10/15: Bucs Win '25 WS, Smith Gooses Goose; Allies Rally; Chronicle Cup; Waner Wonders; FF Joyride; Kent Canned; Game Tales; HBD Juan, Mendy, Carlos, Mitchell, Red, Gail, Bill, Don, Mule & Bob

• 1881 - HD “Denny” McKnight resurrected the Allegheny Baseball Club of Pittsburgh (it had disbanded after the 1877 season) during a meeting at the St. Clair Hotel and joined the newly formed American Association. In 1887 they entered the National League and in 1891 morphed into the Pittsburgh Pirates after “pirating” away infielder Lou Bierbauer from the Philly A’s. 
• 1887 - RHP Bob Harmon was born in Liberal, Missouri. He tossed for four seasons for the Pirates (1914-16, 1918), posting a 39-52-4/2.60 line while splitting his time between starting and the pen. After his baseball career ended in 1918, he became a successful dairy and crop farmer in Louisiana, staying active in both the community and the local sports scene. 
• 1892 - On the last day of the season, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Charles “Bumpus” Jones no-hit Pittsburgh at League Park in his major league debut. Bumpus won 7-1, fanning three and issuing four walks. It wasn’t much of a launching pad - his MLB career lasted eight games and he won just one other decision. Bumpus still remains the only player to pitch a no-hitter in his first MLB appearance. Bill James, according to Wikipedia, gave him the distinction of being the “mathematically least likely pitcher ever to have thrown a no-hitter in the major leagues.” 
• 1896 - RHP John “Mule” Watson was born in Arizona, Louisiana. He worked five games for the Pirates in 1920, one of three teams he played for that season. He didn’t impress the Bucco brass, compiling the worst ERA (8.74) for any of the four teams he spun for over a seven-year career. Mule did enjoy his 15 minutes of fame, although in a different set of flannels - on August 13th, 1921, he started both games of a doubleheader, and did pretty well, too, winning 4-3 and 8-0 contests in a pair of complete game outings for the Boston Braves against Philadelphia. 

Chronicle Cup - via Thom/Wiki/Hall of Fame

• 1900 - The Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph offered a silver cup to the winner of a best-of-five series at Exposition Park between the NL’s top two teams, the Pirates and the Brooklyn Superbas; Brooklyn won the 1900 title by 4-1/2 games over the Bucs during the regular season. Two future Hall of Famers faced off in the opener as NL ERA leader Rube Waddell (2.37) went against “Iron Man” Joe McGinnity, who topped the league with 28 wins. McGinnity whitewashed the Pirates for eight innings before two unearned runs in the top of the ninth cost him the shutout. Not only was he hurt by shoddy fielding, but he had been knocked out briefly the inning before during a rundown when he was accidentally kneed. He refused to come out after he regained his breath and went the distance for a five-hit, 5-2 victory. Claude Ritchey banged out a pair of knocks in a losing cause. 
• 1903 - OF George “Mule” Haas was born in Montclair, New Jersey. Haas was signed as a youngster by the Bucs and worked his way to the show in 1925, getting in four games and going 0-for-3. Haas was in a wrong-time, wrong place situation - the Pittsburgh outfield that season featured Kiki Cuyler, Clyde Barnhart and Max Carey. Mule was sold to Atlanta after the season due more to the logjam than performance. He played 11 more seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox, hitting .292 and playing in three World Series. Haas got his nickname in the minors when after homering, a local beat man wrote that his bat had the kick of a mule. 
• 1925 - Before the final game of the World Series, Senators OF Goose Goslin got some column inches in the Washington Post to debunk reports that Pirates C Earl Smith had gotten under his skin by clowning around behind the dish when Goslin hit. “That’s a lot of apple sauce,” Goslin wrote. “Smith simply is one of these ‘funny boys’ who gets a big kick out of trying to get smiles from the crowd. His imitation of flopping of wings, goose calls and such seem to have worried others worse than it has me. I think my batting record, which includes three home runs and a double out of my seven hits, proves that his antics have not upset me much. The fact is that I have been kidded by experts and have paid absolutely no attention to Earl’s amateurish efforts.” Goose added that Clark Griffith, Washington’s president, had complained to Commissioner Landis “on the grounds that Smith’s actions take away from the dignity of the game” and might even lead to a brawl. “I can promise one thing,” Goslin wrote. “I don’t intend to start any trouble.” Goose and Smith factored one another out; each went 1-for-4 during the deciding contest. 

Kiki Cuyler - 2003 Fleer Fall Classic

• 1925 - In Game Seven of the World Series at Forbes Field, played on a muddy track soaked by a two-day rainstorm (the game was delayed a day), Kiki Cuyler laced an eighth-inning two-out, two-run, bases loaded double off Washington's Walter “Big Train” Johnson to lead the Pirates to a 9-7 comeback victory and their second World Championship, made all the sweeter by rallying from an early 4-0 deficit. Ray Kremer got the win, his second of the Series, with four innings of one-run relief after pitching a complete game win two days before. Errors by SS Roger Peckinpaugh, the AL MVP, in both the seventh and eighth innings led to four unearned runs. He had a tough Series in the field, committing a record eight errors. With the victory, the Bucs became the first team to win a World Series after being down three games to one. The Series was a big financial hit, grossing a record-setting $1.2M. Winning shares were $5‚332.72 while the losers pocketed $3‚734.60. It took a while, but Bucco manager Bill McKechnie would become the first MLB skipper to win a WS with two different teams when his Reds beat the Tigers in the 1940 Fall Classic. 
• 1926 - RHP Don Carlsen was born in Chicago. Carlsen was signed by the Cubs as an IF, played a season and then went into the service, coming back two years later as a pitcher. He played in a game for Chicago, then in 1951-52 tossed for Pittsburgh, going 2-4/5.43 in 12 games (seven starts). Don worked in the Pirates minors until 1957, retiring after that campaign. 
• 1927 - LHP Bill Henry was born in Alice, Texas. The veteran reliever spent the latter half of the 1968 campaign with the Pirates. It was his 15th year in the show and the creaks showed as he had the worst line of his career, compiling no record but tossing to an 8.10 ERA and giving up 18 runs (15 earned) and 29 hits in 16-2/3 innings over 10 appearances. Bill got into three games with the Astros the following year and then hung up his mitt. Henry did have a nice career run despite the messy finish as he ended his MLB days credited with 572 outings, 46 wins, 90 saves and a 3.26 ERA with an All-Star game and World Series during his tenure. 

