5/28: Dale's 8th Dinger, Bay Reaches Six; Daddy Mack Celebrates; Key's Fireworks Nite; Candy Dangled; Game Tales; HBD Alex, Kirk, Sarge, Steve, Reddy & King

• 1881 - RHP James “King” Brady was born in Elmer, New Jersey. King worked two of his five MLB seasons with the Bucs in 1906-07, and didn’t get much work, going 1-1/2.16 in four starts while giving up an average of 11.5 hits every nine innings before he was shipped to the minors early in 1907 after taking a liner off the bean. He spent eight years on the farm, winning 85 games. It’s thought that a Pittsburgh writer gave him his moniker after a good outing. 
• 1903 - OF Romer “Reddy” Grey, brother of author Zane Grey (they were both originally Grays; their dad allegedly changed the spelling to dodge some bills), made his MLB bow as a Buc. He went 1-for-3 in his only big league game as the Pirates beat Boston, 7-6. Grey scored a run, knocked in another, drew a walk, and caught the only ball hit his way in the OF. He played on loan from the nearby Worcester minor league club as the Pirates, due to some injuries and personal issues, found themselves short handed for the game against the Beaneaters at the South End Grounds. Grey was an early AAAA ballplayer; he never found a home in MLB but had a career .311 minor league batting average. His author brother was also a ballplayer in his younger days; he even played at Pitt briefly. They were teammates on both the Jaxons and Findlay Sluggers of the Interstate League in 1895, and Zane went on to pen several baseball themed stories. 
• 1919 - LHP Steve Nagy was born in Franklin, New Jersey. Steve was teammates with a couple of famous folk, TV star Chuck “The Rifleman” Connors (who played for the Dodgers and the Cubs before going on to Hollywood) at Seton Hall University and Jackie Robinson as a Montreal Royal. He pitched briefly in the majors for two years, spending 1947 as a Pirates reliever and going 1-3/5.79. Steve missed time during WW2 while in the navy, but still managed to play 14 minor-league campaigns before he retired from the game after the 1958 season. 

Steve Nagy - 1947 photo via Baseball Birthdays

• 1921 - Pittsburgh protested their 4-3‚ 10-inning loss to the Reds and won. After Reds P Dolf Luque misfired the ball into the Cincinnati dugout, Clyde Barnhart was called out going to third when the ball was tossed back into the field. The Pirates said no way; it was a dead ball, and NL president Heydler agreed. The game was later replayed from that point (it was 3-3), and the Bucs took full advantage of their second chance, turning the table to win 4-3 on June 30th. 
• 1923 - LHP Bob “Sarge” Kuzava was born in Wyandotte, Michigan. Bob spent 10 years in MLB, stopping in Pittsburgh for four appearances lasting two innings in 1957. It was the last big league season for the 34-year-old; he was sold to the Cards and got three final outings. He began his career as a starter and finished it as a reliever/spot starter, with his highlights in 1952 when he went 2-2/3 no-hit innings for the Yankees to save the seventh game of the World Series against Brooklyn after closing out the clinching sixth game the year before with a perfect ninth inning to defeat the Giants, 4-3. Kuzava was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. He got his nickname of Sarge after spending three years during WW2 in Burma. 
• 1956 - First baseman Dale Long added to his major league record by hitting a home run in his eighth consecutive game, a 3-2 win over the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field. The liner was hit off of Carl Erskine in front of 32,221 Forbes Field fans who didn’t settle down until the big first baseman made a curtain call, said to be the first in Pirates history. He was even lauded in the US Senate by Carnegie Senator James Duff for his feat. The record was later tied by Don Mattingly (1987) and Ken Griffey, Jr. (1993). Brooklyn’s Don Newcombe closed out the string the following day as Long went 0-for-4. Dale finished the season with a career-high 27 long balls, the first of four 20+ HR seasons in five years, not a bad mark for a guy who didn’t get a chance to play every day until he was 29 years old. Bob Friend helped, tossing a complete game two-hitter. And the Pirates won seven-of-eight during Long’s streak but still finished in seventh place (66-88 record). 

