10/5 From 1960: '60 WS & '71 NLCS Wins, '79 NLCS Sweep, Staff Shufflin', Tracy Goes; RIP Woody, HBD Braxton
- 1960 – Roger Maris became the seventh player to homer in his first World Series at-bat. His round-tripper off Vern Law got the Yankees off to a quick 1-0 lead, but the Pirates persevered to win Game One of the Fall Classic at Forbes Field, 6-4. Pittsburgh replied by scoring three times in the first, and a two-run homer by Bill Mazeroski in the fourth was the early game winner. The score wasn’t quite as close as it looked; the Yankees’ Elston Howard hit a two-run, ninth-inning homer off ElRoy Face to narrow the gap. The game was highlighted by a great grab by Bill Virdon and even featured some pre-game action. An unauthorized parachutist tried to drop into the ballyard, but missed by a couple of blocks and landed on the roof of the Board of Education building across from Heinz Chapel, where he was rescued by police and then arrested. The Bucco victory ended a 15-game Yankee winning streak and was Pittsburgh’s first WS win since 1925.
- 1970 – Johnny Bench and Tony Perez homered off Bob Moose in the first inning and the Reds beat the Pirates, 3-2, to sweep the NLCS at Riverfront Stadium. After the Pirates had tied the game in the eighth, Cincinnati scored the winner after two outs when a walk, single and Bobby Tolan’s knock off reliever Joe Gibbon plated the game winner. The Pirates collected 10 hits during the contest, but shot themselves in the foot by stranding a dozen runners. Willie Stargell went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI while Roberto Clemente, Al Oliver and Richie Hebner had two hits each. The Reds mojo wore off after thumping Pittsburgh, and they lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles in five games.
- 1971 – Richie Hebner’s homer off Juan Marichal in the eighth inning gave Pittsburgh a 2-1 victory over the Giants at TRS and a 2-1 lead in the NLCS. Bob Johnson went eight innings of five-hit ball with seven strikeouts and Dave Giusti closed it for the save. The Bucs’ first tally came in the second frame on another solo blast, this one by Bob Robertson. For Hebner, the game winner was an act of redemption as his throwing error on a bunt led to SF’s only score in the sixth inning. Robertson’s homer was his fourth of the series, setting a record.
- 1973 – After taking over the coaching reins from Bill Virdon in September, Danny Murtaugh announced a shakeup of The Quail’s field staff for the following season, firing pitching coach Mel Wright and bullpen coach Dave Ricketts while adding Bob Skinner, fueling speculation that the Dog was being groomed as the Irishman’s eventual replacement. Danny also said that he planned to retain Don Leppert and Bill Mazeroski. Don Osborn took over the pitching chores, but Maz didn’t come back (he never took a liking to coaching but did remain as a spring instructor), with Jose Pagan instead coming aboard. Leppert ended up the sole survivor from Virdon’s brain trust.
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| Danny Murtaugh – 10/1/1973 AP photo |
- 1974 – Don Sutton held Pittsburgh to four hits at TRS in the first game of the NLCS to claim a 3-0 win. It was a 1-0 duel between him and Jerry Reuss until the Dodgers added a pair of ninth inning tallies off of Dave Giusti. Willie Stargell had two of the Pirates four hits. The Dodgers reversed their usual Three Rivers trend as they had been 0-6 at the ballyard during the regular season.
- 1975 – Fred Norman limited the Bucs to five hits at Riverfront Stadium as Cincinnati easily took a two games to none lead in the NLCS by a 6-1 tally. Rennie Stennett and Richie Zisk had two knocks each; the only other Bucco hit was Willie Stargell’s RBI double. Jim Rooker took the loss.
- 1979 – The Pirates swept the NLCS, beating the Reds, 7-1, at TRS behind Bert Blyleven, who went the distance (eight hits, nine whiffs) for the series clincher. Willie Stargell, who homered, doubled and had three RBI, was named Series MVP. Bill Madlock also went long for the Bucs. The blowout was an outlier; it had taken the Bucs extra innings to win the first two contests.
- 1984 – 3B coach Joe Lonnett, 1B coach Al Monchak and pitching coach Harvey Haddix were let go by GM Pete Peterson and manager Chuck Tanner. Lonnett, who had spent 14 years with Tanner, had raised hackles earlier in the year with criticism of some of the players, Monchak had health problems, and The Kitten was replaced by Grant Jackson. Haddix’s dismissal was a surprise, as the Pirates led the National League in ERA, but the front office felt that much of the credit belonged to Tanner, who was deeply involved in the pitching schematics. Steve Demeter and Milt Graff replaced the base coaches, with Bob Skinner and Rick Peterson remaining as holdovers.
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| Chuck Tanner – 1984 Topps |
- 1990 – The Reds tied the NLCS at a game apiece with a 2-1 win at Riverfront Stadium as Tom Browning bested Doug Drabek. Paul O’Neill drove in both runs for Cincinnati, with the two tallies set up by stolen bases, while Chico Lind’s solo homer was all the offense Pittsburgh could muster. Both pitchers were in command; the Reds managed five hits and the Pirates six.
- 1999 – RHP Braxton Ashcraft was born in Waco, Texas and was drafted by the Pirates in the second round of the 2018 draft out of Robinson HS. Brax worked through the system and a series of injuries to join Pittsburgh’s Top Ten Prospect list before getting his call up in May, 2025. He got the ball as soon as he arrived, tossing three shutout frames in relief (a transition for him; he had started 69 of his 71 minor league outings) against the Arizona D-Backs and collected his first MLB strikeout. His transition to the show went pretty well as he put up a line of 4-4/2.71 while fanning a batter per frame in 26 games (69-2/3 IP), serving as a starter and bulk inning bullpen arm.
- 2001 – Forrest “Woody” Jensen passed away in Wichita, Kansas. Woody spent his nine-year MLB career as a Pirate from 1931-39, batting .285 over that span. The left fielder was most productive in the mid-thirties, starting and hitting leadoff from 1935-37. Between being named Forrest and getting his start in the semi-pro Timber League, his nickname Woody was a natural. He was recognized in 2004 when he was selected to the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame.
- 2007 – The Pirates fired manager Jim Tracy after two years and a 135-189 (.417) record. He was replaced by John Russell, who had been Lloyd McClendon’s third base coach (2005-05) and had managed in both the Twins and Phillies systems. As part of the purge by new GM Neal Huntington, director of player development Brian Graham, scouting director Ed Creech, director of baseball operations Jon Mercurio and Tracy’s entire coaching staff also lost their jobs.
Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2025/10/105-from-1960-60-ws-71-nlcs-wins-79.html
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