5/17 From 1955: Virdon-Del Greco; Cervy Extension; 12 For Lyle; Huge Innings; Bombs Away; Game Tales; RIP Gunner & Joe; HBD Ben, Jose & Pascual

• 1956 - The Pirates traded with St. Louis for CF Bill Virdon, sending LHP Dick Littlefield and OF Bobby Del Greco to the Redbirds. The Quail, who was Rookie of the Year in 1955 for the Cards, played 11 seasons for the Pirates, roaming the spacious center field pasture of Forbes Field for a decade while hitting .266 and later returned as a coach and manager. He passed on in 2021 at the age of 90. Littlefield was near the end of his MLB days, last working in May, 1958, while Del Greco had a nine-year big league run as a good glove guy with a .229 career BA. 
• 1957 - RHP Pascual Perez was born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic. Pérez was signed by scout Pablo Cruz in 1976 and made both the 40-man roster and his debut in 1980. He pitched for the Pirates for two seasons with a slash of 2-8/3.94 before being sold to the Atlanta Braves, where he developed into a 15-game winner/All Star. The 11-year vet was quite a character, using a hand motion to shoot down opposing batters, liberally buzzing batters, tossing a blooper pitch and peeking between his legs to check runners at first, even on occasion hiking the ball through his wickets as his pickoff move. His last big league campaign was in 1991 with the New York Yankees. Perez’s colorful life came to a tragic end when he was beaten to death in 2012 during a home robbery. 
• 1959 - The Cubs and Pirates traded long balls in a doubleheader split at Wrigley Field, with the clubs banging out 10 homers. Bill Mazeroski hit a pair of bombs and drove in three runs as the Bucs took the opener, 5-4, behind Vern Law and ElRoy Face. Chicago came back in the nightcap, claiming a 7-6 win thanks to Dick Groat muffing a two-out grounder in the seventh, allowing two Cubbies to plate, giving Bennie Daniels the loss. Beside Maz’s two long flies, Roberto Clemente added a pair (one flew just to the left of the scoreboard, estimated to travel 520’, one of the longest blows ever hit at Wrigley) while Dick Hoak and Bob Skinner also homered. 

Billy Maz - 1959 Topps

• 1971 - Roberto Clemente's two-out, two-run, walk-off triple off closer Mike Marshall carried the Bucs to a 6-5 win over the Expos at TRS. Clemente had three hits, including a homer, and three RBI. His home run and Bob Robertson’s in the eighth had pulled Pittsburgh within a run to set up Clemente’s ninth inning heroics. Montreal had jumped to a 5-0 lead in the third off Luke Walker, but the bullpen work of Jim Nelson, Nellie Briles and winner Mudcat Grant shut them down to allow Roberto and company to do their thing. 
• 1976 - OF Jose Guillen was born in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. Signed by the Bucs in 1992, he made the Opening Day roster in 1997 after tearing up the High A Carolina League with Lynchburg. The RF’er was traded after the 1999 season after hitting .267 in his three-year Bucco span. In 2003, he found his power stroke and was a solid MLB player for 14 seasons (he played for 10 teams), finishing up with a .270 BA and 1,591 hits, among them 214 long balls. 
• 1981 - Mt. Washington’s Joe Fabrizi passed away at the age of 82. You may never have heard of Joe, but he was a key member of the Pirates broadcast team: he was the last local Western Union telegrapher dedicated to sports. He was the man in the middle during the early days of radio when announcers like Rosey Rowswell and Bob Prince didn’t go on road trips with the teams. Instead, they recreated the game from the blow-by-blow telegraph reports sent to Fabrizi from the out-of-town ballyard staffers, who sent them along to the announcers to pass on to the fans. 
• 1984 - The Bucs took a break from the National League rat race and played against their Class AA Eastern League minor league club at Nashua (NH). Pittsburgh beat the farmhands, 3-2, in front of the Pirates biggest crowd of the week, 6,089. In their set with Houston at Three Rivers Stadium before the exhibition, the Bucs drew 3,395, 2,978 & 4,523 faithful to the hometown yard. 

