8/18 Through the 1960s: Strickland-Bernardino; Poison & Pie; Gunner Stays, Rickey Goes; NLASG & Game Tales; HBD Roberto, Spanky, Paul, Carl, Roger, Bernie, Burleigh & Spook

• 1891 - IF Wally “Spooks” Gerber was born in Columbus, Ohio. Gerber started his 15-year career with Pittsburgh in 1914-15 as a utilityman (he was another in a long line of Hans Wagner replacements at short), batting .207. Following his playing career, Gerber was an umpire in the Mid Atlantic League and also worked as a supervisor for the Columbus Recreation Department. Wally got his nickname because of his gaunt build. 
• 1893 - RHP Burleigh Grimes was born in Emerald, Wisconsin. The Hall of Famer spent five years with the Bucs (1916-17, 1928-29, 1934), beginning and ending his career in Pittsburgh with a couple years in the middle. His line was a modest 48-42/3.26 as a Pirate, but in a 19-year career with seven different clubs, Old Stubblebeard (he didn’t shave on game days, claiming the emery he used on ball irritated his face) won 269 decisions. He was also the last player of the 17 pitchers grandfathered in by the 1920 ban that was allowed to legally throw a spitball. 
• 1893 - RHP Bernie Duffy was born in Vinson, Oklahoma. He joined the Pirates briefly in 1913 as a highly touted arm, but in three outings (two starts), the 19-year-old lasted just 11-⅓ IP and gave up 18 hits while putting up a 5.56 ERA. He spent the next several years going from farm club to farm club, and after the 1917 season did what any self-respecting Oklahoman would do: he hung up the spikes and earned his daily bread as a wildcatter in the oil fields. 
• 1897 - LHP Roger Bowman was born in Amsterdam, New York. He closed out his five-year MLB career with two stops in Pittsburgh in 1953 and 1955, slashing 0-7/5.66. Bowman did have a long career in the minors, working from 1946-61 and once tossing a seven-inning perfecto, and also twirled in the Cuban and Venezuelan Leagues. He was a well-rounded fellow, playing sax for area big bands in the Adirondacks, turning an art degree into an upholstery business after his ball-playing days and earning a pilot's license. 

Babe Adams - Helmar Big League Brew

• 1914 - Babe Adams bested NY Giants Rube Marquard to take a 3-1 decision at Forbes Field. Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Press wrote that “Adams was more than their (the Giants) master and forced them to bow to defeat.” The Babe helped his own cause by banging an inside the park homer, set up when frustrated center fielder Bob Bescher didn’t chase the ball after it got past him and allowed it to roll almost to the wall as Adams circled the bases. 
• 1930 - Carl Barger was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. A corporate lawyer with Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott, he helped form and lead the Pittsburgh Associates to keep the Pirates in Pittsburgh after they were put up for sale by John Galbreath's family in 1985. He was president of the Pirates from 1987 to 1991 when he resigned to help his friend, Wayne Huinzenga, put together the Florida Marlins franchise. He died of a ruptured aorta while attending the winter meetings in 1992, before the Marlins had even played their first game. The Fish retired number 5 in his honor (though Carl was a long-time Pirates fan from his youth, Joe DiMaggio, who wore that number, was his favorite player). Fame is fleeting, though - the Marlins controversially unretired it for Logan Morrison in 2012, instead leaving a couple of practice fields named after Barger. 
• 1931 - Paul Waner went 5-for-6 to lead Pittsburgh to a 14-5 win over the Phils at the Baker Bowl. Pie Traynor added three hits, three runs and two RBI and Eddie Phillips drove in four runs to provide the muscle to allow righty Glenn Spencer to cruise to a complete game victory. 
• 1934 - The Great One, Roberto Clemente, was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The Hall of Famer and humanitarian compiled a lifetime .317 BA, hitting over .300 in 13 of his last 14 seasons, and collected 3,000 hits in eighteen years as a Pirate. He was a two-time World Series champ, 15-time All-Star, won 12 Golden Gloves, was an NL & WS MVP, had his number retired and since 2002 has been honored annually by a MLB special day. 

