7/19 Through the 1960s: Duke Joins; Hans Debut; Arky Cycle; Smith's Shades; Gems & Game Tales; HBD Vincente, Nick, Earl, Clint, Jeff, Jasper, Jim & Bill

• 1865 - RHP Bill Hart was born in Louisville. He played for Pittsburgh in 1895 and again in 1898, going 19-26-2/4.77 from the bump. He also played some OF during his eight-year career, but was strictly a hurler for the Bucs. Bill hit .237, marking him as a journeyman both on the rubber and at the dish. Hart was twice traded by the Pirates and they landed a pair of very good players in exchange, IF Bones Ely in 1896 and then OF Ginger Beaumont after the ‘98 campaign. 
• 1865 - 3B Jim Donnelly was born in New Haven, Connecticut. The son of immigrants, Jim played pro ball at some level from the time he was 18 in 1884 until 1902 when he was 36. He spent parts of 11 seasons in the show, split into two eras: 1884-91, when he was a regular for a while, and then after a four-year run in the minors, he returned as purely a big league bench guy from 1896-98. Jim spent part of that second stay with the Pirates in 1897, hitting just .193 before being shipped to the New York Giants in mid-season. He arrived in town with Steve Brodie from Baltimore as the O’s trade return for Jake Stenzel. Neither Donnelly nor Brodie made it to 1898 with the Bucs while Stenzel played on for three more seasons, batting .309 over that span. 
• 1873 - OF/1B Harry “Jasper” Davis was born in Philadelphia, with some sources citing the 18th as his birthdate. Jasper played early in his 22-year MLB stint for the Bucs, from 1896-98. He came to Pittsburgh in 1896 in a deal for Jake Beckley, and the 22-year-old hit .190 to finish the campaign before blooming in ‘97, batting .305 and then 293 in 1898. He was sent to the Louisville Colonels, and from there, he bounced around, landing with the Athletics in 1901 after taking a year off to work on the railroad. Harry played 16 of his next 17 seasons in Philadelphia (he had a hiatus in 1912 with Cleveland as a player/manager), batting .279 before retiring in 1917 at the age of 43. From 1912 on, his ballfield action was limited as he served as a player/coach for Connie Mack for most of that period. Fun fact: Jasper had a four-year run of leading MLB in long balls from 1904-07, yet hit just 75 homers between 1895-1917. He never launched more than 12 four-baggers in a single season, and in fact finished with double-figure dingers only twice. His nickname was given by his Girard College days schoolmates for reasons unknown. 

Hans w/Louisville - Ars Longa Pioneer Portrait

• 1887 - Honus Wagner made his National League debut with the Louisville Colonels, owned by Barney Dreyfuss. He got a hit and stole a base in a 12-2 win over the Brooklyn Grays. In 1900, Dreyfuss bought the Pittsburgh franchise and maneuvered most of the Louisville club onto the roster, including the Flying Dutchman, in a pretty astute bit of FO wheelin’-and-dealin’. 
• 1888 - C Ed “Jeff” Sweeney was born in Chicago. The defensive specialist spent eight years with the NY Highlanders/Yankees, two more in the minors, time in the Navy during WW1 and then finished his nine-year MLB run with the Pirates in 1919, getting into 17 games and hitting .095 before being sent to the PCL. He spent one more year in pro ball before calling it a career. 
• 1889 - RHP Francis Clinton “Clint” Rogge was born in Memphis, Michigan.The long-time minor league twirler (he beat the bushes from 1909-23) got his first big league ( Federal League) taste during the 1915 campaign when he was part of the Pittsburgh Rebels’ rotation. He held up fairly well against Fed batters, slashing 17-11/2.55 in 31 starts, compiling five shutouts and 254-1/3 IP. After that campaign, he started a long run with the Indianapolis Indians of the now minor-league American Association, getting one brief return to the show in 1921 with the Reds. 
• 1891 - LHP Earl Hamilton was born in Gibson, Illinois. The little southpaw spent six of his 14 big league seasons (1918-23) as a Pirate, putting up a line of 55-55-7/3.35 as both a starter and a long man. He won 115 MLB games overall, tossing for four clubs. Earl had a couple moments in the sun - he spun a no-hitter for the St. Louis Browns in 1912 and went 16 scoreless frames for the Bucs in a 1920 start, only to run out of gas and drop the decision in the 17th inning. 

