10/16: WS - '09 Champs, '71, '79 Even at 3's; Playoffs; Madlock Signs; Bonds AS; Cutch BA-RoY; Berardino Deal; HBD Edgar, Matt, Josias, Billy, Brian, Lenny, Ed, Boom-Boom, Bill, Leapin' Mike, Tomatoes, Fred & George

• 1856 - 2B/OF George Strief was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Strief played in the majors for five years with a stop with the American Association Alleghenys in 1882; he batted .199 and moved along. George, who walloped five homers during his career, posted his claim to fame when he became the first Pittsburgh major league batter to go deep when he went yard against Will White of the Cincinnati Red Stockings on May 3rd, 1882, during a 7-3 loss at Exposition Park. 
• 1866 - C Fred “The Baseball Tourist” Lake was born in Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia. Fred spent bits and pieces of time in MLB for five seasons, playing for the Pirates in 1898 and going 1-for-13. He also put in 13 minor-league years with 15 teams, hence his nickname. Lake managed the Boston Beaneaters and Doves, scouted for St. Louis and managed several farm teams and college nines. 
• 1888 - C Jake “Tomatoes” Kafora was born in Chicago. Tomatoes tore up the minors but in a two-year stint with the Pirates, he batted .125 in 22 games and discovered he couldn’t hit the curve. Jake went back to Chicago after spending a couple of years in the minors and became a local star in bowling circles, a sport he excelled at during the offseason doldrums. His nickname dates back to his youth when he would get behind the plate, give a target and exhort his pitchers to “put the ol’ tomato in the big mitt.” Jake passed away in Chicago at age 28. 
• 1894 - OF “Leaping Mike” Menosky was born in Glen Campbell in Indiana County and attended State Normal College (now IUP). He started his career in the Federal League for the Pittsburgh Rebels from 1914-15, hitting .242, and went on to play for the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox until 1930 with a .280 BA in the American League. Leaping Mike is famous as the guy who replaced Babe Ruth in left field after the Bambino was sold to the New York Yankees. His nickname was bestowed because of his speed and acrobatic catches in the pasture.

Mike Menosky - Ars Longa Art Card

• 1895 - OF Bill Skiff was born in New Rochelle, New York. Skiff only played two MLB seasons - he hit .289 in 16 games with the Pirates in 1921 and sipped a cup of coffee with the Yankees five years later - but he was a baseball lifer. Skiff served 19 seasons as a player or player/manager on farm teams and another 14 campaigns as a minor league manager, mostly for the New York Yankees organization. Bill passed away on Christmas Day, 1976, at age 81. 
• 1898 - According to Charlton’s Baseball Chronology (and verified by Reach's Official Base Ball Guide of 1899), Honus Wagner hurled a baseball 403 feet 8 inches in a throwing contest at Louisville's League Park (teams often featured races, batting contests and long-toss exhibitions back in the day) to beat the record of 400' 7-1/2" set by the Brooklyn Mutuals' John Hatfield in 1872. Wagner's distance throw was, in some histories, topped by Larry LeJeune’s toss of 435 feet on October 3rd, 1907, although that measurement is not universally accepted. 
• 1900 - The Bucs committed six errors against the Brooklyn Superbas at Exposition Park during the Chronicle-Telegraph Challenge series and lost, 4-2, as Fred Kitson got the better of Sam Leever. Pittsburgh was held to four hits, with Honus Wagner’s double leading to one run and Jack O’Connor driving in Tom O’Brien for the other tally. The CTC Cup was an unofficial postseason interleague series (the Bucs came in second while Boston was the NL champ) and a WS precursor. 
• 1904 - RHP Walter “Boom-Boom'' Beck was born in Decatur, Illinois. He tossed for 12 years in the show, closing out his career in Pittsburgh in 1945 with a line of 6-1/2.14 in a strong final campaign at the end of the war years. He only won 38 games during his big league career, but to the best of our knowledge is the only “Boom Boom” to play for the Pirates. His moniker dates back to when he pitched a game for Casey Stengel’s Brooklyn Dodgers against the Phillies at the Baker Bowl, which had a tin outfield fence. Philadelphia had been drilling balls off that wall all afternoon, and the “boom-boom” sound of the ball ricocheting off the tin that day gave Beck a nickname he never shook. According to baseball lore, the barrage wore out OF Hack Wilson and eventually brought on the Ol’ Perfessor to yank Beck, who didn’t approve and instead of handing the ball to the manager, he spun and fired it off the fence. Wilson, who had been daydreaming while the mound switch was going on, was startled and thought another ball had been lined over his head and off the wall, so he chased down the carom and threw the ball to second. 

