9/6 From 1965: #8 Retired, Mac & Quail Canned; Tony the Thief, Pops Tops, Game Tales, PNC Mark, 21-of-23, 4 & 5 Straight; HBD Mike, Frank, Derrek & Pat

• 1965 - The Pirates swept Cincinnati, 3-1 and 4-2, at Crosley Field to close within four games of first-place Los Angeles. Seventh-inning doubles decided both games: Gene Alley's in the opener, driving in Bill Mazeroski with the go-ahead run, and Willie Stargell's bases-loaded, bases-clearing two-bagger in the nitecap. Roberto Clemente threw out Red runners during both ends of the double dip. Bob Veale went the distance to win the first game, striking out 12, and Al McBean tossed six innings in relief to claim the second match victory over the Redlegs. 
• 1968 - The Pirates won their fourth game in a row and Steve Blass claimed his fifth straight victory with a 2-1 win over the Mets at Forbes Field. Steverino scattered four hits over nine innings - his one mistake being a Jerry Grote homer - with seven whiffs to run his slate to 14-5. Freddie Patek manufactured the Bucs first tally when he led off in the first. The Cricket laid down a two-strike bunt single, stole second, tagged to third and came home on a sac fly. The game winner was a bit more traditional as Roberto Clemente’s solo shot in the fourth inning gave Blass all the padding he’d need to earn the dub. 
• 1968 - IF Pat Meares was born in Salina, Kansas. He played for the Bucs from 1999-2001, hitting .238, was injured from 2002-03, carried on the DL for the last two years of his contract and never played again. It was an awkward situation; a foul off his hand was originally misdiagnosed as a sprain but ended up as severe ligament damage. He underwent surgery but the strength didn’t return. Meares said he would rehab and play through it but wouldn’t submit to the knife again, as the Pirates requested. Charges, grievances and general bad blood marked the relationship; Meares wanted his release so that he could play for another team, but the Pirates refused as they would then lose any chance of collecting insurance they held on him (they did eventually settle on the policy for an undisclosed sum). So he ended up DL’ed and on the payroll for his final two seasons with his $15M in dead money a roadblock for the financially struggling Buccos. 
• 1973 - The Pirates fired second-year manager Bill Virdon after a 67-69 start and brought back Danny Murtaugh for his fourth (and last) stint at the helm. The Irishman went 13-13, but carried on to win the division twice and finish runner-up in the next three years, winning 272 games. 

Willie Stargell - 1975 Topps

• 1975 - In a game that went back-and-forth between the Pirates and the Expos at Parc Jarry, the Bucs poured it on at the end by scoring seven times in the 11th inning to seal a 12-5 win. The big blow in the opening nine was Willie Stargell’s three-run blast off Steve Rogers. In the 11th, the Pirates strung together three doubles, three singles, two walks and two Expo errors to plate seven times with Al Oliver and Bill Robinson banging out two-run raps. Manny Sanguillen had three hits and Richie Zisk chipped in two knocks and two walks. Pops had two hits and four RBI; Robinson also had a pair of raps and chased home three runners. Ken Brett was credited with the win, his only decision in six '75 relief outings. 
• 1975 - 1B Derrek Lee was born in Sacramento, California. Lee was at the end of a 15-year career when the Bucs pried him from Baltimore for Aaron Baker in 2011 for the stretch run; the Pirates were just 4-½ games out of first and alive for the wild card at the deadline, then promptly did a faceplant. Derrek started on fire by hitting two homers in his first game, then broke his wrist. He did come back for 28 games in all, hitting .337. He didn’t actually retire at the end of the season, but said he was looking for the “perfect situation.” His final slice of hardball Eden never appeared: Lee spurned both Pittsburgh and the New York Yankees, then did retire. 
• 1977 - Dale Berra stepped to the plate with two on and nobody out in the 11th and the plan was to bunt. But the Phils had the wheel play on and rather than hit into it, the Bucs had young Dale swing away. It paid off as his single to left was the walk-off bingo, scoring Al Oliver for a 5-4 Bucco win at TRS. Oliver had two hits, including a homer, with a walk. Goose Gossage tossed two innings for the win, set up by Kent Tekulve and Grant Jackson who put up zeroes in relief of Jerry Reuss. 
• 1978 - The Pirates concluded a remarkable streak by winning their 21st game in 23 outings by a 4-1 score over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. It was their 11th straight victory, primed by Don Robinson’s five-hit, nine-whiff effort. The red hot finish was exciting but not quite enough, though, as the club finished the season in second, 1-1/2 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. 

Don Robinson - 1978 Topps

• 1978 - LHP Frank Brooks was born in Brooklyn. The Pirates picked him up from the Phils in 2003 as part of the Mike Williams deal. He worked through AA and AAA and got the call in 2004, going 0-1/4.76. His Bucco line was blown up by two bad outings of the 11 he made; in the other nine appearances he gave up just two runs. But he was waived, got in one more MLB game the following year with Atlanta and finished out his pro career in the indie leagues. 
• 1982 - Willie Stargell had his #8 retired in front of 38‚052 fans at Three Rivers Stadium. He had earlier announced that this campaign was his last go-around, and was honored on “Willie Stargell Day.” The traffic jam for people trying to get to the event delayed both Cap’n Willie’s pre-game ceremony and the game, as did a congratulatory call from President Ronald Reagan. The 41-year-old slugger delivered a pinch single in the Pirates' 6-1 win over the Mets. Over his 21-year career with the Pirates, he hit .282 with 2,232 hits, 475 home runs and 1,540 RBI while his clubs won six NL East titles, two NL pennants and two World Series crowns. Pops was inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1988 and was part of the first class of the Pirates HoF in 2022. 
• 1990 - RHP Mike York was born in Oak Park, Illinois. He started out as a rookie in 1990 for the Pirates, getting into four games with a 1-1/2.84 slash. York got a little more work with the Indians the following season after being traded for Mitch Webster and that was his MLB career. He did have a long shelf life in the minors, working on the farm from 1983-1998. But his Pirates stint was life changing. York was an alcoholic, and he got sober in Pittsburgh when the Bucs made his signing dependent on rehab with Sudden Sam McDowell, who after a lot of headbanging (Sam began by using a confrontational technique on York) finally got through to him, and the pair remain close to this day. 
• 1997 - Tony Womack went 4-for-4, scored three runs, drove in another and tied the club record with four stolen bases in Pittsburgh’s 13-4 win at Cincinnati’s Cinergy Field. Womack went on to lead the NL with 60 stolen bases that season. Shawon Dunston and Freddy Garcia added homers for the Bucs. The club scored three runs in the eighth and added four in the ninth to turn a squeaker into a laugher for Francisco Cordova. The Freak Show Pirates moved to within 2-1/2 games of the division-leading Houston Astros with the win over the Reds. 

Jason Kendall - 1998 Pacific Crown

• 1998 - The Pirates snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 10th-inning walk-off homer by Jason Kendall to top the Cubs, 4-3, at TRS. Skipper Gene Lamont told Paul Meyer of the Post Gazette after the game that he had ironically told Kendall “Just don’t try to do too much. Don’t try for a home run. Just get a base hit. He doesn’t follow orders too well, I guess.” JK’s heroics were set up by Jose Guillen, who smacked a two-run homer to tie the game in the sixth. Chris Peters started but didn’t get much fielding support; the victory went to Rich Loiselle. 
• 2000 - The Pirates signed their third round draft pick, RHP Chris Young of Princeton, to a $1.65M contract. The 6’10” Young was an excellent college basketball center, but gave up the final two years of his Ivy League hoops career and a chance at the NBA draft when he accepted the lucrative Pittsburgh deal. Bucs GM Dave Littlefield traded him in 2002 to Montreal for RHP Matt Herges, a player they cut before camp broke. Young made his debut in 2004 and broke out in 2006-08, but a string of injuries that began in ‘08 scuttled his career; he’s now the Texas Rangers’ President of Baseball Operations. 
• 2001 - 20,683 fans spun the turnstiles to set the Pirates season attendance record in PNC Park’s first year, eventually reaching 2,464,870 warm fannies to shatter the old 1991 mark of 2,065,302. That number has been topped just once, when they drew 2,498,596 in 2015. It didn’t help the cause much as the Buccos fell, 8-6, to the Reds and finished the year with a 62-100 record. 
• 2005 - Lloyd McClendon was let go as manager after posting a 336-446 (.430) record over five seasons. He was replaced by bench coach Pete Mackanin on an interim basis for the rest of the season, with Jim Tracy taking over the reins in 2006. Lloyd went on to become the manager for Seattle, then coach & acting/interim skipper for Detroit twice (he also managed the Tigers’ AAA Toledo club twice, too) while Pete later managed for the Reds and Phils. 

Frankie Liriano - 2014 photo USA Today

• 2014 - The Pirates got 14 shutout innings from seven different pitchers to take a 5-3 victory in 11 innings in the continuation of a suspended game and then a 5-0 win in the scheduled contest against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Tony Watson and Mark Melancon each worked a pair of innings in the suspended match, with Mark the Shark getting the win and rookie John Holdzkom picking up the save. The Bucs iced the game, suspended from the previous night at 3-3, on a Josh Harrison single and Tony Sanchez sac fly. The nightcap was largely the work of Francisco Liriano, who worked six shutout frames with nine K, allowing only one runner to reach second. Andrew McCutchen led a balanced attack with three hits and Jordy Mercer had a pair of knocks, including a homer and two RBI. 
• 2016 - The Pirates losing streak reached eight games with a brutal 9-7 loss to the Cardinals at PNC Park. St. Louis jumped ahead 5-0, but the Bucs rallied to take a 6-5 lead after a four-run fourth inning. Both bullpens had some shaky moments, but the score carried over into the ninth, when with two outs and facing an 0-2 count, Matt Carpenter hit a game-tying homer off Tony Watson, who then imploded, giving up a double followed by back-to-back homers. The Pittsburgh bright spot was Jung Ho Kang, who homered twice. The Bucs dropped 5-1/2 games behind the Redbirds in the race for the final wildcard with 26 games remaining and faded out of the race. 
• 2022 - The Pirates had been playing dismal ball since the All Star break, posting a 10-30 record, but today the youngsters showed their potential at PNC Park as the Pirates defeated the Mets, 8-2. Winner Mitch Keller threw six shutout innings while Rodolfo Castro and Oneil Cruz homered (Cruz’s shot landed in the Allegheny on a hop; he finished the night a triple shy of the cycle). Adding to the pot were Jack Suwinski, who had a pair of knocks, Ke’Bryan Hayes, who was aboard twice while making a pair of glovely fielding plays, and vets Bryan Reynolds & Kevin Newman showing the way with B-Rey reaching base four times and K-Man scoring twice. The team was still in roster flux; Newman was dealt to Cincinnati and Castro was sent to Philadelphia the next season while Cruz was injured for most of the year.