Earl Hamilton - 1921 photo via RYM Auctions

• 1893 - From Charlton’s Baseball Chronology: “Pittsburgh used 19 hits – all singles – to win in Cleveland, 10-6. Pittsburgh was further aided by the defense of LF Elmer Smith, whose use of green glasses to fend off the sun greatly helped him in his fielding.” Lefty Killen went the route for the win and every Pirate had a hit, with six collecting multiple knocks. It was a noteworthy contest in that the game may be the first time that an outfielder fought the daytime sun with shades. 
• 1904 - The Pirates rallied for a pair of runs in the ninth inning off Giants ace Christy Mathewson to take a 2-1 victory at the Polo Grounds. Shut out on five hits going into the final frame, Honus Wagner tripled to left to ignite Pittsburgh, and an out later Jimmy Sebring banged out another three-bagger, ripping a shot off the first base bag that rolled into the corner. Pinch hitter Claude Ritchey followed with an RBI knock, and Mike Lynch made it stand up in the bottom half, tossing a complete game four-hitter against New York. The heated series featured manager John “Mugsy” McGraw and Mathewson getting into a jawing match with the hometown crowd the day before, a verbal (and profane) sparring session that lasted until they got back to their hotel. The Pittsburgh Press had a couple of juicy lines regarding the affair: “McGraw is not liked here...Some day he will carry things too far, and some husky Pittsburger will thump him” and then threw some shade at Christy: “ Matty... has to buy a cap a size larger after every victory…” 
• 1905 - Pittsburgh pulled to within five games of New York by overcoming a 5-2 deficit at the Polo Grounds to rally past the Giants, 8-5. It was Pittsburgh’s third straight win against the defending champions. Umpire Bill Klem was the target of a barrage of tossed garbage from the New York fans after ejecting Dan McGann and “Turkey Mike” Donlin from the game. They yapped their way into Klem’s bad graces as the Pittsburgh Press game story explained: “Umpire baiting was plentiful, with Taylor (the pitcher), McGann and Donlin the chief offenders of this style of play.” Sam Leever got the win, coming in as a second-inning reliever, while the offense was led by Otis Clymer’s three hits. The Bucs pounded out 15 knocks as five Pirates had multi-hit outings. 
• 1935 - C Nick Koback was born in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1953, at the age of 17, Koback signed with Pittsburgh as a bonus baby out of Hartford HS. Per bonus baby rules of the era, he made his MLB debut before playing in the minors and was the youngest player in the league As you might imagine, teenaged Nick wasn’t quite ready for showtime. He got some quick sips of coffee with the Bucs from 1953-55 and went 4-for-33 (.121). It was his only big league time with most of his career spent in the farm leagues and Mexico. He earned a reputation of a good hitter - of Titleists, not baseballs (his minor league lifetime BA was .243), and he became a golf pro after he left baseball.

