4/18 From 1955: Ike-Zach; Tony Done; Starling Slapped; Uncovered; Craig Crushes; Buntin' Kris; B-2-B; Red Letter Game; #20 Retired; 1 Bats 8th; Ouch, Al; Schmidt's #500; HBD Angelo

• 1955 - In his first major league appearance, 25-year-old reliever Al Grunwald got just one batter out. He gave up a single to Don Mueller‚ a double to Monte Irvin‚ a triple to Willie Mays‚ and a homer to Whitey Lockman. The NY Giants “cycle” led to an eight-run fourth frame and eventual 12-3 victory over the Pirates. But there was a bright spot. Rookie Roberto Clemente hit his first home run, an inside-the-park 445’ shot that the weirdly configured Polo Grounds kept in the yard. The Great One also gunned his first outfield assist; he threw out 266 runners during his career. As for Grunwald, he got two more outings with the Bucs, tossing seven+ shutout innings, but was sent down in May. 
• 1957 - The Bucs lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers, 6-1, at Ebbets Field. The game marked the last time a Pirates pitcher batted eighth (Luis Arroyo, with Bill Mazeroski behind him) for over 50 years, until June 30, 2008 when Paul Maholm batted ahead of Jack Wilson via a John Russell scorecard. Bobby Bragan sometimes batted pitchers eighth back in the fifties before Russell again adopted the concept briefly. The universal DH has put the double leadoff tactic to bed. 
• 1969 - C Angelo Encarnacion was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Angelo was a back-up/insurance policy catcher for the Bucs from 1995-96, batting .238 over that span. He’s best known for a 1995 blooper when he scooped up a short blocked pitch with his mask with a runner on third in extra innings. That’s a no-no by the rule book and the nonchalant play allowed the winning run to score on the technical foul. He played for the Angels in 1997 and then went the minor league/indie route, shedding the tools of ignorance after the 2003 campaign. 
• 1972 - Pie Traynor’s number 20 was retired at TRS posthumously on Opening Day in front of 47,489, with his widow Eva getting his jersey from manager Bill Virdon and former #20 Richie Hebner. The Bucs could have used Pie, losing, 6-4, to the Chicago Cubs despite Hebner’s homer and Manny Sanguillen’s double and triple. It was a packed pregame - Roberto Clemente received his 11th Golden Glove, Willie Stargell was presented with the Mel Ott Award for winning the 1971 HR title and Josh Gibson Jr. tossed out the opening pitch. There were also protesters who unfurled a giant “Stop the War” sign. The day ended tragically when a 17-year-old died trying to leap over 4’ rails between ramps (a stunt pulled off by several other youths during the game) and missed, falling to his death in the parking lot 80’ below, the second TRS fatality due to the low railing. Management finally added a high chain-link fence between the ramp ways to correct the deadly flaw. 

Willie Stargell - 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot

• 1980 - It was a day of baseball feats at TRS: before the game, Willie Stargell was presented with his 1979 Man of the Year Award by TSN, prompting Bucco owner Dan Galbreath to name one of his ponies Captain Willie, then both Bill Robinson and Bill Madlock collected their 1,000th hit during the game. The Bucs took home a 12-10 win, making it exciting by almost blowing a six-run first inning lead and then surviving a two-run, ninth-inning Redbird rally. Mad Dog and Robinson had three hits on their red-letter day, as did Dave Parker and Tim Foli. Grant Jackson got the win and Teke the save after Jim Bibby. 
• 1987 - Mike Schmidt hit his 500th career home run, a three-run shot off Don Robinson in the top of the 9th inning, to give the Phillies an 8-6 win at TRS. Schmidt became the 15th MLB player to reach the 500-HR mark. And though the Pittsburgh-Philly rivalry was fierce during that era, the Steeltown fans gave Schmitty a warm ovation for his record-book bomb. 
• 1996 - Al Martin and Orlando Merced homered in back-to-back at bats as part of a three-run fourth inning in Pittsburgh’s 6-2 win at Busch Stadium against the St. Louis Cards. Leadoff batter Nelson Liriano went 4-for-5 with two runs scored to set the Pirates table while starter Paul Wagner upped his record to 3-0 after allowing two runs in seven innings of work.
• 2004 - Kris Benson tied a MLB record with four sacrifice bunts as the Bucs topped the Mets, 8-1. He became the seventh player to accomplish the feat, and only the second since 1920. For all of that effort, none of the four runners Benson advanced scored. Craig Wilson did the heavy lifting for the Pirates attack, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two runs and two RBI. 
• 2009 - In the first Saturday afternoon game in Pittsburgh since 2005, Craig Monroe hit three-run home runs in consecutive innings to give the Pirates their first back-to-back victories of the season by a 10-0 count over the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park. Ian Snell went seven innings and gave up three hits for the win. Monroe only hit one more homer and was released in July to end his MLB career. 

Craig Monroe - 2009 photo Getty/Rob Tringali

• 2014 - The Brewer’s Martin Maldonado drilled a sixth-inning bullet to 3B Pedro Alvarez, hitting it so hard that the cover came undone. He beat El Toro’s flapping knuckleball to first, and the play eventually led to a two-out run in a 5-3 Pirates loss to Milwaukee at PNC Park. It kept a couple of urban myths alive - the Pirates dismal luck against the Brew Crew once again held true to form and it added yet another item in the long list of freak things that always seemed to happen when pitcher Charlie Morton was on the bump. 
• 2014 - 1B Ike Davis was traded by the Mets to the Pirates for a PTBNL (LHP Blake Taylor) and RHP Zack Thornton. He hit .235 and was released at the end of the season, signing a deal with the Oakland Athletics and joining the Yankees for a brief MLB stop in 2016. Ike then joined the Dodger system and pitched some before retiring in 2018. Zach has bounced around in AAA, Latin baseball & the indie league, also playing for the 2017 Israeli nine in the WBC where he joined Ike as a teammate. He’s now UC-Davis’ pitching coach. Taylor has bounced around in the minors (12 teams so far) and is currently with the Astros. 
• 2017 - It was announced that CF Starling Marte was given an 80-game PED suspension after testing positive for Nandrolone, an old-school steroid used to treat anemia but with a history of sports abuse dating back to the sixties. With Marte out until July 18th and Jung-Ho Kang in South Korea due to legal entanglements resulting from his offseason DUI arrest, the Pirates were minus the planned middle of their 2017 lineup for much of the year (Marte returned; Kang didn’t until 2018) because of bad personal decision-making. Neither guy remained with the club; JHK was released and Starling was Ben Cherington’s first big trade. 
• 2022 - Although his Pirate years were in the rear view mirror, Pittsburgh fans tipped their caps to 36-year-old LHP Tony Watson when he announced his retirement, finally conceding to an achy shoulder. The 11-year vet was drafted by the Bucs in 2007 and spent his first seven seasons here, moving on later to the Dodgers, Giants, Angels and finally back to San Fran. He posted a 47-29-32/2.90 line over his career with an MLB record 246 holds, and was Mark Melancon/Jason Grilli's setup man during the Pittsburgh playoff years (222 outings/17-4-5 record/97 holds/1.97 ERA/188 ERA+ from 2013-15), earning a 2014 All Star nod. And as a parting gift, his 2017 deadline trade to the Dodgers netted SS Oneil Cruz.