Kirk Gibson - 1992 Topps Stadium Club

• 1957 - OF Kirk Gibson was born in Pontiac, Michigan. He spent 1992 as a Pirate toward the end of his 17-year MLB run, coming over from Kansas City in a swap for LHP Neal Heaton, and the 35-year-old was released in May after hitting .196. He closed out the final three years of his career with the Detroit Tigers after Sparky Anderson talked him out of retirement. The 1988 World Series hero has since worked as a coach, manager and announcer. 
• 1960 - Roberto Clemente was on third and Hal Smith on first with two outs in the eighth inning with Maz up at Forbes Field. He fanned, waving at a Rube Goldberg pitch that hit in the front of the plate, ricocheted off umpire Al Barlick and back to Phillies pitcher Jim Owens. Maz froze, Smith jogged to second and Clemente went halfway down the line. Owens chased Roberto as his bench called for him to throw to first, which he either didn’t hear or ignored. Caught in a run-down, Clemente knocked the ball out of C Jim Coker's glove to tie the score at 2-2, and the Pirates went on to win, 4-2, in the 13th inning on Don Hoak's two-run dinger. 
• 1963 - Called out at first on a bang-bang play for the second time in the game, Roberto Clemente twice jostled umpire Bill Jackowski while arguing the decision. Clemente was ejected, and skipper Danny Murtaugh got his Irish up, challenging the man in blue to duke it out until the Irishman was pulled away. The Great One was fined $250 and suspended for five days by the league. To top the day off, the Pirates lost, 5-1, to the Phils at Forbes Field. 
• 1977 - OF/1B Alex Hernandez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Alex was taken by Pittsburgh in the fourth round of the 1995 draft and spent two campaigns with the Pirates from 2001-02, getting into 27 games and hitting .183. After time in the Reds and Rays systems, he spent his last couple of pro seasons playing indie ball and in the Puerto Rican Winter League before retiring in 2006. 

Alex Hernandez - 1995 Topps Draft Pick

• 1985 - Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press wrote that the Pirates recently deposed GM, Pete Peterson, was talking trade with the Detroit Tigers by dangling lefty John Candelaria, who was approaching his 5-and-10 year veteran trade status. While the return package was just speculation, it was thought that Pirates were interested in OF Larry Herndon, RHP Juan Berenguer and 3B/C Marty Castillo in some combination. The deal had some legs; scouts for both sides were visiting one another’s farms and the brass said they’d continue to talk even with Pete gone. Candy Man was being shopped hard and eventually ended up with the Angels as part of a six-man deal on August 2nd. 
• 1988 - The Pirates whipped the Reds, 5-2, at Riverfront Stadium behind an unstoppable leadoff man Barry Bonds. BB went 2-for-2 and walked three times, scoring three runs with an RBI to rev the Bucco engine. Bobby Bonilla and Darnell Coles both added a single and double to help Bob Walk to earn the win following a Bob Kipper hold & Jeff Robinson save. 
• 1990 - Memorial Day seemed like it was going to be more memorable for Dodger pitcher Tim Belcher, who was working on a one-hitter through eight innings at TRS, than anything the Bucs would do. But in the end, the Pirates provided the holiday fireworks, scoring five times in the ninth off two Dodger relievers to take an improbable 6-5 win from LA. The Bucs trimmed the lead to 5-3 and loaded the bases with two down in the final frame. With the runners going, Chico Lind spanked a 3-2 liner through the right side. Bobby Bo scored and RF’er Hubie Brooks tried to cut down the tying run, Gary Redus, at the plate. The throw was up the line and C Mike Scioscia tried to snatch the ball and swipe the runner while still blocking the dish. His ballet by the dish didn’t pan out; he whiffed on the throw entirely and it rolled to the back wall, allowing Don Slaught to lumber in from first to plate the game winner for Bill Landrum, who had worked the ninth frame for Pittsburgh. The game did have a hot sidebar; a continuation of a beanball war, although denied by the several pitchers involved, led to a couple of shouting matches and the ejection of the Pirates Randy Kramer. 

