Rich Robertson (1968) Lefty reliever for the 1993-94 Pirates. He was a ninth round pick by the Pirates in the 1990 draft out of Texas A&M. Rich was drafted 23 rounds later by the Padres in 1989 but chose not to sign. He was a starter in the minors during all but one season(1999), but when he came to the Pirates in both 1993 and 1994, it was in a relief role. Robertson pitched two early season games for Pittsburgh in 1993, making his debut on April 30th. He was then recalled in September, pitching another seven times. He threw a total of nine innings, with six runs allowed. In 1994, Rich was called up in mid-July and saw more time on the mound, getting extended outings during blowout games. In eight appearances through early August, he threw 15.2 innings, giving up 12 runs on twenty hits and ten walks. The Pirates put him on waivers in November and he was picked up by the Twins. Robertson pitched four more years in the majors, two of them as a regular in the Twins rotation. He made 57 starts between the 1996-97 seasons, going 15-29 with an ERA well over 5.00, though he did lead the AL in shutouts(three) that first year. Rich finished his career in the minors in 2000, briefly making an unsuccessful return to the Pirates system during the 1999 season.

Dennis Moeller (1967) Lefty reliever for the 1993 Pirates. The Pirates acquired Moeller from the Royals along with pitcher Joel Johnston on November 19,1992 in exchange for Jose Lind. He pitched ten games in relief for Pittsburgh, getting hit hard in five of those games. Dennis lasted with the Pirates from Opening Day until the end of May, finishing with a 9.92 ERA in 16.1 innings. He was let go by Pittsburgh after the season and resigned with the Royals but never made the majors again. Before joining the Pirates, his only major league experience was five games(four starts) for the 1992 Royals. He went 0-3 7.00 in 18 innings. The Royals had drafted him the 17th round of the 1986 amateur draft. While Moeller didn’t pick up a win in Kansas City and his brief time in Pittsburgh went poorly, he was able to pick up his only major league win on April 15th, throwing two scoreless innings against the Padres in the Pirates 5-4, 13 inning victory.

Dave Pagan (1949) Reliever for the Pirates on September 27,1977. The Pirates acquired Pagan on July 27,1977 in exchange for pitcher Rick Honeycutt. Dave ended up pitching just one more major league game, while Honeycutt began his major league career that August and it lasted 21 seasons. Pagan’s one appearance for the Pirates came in the sixth inning of a late-season game the Pirates were losing 7-1 to the Mets. In his first inning, he struck out the side, then punched out the first batter he saw in the seventh inning. Pagan finished the game by retiring five of the last six batters he faced, allowing just a single to Lee Mazzilli. That three inning scoreless appearances ended up being his last game. Dave remained in the Pirates system until 1979, his last year of pro ball. Prior to joining the Pirates, he pitched parts of five seasons(1973-77) in the majors, appearing with the Yankees, Orioles and Mariners. Pagan went 4-9 4.96 in 85 major league games, 18 as a starter.

Fritz Ostermueller (1907) Lefty pitcher for the 1944-48 Pirates. The Pirates purchased him on June 1,1944 from Syracuse of the International League. Fritz had been with the Dodgers to start the season, but he was sold to Syracuse after Brooklyn put him on waivers and no one put a claim on him. He refused to report and was put back on the market, where Pittsburgh was able to purchase his contract. Ostermueller was in his 11th season in the majors, with a record standing at 65-73, four times winning at least ten games in a season, the last coming during the 1939 season. He went right in the Pirates rotation and pitched the best ball of his career over the rest of the 1944 season. Fritz went 11-7 2.73, throwing 204.2 innings. He missed three months of the 1945 season after he was called into service during WWII. He returned to the Pirates in August of 1945, and while that season finished slow, he was back to his 1944 form the next year. Ostermueller went 13-10 2.84 in 1946, leading the Pirates in wins, as they went just 63-91 on the season. The Pirates were just as bad in 1947, but Fritz still finished 12-10, again leading the team in wins. At the age of 40 in 1948, he went 8-11 4.42 in 134.1 innings. The Pirates released him at the end of the season, ending his playing career. He went 49-42 3.48 in 118 games for the Pirates, finishing his major league career with 114 wins. He also won 110 minor league games.

Elmer Cleveland (1862) Third baseman for the 1888 Pittsburgh Alleghenys. On June 16,1888 the Pirates traded third baseman Art Whitney to the Giants for Cleveland. Whitney was a holdout that season, so the Pirates had to move him or they would’ve ended up getting nothing. In thirty games for Pittsburgh, Elmer hit .222 with nine RBI’s and ten runs scored. His defense was well-below average, making 14 errors. On August 29th, he hit two homers against Mark Baldwin of the Chicago White Stockings, his only two homers while with the team. It was the second and third time he homered off Baldwin that year, with the first one coming in early May, which was also his first major league homer. The odd part about that was the fact Cleveland only hit four career home runs. He returned to the minors in 1889, playing two seasons before finishing his major league career in 1891 with the Columbus Solons of the American Association. Cleveland’s only other major league experience came in 1884 for the Cincinnati Outlaw Reds of the Union Association, a short-lived major league that was well below the level of competition that the AA or NL provided. He hit .322 that year, with 24 runs scored in 29 games. Elmer was the cousin of U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 15, 1978

Phil Garner’s first-inning grand slam—his second slam in as many games—led the Pirates to their seventeenth consecutive home victory, a 6-1 triumph over the Expos.

With one out in the first, Omar Moreno doubled to left field off former Bucco Woodie Fryman and moved to third when Dave Parker beat out a chopper to shortstop for a single. One out later, Willie Stargell walked to load the bases.

Garner worked the count full, and then drove a Fryman slider over the wall in left center for an insurmountable 4-0 lead. A day earlier, the Bucco third baseman had broken open a close game with a sixth-inning grand slam against St. Louis’ Bob Forsch. Garner’s slam against the Expos made him the eighth player in major-league history—and the first National Leaguer in seventy-seven years—to hit grand slams in consecutive games.

The quick-strike offense gave Bruce Kison all the scoring he would need. Kison kept the Expos scoreless until the eighth inning, when four singles in a row produced a run and loaded the bases with one out. But Ed Whitson entered the game and struck out Gary Carter and Lance Parrish to end the inning. When Whitson, in turn, opened the ninth by allowing back-to-back singles, Chuck Tanner called on Kent Tekulve for his eighty-second appearance of the season. Tekulve, rebounding from a shaky outing the night before, retired all three Montreal batters he faced to close out the victory.

The Pirates, winners of four in a row after a five-game losing streak, moved to three games back of first-place Philadelphia, with all eyes on a four-game season-closing series at Three Rivers between the intrastate rivals, two weeks away.

Box score and play-by-play

The Pittsburgh Press game story

Jerry Don Gleaton (1957) Lefty reliever for the 1992 Pirates. He was a first round draft pick in 1979 by the Rangers that went right to the majors for one game, before making his minor league debut. Despite that quick debut, Gleaton didn’t spend a full season in the majors until 1990 with the Tigers. That season he posted a 2.94 ERA in 57 relief appearances. Prior to that, he had appeared in majors during parts of nine seasons, compiling a 10-18 4.72 record in 180 games. His numbers slipped in 1991, down to a 4.06 ERA and he was let go after the season. Pittsburgh signed him as a free agent just days after Opening Day in 1992 and he ended up pitching five games at AAA and 23 in the majors before being released in July. He went 1-0 4.26 in 31.2 innings. He was signed by the Giants for the rest of the season, then inked with the Marlins in 1993, but his days in Pittsburgh would be his last major league experience.

Frank Carpin (1938) Lefty reliever for the 1965 Pirates. He spent exactly one year with the Pirates and pitched well, but his major league career lasted just ten more games elsewhere. In the November 1964 Minor League draft, the Pirates picked Carpin up from the Yankees. The following November they lost him to the Astros in the Rule V draft. During the 1965 season, he went 3-1 3.18 in 39 games, throwing a total of 39.2 innings. He had some shaky control, walking 24 batters in his limited time, but he was still able to keep the damage to a minimum. With Houston in 1966, he had a 7.50 ERA in 10 games, pitching just six innings. That would be the extent of his major league time and he never pitched in pro ball after the 1966 season. Frank pitched eight seasons in the minors, going 60-57 3.55 in 279 games, 113 as a starter. He was 4-0 2.67 in 1965 while with the Pirates AAA affiliate.

Fred Green (1933) Lefty reliever for the 1959-61 and 1964 Pirates. He was signed by the Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1952, taking seven seasons to make it to the majors for the first time. Green made the Opening Day roster in 1959, though he didn’t last long before being sent down. He ended up pitching 17 games for the Pirates that year, posting a 3.17 ERA in 37.1 innings. The World Series winning 1960 season ended up being his only full season in the majors. He went 8-4 3.21 in 45 appearances, throwing 70 innings. Fred got hit hard in the World Series, allowing ten runs in four innings. He struggled with the Pirates in 1961, getting sent to the minors, then eventually was put on waivers, where the Senators picked him up. Green threw five games for Washington in 1962, spending the rest of his time in the minors prior to his May 1963 release. He resigned a short time later with the Pirates and pitched well in eight early season appearances during the 1964 season, allowing one run and no walks in 7.1 innings, but he was still sent back to the minors in June. Fred ended up pitching in the Pirates system until the end of the 1965 season, his last year in pro ball. He went 98-88 in 12 minor league seasons.

Don Williams (1931) Pitcher for the 1958-59 Pirates. He was signed by the Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1953, but shortly thereafter, he missed two full seasons to military service. When he returned in 1956, he pitched well for Lincoln of the Western League(A-ball), but returned to the level the next season as well. Don went 15-6 2.98 in 1957, pitching 142 innings over his 60 relief appearances. He went to AAA Salt Lake City in 1958 as was even better, earning a September call-up to the Pirates. He pitched twice for Pittsburgh, throwing a total of four innings, allowing three runs. The following season he was recalled in May, getting into six games for the Pirates, allowing nine runs in 12 innings. After spending the rest of the 1959 season, and all of 1960 in the minors, Williams was sold to the White Sox in 1961. The rest of his major league career consisted of three appearances for the 1962 Athletics. He had identical 6.75 ERA’s in each of his two brief trials with the Pirates.