The Waner Wonders - 1927 Press photo/Ray Gallavan

• 1927 - Although the New York Yankees Murderers Row pushed the Pirates out of the spotlight with a World Series sweep, the Bucs strong season kept the Waner brothers on a big stage a little longer as the "Waner Wonders" vaudeville team toured Loew movie houses in St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and other stops for six weeks. Paul blew sax, Lloyd bowed the fiddle, and they told baseball stories between tunes. Per Bob Hersom’s Oklahoman article, "Every so often," Lloyd said, "we'd hit the same notes as the orchestra." The Waners were each paid $2,100 a week, culminating with a $3,000 payday in the Big Apple, stipends that way outstripped their baseball compensation. Even with more big money waved at them, the brothers turned down an extension of their tour; they had to catch up on their off season fishing, hunting and golfing. 
• 1928 - OF Gail Henley was born in Wichita, Kansas. He hit .300 in his only year with the Pirates (and in the big leagues), 1954, but the spot he was auditing for was more than adequately locked up with the arrival of Roberto Clemente the next year. Henley did serve some minor league time, then managed eventual Pirates skippers Jim Leyland and Gene Lamont. After some time as a skipper in the minors for the Detroit Tigers, Henley joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as a scout and organizational manager before retiring as a scout for Tampa Bay. 
• 1936 - RHP Art “Red” Swanson was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He was signed by the Pirates as a bonus baby in 1955 and spent the next two years in the show, as required by the signing rules, and barely appeared, with 10 outings in all. Red got more work in 1957, slashing 3-3/3.72 in 32 appearances before being sent to the minors, where he pitched until 1963. His dad was Al “Red” Swanson, who coached baseball at LSU and from whom Red picked up his nickname. 

Mitchell Page - photo via All Start Sports Cards

• 1951 - OF/1B Mitchell Page was born in Los Angeles. A third round pick of the Pirates in 1973, he tore it up in the minors for four years before being shipped to Oakland in part of the big ‘77 deal that brought Phil Garner to Pittsburgh. He spent seven seasons, four as a starter (.273/64 HR from 1977-80), on the coast before returning to the Pirates in 1984. He went 4-for-12 as a late-season call up, spending most of his time at AAA Hawaii. Mitchell retired after the year and coached off and on for the Royals, Cards and Nats before passing away in 2011. He was known as "The Swinging Rage" in Oakland, a nickname dropped on him by A’s broadcaster Monte Moore. 
• 1958 - Some joyriders sneaked into Forbes Field, hot-wired a maintenance truck parked overnight by the scoreboard and rode around the park until they crashed the vehicle several rows deep into the first base boxes, causing $3,000 worth of damage to the ballyard. 
• 1967 - IF Carlos Garcia was born in Tachira, Venezuela. In seven (1990-96) Bucco seasons, he hit .278. Carlos was named to the 1993 Topps All-Star Rookie Team and the NL All-Star squad in 1994. In 1995, he was a hitting machine who had a 21-game hitting streak in June and then a 15-game hitting streak in September. García later coached for Seattle and was the first base coach and infield instructor for John Russell’s staff in 2010. He was named the manager of the Bradenton Marauders in December 2010, and in 2013-14, Garcia managed the Altoona Curve before being released by the Pirates. He then coached and managed in the Mexican League until 2018. 
• 1973 - IF Mendy Lopez was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Mendy got bits and pieces of seven campaigns in the majors, with some of 2001-02 with the Pirates where he hit .217 in 25 games (he spent almost all of 2002 in AAA Nashville). After his MLB retirement in 2004, he played in Korea, Mexico (where he was the 2006 MVP) and the Dominican. Mendy joined the organization in 2015 as the Pirates DSL manager, then was the Bucs Latin American Field Coordinator from 2017-21 and became Bradenton’s batting coach the following season. 

Juan Cruz - 2012 photo Justin Aller/Getty

• 1978 - RHP Juan Cruz was born in Bonao, Dominican Republic. Juan finished up his 12-year career in Pittsburgh in 2012, getting into 43 games and going 1-1-3/2.78 with 14 holds as part of the support group of closer Joel Hanrahan. With several other late inning options available, the Pirates released him in late August and that was the final leg of his MLB journey. 
• 2002 - No job is safe: head Trainer Kent Biggerstaff was fired by Dave Littlefield. Biggerstaff, 54, had spent the past 17 years as the Bucs’ head trainer after serving a four-year apprenticeship under Tony Bartirome, who he replaced in 1986. He went on to become an athletic trainer for the PGA Tour, the Summer Senior Olympics, and Minor League Umpires Concussion Coordinator. In 2018, Kent was elected to the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame.