9/29 From 1965: Clint Axed, Quail & Joe Retire; Jordy Jam, Cutch Crush, Walk Dates, Teke For 2, Game Tales, Brown Out, Po' Nellie; RIP Wee Tommy, HBD Thomas

• 1968 - Ahead of Matty Alou by a razor’s edge on the season’s last day, Pete Rose went 1-for-3 to keep his average at .335 while the Pirates outfielder wore an 0-for-4 collar in a 5-4 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, finishing the year with a BA of .332. The day before, the batting crown rivals were en fuego, combining to go 9-for-9 to set up the final day showdown. 
• 1969 - CF/3B Tommy Leach passed away in Florida at age 91. Leach spent 14 of his 19 MLB seasons with the Pirates (1900-12, 1918), batting .269 and playing all three outfield positions along with every infield spot but first base. The Pirates won the National League pennant four times and were World Series champions once during Leach’s tenure. He was known as “Wee Tommy” due to his 5’6” height, but was among the swiftest runners of his era, with 361 stolen bases, 1,355 runs scored, and 172 triples while finishing in the top ten six times each in triples, home runs and total bases. After he retired, he managed and scouted until 1941 along with running his Florida citrus grove. 
• 1972 - The Mets defeated the Bucs, 1-0, and you could excuse Nellie Briles if he seemed a little frustrated. It was his third start of the year against New York, and all three matches ended up 1-0 Met victories, with their only runs coming during their last at-bat. All three were duels left to the starters - Briles went wire-to-wire, as did the guys he lost to, Jon Matlock (twice) and Tom Seaver. The Pirates still won the East easily, only to drop the NLCS to the Cincinnati Reds three-games-to-two, though the Pirates won Nellie’s one start of that set, 3-2. 
• 1976 - Joe Brown announced his retirement as GM, a post he held since the end of the 1955 campaign as Branch Rickey’s replacement. Under his rein, the Bucs won a pair of World Series championships and five Divisional titles. He and his wife moved to Southern California, where he served as a special assignment scout for the Bucs. It took two men to fill his shoes, Joe O’Toole and Harding Peterson, until Pete was awarded the position as his own in 1979. 

Teke Takes Two - Press 9/19/1978

• 1978 - Kent Tekulve won both ends of double header against the Phils at TRS in relief, 5-4 and 2-1. He pitched two innings in the opener and 1-1/3 frames in the nitecap, winning in the 10th. Both victories were gift wrapped; the Bucs won the opener when the relay to third on Ed Ott’s leadoff ninth-inning triple (generously ruled; it was a skied fly that fell between a pair of Philly outfielders) got away, and the Phils balked in the walk-off run in the ninth inning of the nitecap. Bruce Kison made the pitcher trivia rounds in the second game when he homered off Steve Carlton. That gave him a natural batting cycle of a single, double, triple and homer in that order over the season. Of course, for a hitter, a natural cycle consists of a game; with pitcher Kison, it started with a single on July 20th, with quite a few outs sprinkled in between then and his dinger two months later. The twilighter drew 45,134 fans as a September run by the Bucs cut the Phils lead to 1-1/2 games after their 24th straight win at TRS. Pittsburgh ran out of time and finished two games back, but the stretch run kickstarted the Bucs on the road to 1979. 
• 1990 - Bob Walk threw a four-hit complete game, winning an 8-0 decision over St. Louis at Busch Stadium in a match between the top dog Pirates and cellar-dwelling Cards. The 6-7-8 bottom of the order batters (Sid Bream, Mike LaValliere & Chico Lind) had two hits each and scored six runs, with Walk even contributing with an RBI double from the nine-hole. The win almost put Pittsburgh over the top; they would clinch the East flag by eliminating the NY Mets the next day, claiming the division after suffering through a decade-long title drought through the 1980s. 
• 1992 - The Pirates won their sixth straight game by a 3-0 score over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field as Zane Smith, Paul Wagner (the winner), Steve Cooke and Stan Belinda (the save) combined on a two-hitter, and with only two whiffs, to put the Bucs nine games up in the Eastern Division standings. Andy Van Slyke homered and drove in a pair of runs to spark the Pirate attack. The Buccos' other run came on a Carlos Garcia sac fly that scored Gary Varsho. 
• 1993 - In the final appearance of his career, Bob Walk went five innings of five-hit, one-run ball to defeat the Phils at TRS, 9-1, behind four Bucco blasts (Jeff King, Dave Clark, Al Martin and Jerry Goff). The Whirlybird spent 10 of his 14 MLB years with Pittsburgh, putting together an 82-61-5/3.83 line in 278 games (196 starts). He also made seven outings (three starts) in the postseason for the Pirates, going 2-1-1/3.71. Walkie remained a Buccaneer fixture even after he left the mound, with 27 years spent entertaining fans from the broadcast booth. 