Jake Goodman (1853) First baseman for the 1882 Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the fifth place hitter in the first game in franchise history. Goodman started his pro career by playing for the first minor league team in baseball history, the Pittsburgh Allegheny(no S at the end like the major league team five years later). He played two seasons in the majors, the first coming in 1878 with the Milwaukee Grays. That year he hit .246 with 27 RBI’s and 28 runs scored in 60 games, making 42 errors at first base, the most in the league at that position. He was the everyday first baseman, playing all but one game that season for a team that finished 15-45(the team played 61 games, one was a make-up for a tie). Jake played in the minors in 1879, then next appeared in pro ball as the Alleghenys’ Opening Day first baseman, batting fifth in the order. He did well in his limited time with the team, hitting .317 in ten games, but he was soon replaced by Chappy Lane, an outstanding fielder, who could barely hit. Goodman never appeared in another major league game, finishing his career off in the minors in 1886, playing his third season in a row in his hometown of Lancaster, Pa.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 14, 1982

The Pirates parlayed a major-league record-tying power display into a 15-5 rout of the Cubs at Three Rivers Stadium.

With rookie starter Lee Tunnell struggling in the sequel to his dazzling major-league debut, the Bucs spotted the Cubs a 4-0 lead in the top of the third. One out into the bottom of the third, however, the Pirates commenced a three-inning-long race to the bat rack against Chicago starter Dickie Noles and relievers Mike Proly, Ken Kravec and Randy Stein. Of the twenty-three Bucco batters between Dale Berra’s third-inning-opening strikeout and Lee Lacy’s fifth-inning-ending strikeout, twelve hit safely, three more drew walks, and fifteen crossed home plate.

The most memorable moments in the hit parade came from Richie Hebner and Bill Madlock. In the bottom of the third, the Pirates had cut the deficit to 4-1 when Hebner, playing right field in place of an injured Dave Parker, stepped to the plate against Noles with two out. He hit a 1-0 fastball over the right field fence for a grand slam, giving the Pirates a 5-4 advantage.

An inning later, Bucs again occupied all three bases with two out, and Madlock batted against Proly. The Bucco third baseman drove Proly’s pitch over the left-field fence for the team’s second grand slam in as many innings and a 9-4 lead.* The Pirates had become the thirty-first team in major-league history to hit two grand slams in a game; Arky Vaughan and Earl Grace had previously turned the trick for the 1933 Bucs.

Randy Niemann, a periodic member of the Bucco bullpen that season, took over when Tunnell faltered, started the offensive eruption with a single off Noles, and earned his first victory since 1979 by recording five outs over the third and fourth innings. Larry McWilliams, regularly a starter, then came out of the bullpen to earn an unusual five-inning save.

The victory left the fourth-place Pirates a mere three and a half games behind the first-place Cardinals, with eighteen games remaining in the season.**

Box score and play-by-play

The Pittsburgh Press game story

* Madlock sandwiched third-inning and fifth-inning sacrifice flies around the grand slam. He finished the night with an unusual box-score line of “2 1 1 6.”

** Despite the Bucs’ persistence in the pennant race, a mere 4,822 fans witnessed the game, following the audience of 2,859 at the previous night’s 7-3 Chicago victory. In comments to The Pittsburgh Press, Chuck Tanner cited the area’s struggling economy as limiting crowds at Three Rivers: “The fans who come out are really good fans. We’re in a depressed area with all of the unemployment. I get a lot of mail from fans who say they used to come out but now they can’t afford it. They listen to all the games, though, and we have a big radio audience.” Hebner offered similar sentiments: “A game like this would have drawn 50,000 in Detroit, but I’m not going to knock people for not coming because they are out of work.”

Andy LaRoche (1983) Third baseman for the 2008-10 Pirates. He was originally signed in 2003 by the Dodgers, after they took him in the 39th round of the amateur draft. LaRoche was also drafted a year earlier by the Padres(21st round), but decided to go back to college. He quickly established himself as a top prospects in the Dodgers system, getting rated in Baseball America’s top 100 after one full season. Over the next three seasons, he would make their top 100 list, ranked as high as 19th overall twice. Andy had two trials with the Dodgers(2007-08), struggling each time, before the Pirates acquired him at the 2008 trading deadline in the Jason Bay deal. LaRoche went right in as the starter at third base for the Pirates, starting(and completing) 45 of the last 50 games of the season. He hit just .152 with three homers and 12 RBI’s in 183 plate appearances.

In 2009, Andy was again the starting third baseman, playing 150 games, 142 as a starter. He hit .258 with 12 homers, 29 doubles and 64 RBI’s in 590 plate appearances. LaRoche finished as the team leader in games played, hits, doubles and RBI’s. His 2010 season did not go well, losing his starting spot when Pedro Alvarez was called to the majors. Andy batted .206, with only 16 RBI’s in 102 games. He became a free agent after the season and signed with the Oakland A’s. LaRoche played 40 games last year for the A’s, hitting .247 with no homers and five RBI’s. He signed with the Indians this year, spending the first two months at AAA before he being released. Andy then signed with the Red Sox, finishing the year at AAA Pawtucket. His brother Adam played for the 2007-09 Pirates and his father Dave, pitched 14 seasons in the majors.

Armando Rios (1971) Outfielder for the 2001-02 Pirates. He was originally signed in 1994 by the Giants as an undrafted free agent. Rios didn’t make his major league debut until weeks before his 27th birthday, getting a brief trial during the 1998 season. In 1999, he played 72 games for the Giants, hitting .327 with seven homers and 29 RBI’s. That performance earned him his first full season in the majors the following year. In what turned out to be his only full injury-free season in the majors, Rios hit .266 with ten homers and 50 RBI’s in 115 games, 50 of them as a starter. The Pirates acquired Rios and pitcher Ryan Vogelsong on July 30,2001 from the San Francisco Giants for Jason Schmidt(see link below) and John Vander Wal. He was hitting .260 with 14 homers and 50 RBI’s at the time of the deal. Armando tore his ACL just two games into his time with the Pirates. The play that ended his season came in San Francisco on a pop up off the bat of Jason Schmidt. Returning in 2002, he missed some time that year as well with minor ailments, finishing with a .264 average and 24 RBI’s in 76 games. Rios was released by the Pirates following the 2002 season when they balked at going to arbitration with him. He played 49 games for the 2003 White Sox, then spent the rest of his career in the minors, finishing in 2005 in Independent Ball.

Denny Neagle (1968) Pitcher for the 1992-96 Pirates. He was originally a third round pick in 1989 of the Twins. The lefty-throwing Neagle made his major league debut two years later, pitching seven games for Minnesota. On March 17,1992, the Pirates acquired Neagle, along with Midre  Cummings from the Twins, in exchange for John Smiley, who happened to be celebrating his 27th birthday that day. Denny pitched out of the bullpen his first two seasons in Pittsburgh, with lackluster results. Even in 1994, when he became a full-time starter, he went just 9-10 5.12 in 24 outings. Then the strike happened, the 1994 season ended and the 1995 season started a few weeks late. Things clicked for Neagle over the long off-season. He came back and went 13-8 3.43, leading the NL in starts(31) and also with 209.2 innings pitched. The following year he was even better, although he didn’t last in Pittsburgh the entire season. On August 28,1996, the Pirates traded Neagle to the Atlanta Braves for Jason Schmidt and two minor league players. At the time of the trade, he was 14-6 3.05 in 27 starts. They unfortunately got rid of him one year too soon, because he won twenty games for the Braves in 1997, then began a slow decline in performance, ending with three tough years of pitching(and one missed year) in Colorado. Denny went 124-92 4.24 in his career over 13 seasons in the majors.

Tom Parsons (1939) Starting pitcher for the Pirates on September 5,1963. He was signed as an amateur free agent by the Pirates in 1957, making his debut in the minors at the age of seventeen. Parsons was a 6″7 righty, who pitched three years in the low minors, prior to moving up in 1960 to AAA. He would spend four full seasons at that level before getting his major league debut in 1963 as a September call-up. On Sept. 5th, Parsons started in Milwaukee against the Braves and lost 8-0, going 4.1 innings, with six runs(five earned) allowed on seven hits, with two walks and two strikeouts. In the third inning, he allowed a three-run homer to Hall of Fame third baseman Eddie Mathews. That would end up being Tom’s only game for the Pirates. The following September he was sold to the Mets, who used him four times that year, then he saw regular action during the 1965 season. That year he went 1-10 4.67 in 11 starts and 24 relief appearances. Tom spent his last four seasons of pro ball(1966-69) back in the minors, three of those years with the Astros organization after the Mets traded him there for Jerry Grote. Tom turns 73 years old today.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 13, 1970

Granted a reprieve when Matty Alou dropped Willie Smith’s apparent game-ending fly ball to center field, the Cubs rallied for two runs with two outs in the ninth inning and defeated the first-place Pirates 3-2 at Wrigley Field.

On a rainy afternoon, Bucco starter Steve Blass took a five-hitter—with none of Chicago’s hits having come after the third inning—and 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth. He starting the ninth by retiring Johnny Callison and pinch-hitter Paul Popovich easily. Cubs’ manager Leo Durocher then sent up Willie Smith to bat for his own starting pitcher, Bill Hands.

Smith lofted a routine fly ball in the direction of center field and a waiting Alou. Bob Prince, deploying the “can of corn” metaphor that he used to describe fly balls bound for the leathery fate of an outfielder’s glove, informed the Sunday television audience “Well, there goes 210 pounds of golden bantam.” The wind carried the ball towards the infield, but Alou waved his arms and put up his glove for the one-handed catch. Victory seemed certain.

But Alou dropped the ball, allowing Smith to reach second base. From that point, the Pirates’ downfall was swift. Don Kessinger hit Blass’ next pitch for a single to right field, scoring pinch-runner Ken Rudolph to tie the game. When Glenn Beckert hit Blass’ next offering into left for another single, Danny Murtaugh summoned reliever George Brunet to put out the fire.

Bucco shortstop Freddie Patek moved towards second in hopes that Brunet would attempt to pick Kessinger off second, but the veteran left hander, acquired from the Washington Senators just two weeks earlier, threw a pitch to Billy Williams. Williams singled to left, possibly within Patek’s reach had he been playing a normal shortstop position, and Kessinger came home with the winning run.

