7/14 From 1970: B-2-Bx2, Top Guns, AVS, Cobra Crush, Game Tales; Basebrawl, Cutch HR & ASGs; HBD Jack & Ben

• 1970 - Roberto Clemente was booed by the All-Star crowd at Riverfront Stadium (then all of two weeks old) after earlier saying he would only play if the game was held in Pittsburgh instead of Cincinnati. He changed his tune after GM Joe Brown provided a bit of arm twisting to convince his achy star to give up his rest break, and despite a chronically sore neck, the Great One was used late in the game. Clemente, the only Buc rep on the roster, hit a sac fly to tie the contest and held Willie Horton to a 375’ single off the wall in right as the Nationals won, 5-4. The game’s most remembered moment was the train wreck between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse at the plate, with Rose jarring the ball loose to score the winning run while Fosse suffered a broken shoulder. 
• 1974 - The nitecap of a twin bill against the rival Reds at TRS erupted into a donnybrook. The action started after a fourth inning beanball of Bruce Kison by Jack Billingham, causing both teams to rush the field. When Sparky Anderson stepped on Ed Kirkpatrick's foot, the Buc catcher shoved the Reds skipper and was rewarded with a sock from Andy Kosko. The most memorable bit of mayhem was when Cincy’s Pedro Borbon bit Daryl Patterson after a little hair-tugging episode. Patterson got a tetanus shot after the chomp (Borbon told the media afterward for Patterson not to worry about tetanus, but rabies; Patterson countered by saying Borbon "fights like a woman." Welcome to the playground. The Pirates won the spirited contest, 2-1, after dropping the opener, 3-2. The victory ignited an eight-game Bucco winning streak and the Pirates stormed through the dog days to take the NL East title, only to lose the NLCS to the LA Dodgers. 
• 1974 - Pirates GM Ben Cherington was born in Meriden, New Hampshire. He replaced Neal Huntington (they were teammates on Amherst’s baseball team) after the 2019 season. He began as a scout for Cleveland in 1999, moved on to Boston the following year and rose through the ranks to become GM in 2011. He held that spot until 2015, took a year off to teach, and then spent three years as Toronto’s VP of Baseball Operations before taking the Pittsburgh rebuild job. 

Cobra - 1980 Kelloggs 3-D

• 1980 - Vets Stadium in Philadelphia was the scene of a smokin’ shootout between the Bucs and Phils, with Pittsburgh finally taking the slugfest by a 13-11 tally after Dave Parker's two-run homer in the ninth. The two teams combined for 36 hits (21 by the Pirates) and there were no 1-2-3 innings for either side during the contest. The game was bitterly fought to the end. The Phillies left a runner on third in the eighth and the tag team of Lee Lacy-to-Tim Foli-to Phil Garner cut down Lonnie Smith at second in the ninth; Smith’s attempted stretch of his rap would have put Philadelphians at second and third with one out. The Cobra had three hits, including two dingers, four RBI and three runs scored; Foli and Bill Robinson each banged out four hits. The Bucs’ fifth pitcher, Grant Jackson earned the win after posting two scoreless but rambunctious frames. 
• 1987 - The National League outdueled the Americans to take home a 2-0 victory in the Midsummer Classic held at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. It took 13 innings before a run was scored when Tim Raines hit a two-run, two-out triple to win the game and the MVP. Rick Reuschel repped the Bucs and tossed 1-1/3 frames, giving up a hit and fanning one batter. 
• 1988 - Though 37,453 fans packed TRS, the Bucs got off to a slow start. The Giants jumped out to a 2-0 lead after an inning and starter John Smiley was done, suffering from an inflammation of his hand. More bad news: Rick Reuschel, an All-Star for the Pirates the year before and an 11-game winner so far for San Francisco, was on the bump. But all’s well that ends well, and this one ended up well with a 9-2 win. Andy Van Slyke tripled twice and chased home four runs, Darnell Coles plated four more runners, and Brian Fisher stepped in and went 5-1/3 IP for the victory. Dave Rucker and Jeff Robinson carried it into the ninth when an hour and 22 minute rain delay gave the fans an excuse for an early exit before Barry Jones mopped up at the finish. 
• 1990 - LHP Jack Leathersich was born in Beverly, Massachusetts. After seeing some time with the Mets and Cubs, Leathersich was claimed by the Bucs from Chicago in September 2017, after recovering from TJ surgery. He tossed well albeit with a small sample size (4-1/3 IP, no runs on three hits with six whiffs in six appearances) but was DFA’d the following spring. Jack last pitched for the Texas Rangers organization in 2019 and now is retired from baseball. 

