8/4: Sluggo Deal; Yeager In, Leever Out; Gorzo Gem, 4 For KY, Salky Cycle, Heinie Bookends, Rallies, Game Tales, Josh Park In SS; HBD Kevin, Steve, Ruben, Luke, Bill, Homer, Cliff, Hicks, Paddy & Jake

• 1867 - 1B Jake Beckley was born in Hannibal, Missouri. “Eagle Eye” played eight seasons (1888-96) for Pittsburgh, with a year off in 1890 when he suited up for the Pittsburgh Burghers of the outlaw Player’s League. He hit .300/123 OPS+ with 113 triples as a Buc and posted three 100+ RBI/four 100+ runs scored campaigns. Jake could glove it, too. He’s the all-time leader for putouts and top 20 in assists for MLB first basemen. After his 20-year MLB career was done, he was eventually selected in 1971 to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee with a lifetime .308 BA and 23,755 putouts at first base during his career, the all-time record. Jake got his nickname because of his batting eye; he was a contact hitter who finished his career with more walks than whiffs. 
• 1879 - C Patrick “Paddy” O’Connor was born in County Kerry, Ireland. A little used catcher for the Pirates from 1908-10, he hit .250. He played one more season in Pittsburgh in 1915, albeit with the Rebels of the Federal League, batting .228. Paddy got a lot of mileage out of baseball, with a playing career that spanned from 1901-21 counting his bush league years. 
• 1883 - RHP Lew “Hicks” Moren was born in Pittsburgh and attended Duquesne University. He pitched exactly two games for the Pirates between 1903-04 (0-1/9.00), but was more successful with the Philadelphia Phillies, picking up 48 wins and 10 shutouts while compiling a 2.88 ERA from 1907-10 before arm problems ended his MLB career. He was one of the first twirlers to feature a knuckleball, closely following its original practitioner, Eddie Cicotte. Hicks (no clue as to how he got that moniker) lived to the age of 86, and is buried in Homewood Cemetery. 
• 1896 - Utilityman Cliff Lee was born in Lexington, Nebraska. Cliff began his eight-year run in the show at Pittsburgh in 1919-20 after being drafted from Portland and then putting in military time. He hit .213 before being claimed by the Phillies and put up three consecutive .300+ campaigns in Philadelphia, playing outfield, catcher and first base. His splits aren’t available, but it appears he never saw much time as a regular because he was a platoon guy that could maul southpaws but righties, not so much. He played in the minor leagues before retiring in 1930. 

Frank Killen via Baseball Revisited

• 1897 - It was a bad day for Pittsburgh at League Park II in Cincinnati. Lefty Killen and the defense floundered in the opener of a twin bill, losing, 14-3, and per the Pittsburgh Press “The Reds won the first one with ease as they found Killen at will and the Pirates made so many errors they simply couldn’t do anything else.” In the second game, ump Tim Hurst caught a beer bottle tossed at him from the stands and threw it back at his attacker. Hurst ended up the one arrested (he was fined $100 as the bottle gashed its victim; he had a good arm for an ump) and Red Bittman, who umped a handful of times and was a Cincinnati native, replaced Hurst and called the game a 4-4 tie after six innings due to darkness, wiping out a six-run seventh by the Bucs. Per the Press, the real reason was “...because he failed to check the run getting of the Pirates, he called the game. As the sun was shining, it was a clear case of a steal.” The Pirates won the rescheduled make-up game, 8-1, and it was the last of 10 big league games Bittman umped. 
• 1901 - Before Pittsburgh’s 6-3 win at Cincinnati’s League Park, Reds and Pirates players were clocked while running from home plate to 1B. The fastest time for the 90-foot sprint was three seconds flat, by Bucco OF Ginger Beaumont. Though Beaumont was a lefty and was known for his wheels, scouts today consider 3.9-4.0 to be elite speed. The SABR Biography Project says he was once timed at 4.4, which seems a little more like it. As for the game, the Buc attack was primed by the speedy Beaumont and Hans Wagner with three hits apiece and a Lefty Davis homer. Ed Poole, subbing for sore-armed starter Sam Leever, took the win. 
• 1901 - The Bucs made a couple of moves. First, they brought in veteran C George Yeager from the Cleveland Blues on a try-out basis after Chief Zimmer, the Bucs starting catcher, was spiked and put out of action (he would then break a rib in a fall three weeks later). George passed the test and finished the year with the Bucs, hitting .264 in 26 games. On the same day, pitcher Sam Leever requested an unpaid leave of absence because of a sore arm, a problem he suffered from throughout his career. The Goshen Schoolmaster told club secretary Harry Pulliam, as reported by the Pittsburgh Press, that “I am not in a position to earn my salary and in justice to the Pittsburg club I think I should take a vacation at my own expense. Just lay off me, Harry, until I send you word that my arm is right.” The Bucs granted his leave, with Pulliam replying “You are one of the highest paid men in the league and the officials will be pleased when they hear of your offer (but) you will get your salary if you do not pitch another game this season.” He didn’t but came back strong the following year and tossed for the Pirates through 1910. 