In the aftermath of this stunning defeat, Blass supported his center fielder. “I’ve messed up a hundred times on the mound, and I’m not about to put the blame on Alou,” he told The Pittsburgh Press. “He’s picked me up a hundred times with his bat, and I could have picked him up today by getting Kessinger out.”

Alou sounded disconsolate: “I have no excuse. I should have caught the ball easy. I knew the wind was blowing in [at something like 17 miles per hour] and I kept coming in and in and in after the ball was hit. I feel bad inside about it.”

Thanks to the Mets’ thirteen-inning loss to St. Louis, the Pirates remained in first place in the National League East, but the race tightened further. The Bucs maintained a half-game lead over New York, with the Cubs just a game out of first. Nevertheless, the defeat seemed to portend disaster. “The Pirates may have lost the pennant today at windy Wrigley Field,” wrote Charley Feeney in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Box score and play-by-play

The Pittsburgh Press game story

Franquelis Osoria (1981) Relief pitcher for the 2007-08 Pirates. He was originally signed out of the Dominican Republic as an amateur free agent in 1999 by the Dodgers. He made it to the majors in 2005 and had his best season, posting a career-low 3.94 ERA in 24 appearances, covering 29.2 innings. Osoria struggled badly with the Dodgers the next year, with a 7.13 ERA in his 12 outings. That December, the Pirates picked him up off waivers. He was pitching well at AAA until being recalled in early August. Franquelis pitched 25 times for the Pirates in 2007, compiling a 4.76 ERA in 28.1 innings. In each of his first three seasons in the majors, he finished with an 0-2 record. In 2008, Osoria pitched a career high 43 games, and while he had a 4-3 record, he did not pitch well for the most part, finished with a 6.08 ERA in 60.2 innings. He was released by the Pirates after the season, signing with the Royals a couple months later, although he never pitched again.

Mike Roesler (1963) Pitcher for the 1990 Pirates. He was originally drafted in the 17th round of the 1985 amateur draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He was a starter his first two years in the Reds system, then moved to relieving in 1987, getting to the majors two years later. The Reds called him up in August of 1989, pitching him 17 times out of the bullpen. Mike was 0-1 3.96 in 25 innings over the last two months of the season. The Pirates acquired him on April 3,1990 along with infielder Jeff Richardson, in exchange for outfielder Billy Hatcher. During the first three weeks of the 1990 seasons, teams were allowed to carry 27 players on their roster due to the shortened Spring Training, which was caused by a lockout. Roesler and Tom Prince both made the team because of the new rule. In those three weeks before being sent back down on April 29th(day before rosters reduced to 25), Mike made five relief appearances, giving up two runs in six innings of work. He never returned to the majors, pitching in the Pirates system until late in the 1992 season. He finished that year with the Royals AAA club, then finished his career the next season in the Kansas City system.

Trench Davis (1960) Center fielder for the 1985-86 Pirates. He was signed by the Pirates in 1980 as an undrafted amateur free agent. As a twenty year old in 1981, the Pirates sent him to full-season ball with Greenwood of the South Atlantic League, where he put up strong numbers. He hit .298 with 73 RBI’s, 70 runs scored and 31 stolen bases in 141 games. Trench was moved up to AAA the next year, skipping two levels and still performed decent, hitting .268 with 80 runs scored and 42 stolen bases in 141 games. Despite that performance, he still ended up spending half of the next season in AA. From the time he joined AAA Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League in 1983, Davis would spend 3 1/2 seasons with the team, without getting much of a shot at the majors. He played two June 1985 games in center field, then returned the next season for 15 more games in May. In his 17 Pirates games, he hit .133 with an RBI and no walks, giving him a lower OBP than average due to one sacrifice fly. Trench became a free agent after the 1986 season, signing with the Atlanta Braves shortly after hitting the market. He played his last six major league games with the Braves in 1987, getting three pinch hit appearances and three pinch running spots. Davis went to Mexico to play in 1988, finishing his playing career four years later.

George Freese (1926) Third baseman for the 1955 Pirates. He was a member of four different organizations before joining the Pirates, playing just one major league game prior to his trade to Pittsburgh. George was originally signed by the Dodgers in 1948, staying with Brooklyn until the St Louis Browns took him in the December 1952 Rule V draft. From there he was purchased by the Detroit Tigers in early April of 1953, then sold to the Chicago Cubs a month later. The Pirates acquired George from the Cubs on June 4,1953 in the Ralph Kiner deal. He would remain in the minors until Opening Day in 1955, when he made the Pirates as a bench player. Sid Gordon(same link as Tom Prince above) was at third base to begin the year, but quickly lost the starting job due to a poor start. Freese would start every game for the Pirates, from April 24th until June 12th, at third base.

Two days after his last game, he was sent to the Pirates farm team in Hollywood, while the Pirates got back Cuban pitcher, Lino Donoso. At the same time, the Pirates also got back twin infielders Johnny and Eddie O’Brien. They had been serving in the Army prior to the season and were working their way back into shape, prior to rejoining the team. Freese finished with a .257 average and 22 RBI’s in 51 games. After the season ended, the Pirates lost him to the Cubs in the 1955 Minor League draft. George would go six seasons before he played in the majors again, making his last nine appearances with the 1961 Cubs. He then began to manage in the minors, the first three years as a player/manager, followed by another nine seasons as a minor league manager. George is the brother of Pirates infielder Gene Freese.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 12, 1947

Ralph Kiner’s two home runs—capping a major-league record slugging spree of eight homers in four games—led the Pirates to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Braves at Forbes Field.

The twenty-four-year-old Bucco left fielder had commenced his assault on the record books two days earlier with two solo home runs against the New York Giants. Boston came to Pittsburgh for a doubleheader the next night, and Kiner crushed one homer in the first game and three in the nightcap, equaling the major-league record for most home runs in a twinbill.*

Kiner’s bat did not rest in the fourth game. Provoking, in the words of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a “tremendous ovation” from a “wildly cheering crowd of 21,012” every time he batted, Kiner carved out another niche in baseball history. With two outs in the fifth, he undid a 2-1 Braves’ lead by lifting a Red Barrett pitch over the left field wall to the right of the scoreboard for a two-run homer. Two innings later, Kiner provided an insurance tally by driving Barrett’s change-up against the clock on the scoreboard.**

With forty-nine home runs on the season, Kiner’s production now prompted comparisons with Babe Ruth’s twenty-year-old record of sixty homers. The Post-Gazette noted that Kiner “needs 11 homers in his remaining 14 games” and that the second-year slugger “was still six games behind the Bambino’s record-setting pace.” Kiner’s 121 RBI moved him ten behind Paul Waner’s 1927 team record.

Bucco starter Rip Sewell was the immediate beneficiary of Kiner’s homers. The forty-year-old right hander went the distance in his first start since July 12, to earn his sixth victory, limiting the Braves to seven hits.***

Box score

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette game story

* Stan Musial and Nate Colbert subsequently broke that record with five-homer doubleheaders in 1954 and 1972, respectively.

** The Post-Gazette noted that Kiner’s second home run provoked a mass exodus from the park: “They had seen what they came to see—Kiner’s homers—and it wouldn’t have mattered even had the Pirates lost.”

*** Both starting pitchers apparently worked efficiently in recording complete games; the contest lasted a mere 1:37.

Don Slaught (1958) Catcher for the Pirates from 1990 until 1995. Prior to joining Pittsburgh, Slaught played eight years in the majors, hitting a combined .269 with 50 homers and 256 RBI’s in 756 games. During the 1989 season for the Yankees, he hit .251 with 38 RBI’s in 117 games, his second highest games played total during his 16 year career. He was a solid catcher, slightly below average in throwing out runners and early on he had some error troubles, leading AL catchers in 1988 with 11 miscues. On December 4,1989, the Pirates acquired Slaught from the Yankees in exchange for pitchers Jeff Robinson and Willie Smith.

During the Pirates three years of NL East pennants, Slaught was the righty in the L/R platoon behind the plate with Mike Lavalliere. His batting average during his Pirates years was much better than they hoped for, as he compiled a .305 mark in his six seasons in Pittsburgh. He hit .300 his first year and never batted below .288 with the team. He reached .300 in four of his seasons and topped out at .345 in 1992. Don started 179 games during the 1990-92 run of pennants, getting into another 47 games behind the plate from off the bench. In 1993, when the Pirates got rid of Lavalliere, Slaught became the everyday catcher and hit .300 with ten homers and 55 RBI’s in 116 games. He missed most of 1995, with shoulder and hamstring injuries, then was allowed to leave via free agency after the season. Slaught played two more seasons in the majors before retiring. With the Pirates he hit .305 in 475 games, with 21 homers and 184 RBI’s. In the postseason, he went just 5-for-28 between the 1990-91 games, before breaking out in 1992, hitting .333 with six walks and five RBI’s.

Dave Roberts (1944) Pitcher for the 1979-80 Pirates. He had a 13 year career in the majors that saw him go 103-125 3.78 in 277 starts and 168 relief appearances. Before reaching the Pirates, he was already in the middle of his 11th season and had made the conversion to a relief role. Dave was part of an important trade in Pirates history, the one that brought Bill Madlock to Pittsburgh, from the Giants on June 28,1979. It was a six player deal with three players going each way. Not only did Madlock help with the World Series run, Roberts went 5-2 3.26 in 21 appearances. He appeared in one playoff game, allowing a walk to the only batter he faced in the NLCS. Dave began the 1980 season with the Pirates, though he was sold to the Mariners after just two appearances. He played in the majors until 1981, lasting with the Mets until May of that season, then pitching briefly in the minors for the Giants, before retiring. While it is true that Roberts didn’t pitch for the Pirates until 1979, he was actually a member of the organization twice before that. He was originally signed by the Phillies, who lost him on waivers to the Pirates in 1964. In 1966, he was taken by the Kansas City Athletics in the Rule V draft, then returned to Pittsburgh in 1967, right before Opening Day. The Pirates then lost him to the Padres in the 1968 Expansion draft, and that is where he made his major league debut during the 1969 season.