Bob Walk - 1993 Donruss

• 1994 - RHP Thomas Hatch was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A third-round draft pick from Oklahoma State by the Cubs in 2016, he was traded to Toronto and from 2020-23, he slashed 3-3/5.40 in 27 outings. Waived in August, 2023, the Pirates claimed him. He was optioned to Indy in September, though his line of 2-3/4.03 in 12 outings was a bit better than league average. The Corsairs released him in November so that he could pitch in his current posting, Japan. 
• 1996 - It was the end of an era as Jim Leyland managed his last Pirates game, an 8-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Dale Sveum had a homer and double, Keith Osik went long, and Jay Bell doubled; all three players chased home a pair of runs while Sveum and Mark Johnson scored twice to back winner Esteban Loiaza. The depleted Pirates finished 73-89 and finished in last place, 15 games behind the new Central Division champs, the Cards. In 11 seasons with the Bucs (1986-96), Leyland’s slate was 851-863 with three Division titles (1990-92). He moved along to Florida, where he would take the Marlins to a pennant and World Series crown the following campaign. He ended his skipper days with an eight-year run (2006-13) in Detroit. 
• 1999 - In a name game noted by BR Bullpen, the Bucs 1-2-3 hitters against the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium were Adrian Brown, Emil Brown and Brant Brown. Adrian had two hits and Brant drove in a run, but the Brownie troop couldn’t carry the day as the Pirates fell, 5-2. 
• 2002 - Bill Virdon retired from baseball at age 71 after serving as Lloyd McClendon’s bench coach during the season. After 52 years as a player, coach and manager, the Quail said “I’ve just had all the travel I could handle.” But he didn’t completely burn his bridges - for the next two decades or so, he returned as a Bucco instructor and torch-bearer during spring training. He passed on at the age of 90 in 2021 in Springfield, Missouri, his home base for several decades. 

Bill Virdon - Baseball Heroes deck

• 2012 - Andrew McCutchen hit a walk-off homer off Jonathan Broxton with one down in the ninth inning for his 31st long ball of the season, a career high, to give the Pirates a 2-1 win over the Reds at PNC Park in front of a Saturday night crowd of 38,623. Alex Presley doubled home Chase d'Arnaud in the seventh for the Bucs first run. Kyle McPherson started and Joel Hanrahan finished for the win. Cutch hit 20+ homers for eight straight campaigns (2011 - 18) and has hit double-digit dingers in all 16 of his MLB seasons while playing for five different ball clubs. 
• 2013 - Jordy Mercer had a huge day and the Bucs held off Cincinnati by a 4-2 tally at Great American Ball Park. Jordy flared an inside-the-park homer, a soft sinking liner that eluded Reds outfielder Jay Bruce, and a triple among his three hits while Garrett Jones added a late bomb. The bottom four, consisting of Mercer and Jones, along with John Buck and John Harrison, had a hand in producing all four runs by collecting eight hits to earn Brandon Cumpton the win with a Kyle Farnsworth save. It was a preview of the upcoming wildcard match, won by the Bucs at PNC Park in the Johnny Cueto game. 
• 2019 - 62-year-old skipper Clint Hurdle was let go just before the final game of the year, one that the Pirates lost to the Reds, 3-1, at PNC Park to finish 69-93 and last in the NL Central. Hurdle was hired as manager in 2011 and led the Pirates to winning seasons in four of his nine years, breaking a record string of 20 non-winning campaigns. They made the playoffs three times, the last ending in a 2015 NL wild-card loss to the Cubs. The 2019 Pirates had an injury list that was a mile long, locker room fights, their closer arrested, and went on a 25-48 tailspin after the All-Star game, but overall Clint finished with a 735-720-1 record during his Pirates tenure, winning 2013 NL Manager of the Year. Derek Shelton, bench coach of the Twins, was his replacement. Hurdle caught on as a special assistant for the Colorado Rockies organization.