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10/2 Through the 1960s: Matty & Dick Crowns, Manny Signed, Game Tales, Last Triple-Header, WS & IA Losses; HBD Big Red, Maury, Rex, Eddie, Ernie & Scott

Wednesday, October 2, 2024 7:37

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1869 – RHP Scott Stratton was born in Campbellsburg, Kentucky. Stratton worked eight years in the show, spending two games with the 1891 Pirates between stints with the Louisville Colonels. He went 0-2/2.45 in two starts for Pittsburgh. He did have a pair of 20-win seasons in the American Association and played in the bushes until the age of 30, having transitioned to the outfield – he ended his minor league days with a .329 BA. Scott was known as the Taylorsville Wonder, dubbed for the town he was raised in. He retired to Louisville and worked a variety of jobs.
1877 – The London Tecumsehs defeated the Pittsburgh Alleghenys in the International Association’s championship, winning the deciding third game by a 5-2 score. The match was played at Tecumseh Field (now Labatt Memorial Park) in Ontario as Fred Goldsmith of London, one of the original curve ball artists, squared off against the Alleghenys’ Pud Galvin, who won 365 big league games on his road to the Hall of Fame. No particulars can be found, but much controversy was generated over the match as the Alleghenys refused to accept the result of the game, accusing the Tecumsehs of using one of their players as an umpire. The IA was founded in Pittsburgh in February and was considered the first minor league, although many argue that its play was on a par with the major league clubs of the era. Both teams would last one more season before folding, but the Alleghenys came back in 1881 to play in the American Association and then become the genesis of the Pirates franchise when they joined the National League in 1887.
1877 – OF Ernie Diehl was born in Cincinnati. Ernie was a wealthy lad (his dad owned a distillery) and a toolsy ballplayer who starred in local semi-pro ball. The Pirates picked him up for a match in 1903 and a 12-game stretch in 1904, both times as an injury replacement, and Ernie went 7-for-40 (.175). Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss offered him a full contract for both years, but Diehl refused and played the games without a deal, returning to his local team and business interests after the Bucs were back to full strength. He was thought to have been offered and refused a player’s contract by various teams for 10 straight years, though he played briefly for Boston for a couple of seasons and had short stints with Toledo & Louisville in the American Association. He remained a businessman, was a standout in amateur sports (he was also an excellent tennis player) and dabbled in local politics. The whiskey business was sold in 1918 and Ernie moved to Miami, where he lived until passing away in 1958.

Ernie Diehl (Boston) – Helmar T206

1891 – OF “Honest Eddie” Murphy was born in Hancock, New York. Eddie spent 11 years in the show, mostly as a bench guy, and played his final season as a Pirate in 1926, batting .118 in 16 games at age 35. He joined Pittsburgh after five years of solid minor-league play, called up in August when the Bucs were battling for a flag, but he injured his knee and didn’t have much impact. The Pirates finished 4-1/2 games behind the Cards, although they would come back to take the 1927 NL flag. Eddie played two more minor league years before retiring. His nickname came about because he was a player for the infamous 1919 Black Sox squad, but the tiniest splatter of scandal couldn’t be tied to him; his reputation was so spotless that he became known as Honest Eddie.
1901 – Pittsburgh railroaders held a parade complete with a band and marched from town to Exposition Park in the North Side to celebrate the final home game of the season for the pennant-winning Buccos. A horse-drawn carriage delivered a $500 loving cup that was presented to manager Fred Clarke, owner Barney Dreyfuss and club president Harry Pulliam for leading the team to its championship season, and each player was given a decorated badge with his likeness on it. After some chest-thumping speechifying, the Bucs went on to take an 8-4 win over Boston behind Sam Leever. The next evening, the Alvin Theater invited the team to take in the show as the Pirates were the toast of the town. Pittsburgh finished at 90-49, 7-1/2 games ahead of Philadelphia.
1903 – Bill Dinneen struck out 11 and pitched a complete game three-hitter for the Boston Americans as they defeated the Bucs, 3-0, at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds in the second game of the first World Series. Patsy Dougherty homered off both starter Sam Leever, who left with an injury (he returned for the sixth game, but wasn’t effective), and Bucky Veil to carry the offense.

