4/11: Ramon Signs; Pirates At Last; Spanky Released; Game Tales - Brant v Bruins, TRS SRO, Doc In the House, Bae, Quail & 9th Inning Heroics, OT Openers; HBD Turner, Hank, Red & Pops

• 1858 - OF John “Pop” Corkhill was born in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Pop played outfield for the last two seasons of his 10-year MLB career for the Bucs in 1891-92, hitting .200. His ball playing days effectively ended after an 1891 beaning. He tried to come back but the Bucs released him in July of 1892; he retired and became a businessman. Pop, a converted infielder, was a golden glove guy before it was a thing, winning five fielding titles for outfielders in his decade of ball. He was also a roster handyman, returning to the infield when needed and pitching several times during his career. Corkhill went bald as a young man, leading to his nickname. 
• 1892 - C Williard “Red” Smith was born in Logansport, Indiana. Red’s MLB career consisted of two seasons (1917-18) with the Pirates as a reserve catcher; his .156 BA may help explain his brief stay. Red did have a decade-long minor league career, hanging up the spikes at age 36 after catching 36 games for Class B Quincy of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. 
• 1912 - Pittsburgh finally gave in to the inevitable and used “Pirates” on their uniforms, displayed in capital letters down the jersey’s button lapel, replacing the old PBC (Pittsburgh Baseball Club) logo. They had picked up the moniker in 1891 for “pirating” Lou Bierbauer from the Athletics, but more officially (and often) were called the Pittsburgh Nationals. It didn’t appreciably improve the club as they were drubbed 7-0 on opening day by St. Louis at Robison Field. They finished the year strong, though, ending up with a 93-58 record and a second place finish. 
• 1919 - IF Hank Schenz was born in New Richmond, Ohio. He was with the Bucs in 1950 & ‘51 after four years with the Cubs. He hit .222 before being sold to the Giants during the 1951 campaign, and according to Dave Finoli’s Pirates By the Numbers, became the guy that stole and relayed opposing catcher’s signs from behind the Polo Grounds scoreboard by using a telescope. 

The Quail - 1961 Topps

• 1961 - Bill Virdon smacked a two-out, three-run HR to right off reliever Mike McCormick to give the Pirates a ninth inning, 8-7, win over the Giants in San Francisco’s Home Opener. Roy Face was credited with the win and Clem Labine claimed the save. Dick Groat and Bob Skinner added four hits and scored four runs while Roberto Clemente drove in a pair to rev the attack. 
• 1965 - OF Turner Ward was born in Orlando, Florida. The journeyman played in Pittsburgh from 1997-99, hitting .281 in a fourth outfielder role and becoming an early meme when he crashed through the TRS outfield fence in 1998. After his career, he returned to the Bucco system for a year, managing Low-A State College in 2007. Turner moved on to the D-Backs organization, eventually becoming their hitting coach, a position he also later held with the Dodgers and Reds. 
• 1975 - There were 43,880 fans on hand at TRS to watch the Bucs on Opening Day, and they were three outs away from disappointment as Jerry Koosman and the Mets were cruising, 3-0, heading into the ninth. But the Pirates refused to mail it in; Richie Zisk, Dave Parker and Manny Sanguillen started it off with singles to send home a run and chase Koosman. Rick Baldwin came in and walked Paul Popovich, then an out later Rennie Stennett bounced a game-tying rap up the middle. Lefty Mac Scarce was waved in to face Richie Hebner, who fought him off to drop a flare single the opposite way to score Popovich with the winner. Larry Demery got the win in relief of Jerry Reuss. 
• 1976 - At Philadelphia‚ Doc Medich, walking in from the bullpen, spotted a man having a heart attack in the stands. He jumped over the railing and applied CPR to revive him. Sadly, the fan later passed away in the hospital. Doc didn’t get into the game, an 8-3 win for the Pirates at Veterans Stadium, though he did come that close to making the save of the day. 

Doc Medich - 1976 Topps

• 1980 - The Bucs defeated the St. Louis Cards at Busch Stadium, 4-3, as Pittsburgh scored twice in the ninth. Ed Ott singled home the tying run with two down and the winner scored on the same play when SS Gary Templeton mishandled the relay, allowing the Bucs to overcome a sixth-inning, 3-0, deficit. Grant Jackson got the win, although he was almost in his birthday suit by the final frame. He worked a quiet frame and thought his night was done. Assuming he would be pinch-hit for, he was in the locker room and headed for the hot water when Chuck Tanner decided to have him bat after Ott’s big blow as the Redbirds had two switch-hitters and a lefty due up. Grant quickly slipped back into his uni, flew out to center, and then put the Redbirds away in order. 
• 1988 - A record crowd of 54,089 Pittsburgh faithful, the first baseball sellout in TRS history, watched the Bucs defeat the Phils, 5-1, thanks to an eighth-inning, bases-loaded (and clearing) double by Spanky LaValliere. Barry Bonds added two hits, including a homer. The match was the Bucs Home Opener, with Mr. Rogers tossing out the first ball. Doug Drabek gave up nine hits as he struggled through his five innings of work, but only one run crossed the plate and he got the win as Vicente Palacios and Jeff Robinson took care of business after him. 
• 1989 - In the Home Opener at TRS, the Bucs had to work overtime to take a 4-3 win from the Mets. Down by one with Jose Lind on first and one gone in the ninth, Bobby Bonilla singled to center off Mets reliever Randy Myers. Lind moved to third and scored on Glenn Wilson's sac fly. With the tally still knotted in the 11th with one away, Lind singled to right field against Myers and stole second base. With two gone, Bo came through again, singling on a slow infield bleeder up the third base side to chase Chico home for the win, credited to Jeff Robinson, the third hurler after Doug Drabek. The game sold out in early March - 55,000 tickets were bought and 42,910 hardy fans showed up despite the 44-degree weather - and KDKA aired it; the game was the first Home Opener to ever be telecast. The anthem was sung by The Letterman, and NL Prez Bill White threw out the first ball. 

