cool Papa hit the light switch one night and was in bed before the light went out. The first Mexican League Triple Crown winner (he played there for three years), Bell was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Per “Mississippi History Now,” Bell told baseball writer John Holway about his nickname: “They said that ‘he’s so cool he don’t get excited.’ St. Louis Stars Manager Bill Gatewood said, ‘We’ve got to add something to it. We’ll call him Cool Papa.’” Thus was born the legendary name. The Negro League Museum has a slightly different take, saying that when Gatewood thought Bell might be nervous before a big game, Bell responded with a "Don't worry!" and thus became "Cool Papa." Yet a third goes back to his pitching days (yep, he started out on the hill) per Baseball Comes Alive: Teammates referred to him as “Cool” after he struck out Oscar Charleston, and then he added “Papa” because he thought it sounded better. Yet another story says that veteran teammates gave him the moniker as a 17-year-old rookie, when their predictions that big summer crowds would intimidate him proved false. Whichever bit of lore is right, he was obviously a Cool Papa from the start 
• 1906 - “The Goshen Schoolmaster” Sam Leever tossed a three-hit shutout against Iron Man Joe McGinnity as the Bucs defeated the New York Giants 2-0. Leever faced just 27 NY batters at Expo Park. Two runners were erased on DPs and the other was caught stealing. Tommie Leach scored the first run and drove home the second. It was a turnaround in fortune for the Pirates. The Pittsburgh Press wrote that after the win “You couldn’t find a ‘knocker’ within 10 miles of Exposition Park...(when) a week ago those Buccaneers were mutts.” To add insult to injury, Giant manager John “Mugsy” McGraw was hauled in front of a magistrate after the game and charged with assault after getting into a post-game shouting match with some boys on the way back to his hotel. The “joshing” ended when Mugsy grabbed the whip from his coach driver and lashed at the kids (literally). He caught one urchin in the face, sending him tumbling out of his passing wagon and Mugsy to court.

Possum Whitted - 1921 photo Conlan/Getty

• 1920 - The Pirates scored three runs in the bottom of the 15th to edge the Giants, 7-6, at Forbes Field. NY plated a pair in the 15th when C Walter Schmidt took his sweet time chasing down a wild pitch by Elmer Ponder, allowing not one but two Giants to score. Pittsburgh rallied and took the contest in their half when Charlie Grimm singled in Possum Whitted with two down for the game winner. Despite all that overtime action, the game took just 2:43 to complete. 
• 1932 - Utilityman Osvaldo “Ozzie” Virgil Sr. was born in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. The first Dominican to start in MLB, he spent nine campaigns playing off MLB benches, stopping in Pittsburgh in 1965 and hitting .265 while playing infield and catching. After he retired, he coached for nearly 20 years. His son, Ozzie Jr., played in 11 MLB seasons (1980–90) and was a two-time NL All-Star. 
• 1947 - Hank Greenberg, who had heard an anti-semitic slur or three during his career, made Jackie Robinson’s transition a little easier when he checked on Robinson after a collision at first, then advised Jackie to “...stick in there. You’re doing fine” during a 4-0 Bucco win at Forbes Field over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Per Paul Guggenheimer of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Hammerin’ Hank (Greenberg was the original) told Jackie “Don’t pay attention to these guys who are trying to make it hard for you. I hope that you and I can get together for a talk. There are a few things I’ve learned down through the years that might help you and make it easier.” As far as the game went, da Bums outhit Pittsburgh 12-4, but one of the Pirate knocks was a two-run homer by Greenberg. 
• 1951 - Pittsburgh sent SS Stan Rojek to the St. Louis Cardinals for OF Erv Dusak and 1B Rocky Nelson. Nelson batted .267 in 71 games, then was put on waivers and claimed by the Chicago White Sox before the 1951 season ended. After bouncing around with five other clubs, he returned to the Pirates for a more memorable stint from 1959-61. Dusak played 41 games and hit .273 during the 1951-52 campaigns, which ended his stay in the majors. The Happy Rabbit was at the end of his MLB road, too, getting into just 60 more games before his career came to a close in 1952.