9/17 From 1970: Leyland Leaves; Fast Frank; JHK Out; USA '01; Petey Stars In BWC; Gems & Game Tales; RIP Donn; HBD James, Burney & Brian

• 1972 - LHP Brian Smith was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. He got into three games for the Pirates in 2000, giving up five runs in 4-1/3 innings, and that was the extent of his MLB stay. He spent a decade in the minors, finally ending his career playing indie ball in 2003. 
• 1973 - Willie Stargell went 4-for-4 with a homer, triple, and two doubles good for four RBI as the Bucs beat the Mets, 10-3, at TRS. Richie Zisk and Milt May both went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI each. Bruce Kison got the win and Chris Zachary earned a three-inning save. It put the Bucs up by 1-1/2 games after an 18-for-22 roll, but they would lose the flag in the race no one wanted, winning just 80 games and finishing 2-1/2 games behind the Metropolitans. 
• 1976 - Behind Doc Medich and Dave Giusti’s combined six-hitter, the Bucs defeated the Mets, 4-1, at Shea Stadium for their 18th win in 22 games. Frank Taveras’ two-run single in the fifth was the telling blow. The win made the NL East race interesting as the Pirates cut Philly’s lead down to three games, but it was their high water mark as they finished with 92 wins, nine games behind the Phils. 
• 1977 - Frank Taveras tied and then broke Max Carey’s single season team record of 63 stolen bases, which was set in 1916, during a 6-3 Bucco victory over the Expos in Montreal (Omar Moreno stole 96 sacks in 1980). Scheduled starter Jerry Reuss was scratched after warming up, and his short-notice replacement Ed Whitson pitched five innings for the victory (it was Ed’s first MLB start and win) with Goose Gossage tossing the final four frames to earn his 23rd save. 

Don Robinson - 1979 Topps

• 1979 - The Pirates moved back into first with a 2-1 victory against their chief competitors, the Montreal Expos, in a game played in front of 54,609 fans at Olympic Stadium. Pittsburgh took the lead in the fifth when Dave Parker collected his second RBI of the day by scoring pitcher Don Robinson, who just beat the tag of Gary Carter at home. Robinson was strong on the hill, too, tossing a six-hitter and getting stronger as the game went on. In the final four frames, he surrendered just an infield single, and that runner was caught stealing. Still, it remained a see-saw race in the NL East; Pittsburgh didn’t take control of the standings for good until September 25th, and didn’t clinch the pennant until the final day. 
• 1982 - LHP Sean Burnett was born in Dunedin, Florida. The southpaw made his Pittsburgh debut in 2004 as a starter. After surgery made him sit out a year, he returned in 2008-09 as a reliever, slashing 7-8-1/4.54 as a Pirate. Since the Pirates traded him to Washington at the 2009 deadline, he’s tossed for the Nats (three times), Angels, Dodgers, Braves and Twins, again proving that lefties have a long MLB shelf life, last playing MLB in 2016. He inked minor league contracts with the Phillies, Marlins and Mets between 2017-19 before officially retiring. 
• 1987 - Mike Dunne continued his strong rookie campaign, tossing a three-hit shutout over six innings (he sat down after an hour-long rain delay) to win his 12th, 1-0, over the Cards at TRS. Don Robinson and Jim Gott, who claimed the save, ran through raindrops over the last three frames (the pair gave up five hits; St. Louis left the bases loaded in the ninth, stranded 11 during the night and went 0-for-9 w/RISP) to allow the Bucs first-inning gift run (Bobby Bonilla’s two-out double plated Chico Lind, who reached on a boot) to stand. Dunne finished the year 13-6/3.03 and was second in the Rookie of the Year balloting behind Benito Santiago. 
• 1988 - Doug Drabek won his 10th of the past 11 decisions, 7-2, over the Phils at the Vet. During that stretch, he allowed three earned runs once and four once, with his only loss a 2-0 defeat. Doug went into the eight with Bob Kipper and Jeff Robinson finishing up. He got all the support he needed from Bobby Bonilla, who homered and chased home four runs. It was Drabek’s breakout campaign (15-7/3.08) and he was plowing the road toward the 1990 Cy Young. 

