9/10 Through the 1960s: MVR Afire, Friend's 20th, Todd Timber, Grimes 1st & Last, Game Tales; HBD Bob, Brandy, Klu, Highpockets & Kid

• 1886 - P/OF Blaine “Kid” Durbin was born in Lamar, Missouri. He got 51 career at bats in parts of three seasons, and although he finished out his MLB days as a Pirate, he didn’t get any swings in with Pittsburgh after being acquired via a trade with the Reds for Ward Miller, entering just one game as a pinch runner. After a few years of farm league ball, he retired, got married and became a baker. His nickname was due both to his size (he was just 5’8” and weighed 155 pounds) and that he started his pro baseball career as a 17-year-old minor league pitcher. 
• 1895 - 1B George “Highpockets” Kelly was born in San Francisco. He started as everyone’s replacement guy: the Giants wanted him to take over for Fred Merkle, the Bucs then snagged him for a brief period to be Hans Wagner’s caddy, getting in eight games and going 2-for-23 in 1917. He went into the service in 1918 and when he came out finally won a spot with the Giants when 1B Hal Chase was suspended. He proved to be a golden glove guy with some power and a reputation as a clutch hitter during his 16-year MLB career. Kelly was selected to join the Hall of Fame in 1973 by the Veterans Committee. His monikers of Highpockets and Long George were due to his 6’ 4” stature. 
• 1913 - Before the Bucs lost, 5-2, at Forbes Field to the NY Giants, Hans Wagner was gifted with a new piece of lumber. MA Seidel, a boyhood bud of the Dutchman who moved to Erie, presented the shortstop with a bat made from a timber of Commodore Perry’s flagship The Niagara, sunk in 1813, that was engraved with “We have met the enemy and he is ours.” 
• 1916 - Both the Cubs and Bucs were in the second division and didn’t have much to play for, but the game at Weeghman Park proved to be worth the money. Rookie Frank Miller was yanked after five frames, down 5-0. Another rookie, Burleigh Grimes, came in and traded runs with the Cubbies, going into the ninth trailing, 7-2. Pittsburgh conjured up a mixture of singles (six of seven hits were one-basers), a walk, an error and wild pitch to take an 8-7 lead. Grimes walked the first Chicago hitter and manager Nixey Callahan had run out of patience with his rookies. He called on veteran 21-game winner Al Mamaux, and he put it to bed. For the 22-year-old Grimes, it was his first MLB victory; over his 19-year career, he would post 270 wins, with 20 or more in five seasons.