Lefty Leifield – 1909 Sweet Caporal Disk

1908 – Pittsburgh took over the NL lead by a gnat’s eyelash after sweeping St. Louis at Robison Field. Lefty Leifield won the opener, 7-4, as Fred Clarke and Alan Storke each had three hits to pace the attack. Howie Camnitz took the nitecap, 2-1, tossing a seven-hitter with seven K, backed by homers off the bats of Honus Wagner and George Gibson. Two percentage points separated New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh going into the final week of the season; the Cubs won by a game over the Buccos and G-Men in one of baseball’s great to-the-wire races.
1909 – Pirates backstop George Gibson set the then-record of catching in 134 consecutive games in a 3-1 loss to the Cubs, breaking the previous mark set by the Washington Senators’ Deacon McGuire in 1895. He set another MLB record for games played in a season by a catcher with 150, which had also been held by McGuire. His 150 games caught record stood until 1920 when Ray Schalk caught 151 games. And while he was at it, he led all NL catchers in fielding percentage and caught stealing, both in number of runners and percentage, in 1909. “Mooney” topped off the year by helping the Bucs to take the pennant and World Series.
1911 – Scout Rex Bowen was born in Shiloh, New Jersey. After a minor league career as a player, Bowen bird-dogged for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1943-50, the Pirates from 1950-1967, spending the last 12 years as the club’s scouting director, and as his last act joined the Reds front office from 1967-90. He signed Bill Mazeroski (who ended up marrying Rex’s secretary, Milene), Dick Groat, Bruce Dal Canton, Gene Freese, Gene Michaels and George Freese among others. In 2000, Baseball America named him one of the top ten scouts of the 20th Century.
1914 – Phil Douglas of Cincinnati gave up just one hit, a single to Honus Wagner, but three walks – one with the bases loaded – and two errors in the ninth turned the tide as the Reds lost, 2-1, to George McQuillan and the Pirates at Forbes Field. It was the third game of his career where Hans had the only Pittsburgh hit. With a game to go, Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Press described the last series as “…closing out the most disastrous season the Pirates have known since Fred Clarke became their chieftain.” The Bucs finished 69-85, in seventh place and 25-1/2 games behind the Boston Braves.

Hans – Helmar Piedmont

1920 – After a pair of rainouts, the Pirates and Reds played the last MLB tripleheader at Forbes Field. The Bucs wanted to get in the games to keep alive its slim hopes for a third place finish (and post-season bonus). It didn’t happen as the Reds took 2-of-3 to clinch the third spot. Cincy won the first two games, 13-4 and 7-3, before losing the third game, 6-0, to Johnny Morrison, a six-inning affair shortened due to darkness. Buc rookie 3B Clyde Barnhart became the only player in big league history to have hits in three games in one day, as he had two knocks in game one, and one each in the other two games. Peter Harrison earned his check, too; he was the home plate umpire for all three games. Starting at noon, the three games took exactly five hours to play. The Pittsburgh franchise also played the first MLB tripleheader, being swept in 1890 by Boston, so the circle was unbroken. And it was baseball’s first true three-in-one date as the other two triple headers played were actually morning games followed by an afternoon twin bill, with separate admission fees for the contests.
1932 – IF Maury Wills was born in Washington, DC. His glory years were with the Dodgers, though he played for Pittsburgh for two seasons from 1967-68 as a third baseman who hit .290 with 81 steals. The Pirates sent him to Montreal, and in 1969 he returned to LA, where he had spent the first eight years of his career and would spend his final four campaigns. Wills was one of the great base stealers of his era, amassing 564 swiped sacks in his 14 years, and even had a Pittsburgh club called “The Stolen Base.” Maury coached in several one-off leagues and did some broadcasting. His stint as skipper of the Seattle Mariners in 1981 was pretty much a fiasco and he was fired after a 26-56 slate. He had a bumpy life after baseball, but made it to the age of 89 before passing away in 2022.
1946 – Bob Robertson was born in Mt. Savage, Maryland. A member of the 1971 WS champs, Big Red hit four home runs in the 1971 NLCS against the Giants (three in one game) and added two more in the Fall Classic against the Orioles. In the years 1970-71, he bombed 53 HR, but never realized his potential as a Pirate. In nine Pittsburgh seasons, he hit .245 with 106 long balls, which was enough for Bob Prince to nickname him “The Mount Savage Strong Man.”

Bob Robertson – 1971 Topps

1960 – The Pirates closed out the regular season with a 9-5 win over the Milwaukee Braves at Forbes Field. It was a good year – 34,578 fans showed up to top off a record gate of 1,705,828, the Bucs’ 95-59 record earned them the NL pennant, and Dick Groat came back to win the NL batting crown with a .324 BA after recovering from a broken wrist, the first Pirate to wear the crown since Deb Garms in 1940. And it got better – Groat was voted the National League MVP and Pittsburgh won the World Series from the New York Yankees.
1964 – Pirates scout Herb Raybourne signed 20-year-old catcher Manny Sanguillen out of Panama for a $500 bonus. He hit .299 over 13 seasons, won two World Series rings, played on six pennant winners, and was named to three All-Star teams. Sangy is still around with a BBQ shop at PNC Park, where the popular Pirate-for-life slings sandwiches and holds court with the faithful.
1966 – Matty Alou finished the season with a .342 BA to win the NL batting title. He went 4-for-6 against the Giants at Forbes Field during a 7-3 Bucco loss. But there was no team crown this year – the Pirates posted 92 wins and the Giants had 93, but LA took the pennant with 95 victories.
1969 – The batting title went down to the final swing; Pete Rose bunted for a single at Atlanta in his last at-bat while Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4 in a 8-2 win against the Expos, giving Rose a final .348 to .345 edge. If Clemente, who grounded out in his last dibs, had singled, his BA would have been .347; if Rose’s bunt had failed, his average would have been .346.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/10/102-through-1960s-matty-dick-crowns.html

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