Barry Bonds - 1991 Fleer Pro Visions

• 1991 - The Pirates pounded the Cubs, 9-2, at TRS. Barry Bonds hit his 25th homer off of former Buc Mike Bielecki and drove in a pair to become the eighth Bucco to have consecutive 100+ RBI campaigns. Steve Buechele drove in three runs with a double, triple and sac fly, while four different Pirates scored twice. Doug Drabek cruised to his 14th win with a mop-up from Bob Patterson. 
• 1992 - It took 13 innings, but the Pirates finally defeated the Montreal Expos, 3-2, at TRS. Danny Cox, the Bucs’ sixth pitcher, got the win after Cecil Espy led off the 13th with a triple and scored on Jay Bell’s single through a drawn-in infield. The game took four hours and 35 minutes to play, but was worth the time for Bell, who had two hits and ran his hitting streak, which had begun on 8/24, to 22 games before the Phils’ Terry Mulholland stopped him the next night. It was a big win for the Buccos, moving them four games ahead of the Expos in the NL East chase. 
• 1993 - RHP James Marvel was born in San Francisco. Drafted out of high school, he instead went to Duke. He had TJ surgery there, and the Pirates took a chance on him, picking him up in the 36th round of the 2015 draft. From 2017-19, he was a fast mover, going through two minor league levels each year and finding himself in Pittsburgh as a 2019 September call up after showing well in the upper levels. But he couldn’t crack the roster and is now in Japan. 
• 1996 - Manager Jim Leyland announced that he’d leave the Pirates at the end of the season. The two-time Manager of the Year didn’t spend much time standing in the unemployment line - he quickly found a new job as skipper of the Florida Marlins, signing a five-year deal with the Fish on October 4th and then winning the World Series in ‘97. He left Miami after the ‘98 campaign and spent a year as the Rox field boss. He then scouted for St Louis until 2006, when he was given the reins of the Tigers, managing them to a pair of pennants through 2013. Jim’s now a special assistant for Detroit, mainly involved in scouting and evaluation. 

PNC Park photo 9/16/2001 Dave Bergman/SI

• 2001 - After a week of mourning following the Twin Towers attack, MLB baseball resumed. At PNC Park, the Pirates handed out "I Love NY" buttons to fans (the scheduled flag giveaway was delayed when the manufacturer couldn’t meet the deadline), a banner in left field read, "NYC, USA, We Are Family" and the Bucs wore flags on their sleeves and decals on their helmets. Fans signed a giant poster of support for NYC and over the course of two days, nearly $300,000 was donated for various related causes such as the NYC Police & Firemen's pension and for groups active in NYC’s recovery. The baseball faithful weren’t quite ready to return to normalcy - over 25,000 tickets had been sold for the game, but only about 8,000 folk showed up at the yard, passing through a new, heightened security protocol. One fan told the Post Gazette “It’s going to be hard to cheer. How can you cheer when people are still buried? But life needs to go on.” The game started with an ovation for the teams - the Mets, appropriately, were in town - and chants of “USA, USA.” NY won the game 4-1, scoring three times in the ninth off Mike Fetters to break open a tight game started by Todd Ritchie and Al Leiter. The Mets wore caps honoring New York firefighters, police and rescue workers, plus American flags on their jerseys and hats. The series was originally scheduled to be played in NY; the teams flipped home dates. 
• 2005 - 1B Donn Clendenon passed away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He played the first eight years (1961-68) of his 12-year career with the Bucs. Donn was a letterman in football, basketball & baseball at Morehouse College (Martin Luther King Jr. was his freshman “big brother”), and signed with the Pirates in 1957 largely because of his stepfather, Nish Williams, a former Negro League player. The Pirates eventually moved Dick Stuart to clear a spot for Clendenon, where he played until 1968, when he was lost in the expansion draft after slashing .280 BA/106 HR/488 RBI as a Bucco, deemed expendable due to Al Oliver. It didn’t hurt his career - he ended up the World Series MVP for the ‘69 Mets. Donn moonlighted as a youth advisor for the Allegheny County DA’s office while a Pirate and earned a law degree from Duquesne University following his playing days, then opening a practice in Dayton, Ohio. He was later hooked on drugs but cleaned up with rehab in Utah, prompting him to move to South Dakota. Clendenon continued to work in law and as an addiction counselor before succumbing to leukemia at age 70.
• 2009 - The USA's Pedro Alvarez became the fifth player to hit three home runs in a single Baseball World Cup game. El Toro drove in six runs during a 14-3 defeat of Taiwan on the road to the USA’s 2009 BWC crown. Alvarez, a Vanderbilt All-American and the Pirates first-round pick of 2008, made his MLB debut the following year after zipping through Lynchburg, Altoona and Indianapolis. 

JHK helped off field - 9/17/2015 photo Gene Puskar/AP

• 2015 - Rookie IF Jung-Ho Kang broke his leg and tore a ligament in his knee when he was upended by the Cubs' Chris Coghlan on a take-out slide in a game with playoff implications at PNC Park. Kang and Coghlan both accepted it as part of the game. They were adults about it; Cub manager Joe Maddon, not so much as he said “I don't think it's his knee. He has plantar fasciitis is what I heard,” which did not sit very well in the Pirates' locker room. JHK missed the rest of the season and didn’t play again until May, 2016. The Bucs lost the game, 9-5, but held off Chicago in the race to host the Wild Card Game, which the Cubs won behind Jake Arrieta. 
• 2019 - In a dark day for the Pirates organization, Felipe Vazquez was arrested for sexual contact with a minor, computer pornography and a bevy of other charges filed by Florida, where he lives in the offseason. He was later charged with additional counts by Westmoreland County lawmen. He was found guilty and sentenced to 2-to-4 years behind bars in 2021.