Barry Bonds - 1992 Score (reverse)

• 1992 - A lotta lumber was being swung at the Midsummer Classic as the American League took a 13-6 victory from the Nationals at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium. The Junior Circuit banged out 19 hits with two swats leaving the yard. Outfielders Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke started; Bonds went 1-for-3 with a double and a run scored while AVS went 0-for-2 and hit into a DP. Barry also took part in the home run derby, hitting two dingers in the first round. 
• 1997 - The Bucs came from behind three times, rallying from 1-0, 2-1, and 4-3 deficits, to finally beat the Mets, 5-4, at Three Rivers Stadium to take their 10th win in 12 games. Steve Cooke left after seven with a 3-2 lead, but New York scored twice off Clint Sadowsky in the eighth to leapfrog ahead. The Pirates tallied twice in the eighth for the victory on four straight hits: doubles by Al Martin, Kevin Young and Jason Kendall sandwiched around a knock by Dale Sveum. Rich Loiselle picked up his 12th save to tie the club rookie record set by Francisco Cordova one year earlier and finished the year with 29 saves. Ricardo Rincon got the win. Cordova, now converted to a starting pitcher, was earlier named the NL Player of the Week following his shared no-hitter with Rincon. 
• 2006 - The top four of the Bucco order (Nate McLouth, Jack Wilson, Freddy Sanchez & Jay Bay) collected nine hits, including four doubles, and a walk, scored four times and drove in four runs to lead Pittsburgh to a 7-4 win over Washington at PNC Park. Wilson and Jose Bautista each had three hits, including Jose’s 11th homer, as the Bucs banged out 15 knocks. Zach Duke was credited with the win and Mike Gonzalez earned the save, with five Pirates hurlers toeing the slab. 
• 2009 - The American League continued its avalanche over the Nationals in All-Star competition, taking a 4-3 victory at Busch Stadium. Pitcher Zach Duke and 2B Freddy Sanchez made the team but didn’t get into the game. President Barack Obama, wearing a White Sox jacket, threw out the first pitch and later joined Joe Buck and Tim McCarver in the booth. 

Andrew McCutchen - 2015 Donruss Diamond King

• 2015 - Andrew McCutchen started and batted leadoff for the Senior Circuit in the ASG played at Great American Ballpark. Cutch contributed a home run while going 1-for-3 (Andrew was the first Buccaneer to homer in an ASG since Dave Parker went deep in 1981), but the Americans won their third straight Midsummer Classic, 6-3. Gerrit Cole tossed a scoreless frame while Mark Melancon struck out a pair in his inning of work but was touched up for a two-out, two-strike homer by the Minny Twins’ Brian Dozier. AJ Burnett, in his first All-Star game after 17 years in the show, didn’t get into the fray. Commissioner Bud Selig allowed Pete Rose to be recognized before the game along with former Cincy Red teammates Johnny Bench, Barry Larkin, and Joe Morgan. 
• 2017 - The Bucs spotted the Cards a 2-0 first-inning lead at PNC Park but ground their way to a 5-2 win that was nowhere as easy as the score would indicate. Gerrit Cole recovered nicely after the rough opening while Tony Watson, Juan Nicasio and Felipe Rivero held the fort to allow the Pirates to tie the game at two going into the ninth. With Adam Frazier on second and an out, Andrew McCutchen was given an intentional pass so that Seung Hwan Oh could face rookie Josh Bell. He got ahead 1-2, then J-Bell went the opposite way for a walk-off blast and a 5-2 win. Bell’s homer would be the jump-off point for three walk-off wins in a six-day span for the livin’ on the edge Bucs. 
• 2018 - The Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Milwaukee Brewers by 2-1 and 6-2 scores at PNC Park in front of 24,474 rooters. Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of the opener, and five Pirate pitchers, beginning with Ivan Nova and finishing with Felipe Vazquez, kept the Brew Crew at bay. The nightcap featured stellar work by some young Pirates: Clay Holmes tossed six shutout innings, Jordan Luplow homered twice & Max Moroff went deep once while Marte & Polanco become the second Pirate duo to hit back-to-back homers in both ends of a twin bill (Frank Thomas and Dick Groat were the first in 1957; only one other MLB pair, Oakland's Sal Bando & Reggie Jackson in 1988, has matched the twin bill B-2-B feat). Vazquez got the final out of the second game, earning a pair of saves on the day. 
• 2020 - The 2020 All-Star Game was originally scheduled on this date, to be hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the match was canceled due to the corona virus-shortened 2020 season, the first bypassed Midsummer Classic since wartime travel restrictions scrubbed the 1945 game. Dodger Stadium went to the head of the line for the All-Star Game for 2022, the next available date as Atlanta was already set for the 2021 showcase, though it was later flipped to Denver.