Jackie Hernandez (1940) Shortstop for the 1971-73 Pirates. He was a light-hitting, error-prone shortstop for nine seasons in the majors, but during the 1971 postseason, he started ten of the 11 playoff games, helping the Pirates to their fourth WS title. On December 2,1970, the Pirates acquired Hernandez from the Kansas City Royals in a six player deal, with three players going each way. Jackie was six seasons into his major league career at that point, only once seeing regular playing time, that coming with the expansion Royals team during their first season. He played 145 games in 1969, hitting .222 with 17 RBI’s and he led the entire AL in errors. In 1970, before the Pirates received him, he hit .231 in 83 games, with a .563 OPS. For the 1971 Pirates, Hernandez started 65 games at shortstop and occasionally played third base. He hit just .206 with 26 RBI’s in 88 games, then in the postseason, he hit .226(seven singles in 31 AB’s) with two RBI’s. As his batting average sank to .188 in 1972, his playing time also diminished, but he still committed 22 errors at shortstop in 68 games. Jackie made just 22 starts in 1973, batting .247 in 78 plate appearances. On January 31,1974, Hernandez was dealt to the Phillies in exchange for catcher Mike Ryan. He ended up being released by the Phillies and resigned by the Pirates in April, spending the entire 1974 season at AAA. Hernandez played the next two years in the Mexican League before retiring. For the Pirates, he hit .205 in 214 games, with 48 RBI’s and despite stealing 17 bases in 1969, he never stole a base with the Pirates. He was a career .208 hitter in 618 games.

Glenn Spencer (1905) Pitcher for the Pirates in 1928, then again from 1930 until 1932. He made his debut on Opening Day in 1928, coming into a 12-5 game in the sixth inning, giving up two unearned runs in 2.2 innings. The Pirates had injuries to two of their better pitchers, Lee Meadows and Carmen Hill so a spot was opened up for Spencer. Glenn pitched just four times prior to the return of Meadows in late June, all in relief, throwing a total of 5.2 innings. He finished that season pitching for Columbia in the South Atlantic League, then was moved to Wichita of the Western League to get more experience the next year. Spencer responded with a 24 win season, pitching 252 innings. In 1930, he was back with the Pirates, getting occasional starts but most pitching in relief, closing out 22 games. Glenn pitched 41 times, 30 in relief, going 8-9 5.40 in 156.2 innings. The ERA sounds extremely high, but it was a booming year for offense in baseball, as the Pirates team finished with a 5.24 ERA.

Spencer would pitch the fourth most innings on the team in both 1930 and 1931, throwing a total of 186.2 innings the second season. That year he made 18 starts and 20 relief appearances, going 11-12 3.42 for a team that finished four games under the .500 mark. His numbers slipped the next season, down to a 4.97 ERA in 137.2 innings and the Pirates moved him in the off-season. On December 12,1932, he was sent to the Giants as part of a five player, three team deal, that also involved the Phillies. In return, the Pirates got back Hall of Fame 3B/OF Freddie Lindstrom. Spencer ended up pitching just 17 games for the Giants in 1933, then he was traded to the Reds and sent to the minors. His major league career was over at that point, but he pitched another eight seasons of minor league ball before retiring. With the Pirates, he was 23-29 4.48 in 122 appearances, 42 as a starter.

Frank Moore (1876) Pitcher for the Pirates on June 14,1905. At 6″4 back in 1905, Moore was referred to as “the Giant”, yet had the usual nickname of Peggy. He pitched just one game for the Pirates, coming into the game with Pittsburgh down 5-0 in the sixth inning to Hall of Famer(and future Pirates at the time), Vic Willis. He was recruited out of Ohio by Pirates oft-injured catcher, Harry Smith. When Moore went in to make his one appearance, it marked another unusual occurrence, Homer Hillebrand went behind the plate to catch at the same time. Hillebrand was a lefty, making one of his three major league appearances at the position. Frank ended up pitching the last three innings of the game and looked good, allowing two hits, no runs, no walks and he struck out a batter. He ended up playing until 1912, the last year as a player/manager, before retiring as a player and managing two final seasons. Frank spent the last seven years of his baseball career, playing/managing for teams in Ohio, his home state.

Steve Brodie (1868) Center fielder for the 1897-98 Pirates. He was a center fielder with strong defense and some big seasons on offense for the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1890′s. Baltimore won the NL pennant three years in a row(1894-96) and Brodie averaged 106 runs scored and 111 RBI’s during those seasons. On defense, he led all outfielder in fielding percentage once and had the second best percentage five times(twice finishing third as well). On November 11,1896, the Pirates acquired Brodie from the Orioles, along with third baseman Jim Donnelly, for Jake Stenzel, and three other players. In Stenzel, the Pirates were giving up the player with the highest average in team history. While his defense was as strong as ever in Pittsburgh(leading the NL in fielding in 1897), Brodie’s offense left something to be desired, at least compared to his career stats. In 142 games with the Pirates, he hit .283 with 74 RBI’s and 62 runs scored.

The Pirates released Brodie on June 11,1898 despite the fact he was playing good at the time. The reason was due to finances, cuts had to be made to team spending and Brodie, along with third string catcher Morgan Murphy, were both released outright. The Pirates went with a smaller roster and Steve was free to sign with any other team. He ended up signing back with Baltimore, where he hit .306 in 23 games in 1898, then batted .309 with 87 RBI’s in 1899, the last year of the Baltimore NL franchise. When Baltimore became a major league city again in 1901 in the AL, Steve reappeared in the majors, playing two more seasons. His 12 year big league career was over, but his minor league career lasted another eight seasons, before finally retiring in 1910. He was a .303 major league hitter in 1438 games, with 900 RBI’s, 289 stolen bases and 886 runs scored.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 11, 1982

Bill Madlock led off the ninth inning with a walkoff home run off Ron Reed, giving the Pirates a 10-9 victory over the Phillies at Three Rivers Stadium.

Coming on the veteran reliever Reed’s only pitch of the night, a chest-high slider, Madlock’s blast over the left-center wall gave the Bucs the ultimate upper hand in a slugfest that evoked memories of the teams’ epic struggles of the previous decade. The intrastate rivals combined for thirty-three hits, and spent the evening swapping leads and rallies.

Before Philadelphia could record their sixth out of the game, starter Mike Krukow had abdicated the mound in favor of Ed Farmer, and the Pirates enjoyed a 6-0 advantage. The Phillies answered by turning to some familiar names to produce eight runs against Larry McWilliams, Enrique Romo and Rod Scurry over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Garry Maddox’s fourth-inning double drove in former Bucco Bill Robinson to put the Phillies on the scoreboard in the fourth, Mike Schmidt’s three-run blast off McWilliams cut the lead to 6-4 in the fifth, and Pete Rose’s two-run single off Scurry in the sixth gave the visitors the lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, however, Sister Sledge replaced McFadden & Whitehead on the jukebox, as the Pirates conjured the spirit of their own recent past. Dave Parker, in action for the first time since injuring his thumb on July 28, pinch-hit for Lee Lacy and drove Porfi Altamirano’s pitch off the glove of diving right fielder George Vukovich for a triple. One out later, Philadelphia manager Pat Corrales called on long-time Bucco foe Tug McGraw. McGraw retired Jason Thompson on a pop-up, but Mike Easler singled home Parker to cut the gap to 8-7.

Tony Pena followed with an infield single. With two on and two out, Chuck Tanner went to his bench and sent up Willie Stargell, playing out the final three weeks of his storied career, to pinch-hit for Johnny Ray. Much as Tanner had turned to left-handed pinch-hitters Easler and John Milner to get big hits against the lefty McGraw in the summer of ’79, the strategy paid off handsomely, as Stargell sliced a double to left to drive in two runs and put the Bucs back ahead.*

Philadelphia did not quit. Manny Sarmiento had kept the Phillies off the scoreboard in the seventh and eighth innings, and Tanner sent him back out for the ninth. Three batters in, the Phillies had two runners on and one out, and Tanner summoned Kent Tekulve in hopes of recording the final two outs. Tekulve induced Maddox to ground into a forceout, but Manny Trillo singled off Dale Berra’s glove to deadlock the game.

Once Madlock untied matters for good a few minutes later, the contest had something else in common with its 1970s antecedents: pennant race impact. The combination of Philadelphia’s loss and St. Louis’ win over New York knocked the Phillies out of first place in the National League East and put the Cardinals in the top spot by half a game. The Pirates continued to hang within striking distance; they now stood in fourth place, but only four and a half games out of first.

Box score and play-by-play

The Pittsburgh Press game story

* This pinch-hit double represented Stargell’s last big hit in a twenty-one-year career of countless memorable moments.

Chad Hermansen (1977) Outfielder for the 1999-2002 Pirates. He was a first round pick of the 1995 Pirates and five times he was ranked by Baseball America among their top 54 prospects. Coming up through the minors he was always young for the level, but he struck out a lot and never hit for a high average. Hermansen ended up playing five seasons at AAA Nashville, never living up to the hype that surrounded him. To be fair, the Pirates gave him three separate trials from 1999-2001, when he was ages 21-23, yet never gave him more than 33 games in a season. In 2002, he finally got an extended look, playing 65 games through the end of July, before he was dealt to the Cubs for Darren Lewis. Chad finished the season with the Cubs, then played for the Dodgers in 2003, before playing his last major league season with the 2004 Blue Jays. He played in the minors until 2007, finishing with 192 minor league homers. For the Pirates, he hit .199 in 139 games, with 12 homers and 29 RBI’s.

Bob Garber (1928) Pitcher for the 1956 Pirates. He signed with the Pirates as an amateur in 1948, pitching well in the low levels of the minors for three years before serving in the military during the Korean War. Garber went 49-27 over his first three seasons, then missed all of 1951-52. He didn’t do much in 1953, then returned to form the next year, winning 19 games for Denver of the Western League. He was moved up to Hollywood of the Pacific Coast League in 1955 and won 20 games, posting a 2.84 ERA in 291.2 innings, but  didn’t pitch with the Pirates until the following season. Garber appeared in two game for the 1956 Pirates, both in relief and both games ended up being suspended and finished at a later date. The first was in May, when he threw one scoreless inning during a blowout loss to the Phillies. The other game came in September, when he pitched three innings against the Dodgers, allowing one run on a solo homer. Bob pitched at Hollywood in 1957, then split his final season(1958) between stops in the Reds and Cubs organization, never making the majors again.

