9/11: B-2-B-2-B, Grannie For Ralph; Pie Joins; Baron Beat; Gott Rolls 7; 20 For Howie; First For Steven; Lotta 0's, Gems & Game Tales; HBD Nik, Sluggo, Dave, Jackie, Glenn, Cool & Steve

• 1868 - OF Steve Brodie was born in Warrenton, Virginia. He had speed, a great glove and good bat, playing 13 years in the show. He was traded to Pittsburgh against his wishes (he enjoyed playing in Baltimore) and stayed from 1897-98, hitting .283 before being dealt back to the Orioles in mid-season. When he retired, he went on to a career as a college coach, served during WW1, and then returned to run Baltimore’s brand new Memorial Stadium. 
• 1901 - IF Elbert “Cool” Turner was born in New York. He was a multi-sport star at what is now West Virginia State University and played Negro League ball from 1921-32, with a stop in Homestead in 1929 where he was the Grays’ third baseman. He only hit .159 and moved on, playing for four more teams before he retired. Turner coached high school football in the off-season, and after his retirement became head baseball coach of the North Carolina Central University Eagles. He also umpired for seven years in the second Negro National League. By that time, his nickname had, not too surprisingly, evolved from “Cool” into "Pops." 
• 1905 - RHP Glenn Spencer was born in Corning, NY. He was a Bucco in 1928, spent 1929 in the minors, then returned from 1930-32, going 23-29-8/4.48, mostly from the pen. Control was his Achilles Heel; he walked more batters than he K’ed in his five-year pro career which ended with the Giants during the 1933 campaign. He retired to become a salesman and served during WW2. 
• 1906 - The Pirates and Reds played a 15-inning scoreless draw at Forbes Field, the longest game to date at the venue. Deacon Phillippe started the game and Vic Willis finished, giving up 10 hits together while Bob Ewing of the Reds scattered eight knocks. The Reds golden opportunity was in the 13th inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out, but a pair of forces at home and a fly squelched that rally. The Bucs' big chance was foiled earlier when Tommy Sheehan bunted through an attempted squeeze play, leaving Dutch Meier hung out to dry. Meier was the only Pirate with more than a hit, collecting three knocks before ump Bill Klem called the game due to darkness. 

Howie Camnitz - 1912 T-207

• 1912 - Howie Camnitz tossed six scoreless innings in relief of Jack Ferry to earn his 20th win, 10-3, over Philadelphia at the Baker Bowl. Rosebud (he was a ginger) went 22-12-2/2.83 in 41 games (32 starts) to claim 20 wins for the third time in four seasons. Max Carey and Mike Simon led the attack with a combined seven hits and four RBI while “Turkey” Mike Donlin homered. 
• 1920 - The Pirates bought Pie Traynor from Portsmouth for $10,000, then the highest price paid for the contract of a Virginia League player. The Boston Braves had stashed the infielder there on the handshake assumption that they would have first dibs on him, but even an appeal to AL President Ban Johnson didn’t help in lieu of a written agreement, and the Portsmouth owner was more than willing to let him go to the highest bidder. So instead of playing for his hometown Boston club - he was a native of Framingham, Massachusetts - Traynor spent his 17-year MLB career in Pittsburgh, eventually earning a spot in the Hall of Fame. 
• 1940 - Jacinto “Jackie” Hernández was born in Central Tinguaro, Cuba. He had to slip into the USA; Cuba had cut its robust baseball program to the bone when Fidel Castro took over and Jackie made it stateside via Mexico to keep playing. He was ready to come home again, but his mom told him to stay right where he was at and chase his dream. The good glove, bad bat (.205 as a Pirate) SS played three seasons (1971-73) for Pittsburgh, and when the Bucs traded for him in 1970, manager Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles said that “The Pirates will never win a pennant with Jackie Hernandez at shortstop.” Not only did they win the flag, but Jackie was the regular shortstop from late August forward in 1971 as Gene Alley, the starter, had a bad shoulder. As fate would decree, he put the final nail in the Oriole coffin during the Series; the last out of the Bucs seventh game victory was recorded 6-3, Hernandez to Bob Robertson. Jackie’s nine-year MLB run ended with Pittsburgh after the 1973 season, and he’s coached and played at different levels/leagues since. He was still helping the Bucs as an instructor at Pirate City until he passed away in 2019. 

