8/13 Through 1954: Nicol-Menefee; ABC Affair; Ned's #1; Scout's Honor; Game Tales; HBD Mudcat, Vinegar Bend, Sid, Good Kid & Steve

• 1889 - Ned Hanlon won his managerial debut with the Alleghenys in a 9-0 thumping of the Beaneaters at Exposition Park. Pud Galvin tossed a five-hitter for the first Pittsburgh win of the season against Boston, which had taken the previous 11 matches. Galvin added a pair of hits, including a triple, and Jocko Fields and Jack Rowe contributed two knocks. 
• 1894 - The Pirates sent LHP George Nicol and cash to Louisville for RHP Jock Menefee. Nicol was blasted as a pitcher for the Colonels but showed some promise as an outfielder, batting .351 for the two teams over the year. Still, it would be his last in MLB. He played on through 1905, but spent the last 11 campaigns in the minors. Jock was also a part-time OF’er, but only got into two games with the Pirates. He did stick around the league, and after bouncing around some, Menefee spent 1900-03 with the Chicago Orphans/Cubs with a line of 37-36/3.20. 
• 1902 - The Bucs split a twinbill with the Boston Beaneaters at the South End Grounds. They lost the opener, 8-6, when ace Jack Chesbro blew a four-run lead in the eighth, giving up six scores. Tommy Leach doubled, homered and scored three times in a losing cause. They took the nightcap, 6-1, behind Deacon Phillippe. Wid Conroy had three hits, while Honus Wagner and Jesse Tannehill added a pair of knocks. The Bucs tortured Boston C Pat Moran, stealing seven bases, including second, third and home by The Flying Dutchman. Wagner became the first Pirate to steal second, third and home, and pulled off the feat four times during his career. Other Pirates larcenists to swipe a three-pack were Max Carey (2), Kiki Cuyler and Bobby Byrne. 
• 1903 - RHP Steve Swetonic was born in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County. A Pitt grad, he pitched for the Bucs from 1929-33 and in 1935 with a line of 37-36/3.81. He won 11 games in 1932 and tied for the league lead in shutouts with four. He spent his entire MLB career in Pittsburgh (he was briefly a Brave; the Bucs sold him to Boston but they returned him because of a bum wing); he then retired young at 28 because of his chronic sore arm. 

Steve Swetonic - 1929 TSN

• 1907 - C George “Good Kid” Susce was born in Pittsburgh. The local lad spent one of his eight big league seasons with the Pirates in 1939, hitting .227. After his career, Susce was a coach (mostly bullpen) for the Kansas City A's (1955-1956), Milwaukee Braves (1958-1959), Louisville Colonels (1960), Washington Senators (1961-1967), Jacksonville Suns (1968), Senators again (1969-1971), and the Texas Rangers (1972). He got his nickname as a rookie because he cheerfully did all the little housekeeping and hazing tasks that teams trot their young players through. His tradition carried on - to this day there’s a program that helps youngsters deal with social issues that’s called the George “Good Kid” Susce Foundation, based in Richmond. 
• 1910 - The Pirates and Brooklyn Superbas met at Washington Park for a twin bill, and the opener took 13 frames, with Pittsburgh coming out on top, 3-2. All the scoring was in extra innings, with Babe Adams and “Medicine Man” Scanlon each giving up a 10th inning run. The next three frames were turned over to Deacon Phillippe and Nap Rucker. Pittsburgh pushed a pair of runs over the plate in the 13th. Tommy Leach scored when Dots Miller worked a free pass with the bases jammed (after Honus Wagner had been intentionally walked to get to him), and Mike Flynn’s sac fly brought home Fred Clarke. Brooklyn fought back; Jake Daubert’s homer cut the lead to one and with two outs and a runner on, Jack Dalton drilled a ball deep to left, but Clarke ran it down. There was a lot more action in the nitecap, but it was called because of darkness with the score tied 8-8. According to Baseball Almanac & AP, the second match may have been the most evenly played contest in baseball annals: Both teams finished the game with exactly eight runs, thirteen hits, thirty-eight at bats, five strikeouts, three walks, one hit batter, one passed ball, thirteen assists, twenty-seven putouts and two errors with two pitchers used. (The numbers are close to the Press box score but not quite so exact, so we’re not sure which scorebook was right) 
• 1916 - The Pirates lost the opener of a twin bill against the Cards, 9-8, at Robison Field. The Bucs’ sticks stayed hot and put up eight runs in the first two innings of the nitecap, and while the visiting Pirates scurried to get five innings in, the Cards began to delay in hopes of darkness riding to the rescue. St. Louis stole 11 bases, while the Bucs added three as neither side challenged the swipes, both hoping to work the clock to their advantage. The game went five frames in a 9-5 Buc win, but led to an eventual rule change. 1920 saw the genesis of today’s defensive indifference rule, as uncontested stolen bases would not be credited.

