4/15 Through 1964: 9 Innings, 9 DPs; Opening Days; Hank, Chief Bucco Debuts; Allies Launch; HBD Mike, Wild Bill, Chaney, King Cole, Batty & Bill

• 1871 - 3B Bill Grey (also spelled Gray) was born in Philadelphia. A utility player who yo-yoed between the majors and minors, he was picked up by the Pirates for the 1898 season as part of the Pink Hawley deal after hitting .357 for the Western League Indianapolis Hoosiers. He played one campaign here as the full-time third baseman (the only time he played one position for an entire year in the majors), getting 528 ABs but hitting just .229, and was dealt again, netting Ginger Beaumont. The Pirates were his last MLB stop; after two more minor-league seasons, he retired to his hometown. 
• 1876 - The Pittsburgh Alleghenys fielded what’s often thought to be the city's first professional baseball team against the local Xanthas at North Side’s Union Park, winning 7-3. (The Alleghenys had paid players but were an independent club). They played in front of 2,000 fans despite an hour’s delay to doctor the field after some rain. The next year, the Alleghenys franchise joined the minor league International Association, but the team and league disbanded after the season. 
• 1877 - Ed Abbaticchio, considered by many to be the first Italian American to play MLB, was born in Latrobe. “Batty” was also one of the first to play both pro baseball and football, starring on the gridiron for Latrobe, arguably the first pro football team. The middle infielder played 3-1/2 of his nine big league seasons (1907-10) for Pittsburgh, hitting .253, and was a reserve for the 1909 World Series champs at age 32, a year away from his last MLB season. 
• 1886 - RHP Leonard “King” Cole was born in Toledo, Iowa. The jolly old soul spent six years in MLB, tossing 12 times for the Bucs in 1912 with a 2-2/6.43 line. The Pirates got him from the Cubs on May 30th with Solly Hofman for Tommy Leach and Lefty Leifield. He spent 1913 at Columbus and was then drafted by the Yankees. Cole had an interesting career, pitching the first Cubbie no-hitter in 1910 (seven innings, shortened by curfew) while winning 20 games, serving up Babe Ruth’s first hit while a Yankee hurler in 1914 (a double), and becoming a Ring Lardner hero in his Alibi Ike series of short stories. The King passed away not long after that, dying from TB in 1915 at age 29. He got his nickname from the Cub faithful, likely after the nursery rhyme character. 

King Cole - 1912 Charles Conlon photo

• 1894 - OF Chaney White was born in Longview, Texas. Chaney played for 18 seasons in the Negro Leagues with one local stop, hitting .312 for the 1930 Homestead Grays. Chaney broke up Chet Brewer and Smokey Joe Williams’ legendary pitching duel when he doubled off the third base sack to plate Oscar Charleston with the game’s only run to defeat Brewer in the 12th frame. 
• 1908 - Opening Day at St. Louis’ Robison Field was a damp one (it was rescheduled from the day before, a rain out) and it showed as the Pirates and Cards combined for 10 errors. Still, it was a 0-0 duel between Pittsburgh’s Howie Camnitz and the Redbirds Johnny Lush going into the ninth when each team scored (who woulda guessed?) an unearned run. In the 10th inning, the Bucs turned a bopped batter and a botched forceout try into a pair of runs and Camitz took care of the rest to claim a 3-1 win. It was a big confidence booster for a young club; the Pirates were without Hans Wagner, who said he was retiring, but an offer two days later that doubled his salary lured him back. 
• 1921 - Pirate pitcher Moses “Chief” Yellow Horse made his major league debut against the Reds. Yellow Horse, a Pawnee, was believed by many baseball historians to be the first full-blooded American Indian to play in the big leagues. He worked the last two innings and “did not permit a single safe swat” per the Pittsburgh Press to save a win for Earl Hamilton as the Bucs beat the Reds, 3-1, at Redland Field. The Pirates won it in the eighth, filling the bases on a knock, error and swinging bunt single, and all three runners plated when Max Carey’s two-out bloop dropped. Yellow Horse spent both of his MLB seasons (1921-22) as a Pirate, and his nickname was said to have been bestowed on him by Rabbit Maranville. 
• 1926 - RHP William “Wild Bill” Pierro was born in Brooklyn (the date is debatable; Bill was deserted as an infant and raised by foster parents, the Pierros). A lanky kid, Pierro was a hot shot Bucco prospect and made it to the show in July of 1950. He featured a blazing fastball with a sidearm curve and fanned 275 batters in Class B Waco in 1949 after punching out 300 hitters in Bartlesville the previous season while compiling a 51-31/2.60 line in four minor-league seasons. He got into 12 games and made three starts for the Pirates, slashing 0-2/10.55. He lived up to his nickname, walking 28 batters in 29 IP, including six in one memorable frame. He butted heads with Branch Rickey over a variety of issues, not exactly helping his own cause, and was slated to work at the minor league complex on his control after 1951 camp broke. He was still with the big team on his 25th birthday when he was rushed to Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian Hospital with encephalitis and was in a coma for several weeks. Bill eventually recovered, but his days as an athlete were finished. He went back home to Brooklyn. 

Wild Bill Pierro - May 15, 1950 Post-Gazette

• 1947 - In his Pirate debut, Hank Greenberg’s sixth-inning double chased home Billy Cox to give the Bucs' a 1-0 victory over the Cubs and Hank Borowy. Rip Sewell got the win by scattering five hits at Wrigley Field. The slugger was brought in from the Tigers after a contract impasse and Greenberg wasted no time cashing in for Pittsburgh, along with tutoring young slugger Ralph Kiner. 
• 1958 - The Pirates beat the Braves, 4-3, in a 14-inning contest, tying the longest Opening Day game ever played in the NL, a record they would tie again in 1969. Bill Virdon chased home Hank Foiles with the game winner at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. Ron Blackburn got the win and Curt Raydon picked up the save. Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat and Bob Skinner each had three hits; Bill Virdon and RC Stevens chipped in a pair, too, as the Bucs stranded 13 runners. 
• 1960 - OF/1B Mike Diaz was born in San Francisco. He played in Pittsburgh from 1986-88, hitting .250 with 28 HR in 524 AB. Diaz was dubbed “Rambo” by Bob Walk while with the Bucs because of his resemblance to Sly Stallone, and the club even promoted a popular poster of him under that nom de guerre. He had a second career in Japan lasting for four seasons beginning in 1989. 
• 1961 - The Dodgers and Pirates tied a league record by turning nine DPs (Los Angeles 5‚ Pittsburgh 4, with Dick groat starting three of the double dips) in a 4-1 Buc win at Memorial Coliseum. It was only the second time (July 3rd, 1929, Cubs-Reds) that nine DPs have been turned in a nine-inning National League game, with eight the result of grounders. Bob Friend was the recipient of the twin killings. Bill Virdon smacked two homers, the first to lead off the game, and Don Hoak banged a bases-loaded, two-out double to chase home the Pirate tallies.