Pat Meares - 2001 Topps

• 2001 - The Pirates put up a seven-spot in the eighth to erase a 5-1 deficit against the Marlins at PNC Park and send the fans home happy with an 8-5 victory on Memorial Day. The big frame featured a little of everything, from two Fish errors to a three-run bomb by Pat Meares, before Mike Williams sealed the deal with a scoreless ninth to save Jose Mesa’s win. Pirates starter Omar Oliveras was long gone while the Miami loss was absorbed by former Bucco reliever Dan Miceli. 
• 2004 - In the lidlifter of a twin bill, utilityman Rob Mackowiak smacked a two-out, walk-off grand slam for a 9-5 Pirates victory barely nine hours after his wife, Jennifer, gave birth to their first child, Garrett Matthew. Chicago’s Matt Clement had a tough outing with a wild pitch and plunks of Bobby Hill, Jason Kendall and Craig Wilson in the fifth frame of the opener (the three HBP in an inning tied the modern era MLB record), opening the gates to a four-run frame. In the second game, Mack drilled a two-run shot in the ninth, the 500th homer at PNC Park, into the same right center field seats as the one he hit three hours earlier to send the nitecap into extra innings, later won by Craig Wilson’s 10th inning homer, for a 5-4 sweep of the Cubs. It was the first time since 1967 that a team won both ends of a doubleheader via walk-off homers. 
• 2006 - The Pirates lost to the Astros, 5-4, at PNC Park. Houston scored four times in the ninth inning off three different Pirate pitchers to tie the game, then won it in the 10th on a Preston Wilson knock off Salomon Torres. The game did have a bright side. Jason Bay homered off Fernando Nieve in the fourth frame to run his consecutive game HR streak to six contests, the second longest in Pirate history after Dale Long’s 1956 eight-game streak, that started on the 22nd against Arizona’s Orlando Hernandez. Bay had a pair of bombs on the 20th, too, giving him nine home runs in nine games. 

Paul Maholm - 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen

• 2011 - Four Pirates (Andrew McCutchen, Lyle Overbay, Chris Snyder and Ronnie Cedeno) went long off three different Chicago pitchers as Pittsburgh whipped the Cubs, 10-1, at Wrigley Field. Paul Maholm dominated the Bruins, tossing a three-hitter for the complete game victory. 
• 2013 - The Bucs rode strong pitching and an 11th-inning home run by Neil Walker off Jose Ortega to edge the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park, 1-0, despite striking out 14 times. Jeanmar Gomez and Rick Porcello started the game while Jason Grilli finished it in style with swinging strikeouts of Motown’s Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. It was Grilled Cheese Grilli’s 21st save and preserved Mark “The Shark” Melancon’s first win as a Pirate. 
• 2022 - With a fireworks crowd of 38,000+ on hand at Petco Park, the Padres carried a 2-1 lead into the ninth against the Bucs with Taylor Rogers on the hill. Diego Castillo opened with a double and Tucupita Marcano walked. An out later, Ke’Bryan Hayes came up looking for his first homer of the season - he had gone 173 PAs/151 ABs without a long ball - and he ended both his streak and Rogers’, who hadn’t given up a dinger all year, when he sent a slider over the wall in straightaway center for an unlikely 4-2 comeback win. Hayes joined good company - the last player to go 150 or more at bats without a homer to begin a season and then hit a go-ahead homer in the ninth frame or later for his first was Tony Gwynn on June 5th, 1996, per Stats by Stats. Key had three of the Pirates eight hits after sitting out the series opener with a sore back. JT Brubaker started, Anthony Banda was credited with the win, and Dave Bednar got the save; The Friars stranded 16 runners against bend-but-don’t-break Bucco pitching. Closer Bednar was part of the Joe Musgrove deal, and Big Joe was the night’s San Diego starter.