6/15 Through the 1950s: Waner Sixer; Ding Dong Dino; 14-In-A-Row; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Big Wheel, Bruce, Gene, Bud, Babe, Jerry & Peek-A-Boo

• 1862 - 1B/OF/P William “Peek-A-Boo” Veach was born in Indianapolis. He only played part of the season with the Alleghenys in 1890 (did pretty well, too, hitting .300) and had just a brief three-year big league career with a lifetime .215 BA. He was also a Spanish-American War vet, but he made the cut for the history pages thanks to his unique nickname. When he pitched for the Kansas City Cowboys of the Union League in 1884, his club called pick-offs with hand signals from the bench for him as he became antsy with runners aboard. Veach would shift his eyes from the field to the dugout so often before a pitch that the runners caught on and dubbed him Peek-A-Boo, taken from a popular song title of the day. Afterward, the manager put a plant in the grandstands who would wave a game program to indicate when Veach should throw to first, but that was quickly sniffed out by the opponents, too. So the signaling system never became a thing, and largely explained both his nickname and conversion to 1B/OF. 
• 1863 - C Jerry Hurley was born in Boston. Jerry played three MLB campaigns, getting into 33 games. Eight of those were with the 1890 Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players League, where he hit .273 as a backup but wore out his welcome by sparring with manager Ned Hanlon. He did have an 11-year minor league career stretching from 1884-94 and managed briefly. 
• 1909 - The Pirates defeated the Brooklyn Superbas, 8-2, at Washington Park for their 14th straight victory. Sam Frock went the distance for the win despite giving up 12 raps, backed by three hits from Fred Clarke and a Wee Tommy Leach homer. The streak was snapped the following day, but between May 24th-June 29th, Pittsburgh won 27-of-30 games on the way to the National Leaggue pennant and their first World Series title over Ty Cobb’s Detroit Tigers. 

Sam Frock - 1909 Press photo

• 1912 - 1B Babe Dahlgren was born in San Francisco. He played for the Pirates from 1944-45, hitting .271 and earning an All-Star spot in 1944. Babe was famous for two things: He replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939, ending the Iron Horse’s 2,130 game playing streak, and was credited as being the first MLB player to take a drug test for a non-performance enhancing drug. He took it voluntarily (and passed) in 1943 to dispel rumors that he was smoking wacky tobacco, a false allegation that hung over his career, Still, he played for eight teams in 12 seasons. 
• 1916 - OF Eddie “Bud” Stewart was born in Sacramento, California. He started his nine-year MLB run (.268 lifetime BA) in Pittsburgh in 1941-42, hitting .242. He was a strong defensive player with good speed and a dependable pinch-hitter. His ball-playing days were interrupted by WW2 when he entered the Army. Bud returned to his California roots after his playing days as a gym teacher and moonlighted as an extra in several Hollywood flicks. 
• 1925 - Gene Baker was born in Davenport, Iowa. The back-up infielder played for the Bucs from 1957-58 and 1960-61 with a .259 BA. In 1961, he became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia farm club in the New York-Penn League. In 1963, the Pirates promoted him to the big team as the second black coach in MLB, following Buck O'Neil, who had been hired three months earlier. When Danny Murtaugh was tossed by an ump, Baker became the interim manager for two games, making him the first black to manage a team in a major league game. Baker managed Batavia again in 1964, and then returned to Davenport where he settled in as the Bucs’ top midwest scout for 23 years. 

Paul Waner - Helmar Hey Batter

• 1929 - The Pirates lost a lumberfest to the New York Giants in 14 innings at Forbes Field by a 20-15 tally, with 11 of the runs coming in the last frame, keeping the 25,000 fans in their seats until the bitter end. The Bucs overcame a five-run deficit in the final three innings capped by a three-spot in the ninth frame (they stranded the winning run at third with an out) and then traded runs with the G-Men in the 11th inning to keep the game going on Pie Traynor’s two-out homer. Paul Waner had six hits, Rollie Hemsley added four more and Traynor chipped in three knocks; four other Buccos had two raps as the Pirates banged out 24 hits but stranded 17 runners. Pittsburgh used six pitchers with Steve Swetonic taking the loss although his relief man Larry French was charged with seven of the eight runs the Giants scored in the final go-around. 
• 1941 - RHP Bruce Dal Canton was born in California, Washington county. Dal Canton pitched for California State College and had a low-key entry to pro baseball. After graduating, he became a science teacher at Burgettstown HS and played ball in an amateur league where he was discovered by scout Rex Bowen. The team signed him in 1966 and he debuted in the majors the next year. Bruce tossed his first four big-league seasons (1967-70) in Pittsburgh and spun a 20-8-8/3.57 line. He put together an 11-year career as a starter and long man, also twirling for Kansas City, Atlanta and the White Sox. Dal Canton was a Braves minor league pitching coach for a decade when he was discovered to have cancer in 2008; he passed away six months later. 
• 1944 - Max Butcher ducked the bullets and went the distance as the Bucs edged the Reds, 1-0, at Crosley Field. The Pirates scored with two down in the ninth when Bob Elliott’s single to center sent Lee Handley home for the Pirates only tally against Cincinnati’s Tom de la Cruz. Butcher gave up eight hits during the afternoon, but the Redlegs went 0-for-8 with RISP while Handley was only the second Bucco to get into scoring position against de la Cruz. 

Max Butcher - 1942 Play Ball

• 1949 - Rookie OF Dino Restelli homered twice and drove in five RBI against Boston’s Warren Spahn, leading the Pirates to an 8-7, come-from-behind victory at Forbes Field and make Rip Sewell, on in relief, a winner. Despite the blazing start, Dino was back in the minors next season. Some people say his career was ruined after he wore an Ewell Blackwell fastball; another theory was that he couldn’t see because of east coast humidity - his glasses would fog up! 
• 1956 - C Lance “Big Wheel'' Parrish was born in Clairton. Lance spent 19 years in the show, returning home as a 38-year-old in 1994, putting up a .270 BA. He was an eight-time All-Star for three different teams, six-time Silver Slugger awardee and three-time Gold Glove honoree. Since retiring, he’s been both a major and minor league coach, announcer, and is now a minor league manager. The nickname “Big Wheel'' came about in the early ’80s based on a Mel Allen “This Week in Baseball” feature. Allen opened with “...the wheels of the Motor City were turning...” and referred to Parrish as the Big Wheel, per Baseball By the Letters.