Roberto Clemente - 2021 Topps Chrome Refractor

• 1940 - Homestead Grays RHP Ray Brown worked the final two frames for the East All-Star club that shut out the West, 11-0, at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in the Negro League ASG. Teammate Buck Leonard added three hits, three RBI and scored twice for the winners. 
• 1940 - IF Paul Popovich was born in Flemington, West Virginia. The Mountaineer (he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame in 2013) closed out his 11-year career with Pittsburgh, hitting .211 in 1974-75 as a bench player for two division-winning clubs. After his playing days were finished, he spent a decade as an infield coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. 
• 1948 - The Bucs put up a six-spot in the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs to pull away for a 7-4 win at Wrigley Field. Future manager Danny Murtaugh drove in three runs, while rookie pitcher Bob Chesne helped himself to the victory with two hits, a run and an RBI. 
• 1952 - The Pirates sent IF George Strickland and RHP Ted “Cork” Wilks (he was called Cork in his St. Louis days because he was the club’s late-inning “stopper”) to the Cleveland Indians for Johnny Berardino‚ minor leaguer Charlie Sipple and $50‚000. For Berardino, it was his second stint in Pittsburgh, a stopping off point before his more lucrative career in movies and as a soap opera star, notably playing Dr. Steve Hardy on “General Hospital.” The deal was a win for the Cleves. Strickland ended up with eight years for the Tribe as a defensive whiz, playing 734 games while hitting .233. 
• 1956 - Manager Bobby Bragan literally shook up the lineup by sending the first six batters up in order of productivity, batting the pitcher seventh, and using the bottom pair to set up the top of the order. His lineup: Frank Thomas, Dale Long, Bill Virdon, Lee Walls, Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat, Bob Friend, Bill Mazeroski and Jack Shepard, one that Press beatman Les Biederman described as “...a batting order that defied every known law of the game.” It worked, though, as the Bucs pounded out a 9-1 victory over the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. To Bragan’s way of thinking, the old way of constructing lineups was archaic, but his method never won over the support of traditionalists or the analytic gurus, and the Designated Hitter rule has made it moot. 

Bobby Bragan - 1957 Hy Peskin/Getty

• 1959 - Branch Rickey resigned as chairman of the Pirates board of directors to become president of the Continental League, a proposed third major league. The league disbanded in 1960 without playing a single game, but it helped to accelerate the expansion of MLB. Owners who were opposed to the CL approved expansion clubs in Houston, Minnesota and New York, all potential CL cities, to draw membership away from the new league, eventually killing it. 
• 1960 - C Mike “Spanky” LaValliere was born in Charlotte, NC. Spanky caught for the Bucs from 1987-93, putting up a .278 BA, a Golden Glove winner and a part of three Jim Leyland-led division winning teams (1991-93). He played though the 1995 season before retiring as a White Sox. LaValliere is now an instructor at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. He picked up his nickname because his teammates thought he looked like Little Rascal Spanky from “Our Gang.” 
• 1966 - Oooops! 3B Jose Pagan tied the modern NL record for errors in an inning with three in the fourth frame, booting four balls overall, as Pittsburgh lost to Mets 9-5 at Shea Stadium. Jose’s bad mitt day led to six unearned runs charged to loser Woodie Fryman. And ouch, Pagan also went 0-for-4 with two whiffs. 
• 1969 - The Pirates showed some late inning two-out lightning at Crosley Field by scoring three times in the ninth to tie the Reds, 5-5, and then ringing up seven more runs in the 10th to steal a 12-5 win. The Buccos juiced the sacks with two gone, with two runners reaching on Cincy errors and another on a bunt single, before the extra-innings floodgate opened. Carl Taylor cleaned the bases with a double, a knock set up Pirates at the corners and Al Oliver’s double followed by Gene Alley’s homer added up to the seven spot. Alley had four hits during the contest while Alou and Roberto Clemente each chipped in with three. Bruce Dal Canton tossed the final three frames for the win in relief of Bob Moose. 

The Gunner - photo via SABR

• 1969 - Bucco broadcaster Bob Prince announced that he had a lucrative offer to switch booths and take Harry Caray’s place in St. Louis as Caray was in the Busch doghouse and was fired after the campaign. The Gunner didn’t sound like a man ready to move, though, as he told the Pittsburgh Press that “I wouldn’t quit a job where I’m #1 for one where I’d be #2 or #3. He stayed but his announcing teammate Jim “The Possum” Woods did accept a job there as the sidekick to Jack Buck, though he left after a year because the two didn’t get along particularly well.