Spanky LaValliere - 1993 Topps (reverse)

• 1993 - The Pirates released C Spanky Lavalliere as he was entering his seventh season as a Bucco, causing some teeth-gnashing in the locker room as he and Don Slaught had formed a strong tandem from 1990-92. The team carried three catchers after breaking camp, but needed to clear an active roster spot for a pitcher. The club had to decide between Tom Prince and Lavalliere to free up that slot and the 32-year-old Spanky, who still had two years/$4.45M left on his contract but was in questionable physical shape, lost the decision. He signed on with the White Sox and Gene Lamont, playing through 1995, but never caught more than 44 games in a season after he left Pittsburgh. 
• 1998 - Jose Guillen delivered a pinch-hit, walkoff home run in the 10th inning to give the Pirates a 7-6 win over the Florida Marlins at TRS. Kevin Young went 3-for-5 with four RBI and also connected for his first home run of the season; he added a double. Turner Ward contributed a triple and double, chasing home a pair of runs. Rich Loiselle picked up his first win of the year as the third pitcher to follow starter Fracisco Cordova, also earning a blown save for surrendering a run in the ninth. 
• 1999 - Brant Brown avenged himself against the team that had traded him when he went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and three RBI in Pittsburgh’s 9-6 win over the Cubs at TRS. Brian Giles smacked a homer and Freddy Garcia added a pair of hits and two RBI each. Jason Schmidt got the victory as the Bucs completed a three-game sweep of Chi-Town to improve their record to 4-2. 
• 2001 - RHP Ramon Martinez signed a one-year deal with a team option for $200K plus bonuses, bumping LHP Joe Beimel from the rotation to the bullpen while RHP Bill Taylor was DFA’ed to clear a spot. Ramon was effective earlier in his career, but 1998 surgery cost him, and he was looked upon as more of a veteran inning-eating back end guy than rotation anchor. He never even reached that status; he got four starts, lasting 15-2/3IP and slashed 0-2/8.62. Ramon retired in May after Lloyd McClendon talked to him about going to the bullpen, ending his MLB career. 

Jeromy Burnitz - 2006 photo Lynne Sladky/AP

• 2006 - The Pirates were off to a 1-7 start and didn’t look like they were going to earn that elusive second win after the Dodgers opened the game with a three-spot against Ian Snell. But the Bucco batters flexed their muscles to bang out three homers (Jeromy Burnitz, Ryan Doumit, Jack Wilson) in the first five innings, and the starters, Snell and Jae Weong Seo, left a 6-5 game in favor of Los Angeles to the bullpens in the sixth. Solomon Torres put up a zero, then Craig Wilson took Lance Carter’s first pitch over the wall to knot the score. The Pirates added a small-ball run (Joe Randa doubled, moved up ninety feet on a grounder and scored via a sac fly) later in the frame to take the lead, and it was goose eggs the rest of the way out at PNC Park by Torres, Ramon Hernandez and Mike Gonzalez. Solomon took home the 7-6 win after Gonzo notched the save. 
• 2023 - If back-and-forth ball games with ninth inning rallies is your cuppa tea, PNC Park was nirvana. Mitch Keller gave up a couple of early solo shots to the Astros; Jack Suwinski’s two-run blast quickly knotted the score. The the Bucs went ahead in the sixth on Ji-Man Choi’s long ball and added on when Ke'Bryan Hayes doubled, stole third and became an insurance run after Canaan Njigba-Smith’s sac fly. The lead lasted until the ninth when a misthrow opened the gates and Houston came back to tie it up. But the Pirates still had a little muscle left to flex. A Rodolfo Castro single (sweet redemption since he made the error), an Andrew McCutchen pinch-hit knock and Ji Hwan Bae’s blast into the right field stands, his first big league walk-off hit, sent the defending World Champs down the drain, 7-4, with David Bednar earning a blown save/win parley. It was also a big night for the Pittsburgh-Korea connection: Ji-Man Choi and Ji Hwan Bae became the first Korean-born teammates to homer in the same game in MLB history.