Sid Gordon - 1954 Dan-Dee

• 1917 - OF/3B Sid Gordon was born in Brooklyn. Sid spent 13 years in the majors as one of its better sluggers. He homered at least once in every park in which he played in three seasons, was a two-time All-Star and had twice as many walks as whiffs during his career. He joined the Bucs in the 1953 off-season as part of the six-for-one deal that sent Danny O’Donnell to the Braves. Even though he was in his late 30s, he hit .290 with a dozen HR and 50 RBI in 147 games before being sold to the NY Giants, his original club, where he finished out the ‘55 campaign and retired. Sid was elected to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. 
• 1923 - The Bucs beat the Brooklyn Robins, 5-2, at Ebbets Field. Charlie Grimm had three hits and two RBI, and Max Carey stole second, third and home to back Lee Meadow’s four-hitter. Carey ended up the National League steals leader with 51 swiped sacks on the year. 
• 1926 - The ABC Affair concluded with Babe Adams, Carson Bigbee and Max Carey cut loose from the club. Adams had been a World Series hero, Bigbee had over a decade’s service with the team, and Carey was a Hall of Fame player. But they crossed management by holding a team meeting to complain of an odd management dynamic - Bill McKechnie was the manager, but the owner, Barney Dreyfuss, had Fred Clarke sit on the bench every game, leaving the players befuddled as to who was in charge. After the ABC heads rolled, Clarke never sat on the bench again (and in fact severed ties with his long-time team) and Dreyfuss fired McKechnie after the season. Another dynamic may have been some old-fashioned house cleaning: Per SABR’s Stephen Rice “Adams, at age 44, was done after nearly 3,000 innings pitched for the Pirates in 18 seasons. Bigbee, a reserve outfielder, was no longer needed after 11 seasons with the team. And Carey, the team captain in his 17th year with the club, was also let go.” 
• 1928 - Several thousand Boy Scouts gathered at Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park and marched to Forbes Field behind a 20-piece band. The boys did a lap around the yard, then stopped at home plate where Bucco owner Barney Dreyfuss was made an honorary First Class scout of Rodef Shalom’s Troop #5 and presented with a Scout’s Manual. Then the youngsters trooped to the stands to watch the Pirates thump the Brooklyn Robins, 6-1, behind Ray Kremer, who not only tossed a six-hitter to earn his merit badge but chipped in a pair of RBI. 

Vinegar Bend - 1961 Kahn's Weiners

• 1930 - LHP Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell was born in Vinegar Bend, Alabama (or thereabouts, anyway). The Pirates sent 2B Julian Javier to St Louis for Mizell in May of 1960, and in four months he won 13 games to help carry the Bucs to the 1960 championship. In parts of three seasons, Mizell’s Bucco line was 21-16/3.94. He was nearing the end of his career and the Pirates shipped him to the NY Mets in 1962, and he retired at season’s end. He became a politician after baseball and went on to serve in local offices and as a three-term congressman from North Carolina after he stepped off of the slab. 
• 1930 - The Pirates won their fourth game in a row, scoring exactly eight runs in each victory, by dropping the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-4, at Forbes Field. Paul Waner had three hits and a homer while pitcher Ray Kremer helped himself with his stick by also going yard. 
• 1935 - RHP Jim “Mudcat” Grant was born in Lacoochee, Florida. Mudcat made 50 appearances for Pittsburgh with a 7-4-7/3.41 line but never tossed in the playoffs - he was acquired too late in 1971 (September) to be eligible for the roster and was sent to Oakland before the 1972 postseason began. His nickname was bestowed on him in the minors when a teammate dubbed him Mudcat, mistakenly believing that he hailed from Mississippi, the home of the mudcat catfish. At least that’s his story; another claims that his Indians' MLB roomie Lary Doby pinned it on him when he claimed that Grant was as “ugly as a Mississippi mudcat.” Ouch. 
• 1950 - Pittsburgh took a twin bill from the Chicago Cubs by 7-4 and 2-0 scores at Forbes Field. The Bucs rode a six-run fifth inning to victory in the opener. Gus Bell had three hits, including two doubles, while Ralph Kiner (#200) and Danny O’Connell homered. Cliff Chambers went the distance for the win. Mel Queen was the story in the nitecap, tossing a complete game five-hitter with 11 K. Johnny Hopp went 4-for-4 and was a homer shy of the cycle. 
• 1953 - The Pirates fell behind three times but overcame the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3, at Forbes Field when Hal Rice’s eighth inning fly scored Cal Abrams with the game winner. Frank Thomas had a pair of solo homers to back Lefty LaPalme’s pitching. For the Bucs, it was a rare bright spot of the summer. The victory was their only win in a dozen game stretch.