Bob Prince - June 1985 Press photos/Ross Catanza

• 1985 - After waiting out a 2-1/2 hour rain delay before a Pirates-Cincinnati Reds game at TRS (the Reds won 6-3), Pirate announcer Bob Prince was admitted to the hospital for dehydration and pneumonia and never left. On June 10th, with his wife Betty at his side, he passed away at the age of 68 in Presbyterian University Hospital, ending an era in Pirates baseball. 
• 1992 - OF Ben Gamel was born in Jacksonville. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 10th round of the 2010 Draft straight out of HS, then broke into the majors with the Yanks in 2016. Ben also played with the Mariners, Brewers and Indians before the Pirates claimed him following a spate of injuries to an already thin outfield in May, 2021, after he was DFA’ed by the Tribe. The lefty was mostly a role player but found a niche in Pittsburgh as a vet filling in at all three outfield positions while becoming a fan fave for his hustle despite hitting .242 over his two Pirates seasons. He’s now playing in the New York Mets organization.
• 2009 - The Pirates erupted for 10 runs in the seventh inning to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 11-4 laugher against the Rockies at PNC Park. The Bucs’ first 11 batters reached safely; the first out was recorded on the bases when Eric Hinske was thrown out stretching to reach third after a single. Pittsburgh used nine hits (three were doubles), two walks and a couple of Colorado errors to cobble the frame together against four Rox twirlers. Zach Duke left the game trailing 4-1, but still got the win thanks to the outburst. The Pirates wouldn’t have an inning that big again until June of 2017 when they put up a first-inning 10-spot against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field to ignite a 14-3 victory.
• 2013 - The Bucs dug their way out of a 4-1 hole to defeat the Astros, 5-4, at PNC Park when two Astro fielders ran into each other with two down in ninth, allowing Russ Martin’s pop to drop and Andrew McCutchen to score the walkoff run. There were also some legit efforts by Pittsburgh. Tony Watson, Vin Mazzaro and Justin Wilson tossed 4-1/3 frames of scoreless ball and Pedro Alvarez cranked a 462’ shot that splashed into the Allegheny after a bounce off the Riverwalk. Petey’s eighth-inning, game-tying two-run shot fell a foot short of Matt Lawton’s 2005 blast from becoming the longest homer ever hit at PNC Park. 

Pedro Alvarez - 2013 Topps Allen & Ginter

• 2016 - The Bucs sent 11 batters to the plate during a seven-run first inning - five reached with two outs to chase home five of the runs, with a throw out at home ending the frame - and then held on to beat the Atlanta Braves, 12-9, at PNC Park. Pittsburgh punched out 21 hits as seven Pirates recorded multiple hits, with Fran Cervelli, Gregory Polanco (all doubles), John Jaso and Andrew McCutchen banging out three raps each. Juan Nicasio started and earned the win, but it took five relievers behind him before Mark Melancon nailed down the save. 
• 2016 - The Pirates extended C Fran Cervelli’s contract for three years (2017-2019) and $31M ($9M - ‘17, $10.5M - ‘18, $11.5M - ‘19). With the extension, the Pirates had their starting eight players under contract for the next season and seven of the eight (Cervelli, Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco, Josh Harrison, Jung Ho Kang and Jordy Mercer) under team control through 2018. Cervelli had been due to hit free agency at the end of the season. 
• 2019 - Jordan Lyles became the first Bucco righty since Gerrit Cole in 2014 to fan a dozen batters as he went seven innings, giving up five hits with a walk and a run via a solo shot, on the way to a 5-3 Bucco win against San Diego at Petco Park. The key blow for the Pirates was a two-run blast by rookie Bryan Reynolds to give Pittsburgh a lead it would never relinquish. Lyles was an offseason free agent pickup who was off to a sizzling start; the victory gave him a slash of 4-1/1.97. 
• 2023 - The Pirates hadn’t won a game in which Mitch Keller hadn’t thrown a shutout since April 29th (they were 2-12 over that span and had been outscored 70-22) with pitching that had been spotty and hitting that was non-existent. But both finally came together as the Pirates romped, 8-0, over the Tigers at Comerica Park. Winner Rich Hill and three relievers spun a one-hit whitewash (you can’t lose if you don’t give up any runs) with 14 whiffs while the attack banged out 14 hits, capped by a four-run seventh frame. Bryan Reynolds had three hits, four other Bucs posted a pair of knocks and Rodolfo Castro homered. Ironically, the hurler the offense-challenged team beat was Motown’s ace Eduardo Rodriguez, who entered the game with a line of 4-2/1.57.