Nick Koback - Autograph Card

• 1939 - Arky Vaughan led the Pirates 19-hit parade at the Polo Grounds, going 5-for-5 while hitting for his second career cycle as Pittsburgh banged the New York Giants, 10-3. Arky scored four times with two RBI and Chuck Klein extended his hitting streak to 18 games. Elby Fletcher slammed a long ball among three hits; Ray Berres added three knocks, and Fern Bell chased three teammates home with the well-supported Mace Brown going the distance for the win. Vaughan’s cycle was the first posted by a Pirate since 1933 - and that one belonged to Arky, too. 
• 1950 - Frank E. McKinney resigned as president of the Pirates. He sold his interests in the club to partners John Galbreath and Tom Johnson, with Galbreath assuming the presidency. Vice President Bing Crosby retained his minority interest. That group had bought the Bucs in 1946 from Barney Dreyfuss’ family and ran it until 1985 when the Pittsburgh Associates took over. 
• 1950 - The Pirates purchased 3B Bob “Duke” Dillinger from the Philadelphia Athletics for $35,000. The 31-year-old slap-hitter played 70 games from 1950-51 for the Bucs, batting .279. An All-Star (1949) and league hits leader (1948) for the St Louis Browns, Bob had also claimed the American League stolen base crown from 1947-49, but his wheels were wearing thin and he only swiped six sacks as a Bucco. The Pirates sold him to the Chicago White Sox in 1951, and that was his last hurrah after six MLB seasons. Two things conspired against Dillinger - he got to the show late, spending three years in the service, and he later developed an early case of “Steve Sax” disease, often unable to make the throw across the infield, and he wasn’t very much of a fielder even before the yips hit. He spent his final four years in the PCL with Sacramento. 
• 1952 - It wasn’t, as usual, a very good day for Pittsburgh as the Brooklyn Dodgers spanked them at Forbes Field by a 9-1 score. But it was another good day, also as usual, for Ralph Kiner. The Pirates slugger homered for the fourth time in four games and the seventh time in his past dozen outings. He would keep on and claim the home run title for a seventh straight year with 37 bombs and make his fifth consecutive All-Star appearance, all while playing for a horrible Bucco club that won just 42 games all year and finished 54-1/2 games behind the Dodgers. 

Vern Law - 1955 Bowman

• 1955 - Vern Law pitched 18 innings against the Milwaukee Braves in front of 7,900+ Forbes Field fans. And he didn’t even get the win; Bob Friend worked the 19th frame to get credit for the 4-3 victory. Law left after giving up two runs - one was unearned - on nine hits with two walks and 12 whiffs. Friend came in and gave up a score, but the Bucs came back with a pair of tallies on Gene Freese’s single, Dale Long’s double that chased home Freese, and the game-winning knock by Frank Thomas. It wasn’t even Law’s day to pitch - he took the hill on just two days' rest; he got the call to the slab when the scheduled hurler, Joe Gibbon, became ill. 
• 1963 - RHP Vincente Palacios was born in Manlio Fabio Altamirano, Mexico. He tossed five years (1987-88, 1990-92) for the Bucs as a spot starter and long man while a member of the Jimmy Leyland teams, slashing 12-8-6/4.03. His career was hampered by a pair of shoulder surgeries, and after his Pirate days, he yo-yoed between MLB and the Mexican League. 
• 1967 - The Pirates Dennis Ribant and the Giants Mike McCormack hooked up in a taut Forbes Field pitchers duel that wasn’t decided until the 11th frame. Pittsburgh scored in the first inning on a passed ball and the G-Men got a homer from Tom Haller in the second frame; it was a long line of zeroes after that. Ribant scattered nine hits while his teammates left the bases loaded three times after plating that first run. The fourth try proved the charm when Jerry May led off the 11th with a triple and a pair of intentional walks jammed the sacks again. Frank Linzy took McCormack’s spot to face Gene Alley, who singled home the game winner. The 2-1 win put the Pirates one game over .500 and that’s about how they finished; the club was 81-81 at the end. 
• 1968 - Rookie Bob Moose tossed a four-hitter as the Bucs dropped the Braves, 2-0, at Atlanta Stadium. Moose also issued four walks but was never in trouble; no Brave reached third base. It was the 20-year-old’s third whitewash of the season. The Bravos’ Ron Reed was tough, too, as he scattered eight hits, allowing Donn Clendenon (who had two knocks) to score on a Bill Mazeroski single and later giving up an insurance run when Willie Stargell went deep.