Klu - Helmar Big League Brew

• 1924 - 1B Ted Kluszewski was born in Argo, Illinois. After 11 years with the Reds, winning an MVP and four All-Star berths, Big Klu (6’-2”, 225 lbs.) came to Pittsburgh in 1958 for Dee Fondy in a swap of 1B. He hit .292 in 100 games that year and was sent to the White Sox at the 1959 deadline for Harry Simpson and a minor league player as Chicago was looking for some stretch run help. Both teams got him at the downside of his career. A back injury suffered in 1956 left him worse for wear, sapping his power, and he never hit double-digit homers in a season again after having launched 171 bombs from 1953-56. 
• 1927 - OF Robert “Brandy” (his middle name was Brandon) Davis was born in Newark, Delaware. He signed with the Pirates in 1952 after playing at Duke. Davis was a burner (in 1951, he stole 82 bases in 85 tries in the minors) but in his 1952-53 tour of duty with the Pirates, he hit just .187. His 2005 obituary in the Wilmington News-Journal noted that “He was forced from the league after it was discovered that he could not successfully steal first base.” Brandy went on to coach, manage and scout for 10 major league teams over the course of his 52-year career. He was a 1989 inductee in the Delaware Sports Museum/Hall of Fame and a 1999 inductee of the Delaware Baseball Hall of Fame. 
• 1928 - RHP Bob Garber was born in Hunker, near New Stanton, in Westmoreland County. Garber only got two games with the 1956 Pirates for his career resume, doing pretty well - he gave up a run in two outings on three hits in four innings with three strikeouts and three walks while working mostly out of Hollywood of the PCL. He was a hit on the farm - in a nine-year career, he twice won 20 games before retiring in 1958, missing a couple of years thanks to the Korean conflict. After baseball Bob was a salesman before retiring in 1991. He and his wife then jumped into the RV and traveled the country in their golden years, visiting some 30 states and 40 national parks before he passed away. 
• 1934 - Hall of Famer Burleigh Grimes, closing out his career, got his last MLB win in relief as the Pirates beat the NY Giants, 9-7, at the Polo Grounds. Grimes went two innings to claim his 270th victory. It was the Pirates seventh straight victory, and they overcame an early 5-0 deficit by scoring five times in the ninth to get Burleigh his win, with Ralph Birkofer closing it out. Grimes made three stops, including his rookie and final campaigns, and spent five years with the Corsairs, posting a line of 48-42-5/3.26. And his last victory featured a stellar cast. As noted by John Dreker of Pittsburgh Baseball History, Grimes was one of seven Hall of Famers the Pirates trotted out for the game: Schoolboy Waite Hoyt started on the hill, and the lineup sported the Waner Brothers, Big (Paul) and Little (Lloyd) Poison, Arky Vaughan, Pie Traynor and Freddie Lindstrom. 

Burleigh Grimes - Helmar Oasis

• 1938 - It was a rough start at Sportsman Park in St. Louis as Russ Bauers started and didn’t retire a single Redbird before being sent to the showers, while his replacement, Bill Swift, was only marginally better as the Cards took a quick 6-0 lead after three innings and were up, 7-3, going into the sixth before Lloyd Waner’s bases loaded triple pulled the Pirates within a run. Then the Buc bats exploded in the eighth for eight runs, keyed by Al Todd’s bases-loaded three-bagger (only the second time that the Pirates had hit two bases-jammed triples in a game; the first was in 1898) and Pittsburgh coasted to a 14-7 win. Todd also homered and had five RBI’s on the day while Lee Handley (who scored four times) and Johnny Rizzo each had three hits. The Pirates third hurler, Mace Brown, got the win, his 15th of the campaign, by tossing four innings of no-hit, one-walk ball. 
• 1940 - The Bucs rolled 11 in consecutive games, sweeping a twin bill from the Phillies by 11-3 and 11-1 scores at Shibe Park. In the opener, Maurice Van Robays homered with four RBI while Arky Vaughan smacked two triples and drove in three runs to allow Joe Bowman to cruise to victory. Rip Sewell tossed a six-hitter in the closer. Van Robays had a double and three RBI, Al Lopez went 2-for-2 with three runs driven in, Vaughan added four more hits and Bob Elliott homered. 
• 1958 - Dick Stuart banged a two-run, two-out 10th-inning homer, atoning for an earlier error that allowed a run to score, to give Bob Friend his 20th win of the year as the Pirates beat the Giants, 6-4, at Forbes Field. Roberto Clemente added three hits, a run, RBI, stolen base and threw out a runner at third. Friend finished the year at 22–14 to lead MLB in wins, and became the first Buc pitcher to claim twenty conquests since Murry Dickson (20-16) in 1951. The victory guaranteed the ‘58 Pirates a winning record, snapping a nine-season drought suffered under Branch Rickey’s rebuild during the fifties “Rickey-Dinks” era. 
• 1960 - Bob Friend wasn’t at his sharpest, but he sure had his sinker working. He scattered nine hits to the Cubs but got the Chicago nine to bounce into five DPs (Bill Mazeroski participated in every one of them) to claim a 4-1 victory at Forbes Field. The Pirates scored three times in the fourth off Bob Anderson thanks to a pair of Cubbie errors and added another run on Dick Stuart’s solo homer, one of three hits he had during the game.