Brandy Davis (1956) Outfielder for the 1952-53 Pirates. The Pirates signed him out of Duke University in 1951, and it didn’t take long for Davis to make the majors. After spending all of 1951 in the minors, splitting his time between three different teams while batting .313 with 16 homers, Davis made the Pirates 1952 Opening Day roster. He would be sent to the minors in early June, returning two months later for the rest of the season. Brandy(real name was Robert Brandon Davis) started 21 of the 55 games he played that season for the Pirates, seeing time at all three outfield spots. He hit .179 with 14 runs scored and one RBI in 108 plate appearances. Davis spent 1953 with New Orleans of the Southern Association, where he hit .272 with four homers in 136 games. He came back to the Pirates as a September call-up and hit .205 in 12 games, his last major league experience. Brandy played in the Pirates farm system until 1956 and remained in the minors until 1960, finishing with a .292 average in 911 games.

Ted Kluszewski (1924) First baseman for the 1958-59 Pirates. He started his major league career in 1947 with the Reds and 11 years later, he had amassed a .302 average with 251 homers and 886 RBI’s. Ted was a four time All-Star from 1953-56, hitting at least 35 homers and driving in over 100 runs each season. Three times he hit at least 40 homers, including 1954 when he led the NL in homer(49) and RBI’s(149) while hitting .326, the fifth highest average in the league. Before coming to Pittsburgh, he began to suffer back problems that really limited his power. The Pirates acquired Ted from the Reds on December 28,1957 in exchange for first baseman Dee Fondy. Pittsburgh didn’t get the power hitting first baseman they hoped to get. Kluszewski played 160 games for the Pirates, hitting .284 with just six homers and 54 RBI’s. He was able to hit .292 during the 1958 season, but his .408 slugging percentage was well below his career mark. The Pirates traded him to the White Sox on August 25,1959 in exchange for outfielder Harry Simpson and a minor leaguer. Ted played with the White Sox until 1960, then finished with the 1961 Angels, an expansion team that year. He hit 15 homers in 1961, more than he had hit the previous three seasons combined. The amazing part of his 1953-56 streak of 35 home run seasons, was the fact he had more home runs than strikeouts in all four seasons.

George Kelly (1895) First baseman for the 1917 Pirates. He saw limited time with the New York Giants for parts of three years before the Pirates purchased his contract in early August of 1917. Pittsburgh was having injury problems at the time and they needed Kelly to fill in for Honus Wagner at first base. Before joining the Pirates, he had barely played for the 1917 Giants, going 0-for-5 in nine games. For Pittsburgh in eight starts at first base, he went 2-for-23 with a triple and nine strikeouts. When Wagner was ready to play again, Kelly was sent back to the Giants. Despite returning him to New York right away, the Pirates had been high on Kelly for quite some time. The decision to return him ended up being a bad one, Kelly went on to have a Hall of Fame career. From 1920 until 1925, he averaged 108 RBI’s per season, twice leading the league. From 1921 until 1926, he batted over .300 every season.

George helped the Giants to four straight World Series appearances, picking up titles during the 1921-22 seasons. He was a career .297 hitter in 1622 games, driving in 1020 runs, while scoring 819 times. Kelly was also a fine fielding first baseman, leading the league in assists three times, putouts three times, range four times and fielding percentage twice. Late in that 1917 season, after being returned to the Giants, Kelly pitched for the only time in his career, throwing five shutout innings in a win over the Phillies. Kelly came from a big baseball family, his uncle was Bill Lange, a .330 career hitter in seven seasons during the 1890′s. George’s brother Ren Kelly pitched for the 1923 Athletics and his cousin Rich Chiles, played six years in the majors during the 1970′s.

Kid Durbin (1886) Pinch-runner for the Pirates on June 30,1909. When the Pirates traded for Durbin on May 28,1909, they sent pitcher Ward Miller to the Reds in a deal that included the stipulation, that if Miller played good for the Reds, Cincinnati would send money back to the Pirates. As it turned out, all Pittsburgh received from the player part of the deal, was one pinch-running appearance by Durbin. On June 30,1909, during the opening game at Forbes Field, the Pirates trailed 3-2 in the ninth inning. Catcher George Gibson walked to start the inning, he was replaced on the bases by Durbin, who was sacrificed to 2B, then moved to 3B on an infield error. That is where he would stay, as a shallow fly ball and groundout to shortstop ended the game. Not only did Durbin not play for the Pirates again, he never played in the majors again.

He came to the majors in 1907 after winning 32 games the previous year for Joplin of the Western Association. Kid also hit .277 that season, occasionally playing outfield when he wasn’t on the mound. He played two years with the Cubs, seeing very limited playing time(25 games combined, five as a pitcher). In January of 1909 he was traded to the Reds, who used him six times as a pinch-hitter before the trade to the Pirates. Durbin played in the minors until 1912 before he retired. The Cubs won the World Series in each of his first two seasons and the Pirates won during his third year, though Durbin never played a postseason game.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 10, 1958

Rookie Dick Stuart’s two-run, tenth-inning, walkoff home run gave the Pirates a milestone-laden 6-4 victory over the Giants at Forbes Field.

With the score tied 4-4 in the bottom of the tenth, Giants’ reliever Marv Grissom took over for fellow reliever Ramon Monzant, who had held the Bucs scoreless over a seven-and-a-third-inning effort. Grissom appeared headed down the same path as his predecessor when he started the inning by retiring Bob Friend and Bill Virdon. But Roberto Clemente grounded a single up the middle for his third hit of the game, bringing up Stuart.

The Bucco first baseman took Grissom’s first pitch for a strike, and protested the call to home plate umpire Frank Secory. Pitch number two, however, proved more to Stuart’s liking: he crushed it over the wall and above the trees in left center to end the game. Seeing the ball clear the fence as he rounded first base, Stuart, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “leaped in the air, clapping his approval.” He concluded the home-run trot by leaping onto home plate with both feet.

Stuart’s blast allowed the Bucs to reach two noteworthy milestones. In raising their record to 78-64, the Pirates clinched their first winning season since 1948. The nine consecutive losing seasons represented a franchise record.*

The win also gave Friend, who labored through all ten innings on a cool evening, his twentieth victory of the season. Friend’s 20-13 mark—three wins greater than his previous season-best—made him the first Bucco pitcher to win twenty games in a season since Murry Dickson went 20-16 in 1951.**

Despite having won four games in a row and six of their last seven, the second-place Pirates still trailed first-place Milwaukee by six games with fourteen to play. Nevertheless, the Bucs, now leading third-place San Francisco by six games, stood in good shape to finish as high as second in the National League for the first time since 1944.

Box score and play-by-play

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette game story

* The dubious mark would stand until 2002, when the Pirates recorded their tenth losing season in a row.

** Friend would finish the season with a 22-14 mark, which wound up being the most wins in his sixteen-season career.

Waite Hoyt (1899) Hall of Fame pitcher for the Pirates from 1933 until 1937. Hoyt made the Hall of Fame on the strength of the team he played for, that being the Yankees from 1921-30, when he had a 157-98 record. Over the rest of his career, posting a ERA just slightly higher than his New York days, he had a career record of 80-84, including the 35-31 mark he compiled with the Pirates. His ERA during his five years in Pittsburgh stood at 3.08, forty points below his number with the Yankees. Hoyt was released by the Giants after the 1932 season, when he went 5-7 3.42 in 12 starts and six relief outings. He was signed by the Pirates the following January and was used mostly in relief during his first season in Pittsburgh. He went 5-7 2.92 in 117 innings, making eight starts and 28 relief appearances.

In 1934, he was used in the same role, just pitching more often. That would be his best season since he went 22-7 2.63 for the powerhouse 1927 Yankees. Hoyt was 15-6 2.93 in 190.2 innings, making 17 starts and 23 relief appearances. In 1934, he had a 7-11 3.40 record in 11 starts and 28 relief outings, throwing a total of 164 innings. He began to slow down the next year but still pitched well with a 2.70 ERA in 116.2 innings. His ERA that season was the lowest among any Pirates pitchers, a staff that included some strong pitchers like Cy Blanton, Mace Brown, Bill Swift and Red Lucas. Waite started off slow in 1937, then was sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers in June. He pitched well there over the rest of the 1937 season, but after a few games the next season, he was released, ending his career. Hoyt finished with a 237-182 3.59 record in 674 games, 425 as a starter. He won three World Series titles and had six wins and a 1.83 ERA in the postseason.

Before we get into the other players, we have a manager to mention. Frankie Frisch (1898) was a Hall of Fame second baseman, who managed the Pirates from 1940 until 1946, finishing with a 539-528 record. Frisch played 19 seasons in the majors, hitting .316 with 2880 hits, 1532 runs scored, 419 stolen bases and 1244 RBI’s. He was a part of four World Series winning teams as a player and one of those as a player/manager. He went 1138-1078 overall in sixteen years managing in the big leagues. Frankie had a winning record in five of his seven seasons in Pittsburgh, finishing second once and in fourth place, four times. He led the 1944 Pirates to a 90-63 record, his best year with the team.

Dan Miceli (1970) Reliever for the Pirates from 1993 until 1996. He was originally signed by the Royals as an amateur free agent in 1990, coming over to the Pirates at the 1993 trading deadline, along with Jon Lieber, in exchange for Stan Belinda. Dan came to the majors in September and stuck around for another three seasons, despite never pitching with any success. In 1995, he was used often in the closer role, picking up 21 saves, but he also had a 4.66 ERA. The next year the Pirates tried him as a starter briefly and he wound up with a 2-10 5.78 record in nine starts and 35 relief outings. After the season ended, he was dealt to the Tigers for pitcher Clint Sodowsky. Miceli went on to pitcher 14 seasons in the majors, with some solid seasons mixed in, tops among them was 1998 for the Padres when he went 10-5 3.22 in 67 games. In 2003, he pitched for four different teams in four different divisions. Dan finished with a 43-52 4.48 record in 631 games, with 39 saves. For the Pirates, he was 8-15 5.41 in 139 games, more games than any other team he played with, a list nine teams long.