Jackie Hernandez - 1972 Topps '71 NLCS set

• 1944 - LHP Dave Roberts was born in Gallipolis, Ohio. In June, 1979 he was part of a big deal with the Giants, traded with Len Randle and Bill Madlock to the Pirates for Al Holland, Fred Breining, and Ed Whitson. He went 5-2-1/3.26 out of the pen for that club and after a cup of coffee with the team in 1980 was traded to Seattle. The vet was near the end; he worked briefly in 1981 before retiring after 13 years. He passed away in 2009 at age 64 from lung cancer. It’s thought that he suffered asbestos exposure during his younger years when he had to work in a boiler room to earn his daily bread while developing as a pro player. 
• 1947 - Ralph Kiner blasted three successive homers and knocked home six runs in a 10-8 win over the Braves at Forbes Field in the nitecap of a DH. He also homered in game one, a 4-3 win that was decided in the 13th when pitcher Kirby Higbe took Johnny Sain deep to complete the first step of a Pittsburgh sweep of Boston. Kiner’s four homers in one day established a team record that wouldn’t be matched until 1984 by Jason Thompson. It also set a NL record of 10 multi-homer games in a season which stood until Sammy Sosa had 11 in 1998. 
• 1948 - Out of the lineup because of a virus, Ralph Kiner came off the pine to whack an eighth-inning, pinch-hit grand slam to give the Pirates a 13-12 win over Chicago at Wrigley Field. Max West also homered and had three RBI. Mel Queen won with a save by Elmer Riddle. 
• 1958 - C Don “Sluggo” Slaught was born in Long Beach. He came to the Bucs in 1990 and platooned during the pennant years with Mike “Spanky” LaValliere. Slaught was the primary catcher in 1993-94, then injuries in 1995 led to his release. Sluggo hit .305 as a Pirate. He was a hitting coach for Detroit in 2005-06, and then began his own private school for hitting instruction. 

Don Slaught - 1994 Donruss Triple Play

• 1959 - The LA Dodgers beat Pittsburgh and Elroy Face, 5-4, who lost the save and game in relief of Bob Friend in the ninth at Memorial Coliseum by giving up a pair of runs. It was Face's first loss after a record-setting 22 straight wins. The defeat was Face's first to the Dodgers since September‚ 1956, with his last loss to any team going back to May 30th, 1958, at the hands of the Milwaukee Braves, a run of 99 straight outings w/o a defeat. He finished the campaign 18-1, the best winning percentage ever posted by anyone with a minimum of 15 decisions. In an understatement, the Baron of the Bullpen told AP’s Alan Robinson "It was one of those years when nothing went wrong.” Junior Gilliam’s ninth-inning triple was the key blow against the Baron of the Bullpen in the defeat after Roman Mejias and Dick Stuart homers off Sandy Koufax built the slim edge. Chuck Churn beat the Baron; he had been a Pirate in 1957 and the victory was his second MLB triumph (he’d win one more in what was his final big league year). It was a bad day all around; the Bucs were shutout, 4-0, in the second game of the twin bill. 
• 1974 - The Pirates lost to Philadelphia, 8-5, at TRS as the Phils Bill Robinson’s three-run shot off Ramon Hernandez in the eighth won the contest and cut the Pirates lead to 2-1/2 games with 20 remaining. Worse for the Pirates, Dock Ellis’ hand was broken after he was drilled by Willie Montanez’s liner. The righty had won eight consecutive games and nine out of 10, tossing seven complete games in that 10-game span. He missed the remainder of the season (the Bucs hung on to win by 1-1/2 games over the Cards) and the NLCS against the Dodgers, who took the set three games to one. Dave Giusti’s bad back continued to hinder him in the postseason, too (he was bombed in the playoffs) and his iffy status made manager Danny Murtaugh’s job tougher in trying to juggle holes in both the rotation and bullpen; Bruce Kison was the preferred fill-in for both Ellis and Giusti. But despite the leaking ship, the Bucs held on to top the East by 1-1/2 games. 
• 1982 - Bill Madlock opened the ninth inning with a walkoff home run, hitting Ron Reed’s first and only pitch, a hung slider. His blast gave the Pirates a see-saw, 10-9, victory over the Phillies at TRS. The Bucs had started out on top, 6-0, but they had fallen behind by the sixth. The Pirates regained the lead in the eighth on a two-run, two-out double by Willie Stargell, but the Phils tied it with a two-out RBI single off Dale Berra’s glove, setting the stage for Mad Dog. Omar Moreno added a pair of triples for the Pirates. Kent Tekulve got the blown save/win combo. 

Mad Dog - 1982 Topps

• 1983 - It was bad enough that the Bucs lost to the Phils, 5-3, at TRS to fall two games behind the Expos, but a fan in the cheap seats tossed a transistor battery at Dave Parker in right field, bouncing off the turf and past his head in the eighth inning, a frame after he made an error that allowed a run to score. Chuck Tanner said “It punctured our balloon. It’s a shame that an individual has to do that to get his kicks when everyone else is enjoying a great ballgame.” Parker, who had two hits, stayed in the game, saying “They’re not going to chase me out of there.” They may not have chased him from the game, but he did jump to his hometown of Cincinnati in the off season. 
• 1987 - Jim Gott set a club record with a save in seven consecutive outings as the Pirates beat the Phillies, 4-2, at Veterans Stadium. Gott entered the game with runners on first and third and one out in the ninth inning and retired the final two batters of the game on grounders for the save, his 10th. Doug Drabek got the win behind homers by RJ Reynolds and Bobby Bonilla. 
• 1989 - LHP Nik Turley was born in La Canada, California. Turley had a cup of coffee with the Twins, but most of his experience was in the minors with stops in the indie league and DWL. The Pirates claimed him off waivers in the 2017 offseason, and a few weeks later he was suspended for PED usage. The Bucs stuck with him, kept him mostly in extended spring training in 2019 and he broke camp with the big league team in 2020, used mainly as a seventh-eighth inning bridge (0-3-1/4.98). Nik went to the White Sox in ‘21 and now is pitching in Japan. 
• 1990 - Randy Tomlin, Neal Heaton and Ted Power combined on a seven-hit, 5-1 victory over the Phillies at Veterans Stadium. Lloyd McClendon broke the game open with a two-run, two-out pinch homer in the seventh. For the Bucs, it was their ninth win in 11 games and upped the division lead to 3-1/2 games. They went into a six-game tailspin after the victory and saw their lead dwindle to 1/2 game, but then won 10-of-11 to take the title comfortably. 

Lloyd McClendon - 1991 Stadium Club

• 2013 - The Pirates completed a three-game sweep of the Rangers with a 7-5 win in Arlington’s Globe Life Park. AJ Burnett won while Kyle Farnsworth, the Bucs fifth pitcher, rang up his first save in almost two years with Pittsburgh’s back-end relievers Jason Grilli (because of performance) and Mark Melancon (because of workload) both on ice. Justin Morneau led the attack with four hits, Marlon Byrd chased home a pair of runs and Clint Barmes went deep while each starting position player reached base safely. For the local nine, it was their ninth consecutive interleague road victory as they finished 15-5 against AL teams. The win kept Pittsburgh one game behind the NL Central-leading St Louis Cardinals and two ahead of the Cincinnati Reds for the wildcard. 
• 2014 - Francisco Liriano punched out a season-high 12 batters as the Bucs beat the Phils, 4-1, at Citizens Bank Park. Frankie went eight shutout innings giving up three hits - two were infield singles - and two walks while never allowing a runner past second. Pittsburgh iced the game in the fifth against old teammate AJ Burnett when Travis Snider, Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker had consecutive hits. Walker's double scored Snider, Cutch scored on a Russ Martin sacrifice fly and Walker scored on Gregory Polanco’s knock to give Frankie some breathing room. 
• 2017 - Steven Brault, making just his second start of the year, earned his first MLB win as the Pirates snapped a five-game losing streak by a 7-0 tally over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. In his six innings, Brault personally outhit the Brew Crew two-to-one with a run scored and a pair of RBI, backed by homers from Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Jordy Mercer. Steven, backed by relievers AJ Schugel, Daniel Hudson, Dan Runzler (in his first MLB appearance since 2012 with the SF Giants) and Felipe Rivero, matched a mound feat that was last performed by a Bucco (Randy Tomlin) in 1991 of not allowing an opposing runner past first base during the contest. 
• 2021 - After a 9/11 memorial ceremony, the top four in the Bucco order (Ke’Bryan Hayes, Yoshi Tsutsugo, Bryan Reynolds and Colin Moran) combined to score five times and drive in six runs to lead the Pirates to a 10-7 slugfest victory over the Nats at PNC Park. Hoy Park also scored three times on one hit with three walks (Washington issued 10 free passes). Kyle Keller got the win and Chris Stratton the save as it took six Pittsburgh hurlers to finally put away Washington.