6/19 Through 1974: Waner Red Letter Days; Groat Debut; Game Tales; HBD Doug, Butch, Johnny, Fernando, Jerry, Don, Bill, Jake & Frank

• 1856 - Utilityman Frank McLaughlin was born in Lowell, Massachusetts by some sources; others say he was born in Ireland. Either way, Frank stopped in Pittsburgh between 1883-84, seeing not a lot of action as an Allegheny and then played with the Stogies next season. He hit .219 with the Alleghenys in ‘83 as a shortstop and went 0-0/13.00 in nine innings of mound work. Frank then went the Union League route, batting .239 as a second baseman before joining the Kansas City Unions, the club that he finished out his career with in 1884. 
• 1892 - SS Harry “Jake” Daubert was born in Columbus, Ohio. His major league career consisted of one at bat for the 1915 Pirates, and he fanned. Jake played pro ball from 1912-19, mostly in the Ohio State League, suiting up for 11 teams in his eight bush league campaigns. 
• 1908 - RHP Bill Swift was born in Elmira, New York. He tossed eight seasons (1932-39) for the Bucs, with a 91-79/3.57 record. Swift was a staff workhorse, going 200+ innings and picking up double-digit wins in his first five seasons, topping out with 16 wins in 1936. He wasn’t a power pitcher, with just 3.4 K/nine during his Pittsburgh career, but Bill gave up fewer than two walks per game and a homer just once every 18 frames. 

Bill Swift - 1934 Goudey

• 1912 - IF Don Gutteridge was born in Pittsburg, Kansas. The 12-year MLB vet closed out his big league days in Pittsburgh, retiring after getting into four games and going 0-for-2 in 1948. Afterward, he was a coach and briefly manager for the Chicago White Sox, later scouting for the Kansas City Royals, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers before retiring to Pittsburg. 
• 1927 - Paul Waner doubled twice in a 14-7 loss to the Cubs to extend his National League record extra base hit streak (12 doubles, 4 triples, 4 homers) to 14 straight games. The string ended the next day but has held up well so far, being matched only by Chipper Jones in 2006. 
• 1942 - Paul “Big Poison'' Waner, now 39 and a Boston Brave, joined Cap Anson and Honus Wagner as the only NL players with 3‚000 hits with a single to center off Rip Sewell, fittingly at Forbes Field. The game was stopped as the ball was presented to him, and both teams gathered round to offer their congratulations. Pittsburgh won the game in 11 innings, 7-6. Waner’s hit should have been 3,001. Two days earlier, he was given a hit on a ball that glanced off a glove; Waner had the scorer change it to an error so his 3,000th would be a clean knock. 
• 1949 - Jerry Reuss was born in St. Louis. The lefty spent six seasons with the Pirates (1974-78, 1990) posting a 61-46/3.52 line as a rotation mainstay. He won 220 games in a 22-year big league career. Jerry spent time as a coach and major/minor league announcer after his playing days, also writing a 2014 autobiography “Bring In the Right Hander!” 

Fernando Gonzalez - 1978 Topps

• 1950 - IF Fernando Gonzalez was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Fernando had a couple of stints with the Bucs, beginning his career with cups of coffee in 1972-73 and contributing as a role player in 1977-78 before being waived to the Padres. He hit .257 as a Pirate, played all the infield spots except first base and manned the corner outfield spots. He finished his career in 2004 playing in the Mexican League. After his playing days were over, Gonzalez coached in the New York Yankees system, was the field general for a team in Italy and now manages a traveling Puerto Rican youth squad. 
• 1952 - Bonus baby Dick Groat made his first big league start in an 8-1 Pirates victory over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. Groat went 2-for-4 with two RBI and handled six chances flawlessly in his debut, just three days after signing his first contract out of Duke. Veteran hurler Murry Dickson had a little bit to do with the win, too, as he tossed a complete game five-hitter and added three knocks, scoring three times, to help himself on both sides of the dish. 
• 1954 - IF Johnnie LeMaster was born in Portsmouth, Ohio. He played 12 years of MLB ball, and the Pirates were one of three teams he was on in 1985 (oddly, all three - the Pirates, Giants and Indians - finished last in their division). The good-glove utility guy hit .155, and made it back to the show briefly in 1987 with Oakland before his career closed. He retired to Painesville, Kentucky, where he was raised, and worked for Ashland Oil while coaching youth at various levels and serving as an elder/bible study leader for his church. 
• 1958 - OF Wallace “Butch” Davis was born in Williamston, North Carolina. He got eight years and 166 games in the big leagues. He sipped some coffee with the Pirates in 1987; in seven games he went 1-for-7 with three whiffs while spending most of his time at AAA Vancouver. He played 13 years in the minors with a couple of campaigns in Venezuela. After he hung up the spikes, he was a long-time Baltimore Orioles minor league hitting coach and manager before spending three years as a Minnesota Twins first base coach. He also lives on in baseball’s cinematic history: he made a cameo appearance in the movie Bull Durham. 

Bob Veale - 1968 Topps

• 1968 - The Pirates ran their winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Forbes Field. Bob Veale gave up a first-inning run, then settled in to toss a complete game six-hitter with eight strikeouts, dodging raindrops by coaxing three DPs. The Trolley Dodgers helped the Bucs to the win with a couple of miscues. A passed ball with Maury Wills at second set up the first run on a Willie Stargell sac fly and the game-winner came when Gene Alley walked in the seventh, stole second and went to third when Bill Singer misfired on an attempted pickoff, then scoring on Jerry May's two-out single. Singer was a tough nut to crack for the Pirates; he fanned 10 in seven frames despite the loss. The Pirates split a twinbill with LA the next day, taking the opener and dropping the nightcap to end their joy ride at nine games. 
• 1972 - Roberto Clemente’s two-run homer off Mike Strahler in the eighth inning of a 13-3 romp over the Dodgers at TRS moved him into second on the Pirates franchise list for RBI with 1,274, just past Pie Traynor. He would finish his career with 1,305 runs batted in, now third on the all-time Pirate roster behind Honus Wagner and Willie Stargell. The Great One finished with three hits as did Al Oliver w/a homer; Vic Davalillo led the parade with four raps. Dock Ellis was rattled for 11 hits, but lasted until the eighth when Bob Miller came in to mop up. 
• 1974 - IF Doug Mientkiewicz was born in Toledo, Ohio. Doug had a 12-year MLB career and spent 2008 in Pittsburgh playing 1B, 3B and RF while batting .277 in 125 games. “Eyechart” retired the following campaign after playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and coached briefly for them in the minors. He also worked for the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers until 2019. At last look, he’s now a Florida fishing boat captain and Coral Springs HS coach.