Tom Foley (1959) Infielder for the 1993-94 Pirates. He spent his entire 13 year career in the NL, eight of those seasons with the Montreal Expos. His two years in Pittsburgh were bookended by his first and second stop in Montreal. Tom split most of his time at either shortstop or second base, but he also saw plenty of work between the two corner infield spots. In 1992 for the Expos, he hit just .174 in 72 games, leading to his release as soon as the season ended. The Pirates signed Foley two months later, and he was used mainly at second base in 1993, getting exactly four starts at each of the other three infield spots. In 86 games that season, he hit .253 with 22 RBI’s and 18 runs scored in 211 plate appearances. In 1994, he again played all four infield spots, although he didn’t make any starts at first base. He hit .236 in 59 games during that strike-shortened season, driving in 15 runs and scoring 13 times. He was released in October and finished his career the next season with the Expos. In 1108 major league games, he hit .244 with 32 homers, 32 steals and 263 RBI’s. Foley was originally drafted by the Reds in 1977, spending parts of three seasons in the majors with them, followed by parts of two seasons with the Phillies, before being dealt in July of 1986 to the Expos.

Pete Naton (1931) Catcher for the 1953 Pirates. He was signed by the Pirates right out of the College of Holy Cross in June of 1953, one of 75 major leaguers that attended that school, although only six have began their major league career after he did. Naton went right to the Pirates and played two games(one as a starter) before being sent to the minors. He was recalled in September for four more games, three of them as a starter. He hit .167 with one RBI and two walks. Naton then went to the low minors in 1954, where he hit .288 with 16 homers. He split the next two seasons between the Pirates affiliates in Hollywood(PCL) and New Orleans(Southern Association), where he never approached his 1954 hitting numbers. Pete stayed in the Pirates system until 1958 before retiring, never making it back to the majors.

Dan Costello (1891) Outfielder for the Pirates from 1914 until 1916. He signed with the Yankees right out of Mount St Mary’s University in 1913, a school that hasn’t produced a major league player in eighty years. Costello spent three of his four seasons in the majors with the Pirates. Pittsburgh picked him up off waivers in January of 1914, after he played just two games for New York. Dan was called up late during the 1914 season by the Pirates, after spending the season playing for a minor league team from Poughkeepsie,NY. He played 21 games, twenty of those in right field, and he hit .297 with five RBI’s. In 1915, he was the backup outfielder, seeing time at all three positions, though most of his time came off the bench. Dan hit .216 with 11 RBI’s, 16 runs scored and seven stolen bases in 71 games. During Spring Training in 1916, he was impressing the Pirates with his play and they planned to reward his hard work with more playing time. Costello got more AB’s in 1916, but played less games. He started often in left field early in the year, but he ended up hitting just .239 with eight RBI’s in 60 games. The Pirates released him to Toronto of the International League in September and, while he initially said he would retire rather than report there, he ended up playing in Toronto during the 1917 season before calling it quits.

Doc Johnston (1887) First baseman for the 1915-16 Pirates. The Pirates purchased Johnston from the Indians in February of 1915, after he hit .244 with no homers and 23 RBI’s in 104 games the previous season. It was his second full year in the majors, he had also played briefly for the 1909 Reds and the 1912 Indians(then called Naps). Johnston replaced Ed Konetchy at first base, after he jumped to the Pittsburgh team in the Federal League. Doc(first name was Wheeler) hit .265 in 147 games for the 1915 Pirates, driving in 64 runs and scoring 71 times. He finished ninth in the NL in stolen bases and homers and sixth in triples. His second season with the team didn’t go so well, hitting .213 with 39 RBI’s in 114 games. In 1917, the Pirates went with Honus Wagner at first base and Doc spent the entire year in the minors. By early 1918, he was back with the Indians. Johnston had three good seasons with Cleveland, hitting at least .292 each year from 1919-21. He was sold to the Philadelphia A’s after the 1921 season and finished his major league career there after one season. Doc went on to play four more seasons in the minors, then managed for two more years before retiring.

Abner Dalrymple (1857) Left fielder for the 1887-88 Pittsburgh Alleghenys and the first batter in Pittsburgh NL history. He was a star outfielder in the 1880′s for the Chicago White Stockings(Cubs), but by the time the Alleghenys got him in 1887, he was clearly on the downside of his career. Abner led the NL in AB’s four times between 1880-85, led the league in runs and hits in 1880, home runs in 1885 and four times he batted over .300, including a high of .354 in 1878 as a rookie. He was awarded the NL batting title that rookie season, but later researched showed he actually fell four points behind Paul Hines(see link for details). Pittsburgh purchased him in November of 1886 after he hit .233 in 82 games for Chicago. The Alleghenys had moved from the American Association to the NL over the off-season and on April 30,1887, Abner led off against his old team and helped Pittsburgh to a 6-2 win. He never regained his batting form from years earlier, finishing that first season hitting .212 in 92 games, with 45 runs scored and 29 stolen bases.

Dalrymple was never strong defensively, early in his career he led the NL in errors three times, but by the time he reached Pittsburgh, he was an average fielder. In 1888, he played 57 games for the Alleghenys, hitting .220 with 19 runs scored. Abner went to the minors in 1889 and played for another seven seasons before retiring. He actually played major league ball again in 1891 under odd circumstances by today’s standards. That year the American Association had a team from Cincinnati that folded near the end of the season and the AA needed a team to take their spot, to finish out the schedule. They chose the Milwaukee Brewers of the Western League, and Dalrymple just happened to be on that team, hitting .340 at the time. When the team moved to the AA for the last month, Abner went with them and hit .311 with 22 RBI’s in 32 games.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 9, 1987

Relief pitcher Jeff Robinson stunned the Cubs with a tie-breaking two-out, ninth-inning home run against ace reliever Lee Smith, lifting the Pirates to a 4-3 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Robinson, acquired in a trade for Rick Reuschel in the previous month, had entered the game in the bottom of the seventh in relief of starter Mike Bielecki with the bases loaded, none out, and the Bucs clinging to a 3-2 advantage.* While allowing the Cubs to tie the game on a Ryne Sandberg RBI groundout, he retired Leon Durham and Andre Dawson to limit the damage, and then held Chicago scoreless in the eighth.

In the top of the ninth, Smith, pitching his second inning of relief, quickly retired Sid Bream and Al Pedrique on groundouts. Bucco manager Jim Leyland then allowed Robinson to bat for himself because, as his told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette afterwards, he “didn’t want to use [closer Jim] Gott in a tie game [and] . . . thought Robinson was [his] best bet to get three outs in the bottom of the ninth and get us to extra innings.”

At that point, extra innings looked like a best-case scenario for the Pirates: relevant metrics included Robinson’s lifetime .106 average in 94 career at-bats, and Smith’s allowing only three home runs in 78 innings all season. Plus, as Pirates coach Rich Donnelly noted, Robinson was “hitting only .125 with no home runs and four RBIs in the pitcher’s game during batting practice. Heck, he’s been pinch-hit for twice in THOSE games.”

But Robinson somehow crushed Smith’s first pitch, a fastball, against the screen behind the left-field bleachers for his first major-league home run, giving the Pirates a one-run lead. “It was pretty much of a fluke,” Robinson acknowledged afterwards. “He could go to the plate another 500 times against Lee Smith and not do it again,” Andy Van Slyke observed. “I was a genius, wasn’t I?” postulated a grinning Leyland.**

Leyland then turned to his bullpen, calling on Gott to record the final three outs in the bottom of the ninth. With the sweep of the three-game series, the Pirates had twelve wins in fifteen games since general manager Syd Thrift’s August 24 closed-door team meeting.

Box score and play-by-play

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette game story

* Two days earlier, Robinson had entered the Pirates-Cubs game in the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead and struck out the side on nine pitches.

** This game received prominent coverage in the 1987 Pirates’ season highlight film; Greg Brown’s dramatic narration referred to Robinson’s blast as a “home run from an unlikely source.”

Born on September 9,1886 in Kearny, NJ, John Barney “Dots” Miller had played just two months of pro ball before the Pirates signed him in June of 1908. Prior to signing with Easton of the Atlantic League, he had only played semi-pro ball near his hometown. He was a star shortstop for Kearny’s Parkway Athletic Club in the Fall of 1907, when the manager of the Easton club(Larry Rutlon) signed him. Miller didn’t last long in Easton as the Atlantic League folded and the Pirates quickly signed the young shortstop. For the rest of the minor league season, he was assigned to the McKeesport Tubers of the Ohio-Penn League. Miller collected 52 hits over the last 43 games of the season, finishing with a .306 average.

The Pirates were impressed with their new player and after the minor league season ended, they had him working out with the major league team, although he didn’t get into any games. Their initial plans with Miller didn’t include him starting at second base for the 1909 team. In fact, when he reported to Spring Training early, he was playing shortstop in place of the late-arriving Honus Wagner. Jack(as he was often referred to in the papers) was performing so well during Spring, that when Wagner arrived, they moved Miller over to second base in the place of Ed Abbaticchio. The move was significant in that a rookie was replacing a veteran player the Pirates had paid a huge price to acquire just two years earlier.

It was said that Miller being of German descent, hit it off right away with the Flying Dutchman. Wagner was known to visit Miller quite often in Kearny during the off-season for stays at his Dukes St residence. As a side note, the house Miller grew up in was still in the family up until just three years ago. Wagner took the young player under his wing during that rookie season, helping his transition into major league life. The nickname of “Dots” came from Honus Wagner and his thick German accent. The story goes that a reporter asked him who the new shortstop was in camp and Wagner replied “Dot’s Miller”, though he was actually saying “That’s Miller” and the nickname stuck.

During the 1909 season, Jack played 151 games, all but one of those at second base. He batted either fifth or sixth in the lineup during the season. When he was in the fifth spot, it was right behind two Hall of Famers, Wagner and Fred Clarke. That rookie season he hit .279, third on the team behind Wagner and Clarke, and Miller drove in 87 runs, trailing only the 100 RBI’s tallied by Wagner. He finished ninth in the league in hits(156), fifth in total bases(222), fourth in triples(13) and third in both RBI’s and doubles with 31 two-baggers.  In the field, he was just as strong despite the move to a new spot. He led all NL second baseman with 426 assists and his .953 fielding percentage ranked second in the league.

In the World Series, Miller batted fifth every game, finishing with a .250 average and four RBI’s. In the deciding game seven, he had two hits and two RBI’s, helping the Pirates to an 8-0 win. 

His second season with Pittsburgh looks like a sophomore slump, though he was slowed all year by an early season leg injury. At one point he was sent home(begrudgingly) to rest. He quickly rejoined the team, but never got going and finished the year with a .227 average in 120 games, with 48 RBI’s.

Miller was back to his rookie season form in 1911, batting .268 with 51 walks, 17 stolen bases, 78 RBI’s and a career high 82 runs scored, in 137 games. In 1912, his job with the Pirates took on a new role, playing first base.

Pittsburgh had trouble filling first base ever since Kitty Bransfield was traded away after the 1904 season. They went through a large group of first baseman over the next seven years, but when a young infielder named Alex McCarthy showed enough promise to play everyday, manager Fred Clarke decided to move Miller. While he was a strong defensive fielder in all aspects, he was recognized as being above average at catching the ball. With Wagner at shortstop taking most of throws at second base, Miller never ranked near the top in putouts. The move seemed like a natural one at the time, and Miller took quickly to first base.

In 1912, Dots played 148 games, hitting .275 with 87 RBI’s and 72 runs scored. He finished fourth in the league in doubles, tenth in triples and seventh in RBI’s. The 1913 season was even better, as he finished with a career high of 90 RBI’s, also setting personal bests with 20 triples and seven homers, while playing 154 games. Miller finished eighth in the NL MVP voting. What happened next turned out to be a surprise and the initial reaction surrounding it, turned out to be wrong.

On December 12,1913, the Pirates traded Miller, along with star right fielder Chief Wilson and three other players, to the St Louis Cardinals for three players. The Cardinals gave up their star first baseman Ed Konetchy in the deal, but wouldn’t make the deal without Miller coming to St Louis to take his place. The Pirates wanted Konetchy bad, but they also wanted to keep Miller and move him to another spot in the infield. It was said at the time that they Pirates got the best of the deal, but that turned out to be far from true.

In his first year with the Cardinals, Dots hit a career high .290, with 88 RBI’s, finishing fifth in the NL MVP voting. It was said by many at the time, especially those around St Louis, that he was the best first baseman in the league. Konetchy on the other hand, played just one season with the Pirates, and his numbers on offense didn’t approach those put up by Miller.

It was with St Louis that Jack received one of his highest praises. The Cardinals had no trouble moving him around the infield wherever he was needed, playing his often at his three positions he had experience at, as well as seeing time at third base. A well-known sports writer at the time named Ring Lardner, named Miller to his All-Star team, calling him the best utility player in baseball.

In 1915, Dots hit .264 with 72 RBI’s, 73 runs scored and a career high of 27 stolen bases. He played two more years with St Louis in the super utility role before enlisting in the Marines in September of 1917. His offensive numbers had dropped off a little during his last two seasons before his military duty, but he still played everyday and in 1916, he led all NL first baseman in fielding percentage. It was said at the time, there was a chance he could’ve been the manager of the 1918 Cardinals, replacing Hall of Fame manager Miller Huggins.

After missing the entire 1918 season, Miller returned to the Cardinals for one more season. He was sold to the Phillies in January of 1920 and spent his final two seasons in the majors as a backup infielder, seeing time at all four spots. He played 1589 major league games, hitting .263 with 715 RBI’s, 711 runs scored and 1526 hits. With the Pirates, he hit .266 with 390 RBI’s and 347 runs scored in 710 games. Jack played 737 big league games at first base, 681 at second base, 111 at shortstop and 68 at third base. He had 127 sacrifice hits with the Pirates, eighth most in franchise history.

After his major league career ended in 1921, Miller moved on to manage the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. He was there two years, winning the PCL pennant in 1922, his first season with the team. He also played the last 12 games of his pro career that season. In 1923, he was again leading the Seals towards another pennant, when he became ill in August. He had contracted Tuberculosis and was sent home to rest. Dots was sent to a retreat in Saranac Lake,NY by doctors who thought the area would help him recover, but he never did, passing away just shy of his 37th birthday. His nephew Jack Tighe, was the manager of the 1957-58 Detroit Tigers

Mike Dyer (1966) Pitcher for the 1994-95 Pirates. He was originally a fourth round pick in 1986 by the Twins. Dyer made it to the majors by 1989, getting 12 starts and four relief appearances for Minnesota. He went 4-7 4.82 in 71 innings, throwing one complete game. It took another five years before he would pitch another major league game. In 1991, he was injured for the entire season and released a short time later by the Twins. He went to the Indians and Cubs organizations, before signing in January of 1994 with the Pirates. Mike started that 1994 season at AAA Buffalo, going 3-3 2.34 in 29 games, compiling 12 saves. Pittsburgh called him up in late June, getting him into 14 games before the 1994 strike ended his season early. He had a 5.87 ERA in 15.1 innings, picking up four saves.

When baseball resumed in 1995, Dyer was a regular in the bullpen for Pittsburgh, making 55 appearances. He went 4-5 4.34 in 74.2 innings, though he didn’t pick up any saves. Near the end of 1996 Spring Training, he was put on waivers for the Pirates, where he was picked up by the Montreal Expos. His big league career came to a strange ending. He pitched 70 games for Montreal in 1996, then was released, getting picked up by the Colorado Rockies. Mike was the last cut from the Rockies Spring Training roster, just days before Opening Day. He was signed by the Braves a short time after and sent to AAA, where he pitched until June, before an injury ended his season. After 1997, Dyer pitched just nine more games, coming as a member of the 2000 Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds, an Independent League team.

Jim Smith (1954) Infielder for the 1982 Pirates. After being drafted by the Orioles in 1976, Smith played just one season in the majors, coming six years later with the Pirates. He was a light-hitting shortstop(career .245 hitter in minors), who spent four full seasons at AAA, before making the Pirates 1982 Opening Day roster. He spent all of 1981 at AAA for the Pirates and made the Pirates roster the next season, only after they traded away backup infielder Vance Law just two weeks before the season opener. Jim saw very very playing time for the Pirates, getting into 42 games all year, 11 as a starter at shortstop. He also got into a few games between third base and second, though none were starts. Jim was the backup for both Dale Berra and Johnny Ray, but Ray ended up starting all 162 games. Smith hit .238 in 52 plate appearances with four RBI’s and made seven fielding errors in his limited time on the field. He was used 14 times as a pinch runner, once as a pinch hitter. The Pirates sent him to the White Sox after the season and he spent all of 1983 in the minors(behind Vance Law on the depth chart), his last year in pro ball.

Jim Bagby Jr (1916) Pitcher for the 1947 Pirates. He spent the first nine years of his career in the American League with the Red Sox and Indians. Bagby won 15 games as a rookie for Boston, then struggled there for two seasons, prior to being dealt to the Indians. He had his best seasons in Cleveland when baseball was watered down due to many major leaguers serving in WWII. Jim won 17 games during both the 1942 and 1943 seasons, leading the league in games started each year. He pitched a total of 543.2 innings, leading the league in IP’s in 1943 and making the AL All-Star squad each year. He then spent part of the 1944 season in the Merchant Marines and wasn’t the same pitcher when he came back. Jim went just 19-22 over the 1944-46 seasons, the time when the talent in baseball was at it’s lowest. He spent that last season back with Boston, who sold him to the Pirates the following February. Bagby was used most in relief during his only season in Pittsburgh, pitching 31 times out of the pen, with six starts. He went 5-4 4.67 in 115.2 innings pitched. It turned out to be his last season in the majors, though he was still with the Pirates organization in the minors the next year. He ended up pitching two more years before retiring, finishing with a 97-96 career major league record. His father Jim Bagby Sr pitched for the 1923 Pirates. The younger Bagby’s claim to fame, is that he was the pitcher on the mound for the last out of the game that ended Joe DiMaggio’s famous 56 game hitting.

Val Picinich (1896) Catcher for the 1933 Pirates. He played 18 seasons in the majors as a catcher, yet never played more than 96 games in a season. In 1037 games, he hit .258, finishing with strange stat line of 26 homers and 26 triples, and 298 RBI’s and 298 runs scored. Val’s best year came during that 96 game season in 1928 with the Reds, when he hit .302 with a career high 35 RBI’s. His career fielding stats were below average, especially his 37% caught stealing rate, which was 7% below league average during his career. Picinich began his last season in the majors(1933) with the Brooklyn Dodgers, playing six games before he was released in mid-May. A month later, he signed on with the Pirates, and finished the year as one of the backups to Earl Grace. Val played 16 games for Pittsburgh, mostly being used during the second game of doubleheaders. He hit .250 with seven RBI’s in his 60 plate appearances. The next season, he caught in the minors, then was a player/manager in 1935, before finishing his career with three more years of minor league managing. For five seasons in Washington, he was the catcher for Walter Johnson, catching 86 of his starts.

Rosie Rosebraugh (1875) Lefty pitcher for the 1898-99 Pirates. He played two years in the minors for the Dayton Old Soldiers of the Interstate League, before joining the 1898 Pirates in September. During that 1898 season, he went 23-11 for Dayton, then made his Pirates debut on September 21,1898, with one inning of relief work. He started his first game for the Pirates six days later and took a tough 5-4 loss. His second(and last) start of the season came 11 days later and the Pirates gave him no support on offense or defense in an 8-1 loss. He finished that first year 0-2 3.32 in four games, two of them complete games. In 1899, he made two starts, but lasted just six innings total. The Pirates lost both games, one was credited to Rosebraugh.

He pitched the rest of the season back in the Interstate League for the Mansfield Haymakers, the same league and team he finished his baseball career with the next year. It is possible that he played in 1901 with New Orleans of the Southern Association. An unknown player for that team was listed as “E. Rosebrough”. Rosie’s last name was constantly misspelled during his career and his real first name was Eli. He also went by the nickname “Zeke”. He was highly regarded before coming to the Pirates, a pitcher with good speed, but little control. He once struck out eight batters and walked eight in the same game. He threw a no-hitter as well. His life came to a tragic ending at age 54, the victim of a self-inflicted gun shot.

Russ McKelvy (1854) Right fielder for the Pittsburgh Alleghenys on August 24,1882. He began his pro career in 1877, playing in Pittsburgh for the first minor league team in baseball history. He was an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Allegheny(no S) of the International Association. Russ played every game, hitting .200 in 19 games with eight runs scored. The pitcher for that team was Pirates’ great, Jim “Pud” Galvin, who made all but one start for Pittsburgh, with McKelvy getting the other starting assignment. The next year, Russ moved on to the majors, playing for the Indianapolis Blues. He was one of five players on that team to lead the NL with 63 games played. He hit .225 with a team high 36 RBI’s, hitting two of the team’s three homers on the season. McKelvy started 62 games in center field and one as a pitcher.

His playing career records are spotty after 1878, except for his one game in right field for the 1882 Alleghenys. He went 0-for-4 without a play in the field, as Pittsburgh moved to 27-31 on the season with a 7-2 win over the St Louis Brown Stockings. There is a player known only as “McKelvy”, that played for the 1883 Pittsburgh Enterprise of the Western Interstate League. That is likely Russ, as no other player with the last name McKelvy has ever played minor/major league ball. After his playing days, he moved to Omaha, where he became a wealthy businessman later in life. Russ was referred to as “the famous ballplayer” in a Sporting Life article from 1894.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 8, 1958

Roberto Clemente tied a post-1900 major-league record with three triples*, leading the Pirates to a 4-1 victory over the Reds at Forbes Field.

Clemente started his triples spree in the fourth inning with a leadoff three-bagger to deep left field against Cincinnati starter Tom Acker. Acker, however, struck out Dick Stuart and Bob Skinner and retired Frank Thomas on a fly ball to strand Clemente.

An inning later, the twenty-four-year-old Bucs’ right fielder capped a three-run rally—started with a two-out double by Bucco eighth-place hitter Bill Hall—by tripling home Bill Virdon. Reds’ second baseman Johnny Temple’s relay throw gunned down Clemente’s bid to stretch the triple into an inside-the-park home run.

Clemente’s final triple came with two outs in the eighth against reliever Willard Schmidt.** This time, Stuart came through with an RBI single to extend the Pirates’ lead to 4-1.

Rookie Curt Raydon improved his record to 8-4 by pitching into the seventh, allowing four hits and one unearned run. Raydon also kept the fourth-inning rally alive with his first major-league hit in thirty-six at-bats, a single past first baseman George Crowe. After two Stuart errors allowed Cincinnati to load the bases with none out in the seventh, Don Gross relieved Raydon, traded a run for two outs on Walt Dropo’s double-play grounder, and then retired the Reds in order the rest of the way to secure the victory.

At the end of the action, the Pirates stood two wins away from clinching their first winning season in a decade. The Bucs, who had finished either seventh or eighth in the eight-team National League in each of the previous eight seasons, occupied second place in the National League for the thirty-first consecutive day.

Box score and play-by-play

* Two nineteenth-century players recorded four triples in a game: George Strief of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association against the Brooklyn Grays in June 1885 and Bill Joyce of the New York Giants against the Pirates at Exposition Park in May 1897.

** “First two [triples] I hit, [were] fast balls,” Clemente told the Associated Press afterwards. “Then I hit curve.”

Gorkys Hernandez (1987) Outfielder for the 2012 Pirates. He was originally signed as an amateur free agent in 2005 by the Tigers. Shortly after the 2007 season ended, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves, along with Jair Jurrjens in exchange for Edgar Renteria. Gorkys was a top-100 rated prospect prior to both the 2008 and 2009 seasons. In June of 2009, he was dealt to the Pirates, along with Jeff Locke and Charlie Morton, in the Nate McLouth deal. Hernandez was hitting .316 in 52 games at AA, at the time of the trade. His production fell off after the deal at Altoona, and he repeated the level the next season. Gorkys moved up to AAA in 2011, putting together a solid season when factoring in his above average defense. He did not get the call to the majors until 2012 though, making his debut on May 21st. In 25 games for the Pirates, he made two starts, getting a total of 26 plate appearances. He hit .083 with two runs, two RBI’s and two stolen bases. On July 31st, he was sent to the Marlins in the Gaby Sanchez deal. Since joining Florida, Hernandez has a .194 average in 26 games, with 13 runs scored.

Fred Blackwell (1891) Catcher for the 1917-19 Pirates. He played four seasons in the minors before getting his first big league shot as a September call-up for the 1917 Pirates. He didn’t earn that spot with his bat, hitting just .162 with four extra base hits(all doubles) in 76 games for Newark of the International League. Blackwell caught three of the last seven games of the season for the Pirates. In 1918, the regular season was shortened due to the ongoing war. Starting catcher Walter Schmidt ended up catching 105 of the team’s 126 games that year. Blackwell played just eight games as the third string receiver behind Schmidt and veteran Jimmy Archer. Fred would see his most time in 1919, when he was the backup catcher along with Cliff Lee. Early in the year, Blackwell wasn’t with the team, replaced by veteran Jeff Sweeney, who was gone after hitting .095 in 17 games. An early season injury to Schmidt, caused the Pirates to bring Blackwell back to the team and when Schmidt returned, Sweeney was the player who was released. Fred hit .215 in 24 games, getting twenty starts behind the plate. His major league career was over at that point, and he played just one more season in the minors.

John Flynn (1883) First baseman for the 1910-11 Pirates. After winning the 1909 World Series, the Pirates got rid of their starting first baseman Bill Abstein, who played 137 regular season games and all seven WS games. Abstein made too many mental errors for the Pirates liking, so after the 1909 season ended, Pittsburgh purchased the contracts of Flynn for $4,000 from St Paul of the American Association, and Bud Sharpe was taken in the Rule V draft. Both men battled it out for the starting first base job, with Flynn eventually winning it after the season started. Prior to joining the Pirates, John played four seasons of minor league ball, with 1909 being his best year. He was strong with the bat, and serviceable in the field. For the 1910 Pirates, Flynn hit .274 in 96 games, with six homers, 52 RBI’s and 32 runs scored. His 22 errors ranked as the third highest total among NL first baseman. In 1911, Pittsburgh picked up minor league veteran Newt Hunter to play first base and Flynn lost his starting spot. He hit .203 in 33 games with no homers, before being sold back to his St Paul minor league team in August. John would play one more season in the majors, 1912 for the Senators, getting cut after he batted just .169 in twenty games. He played another nine seasons in the minors after his last major league game, retiring after the 1921 season with nearly 1500 games played. Flynn also managed near the end of his playing career and afterwards as well.

Charlie Case (1879) Pitcher for the 1904-06 Pirates. He made his major league debut with the 1901 Reds, making three starts after joining the team in July. He threw three complete games, but allowed 34 hits and 21 runs in his 27 innings. Case went to the minors until 1904, when the Pirates purchased his contract in July. He made 17 starts and a relief appearance for Pittsburgh that year, going 10-5 2.94 in 141 innings, with three shutouts. In 1905, he made 24 starts and seven relief appearances, throwing a total of 217 innings, while again throwing three shutouts. His record that year was only 11-11, yet the team won 96 games and he had the second best ERA among regulars. Teammate Sam Leever went 20-5 with an ERA .13 higher, while another pitcher named Mike Lynch had a 3.79 ERA, yet managed to finish with a 17-8 record. The Pirates had a deeper pitching staff in 1906 with the additions of Vic Willis and Lefty Leifield, so after two poor starts, Case was sent to the minors, where he finished his career. He still had plenty of strong pitching left in his arm, but never got another chance in the majors. From 1906 until 1914, he went 122-119, winning in double digits(with a high of 19 victories) in all but his last season.

Ed Poole (1874) Pitcher/outfielder for the 1900-02 Pirates. His major league debut on October 5,1900 for the Pirates was not a good first impression. Manager Fred Clarke started the game in left field and got hurt running out a hit. Poole came in for him and by the fourth inning, he was on the bench. That inning, he made a throwing error, followed by dropping an easy fly ball. Ed was known more for his pitching at that point, winner of twenty games for Wheeling of the Interstate League that season before joining the Pirates. He also hit .257 in 78 total games, 37 as a pitcher. His second game for the Pirates was a complete 180 over the first. A week after his debut, he came in to pitch after Deacon Phillippe got hit hard early. Poole allowed just one run over seven innings, while also hitting a home run and a triple, driving in three runs, for a 10-6 victory.

He was put on the reserve list for 1901 and he remained with the Pirates all season. He started ten games and pitched twice in relief, going 5-4 3.60 in 80 innings. He played a total of 26 games, seeing action at all three outfield positions, as well as one game at 2B and 3B. Ed hit .205 in 78 AB’s, with a home run and four RBI’s. He played just one game for the 1902 Pirates before he was sold to the Reds. On May 14,1902, he pitched eight innings in relief during a 10-5 loss, giving up four runs, though just one was earned. Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Chesbro made the start, allowing six runs in the first before he was pulled. Poole would go on to make 16 starts for the Reds that year, going 12-4 2.15 with 16 complete games. He pitched for the Reds again in 1903, and then Brooklyn in 1904, posting a losing record each year. Ed returned to the minors in 1905, playing another four years before he retired.

Jolly Roger Rewind: September 7, 1974

Dave Parker’s two-out, twelfth-inning single scored Richie Hebner with the winning run, giving the first-place Pirates their fifth win a row, 6-5 over the Expos at Three Rivers Stadium.

With one out in the bottom of the twelfth and the score tied 5-5, Hebner singled off Dale Murray, pitching in his fifth inning of relief. Murray retired Al Oliver, but rookie Miguel Dilone, in his first major-league plate appearance, drew a walk to advance Hebner to second. Parker followed with the game-winning single to center.

Victory had appeared a remote possibility with the Pirates trailing 4-0 in the bottom of the seventh, especially after Expos’ starter Mike Torrez, who had limited the Bucs to two hits, opened the inning by retiring Willie Stargell and Parker. But Manny Sanguillen’s single started a string of seven consecutive Bucco batters reaching base against three Montreal pitchers. Pinch-hitter Paul Popovich, Rennie Stennett, Hebner and Oliver concluded the rally with four consecutive RBI singles; Oliver’s hit drove in Stennett to give the Pirates a 5-4 advantage.

The Bucs’ bullpen, however, was not up to the challenge of holding the lead: Larry Biittner’s two-out single off Dave Giusti drove in Larry Lintz with the tying run in the bottom of the ninth. The game then became a battle of the bullpens, until Hebner, Dilone and Parker could thrill the Saturday-night crowd in the bottom of the twelfth.

Winners of thirty-seven of their past fifty-one games, the Pirates maintained a game and a half lead over second-place St. Louis.

Box score and play-by-play