10/13 From 1940: WS - Maz Magic, Split With O's; NLCS Wins; Shep Named Skipper; Jim Joins; Saul's Game 7 Gang; HBD Jose, Hayden & Bob

• 1941 - Pittsburgh selected Fayette City and Connellsville HS’s Jim Russell from Memphis of the Southern Association in the minor league draft. He hit .277 from 1942-47 for the Bucs (in 1944 he led the Pirates in hitting with a .312 BA and 109 runs scored) before spending his next four MLB campaigns playing for the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers, with Jim’s career cut short by heart problems he had contracted as a child. He stayed in baseball afterward, scouting for the Dodgers and Washington Senators for a decade. Jim’s claim to fame is that he was the first player in Buccaneer history to hit a pinch hit grand slam, banging it against the Dodgers in 1943. He’s a member of the Mon Valley, Western Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hall of Fames. 
• 1942 - 3B Bob Bailey was born in Long Beach. As a prep player, he was inked to the largest signing bonus ever paid up to that time, a reported $135,000, and began his 17-year pro career in Pittsburgh (1962-66) where he hit .257 with occasional power before being dealt to LA with Gene Michael for Maury Wills. Bailey had his best years with Montreal in the early seventies, with three 20+ HR seasons and three more with 80+ RBI. When he retired, Bob spent a decade managing in the Montreal system with side gigs as a hitting instructor. He passed away in Las Vegas at age 75. 
• 1960 - Game Seven of the World Series at Forbes Field ended with this call by NBC’s Mel Allen “There's a drive into deep left field, look out now… that ball is going, going, gone! And the World Series is over! Mazeroski… hits it over the left field fence…” Bill Mazeroski led off the bottom of the ninth with the most dramatic home run in Series history, a blast off Ralph Terry, breaking a 9-9 tie with the Yankees and bringing Pittsburgh its third World Championship. It’s still the only homer to win a seventh game in the ninth inning. Hal Smith hit a key two-out, three-run shot in the eighth to give Pittsburgh a short-lived lead before Maz stole his thunder. Harvey Haddix, the fourth Pirate hurler, recovered from a blown save in the ninth to get the win in front of 36,683 ecstatic rooters. Maz’s blast also cost Casey Stengel his job; the Ol’ Perfessor “retired'' as NY manager five days after the loss, telling the media "I wasn't retired - they fired me." Other factoids: Bobby Richardson of the Yankees was named MVP of the Series, the only time that someone from the defeated team has been so honored, and it was the only World Series game ever played without a strikeout recorded by either club. The event has been celebrated on its anniversary outside the remaining wall since 1985. 

Larry Shepard - 1968 Topps

• 1967 - Larry Shepard was named manager, replacing Danny Murtaugh, who in turn had replaced Harry Walker earlier in the year. He lasted two seasons, circularly replaced by Murtaugh, then became the pitching coach of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine under Sparky Anderson from 1970 through 1978. He finished his coaching career with the San Francisco Giants in 1979. 
• 1971 - Roberto Clemente had three hits while Milt May drove in the winning run with a pinch-hit single in the eighth as the Pirates rallied to defeat the Baltimore Orioles, 4-3, at TRS in Game Four of the Fall Classic. Luke Walker gave up three runs in the first frame before heading to the showers with two outs, but Bruce Kison came to the rescue, tossing 6-1/3 one-hit innings, then Dave Giusti saved it by pitching perfect ball over the last two frames. It was the first scheduled night World Series game in baseball history (in 1949, the lights were turned on in the ninth inning at Ebbets Field because of darkness in a WS game between Brooklyn & the Yankees) and set two attendance records with 61M TV viewers and 51,378 fans in the park. It was a success; by 1987, all World Series games would be scheduled under the lights. The win evened the Series at two games. It also got foul poles added to TRS the following season after a rhubarb over a Clemente drive (the Bucs claimed homer; the ump called foul) led the Pirate brass to discovered that TRS’ painted yellow foul line had a 20” recess between the fence on the field and the back wall, leaving enough room for a curving ball that would otherwise kiss the foul line to instead slide foul. Local baseball icon from Donora, Stan “The Man” Musial, tossed out the game’s first pitch. 
• 1979 - The Bucs took a 6-3 lead into the eighth against the Orioles in the fourth game of the World Series, but they and 50,883 fans were stunned by a six-run eighth by the Orioles and a 9-6 loss snatched from the jaws of victory at Three Rivers Stadium. Kent Tekulve, inheriting a mess from Don Robinson, gave up a pair of two-run doubles to Terry Crowley and John Lowenstein to take the defeat. The Pirates banged out 17 hits, but stranded 10 with two DP, a caught stealing and a throw-out at home. Willie Stargell had three knocks, including a homer and double, but Pittsburgh fell into a three games to one hole against Baltimore. 

Hayden Penn - 2010 photo Christian Peterson/Getty

• 1984 - RHP Hayden Penn was born in La Jolla, California. Penn appeared in 33 games over four years in the majors. His last three outings were with the Pirates in 2010, when he gave up eight runs in 2-1/3 IP after being claimed off waivers from the Florida Marlins during training camp. Penn was sent to AAA Indianapolis, then his contract was sold and he threw in Japan for three seasons afterward for Chiba-Lotte, winning a Japan Series game (their World Series) in 2010. He made his last hurrah with the indie Bridgeport Bluefish in 2013, retiring at age 28. 
• 1985 - Saul Finkelstein sat at the base of the flagpole by the Forbes Field wall outside Schenley Plaza and listened to a taped NBC radio broadcast of Chuck Thompson and Jack Quinlan calling the seventh game of the 1960 World Series on his boombox. After that day, the memorial event soon evolved into an annual party & ceremony open to all under the auspices of the Game Seven Gang, often drawing an assortment of politicos and members of the championship team to mingle with the fans in Oakland once again. 
• 1991 - Pittsburgh evened the NLCS at two games with a 10-inning, 3-2 win at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium over the Braves. Mike LaValliere’s two-out, pinch hit single off Mark Wohlers scored Andy Van Slyke, and Stan Belinda tossed two scoreless frames for the win. Steve Buechele's three hits gave him five straight over two games to tie an NLCS record that would stand until 2003. 
• 1992 - The Pirates pounded the Braves, 13-4, at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium to even the NLCS series at three games each. Tim Wakefield won his second game while Jay Bell, Barry Bonds and Lloyd McClendon homered. The Bucs ran away with the game early after an eight-run second inning, featuring a pair of hits by Bonds and McClendon during the frame. 
• 1994 - C Jose Godoy was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. He was signed in 2011 by the Cards and had cups of coffee with Seattle and Minnesota. The Twins waived him in 2022 and the Bucs, in need of another catcher (he was the season’s seventh), claimed him. Jose got into five August games, went 0-for-7 and was sent to Indy when Tyler Heineman returned to action. Jose then had stops with the LA Angels and NY Yankees, and is now playing in the Baltimore Orioles system.