Homer Blankenship - photo via Find-A-Grave

• 1902 - RHP Homer Blankenship was born in Bonham, Texas. Homer tossed for a couple of years with the Chicago White Sox (1922-23) and then became a long-time Texas League twirler; the Pirates gave him a shot in 1928 and he went 0-2/5.82 in two starts with one complete game. 
• 1912 - IF Bill Schuster was born in Buffalo, New York. He started his five-year, 123-game big league stint in 1937 with the Pirates, going 3-for-6 in a three game audition. Schuster did have a long career spanning 16 years of pro ball, mainly in the Pacific Coast League, where he’s a member of its Hall of Fame. After retiring as a player, Schuster stayed to manage and coach in the west coast league, and later worked in the press room of the Los Angeles Times. 
• 1915 - 1B Luke Easter was born in Jonestown, Mississippi. The slugger played for the Homestead Grays from 1947-48. He hit .363 and led the Grays to a win over the Birmingham Black Barons in the 1948 Negro League World Series, the last one NLWS held. The Grays sold him to Bill Veeck and he went on to play for the Cleveland Indians, but age (he was 34 when he made his MLB debut) and injury limited him to just a couple of productive MLB seasons. 
• 1931 - Heinie Meine started it and ended it. Pirate pitchers put together a streak of 45 consecutive scoreless innings, starting with Meine’s outing on July 27th and ending with Meine’s 7-1 loss to the Cards at Forbes Field after adding five more frames to the zero column. In between, Buc pitchers Larry French, Ray Kremer, Glenn Spencer and Erv Brame all tossed shutouts. 
• 1945 - C Bill Salkeld went 5-for-5 to become the first and only Pirates rookie to hit for the cycle. He drove in all five runs in the Bucs 6-5 loss to the Cardinals at Forbes Field, with the club stranding 12 runners against St. Louis. “Wallopin’ William” must have really been feeling his oats on this day; his triple was the first of just two that he would hit in 1,050 plate appearances during his six-year MLB career with the Bucs, Boston Braves and Chicago White Sox. 

Roberto Clemente - 2002 E-Topps Classic

• 1958 - Roberto Clemente’s two-out homer in the ninth inning off future teammate Juan Pizarro gave the Pirates a 4-3 win over the first place Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium. Arriba had three hits and scored three times while Roy Face saved the game for winner Curt Raydon. 
• 1964 - C Ruben Rodriguez was born in Cabrera, Dominican Republic. His big league stay consisted of four games, two in 1986 and two more in 1988, for the Bucs. He went 1-for-8 with a triple. The Pirates signed him as a 17-year-old and he played minor league ball from 1982-94, closing out in 1995 in Mexico. He became the bullpen coach for KC and is now a youth instructor. 
• 1967 - OF Steve Bieser was born in Perryville, Missouri. Steve played for the New York Mets in 1987 and got into 13 games as a Pirate in 1988, going 3-for-11 with a double (his MLB BA was .250). Bieser spent 13 years in pro ball with five organizations, then retired to become a high school coach and later the manager at Southeast Missouri State University, his alma mater. 
• 1971 - OK, this is a bit of local lore more than Pirates stuff, but... Tom Walker of Dallas-Fort Worth in the Texas League pitched a 15-inning no-hitter in a 1-0 win over Albuquerque. Tom is Neil Walker’s dad, and after six seasons in the show, his last pro season was with the Bucs AAA Columbus club in 1978. He retired, moved to the City, and you know the rest of the tale. 
• 1993 - C Don Slaught and the Pirates agreed on a two-year, $3.5M contract extension. In his four years as a Pirate, Sluggo had hit .314 in a platoon role. The extension carried him through his age 36 campaign. He played for two more years after the contract for three other clubs, retiring during the 1997 season. Sluggo has since been an amateur baseball instructor and UCLA softball coach. 