Honus and Ty - Helmar Big League Brew

• 1909 - In a World Series showdown between two of baseball's premier players, Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb, the Pirates downed the hometown Detroit Tigers, 8-0, in game seven to become World Champions for the first time. The real star of the Series, though, was rookie pitcher Babe Adams, who notched three victories, including the decisive seventh game six-hit shutout. The Pirates were helped by Tiger wildness; the Bucs banged out just seven hits, but the 10 walks were the killers for Motown (Fred Clarke got zero official at bats; he walked four times and scored twice). Honus Wagner and Dots Miller had a pair of RBI, while Clarke and Tommy Leach scored twice. It was the first World Series to go seven games. The Flying Dutchman, battling injuries in his first World Series in 1903, bounced back this time around. Hans hit .333, with seven RBIs and six stolen bases to outshine Ty Cobb, who hit .231 with six runs driven home and two steals. 
• 1919 - RHP Ed Bahr was born in Rouleau, Saskatchewan. His career lasted from 1946-47, with Bahr going 11–11/3.73 with 69 strikeouts in 46 appearances (25 starts, eight complete games) and 219 innings tossed. But ominously, his ERA went up by two runs per game from his rookie year to his sophomore season and he failed to make the team in 1948. He was traded to Brooklyn in 1949 and never returned to the show, working in the minors through 1950. 
• 1928 - LHP and later scout Lenny Yochim was born in New Orleans. He had a brief career pitching with the Pirates (1951, 1954, 1-2/7.62 ERA), but a long and fairly shiny tenure in the minors, where he once tossed a no-hitter. After his playing days, Yochim rejoined the Pirates in 1966 as part of their baseball operations department. He held various scouting positions before moving into the front office in 1994, where he worked as a senior adviser for player personnel through 2004. 
• 1929 - The Bucs finished in second after the season, 10-1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Athletics, but were still awarded $29,106.50 to divvy up as runner-ups, with a full share worth $995.05. The players were pretty generous, giving out various-sized slices of the pie to coaches, trainers, groundskeepers, clubhouse attendants and part-time players. 

John Berardino - from Forbes Field to General Hospital

• 1952 - Pittsburgh sent IF George Strickland and RHP Ted Wilks to the Cleveland Indians for IF Johnny Berardino, a PTBNL (RHP Charles Sipple) and $50,000. Strickland played eight years for the Tribe, but the light-hitting infielder batted just .233 over that time. Wilks was at the end of his playing days and made 11 Indians appearances before retiring. Berardino was making a return trip to Pittsburgh, but his .143 BA and a bum leg turned him into a full-time actor (a much better career choice, as it ended up) after 56 at bats. Sipple never made it out of the minors. 
• 1959 - C/OF Brian Harper was born in Los Angeles. Brian was a utilityman for the Bucs from 1982-84 before being traded to St. Louis; he didn’t really blossom until the 1988 season with Twins, who played him full time and kept him behind the dish. He started there for five seasons through the age of 33 before he slowed down. Harper retired in 1996 and did some high school coaching before returning to the majors to ride the minor-league coaching carousel for several clubs. 
• 1961 - RHP Billy Taylor was born in Monticello, Florida. Billy had a seven-year career, mostly with Oakland, that ended with an appearance with the Bucs in 2001 that lasted two innings, giving up a run. Taylor was a late bloomer; he made his MLB debut in 1994 at the age of 32, 14 years after he was drafted, and went on to save 100 games for the A’s through 1999. 
• 1967 - RHP Josias Manzanillo was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He tossed for 11 years in the MLB, serving 2000-02 with the Bucco staff. His first two campaigns were good as he went 5-4-2/3.39 in 114 appearances, but he lost it in the following campaign with his ERA shooting up to 7.62. He struggled along with the Reds in 2003 and the Fish in 2004, retiring when he didn’t make it out of camp with Boston in 2005. He’s famous for two things: one was when his family jewels were blown up thanks to a liner in the groin, requiring reconstructive surgery. The second was just as ugly as he was named as a player who shot up steroids in the 2007 Mitchell report. Josias and his people denied it, saying he admitted to buying PEDs but was afraid to actually use them. His older brother, Ravelo, also pitched for the Pirates between 1994-95. 

