6/8 From 1970: Cutch's First 4-Tet; Watson Debut; Rook's Walk; Roberto Mural; Game Tales; Drafts

• 1971 - The Bucs picked prep SS Craig Reynolds 22nd overall. He played 15 years of big league ball, mainly with the Houston Astros, and was a two-time All-Star with Seattle and then the ‘Stros. Second rounder Doug Bair spent 15 years tossing in the show, making 586 outings for seven different teams. None of the other 29 guys selected made it to the majors. 
• 1973 - The Pirates broke a five-game losing streak behind the efforts of three stalwarts - Bob Moose, Al Oliver and Willie Stargell - to drop Houston 4-1 at the Astrodome. The ‘Stros Don Wilson had been cruising early on, but in the fifth frame, he walked the bases loaded. With two outs, Scoops’ single drove in a pair and Pops’ double off the wall brought home two more runs. It was all Moose needed to work with as he scattered eight hits and K’ed six, going tape-to-tape for the win and running his career record to 8-1 against Houston. 
• 1976 - Prep RHP Jim Parke was the Pirates first round (#21) pick; he stalled at A ball. OF Doe Boyland & LHP Mike Madden were the next two picks; they got into 92 big league games combined. The only notable selection Pittsburgh made during the draft was 17th round pick LHP Rick Honeycutt, who tossed for 21 MLB seasons and made a couple of All-Star teams. 
• 1979 - Trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Three Rivers Stadium, Willie Stargell banged a two-out, pinch-hit homer with Omar Moreno, who had singled before him, aboard to knot the score for the Pirates. The next batter, Dave Parker, went back-to-back with Pops to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead over John Curtis. Grant Jackson finished off the G-men in the ninth frame to pick up his seventh save while Enrique Romo got the win after a solid start by Don Robinson in front of a Friday night crowd of 18,227. 

Willie Stargell - 1979 Hostess

• 1981 - The Pirates made Jim Winn, a RHP from Arkansas’ John Brown U, their #1 pick (#14 overall). He pitched from 1983-86 for Pittsburgh, mainly from the pen, with a 7-11-4/4.47 line. RHP Lee Tunnell was the second pick (#40 overall) and was with the Bucs from 1982-85, going 17-24-1/4.06 primarily as a starter. Bip Roberts was drafted but didn’t sign and the Pirates redrafted him the following year. He was lost in the Rule 5 draft and went on to play 12 big league seasons, most as a Padre. Three guys they drafted but couldn’t sign went on to productive MLB careers - OF Lance Johnson and RHPs Chris Boscio & Lance Bankhead. 
• 1989 - The Pirates sent up 16 batters and scored 10 runs in the top of the first inning against the Phils at Veterans Stadium, and TV announcer Jim Rooker said over the air “If we lose this game, I’ll walk home.” Rooker spoke too soon - Philly came back and won the contest, 15-11, and Rook made good on his promise after the season, taking a 320-mile charity hike from the Vet in Philadelphia to Pittsburgh’s TRS. It was called “Jim Rooker’s Unintentional Walk” and raised an estimated $100K for Bob Prince Charities and Children’s Hospital. 
• 2002 - The Pirates walked off the Brewers, 9-8, in 11 innings, in front of 38,244 fans at PNC Park. Trailing 8-4 after six innings, the Bucs scored three runs in the seventh frame on a Brian Giles bomb and tied it in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Aramis Ramirez that scored Rob Mackowiak. Jack Wilson, who went 4-for-6 in the game, doubled to lead off the 11th inning and scored the game-winning run after a single by Craig Wilson. Brian Boehringer, the Bucs fifth hurler in a match that was started by Kris Benson, worked 1-1/3 innings for the victory. 
• 2009 - Andrew McCutchen had his first MLB four-hit day at Turner Field against the Atlanta Braves in a 7-6 loss. He tripled twice, the first Pirate to bang a pair of three baggers in a game since Tike Redman in 2003, and doubled once. The game was tied 6-6 in the seventh; thanks to strong bullpen work by both clubs, it went on to the 15th before the Bravos pulled out the win thanks to a pair of walks and an infield single against Jeff Karstens. 

Cutch - 2009 Topps Heritage

• 2010 - The Pirates were the first victims of the Nationals Stephen Strasburg, as he struck out 14, a Nat record, in winning his first MLB outing, 5-2, at Nationals Park. He struck out every batter in the Pirates' lineup at least once and fanned the last seven batters he faced (another team record). Washington sent the cap he wore that night to the Hall of Fame. 
• 2011 - The Pirates rallied twice in extra innings to defeat the Arizona D-Backs, 3-2, at PNC Park. Ex-Bucco Zach Duke started for the Snakes, and though he was touched up for nine hits, he only gave up a run. Arizona pulled ahead, 2-1, in the 10th frame, but Neil Walker singled home Cutch in the Pirate half to tie it. Winner Daniel McCutchen tossed the 11th and 12th innings, and worked out of first-and-third situations in both frames; the jam in the 11th was set up with no outs, but he got a K and DP. In the bottom of the 12th, Cutch tucked a drive just inside the LF foul pole off Zach Kroenke to walk off the win. Cutch was clutch all day, going 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBI. Tony Watson made his debut as a Pirate, striking out both batters he faced in the eighth. 
• 2018 - Roberto Clemente had a memorial dedicated to him when artist Jeremy Raymer completed a two-story high mural of the Great One on the side of Verdetto’s Bar & Restaurant on North Side’s Madison Avenue. Raymer’s street artwork is visible to the traffic moving along northbound Route 279.