10/1 Through the 1960s: Roberto Title, O'Connell & Nagy Join, Danny & Rip Go; 237 For Waner, Max's 51, Deac WS Win, Game Tales; HBD Vance, Chuck, Jim, Specs & Bobby

• 1868 - SS Bobby Cargo was born in Pittsburgh. He only got into two MLB games, both as a Bucco, in 1892 as an injury replacement and went 1-for-4 after being signed from the local East End club. He was an off-season streetcar driver who still played minor league ball through 1903 (career BA .273 in 13 years) before he caught pneumonia while with Atlanta and passed away at age 35. Cargo was a Lawrenceville resident and was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery. 
• 1895 - RHP Carmen “Specs” Hill was born in Royalton, Minnesota. Carmen pitched eight years in Pittsburgh (1915-16, 1918-19, 1926-29) and went 47-31-8 with a 3.26 ERA. He won 22 games for the NL Champion Pittsburgh Pirates in 1927. As for his nickname, Carmen was the second pitcher in major league history to wear glasses and the other players wouldn’t let him forget it. He also had a second nickname of "Bunker,” inspired by his last name of Hill. 
• 1903 - Deacon Phillippe pitched a six-hitter while whiffing 10 to defeat the legendary Cy Young and the AL’s Boston Americans, 7-3. It was the first World Series game in baseball history, played at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in front of 16,242 fans. For the books, the first WS hitter was CF Ginger Beaumont, who flew out to the American’s CF Chick Stahl. Tommy Leach got the first hit, a triple, and became the first runner to score when Honus Wagner singled him home for the first WS RBI. Jimmy Sebring hit the first Series’ homer (a seventh inning inside-the-park dash) and drove in four runs. Although the series was not officially sanctioned by the leagues, the clubs had agreed during the season to a best-of-nine postseason showdown, and the World Series was officially OK’ed to be permanently staged starting in 1905. 
• 1917 - Wilbur Cooper tossed a four-hit shutout as the Pirates closed the season with a 2-0 win over the Boston Braves at Forbes Field. Bill Webb had three hits and a run scored to lead the attack. Fritz Mollwitz also crossed home while Lee King & Max Carey drove in the runs. It was Cooper’s 17th win for a team that finished last by 47 games with only 51 victories. 

Jim Russell - photo via Western PA Sports Hall of Fame

• 1918 - OF Jim Russell was born in Fayette City, between Belle Vernon and Stockdale on the Mon. He played for the Pirates from 1942-47, starting all but his rookie campaign, and put up a .277 BA. In his final season, the CF’er had Hall-of-Famers Hank Greenberg and Ralph Kiner as bookends in the outfield. As a youth, he contracted rheumatic fever twice; his baseball career was cut short because of associated heart disease which sapped him in his later years. 
• 1922 - Max Carey swiped his 51st base against the Reds in a 5-1 loss at Redland Field. Not only did he lead the league in larceny, but his 51 steals in 53 attempts was the highest success rate ever achieved by a stolen base leader. His record of 31 straight steals without being caught (he stretched it to 36 straight during the ‘23 campaign) stood until 1975, when Davey Lopes put together a 38-swipe streak. Vince Coleman has the current mark of 50 consecutive steals. 
• 1927 - Paul Waner collected a pair of hits against Cincinnati in a 9-6 win at Redland Field to finish the season with a Bucco record 237 knocks. The victory also clinched the pennant for the Pirates, who finished the year with 94 wins, 1-1/2 games ahead of St. Louis and two up on NY. Pie Traynor, Lloyd Waner and Earl Smith each added three hits to back Johnny Miljus. It was a big year for Big Poison - he won the BA crown by hitting .380, led in RBI with 131 and won the MVP. 
• 1934 - IF Chuck Hiller was born in Johnsonburg, Illinois. Hiller spent the finale of his eight-year career with the Pirates in 1968, going five-for-13 in 11 games, primarily as a pinch hitter. When he retired after the 1968 season, he became a minor league manager in the Pirates' organization for a year, then returned to the Mets in a similar capacity, working for the Mets' director of player development, Whitey Herzog, through 1972. He then served under manager Herzog as a MLB coach with the Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals, and later spent brief stints with the Giants and the Mets. In between his big-league assignments, Hiller served the Mets as an infield instructor in their minor league system, and managed in the Cards' organization. 