Don Slaught - 1993 Flair

• 1993 - SS Kevin Newman was born in Poway, California. A first round pick (19th overall) of the Pirates in 2015 from the U of Arizona, he was called up as a utility infielder in 2018. He hit only .209, but made the club in 2019. When SS Erik Gonzalez went down early during that season, Newman took over the starting spot and has held it ever since. With Oneil Cruz knocking on the door, K-Man saw some duty at second. He struggled at the dish before having a bounce-back year in '22, batting .274, was dealt to the Cincy Reds and now is with the Diamondbacks. 
• 1998 - Fours were wild as 1B Kevin Young went 4-for-5 with four runs scored and four RBI during a 13-5 win over the Rockies at TRS. None of the Bucs went yard, but they did bang out nine doubles off four Colorado pitchers, with Young cranking out three of them while Jason Kendall and Jose Guillen smacked a pair apiece. Jason Christiansen, the fourth of five Pirates hurlers, got the win. 
• 2006 - 23-year-old lefty Tom Gorzelanny went eight innings of two-hit ball and struck out seven as the Bucs beat the Cubs at Wrigley Field, 6-0. Xavier Nady went 4-for-5 with three doubles, two RBI and two runs. Jose Castillo and Ronny Paulino each homered, had two knocks and chased home a pair of runs. The Bucs made it easy, not only scoring freely but making a handful of glovely plays in the field, led by Nady and Chris Duffy in center field. To make it a little sweeter, Gorzo flaunted his stuff in front of his homies - he was born in nearby Evergreen Park. 
• 2017 - The Pirates, who had dropped the series at San Diego the week before and were in the throes of losing eight-of-10, fell behind Travis Wood and the Padres, 3-0. They rallied with back-to-back two-run frames to tie the game before a bullpen implosion put them behind the eight ball again by a 6-4 count in the seventh (each team twice surrendered leads). But they had one more hurrah left, and behind a three-run pinch-hit homer by Gregory Polanco and a two-out, two-run knock by Josh Harrison, rallied one more time to defeat the Friars, 10-6, at PNC Park. 32,243 were at the game, which was delayed for two hours by a passing storm, and they hung around to listen to the group Chicago and “Saturday in the Park” (the game began Friday night but the band didn’t get on stage until 1AM Saturday morning). David Freese added a homer while AJ Schugel got credit for the win despite facing just two batters and walking in a run. 

El Coffee - 2017 Topps Inception

• 2022 - For the third straight game, the Pirates overcame a multi-run deficit to rally for victory against the Brew Crew, winning, 5-4, in a wild finish at PNC Park. Pittsburgh tied the game in the seventh inning on RBI knocks by Tucupita Marcano and Ben Gamel, carrying the contest into extra frames. In the 10th inning, Duane Underwood gave Milwaukee the lead without a hit. The free runner and two walks jammed the sacks and then Kolten Wong was plunked with two away to force home the go-ahead run. The Bucs answered when Bryan Reynolds chased the ghost runner home with a leadoff double. A sac fly sandwiched around two intentional walks loaded the bases before a wild pitch plated B-Rey, giving Underwood the victory. The Bucs 9-through-3 hitters (Jason Delay, Marcano, Reynolds and Gamel) banged a pair of hits to cap the sweep of the Brewers. 
• 2022 - A new park celebrating Hall of Famer Josh Gibson’s legacy and Pittsburgh’s storied Negro League history was dedicated in Station Square. The Josh Gibson Heritage Park featured bronze murals of Gibson and other Negro League stars: James “Cool Papa” Bell, Leroy “Satchel” Paige and Cum Posey, with plans to add more murals of Negro League greats to the outdoor exhibit in the future. The bronzes were based on drawings by Pittsburgh sports artist Dino Guarino and will remain on display along West Station Square Drive near Highmark Stadium.