Matt Ruebel - 1996 Bowmans Best

• 1969 - LHP Matt Ruebel was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was drafted by the Pirates in the 3rd round of the 1991 draft out of Oklahoma and pitched parts of three seasons for Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay. He made 70 appearances and went 4-3-1/5.49 for the Bucs in 1996-97 and went north of that line for Tampa the following season, his last in MLB. He’s with the Bucs now as a scout. 
• 1971 - The Baltimore Orioles came back from a 2-0 hole to take a 3-2, 10-inning win from the Bucs at Memorial Stadium and force the World Series to a seventh game. The Pirates left the bases loaded in the 10th; Baltimore didn’t. Brooks Robinson’s short sac fly to center off Bob Miller barely brought in Frank Robinson; Al Oliver had been removed in a double switch just that inning, putting the weaker-armed Vic Davalillo in center. Robinson paid a price; he injured his hamstring and reaggravated an Achilles injury, limiting him severely in the ensuing decisive game. Roberto Clemente had a homer for Pittsburgh and also had a highlight throw in the bottom of the ninth, a one-hop strike home that froze Mark Belanger, who represented the winning run, sitting at third after Don Buford’s two-out double. Bob Moose became the Bucs sixth different starter when he took the hill in the first, as the scheduled pitcher Dock Ellis was scratched with an injury. 
• 1979 - With Baltimore papers filled with anticipatory stories of the Orioles’ World Series victory parade, the Bucs rode the arms of starter and winner John Candelaria and Kent Tekulve, with the save, to a 4-0 win at Memorial Stadium to square the series at three games each. The top of the order (Omar Moreno & Tim Foli) and the bottom (Ed Ott & Phil Garner) combined for nine hits and scored all four runs in a late breakthrough, scoring a pair in the seventh and eighth frames. The Birds got seven singles off the Buc duo, but with no gift runners via walks/errors and two DP balls, the base paths stayed relatively clean as only two Orioles advanced as far as second base. 
• 1981 - 3B Bill Madlock signed a six-year/$5.4M contract. The 30-year-old had a .316 lifetime BA and three batting crowns on his resume, winning the third in ‘81 with a .341 mark to outdo Pete Rose. Mad Dog gave the Bucs two strong seasons (he won a batting crown and an All-Star berth) before stumbling in 1984-85, hitting in the .250 range before being moved to the Dodgers in August for Sid Bream, RJ Reynolds and Cecil Espy. Bill played through the 1987 campaign with Detroit. 

Barry Bonds - 1991 Topps All Star

• 1991 - For the second time in the series, the Bucs were 1-0 losers to the Atlanta Braves to send the NLCS to a seventh game. The Pirates were held to four hits by Steve Avery and Alejandro Pena at TRS. The game’s only tally came with two outs in the ninth when Greg Olsen doubled home Ron Gant to hand Doug Drabek the defeat. The Pirates tried to rally in the bottom half, but left Gary Varsho, who had opened with a single, stranded on third. It was announced before the game that Barry Bonds was the only Buc to earn a spot on AP’s All-MLB All-Star team. 
• 1991 - RHP Edgar Santana was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. He was green as a youth and Pirates scout Juan Mercado signed him as a project just before his 22nd birthday. Santana picked up a slider to go with his four seamer in the DSL and took off. He zipped through the system and landed in Pittsburgh in 2017, getting into 19 games and posting a 3.50 ERA with 20 K in 18 IP. He made the roster the following year and became a solid middle inning bridge guy, going 3-4/3.26 in 69 outings. Unfortunately, in late September he encountered arm tightness requiring TJ surgery, and missed the entire 2019 campaign. Ditto for 2020; he was suspended 80 games (of a 60-game season) for using a PED. He was DFA’ed and spent 2021 with Atlanta as his last MLB stop.
• 2009 - Andrew McCutchen was named the Baseball America Rookie of the Year for 2009, and finished fourth in the NL ROY balloting. He joined the team in June, replacing Nate McLouth, and finished his rookie season with a .286 BA, 12 HR, 54 RBI, and 22 stolen bases in 108 games. Cutch singled off the Mets’ Mike Pelfrey in his first MLB at-bat to get his career off to a flying start.