Len Gilmore (Albany) - 1944 photo

• 1944 - RHP Len “Meow” Gilmore set a couple of dubious Pirate records. His start against the Phils at Shibe Park was his only big league game, and he gave up 13 hits and seven runs, going the distance in a 7-1 loss. He was a poster boy for pitch-to-contact: all 36 batters he faced put the ball in play, leaving him with the Pirates standard for most innings pitched in a game without recording a strikeout or a walk. The Bucs had clinched second place and its $400 bonus in the opening bout of the day with a 9-1 victory behind Rip Sewell and a 17-hit attack, allowing manager Frankie Frisch the luxury of finishing the campaign with a rookie hurler. 
• 1946 - The Pirates hoped to bolster their staff by purchasing LHP Steve Nagy from Montreal, where he had gone 17-4/3.01 and led the club to an International League pennant. Alas, that hope faded as he tossed to a 1-3/5.79 line for Pittsburgh and spent most of his time at Indianapolis; in 1948, he was shipped to the New York Giants as part of the Bill Werle deal. 
• 1949 - The Pirates released 42-year-old RHP Truett “Rip” Sewell after 12 years with the club (he spent his rookie campaign with the Tigers). Sewell appeared in 385 games as a Pirate (243 starts) with a line of 143-97-15/3.43 and two 21-win seasons to go with three All-Star berths. The Bucs had originally released him in 1947 with plans to add him to the coaching staff but instead inked him for active duty for two more seasons. He was best known for the ol’ eephus, his blooper pitch, but his most valuable contribution came when Sewell, who never made more than $21,500 per year, came up with a funding mechanism for baseball's pension plan. On a train ride to Boston for the 1946 All-Star Game, he and St. Louis shortstop Marty Marion devised the formula to use revenue from the All Star Game to prime the pension pump, and it’s still part of the funding formula. 
• 1949 - IF Danny O’Connell officially came over from the Brooklyn Dodgers for a PTBNL (IF Jack Cassini) and $50,000 in a deal that had been announced a couple of days earlier. Danny spent two years with the Bucs, bookending two years of military service, and hit .293 as a Pirate. He was flipped to the Milwaukee Braves after the 1953 season for six players and cash. Cassini was a one trick pony; he had gotten into eight games for the Pirates in 1949, all as a pinch runner. He scored three times, and that was his MLB career. 

Vance Law - 1982 Topps

• 1956 - SS Vance Law was born in Boise, Idaho. Drafted out of high school by Pittsburgh, the son of Bucco great Vern Law spent his first two years as a Pirate (1980-81) and hit .184 as a seldom used reserve. After being traded to the White Sox, he carved out an 11-year MLB career, including an All-Star season. Law showed his dad’s genes as he was also quite the fireman. He was called on seven times to pitch as an arm-saver in blowouts, and finished each outing while compiling a career ERA of 3.38 in eight innings. 
• 1964 - Danny Murtaugh retired as Buc skipper, citing health reasons. Danny joined the Pirate front office, evaluating players for GM Joe L. Brown. Harry “the Hat” Walker was later named as his replacement. Danny became the Bucs' go-to manager; he was the Pittsburgh skipper for all or parts of 15 seasons over four different periods (1957–64, 1967, 1970–71, 1973–76). 
• 1966 - The Giants swept Pittsburgh, 5-4 and 2-0, at Forbes Field to eliminate the Pirates from the pennant race. Juan Marichal and Bob Bolin teamed up to defeat Pete Mikkelsen and Tommy Sisk. The Bucs ended up finishing in third place, three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. 
• 1967 - Roberto Clemente ended the season by going 2-for-5 with a triple, homer, three RBI and two runs scored while winning his fourth batting title with a .357 average in a 10-3 victory over Houston at Forbes Field in front of 28,244 fans on Prize Day. And for the heck of it, he also threw out Sonny Jackson at home. Jerry May matched Roberto, going 3-for-5 with a homer, double, three RBI and two runs while Maury Wills added three more hits. Tommy Sisk finished the year with his 13th win. Roberto did do it all; he was also the manager for the day, as retiring skipper Danny Murtaugh (he’d eventually be back) handed over the reins to the Great One in the season finale.