9/15 Through the 1960s: Cannonballs Comin'; Waners Wild; Blass Act; Pie Debut; Game Tales; RIP Tiny; HBD Rich, Dennis, Dave, Big, Fritz, Rap & Elmer

• 1862 - 3B Elmer Cleveland was born in Washington, DC. He had a very good season for the Union League’s Cincinnati Outlaw Reds, and after some more minor league seasoning was added to the NY Giants roster in 1888 and then shipped to the Alleghenys. Alas, Elmer was an early AAAA player, hitting .235 for the Giants and .222 for Pittsburgh. He got one more chance in 1891 with Columbus where he hit .171 and ran out of opportunities. He spent a productive decade playing minor league ball in the Western Interstate, Southern, Northwestern and Pennsylvania State Leagues. And yes, he was related to President Grover Cleveland; they were cousins. 
• 1888 - Ed Morris of the Alleghenys tossed his fourth consecutive shutout, a 1-0 win over the NY Giants, setting a NL record that lasted until 1968 when Don Drysdale threw six straight shutouts. Cannonball began his streak with 2-0 and 1-0 victories over the Phillies and a seven inning, 2-0, win over the Senators. And Morris did it in a hurry; it took him eight days to pitch four complete game whitewashes, all at Exposition Park. Morris went 29-23 on the year with a 2.31 ERA. 
• 1902 - OF Herbert “Rap” Dixon was born in Kingston, Georgia. The five-tool Dixon played for 12 teams over 16 seasons, including a stop with the Homestead Grays in 1936 and several tours with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1932, 1934 and his last campaign in 1937, also spending time with barnstorming and Latino clubs. After retiring from baseball, he went to work for Bethlehem Steel Company and played semi-pro ball. He died at a young age from a heart attack in 1943 and was selected to the Pittsburgh Courier All Time (Negro League) All Star team a decade later. His “Rap” nickname is either derived from the Rappahannock River in Virginia for reasons unknown, or more likely, because of the way he rapped the ball (he had a .336 lifetime BA). 

Fritz Ostermueller - 1948 Leaf

• 1907 - LHP Fritz Ostermueller was born in Quincy, Illinois. The veteran southpaw spent the final five seasons of his 15-year career as a Pirate, putting up a line of 49-42-1/3.48 before retiring at the ripe old age of 41 with the nickname “Old Folks.” He later became part of the broadcasting crew for the minor-league Quincy Gems, once sharing the booth with Harry Carey. 
• 1910 - LHP Edsall “Big” Walker was born in Catskill, New York. Walker, who featured a sinking fastball, pitched for the Homestead Grays from 1936-40 and then returned to toss again for them from 1943-45 before his arm gave out. He was the starting pitcher in the 1938 All Star game and worked in many championship series with the elite Gray squad. Per Brent Kelley’s “Voices From the Negro Leagues,” he got his “Big” moniker from the Grays - there were three Walkers on the roster, and at 6’/215 lbs, he was the biggest. He had another nickname, too. According to Chris Rainey in Walker’s SABR Bio, “Walker posted a 7-1 record in 1937, but walked more batters than he struck out. His nickname ‘Catskill Wildman’ reflected both his control of the strike zone and his attitude towards batters. He had no qualms about throwing inside to a hitter.” 
• 1920 - Pie Traynor made his MLB debut, replacing SS Bill McKechnie in the fifth inning of an eventual 4-1 loss to the Boston Braves. It was the second game of a twin bill at Braves Field, and Pie went 1-for-2 with a double that drove home the only Bucco score in the ninth. Pie played 17 games in September, all at shortstop, and batted .212, but he picked it up afterward. He became an everyday player in 1922 and retired with a .320 lifetime BA in 1937 after spending all 17 years of his career with the Pirates. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1948. 
• 1928 - Paul Waner banged a pair of doubles against Cincinnati at Forbes Field in a 6-1 win, setting the NL record for two-baggers with 50. The mark only stood for a season as Brooklyn rookie Johnny Frederick broke it in 1929 with 52, and Boston’s Earl Webb claimed the MLB mark with 67 stroked in 1931. Big Poison gave it a run in 1932 with 62 for his personal best. 

Arky Vaughan - 1934 Batter Up

• 1934 - The Pirates collected a total of 30 hits while sweeping the Phillies by scores of 6-1 and 4-1 in a doubleheader at the Baker Bowl. Arky Vaughan went deep in both games of the doubleheader for the Bucs. Larry French tossed a complete game six-hitter in game one for his 12th win behind a 16-hit attack, led by Tommy Thevenow and Tom Padden with three hits each. Schoolboy Hoyt went the distance in game two, giving up four hits, to improve to 14-5 on the season. The Pirates had 14 hits in the nightcap, but had to score three times in the ninth to earn the win. Hoyt led off with a single and Woody Jensen doubled an out later. Then, per the Pittsburgh Press, “The Quaker infield blew sky high and handed the Bucs the winning runs...” by throwing a pair of balls away, the first aimed wildly at home while trying to cut down the lead run that instead allowed two Pirates to plate, while the second was an overthrow of first that sent the third score home. 
• 1938 - Big and Little Poison homered in the same match for the third time, but it was the first time in MLB history that brothers went long back-to-back in a game. The deed wasn’t matched again until 2013 when the Upton brothers (Justin and BJ) lost consecutive balls with the Braves. The Waners fifth-inning dingers highlighted a 7-2 Bucco win over the NY Giants, with Jim Tobin taking home a complete game victory. The brothers had two hits and two RBI each; Johnny Rizzo and Arky Vaughan led the attack with three knocks apiece, with Rizzo and Pep Young also adding four-baggers. Mel Ott got some rude treatment from Tobin during the action, who beaned him three times for another record. But it didn’t cause Master Melvin too much damage - the soft-tossing Tobin was a knuckleballer. For Little Poison, his long ball was a red letter blast, as it was the last homer Lloyd hit in the show, although he played six more seasons. Bucco siblings wouldn’t homer in the same game again until 2009 when Adam and Andy LaRoche connected against the Twins. 
• 1949 - RHP Dave Pagan was born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan. The reliever finished his career with the Pirates in 1977, tossing three scoreless frames to close out a five-year MLB stand. He spent the next two years at AAA and retired. He found his new calling in lumber and woodworking in his native town, and kept his hand in Nipawin sports, curling, umpiring and pitching when the local sandlot teams met. He was elected to the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987. 

Tiny Bonham - 1949 Bowman

• 1949 - RHP Ernest “Tiny” Bonham died 18 days after pitching his final game as a Buc, an 8-2 win over the Phils. Tiny - who was 6’2”, 215 lb. - passed on at the age of 36, following an appendectomy and stomach surgery; the docs discovered he had cancer. Chet Smith of the Pittsburgh Press wrote, "No more lovable guy than Ernie Bonham ever pitched a baseball and you can put that in the official score." He tossed three years for the Pirates (1947-49), going 24-22, after spending his first seven years with the Yankees and was twice named an All-Star. 
• 1951 - The seventh-place Bucs defeated the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers, an oddly regular occurrence in an otherwise down year for Pittsburgh. As Les Beiderman of the Pittsburgh Press wrote “Johnny Merson, playing in just his second major league game, staged a one-man riot at Forbes Field as the Pirates made the league-leading Dodgers dance to an 11-4 tune to the accompaniment of cheers of the 11,098 faithful. The 27 year old Merson...fired two singles, a double and a triple and drove in six big runs as the Pirates became the only team in the league to wind up with a season edge on the Dodgers, 12-10.” Frank Thomas added three hits, including a homer, to back up Mel Queen, who got the win with some strong relief work by Ted Wilks. The Bucs finished the year 64-90 and their showing against da Bums (the Dodgers were one of just two teams the Bucs had a winning campaign against) probably cost Brooklyn the pennant as they finished one game behind the NY Giants after losing the Bobby Thompson “shot heard ‘round the world” playoff game. As for Merson, he hit .360 in 13 games as a September call up, but batted just .246 the following season and after one game in 1953 was out of major league baseball. 
• 1962 - The Pirates beat the Giants’ Jack Sanford, 5-1, at Forbes Field to hand the righty his first loss after 16 straight wins. Sanford and Bob Friend were locked in a 1-1 duel until the Bucs broke it open with a four-run eighth inning, with the key blows being a Roberto Clemente double and Bob Bailey triple; the rookie had a three-RBI day. Friend tossed a five-hitter with nine punch outs. Sanford served up a six-hitter, but eight walks eventually cost him. 

Bob Bailey - 1963 IDL Drugs promo

• 1963 - The three Alou brothers, Felipe, Jesus, and Matty, played in the San Francisco Giants’ outfield at the same time. Manager Alvin Dark played the Alou boys together for an inning during the Giants’ 13-5 win over the Pirates at Forbes Field, putting Willie Mays on the bench. Matty would later join the Bucs in 1966 for a five-year run with two All Star outings and a batting title while his nephew Moises Alou (Felipe’s son) played for a season in Pittsburgh. 
• 1967 - LHP Dennis Moeller was born in Tarzana, California. Moeller was part of the Jose Lind deal with KC in 1992. Pittsburgh used the starter as a reliever in the show, and that didn’t work out so well - in 10 outings, he put up a 1-0/9.92 line. He mostly was rostered at AAA Buffalo, where he made 24 appearances (11 starts) with a slash of 3-4/4.34. Dennis was non-tendered after the season and signed with the Royals again, but never made it back to the show. 
• 1968 - Steve Blass did it all in a 3-0 win against the Mets at Shea Stadium. He won his 16th game, and seventh in a row, by spinning a two-hitter with 10 strikeouts and more than helped himself at the dish, twice singling home runs. He was supported at the plate by Roberto Clemente, who had three hits, including two doubles, to open both of the Bucs' run-scoring frames. Manager Larry Shepard said of Blass “He’s come from nowhere to where he’s now our number one pitcher.” Steverino aw-shucked the praise, but did admit “Baseball sure has been a lot of fun for me this summer.” 
• 1968 - LHP Rich Robertson was born in Nacogdoches, Texas. A 1990 draft pick of the Bucs, he was a seldom used mop-up guy for Pittsburgh in 1993-94, getting in 17 games and putting up an 0-1/6.57 slash. The Twins picked him up off the waiver wire, and he had his best MLB season for them in 1995 and started from 1996-97, winning 17 games. He lasted one more campaign, and after spending time in the minors, he stepped off the slab in 2000.