Results tagged ‘ 1960 ’
This Day in Pirates History, April 13th
On this day in 1960, the Pirates:
Beat the Phillies, 13-0 at Forbes Field.
Phillies starter Cal McLish lasted only 2 2/3 innings and gave up a 1st-inning homer to Bill Mazeroski as the Pirates trounced the Phils, 13-0. Maz and Clemente, who notched a two-RBI double in the bottom of the 3rd, gave starter Vern Law all the offense he would need on this day by staking him to a 5-0 lead at the end of three. Law pitched a complete game shutout, struck out two and walked none as the Pirates evened their record at 1-1 on the young season.
Vern Law, not afraid to pitch while wearing a batting helmet.
On this day in 1971, the Pirates:
Beat the Phillies, 9-3 in Philadelphia.
The Pirates were trailing 3-0 in the 5th when Manny Sanguillen hit a three-run homer to tie it. Sanguillen would have never had the chance to hit with men aboard if Phillies’ second baseman Tony Taylor would have fielded Richie Hebner’s ground ball cleanly. Instead, Taylor muffed the play, Clemente followed with a single and Sanguillen followed with the homer, all three runs unearned. The game remained knotted until the 8th when Pirates shortstop Jackie Hernandez and Nellie Briles, the winning pitcher on this day, smacked back-to-back home runs.
Manny Sanguillen, continually focused on being my Dad’s baseball hero.
On this day in 1979, the Pirates:
Beat the Cardinals at Three Rivers Stadium, 7-6.
Again, I am perplexed by the attendance figure. Only 4,395 people showed up to the game. I mean, even today’s Pirates draw more people than that. I’m done trying to figure out the attendance…if anyone who reads this can tell me why the Pirates were only drawing about 5,000 people/game in the early stages of the 1979 season, please advise. I’d really like to know.
As far as the game, it was a back-and-forth nail-biter all day. Jim Bibby picked up the win, Grant Jackson the save, and first baseman John Milner was the offensive hero as his two-run shot in the 7th inning broke a 5-5 tie.
Jim Bibby, Pirates pitcher. Judging from the stands, this photo was taken during the actual game.
This Day In Pirates History, April 12th
48 years ago today, the Pittsburgh Pirates opened up the 1960 season and most pundits at the time didn’t give the Buccos much of a shot to do anything substantial. After posting an 84-70 record and finishing second in the NL to the Braves in 1958, the Pirates stumbled in 1959 and finished 4th in the NL at 78-76. The 1958 season ended nine straight losing years in Pittsburgh, but the off year in ’59 put the Pirates firmly under the national radar entering 1960. Danny Murtaugh’s team was an afterthought as most writers and fans once again focused on Milwaukee and their powerful duo of Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews. The Braves also boasted a rock-solid pitching staff, anchored by Hall of Famer Warren Spahn and Lew Berdette, a powerful righty who would win 19 games in 1960 and 203 in his career.
On this date in 1960, the Pirates:
Lost 4-3 to the Braves in Milwaukee.
Nearly 40,000 fans showed up to County Stadium on Opening Day and watched Warren Spahn and Bob Friend duel for seven innings. Spahn went deep in the game, something he did 35 times during his illustrious career. Joe Adcock also homered for Milwaukee. The Pirates got RBIs from Roberto Clemente, Bob Skinner and Hal Smith, but it wasn’t enough as Berdette came on in the 9th to record the save. Roy Face took it on the chin (bad pun, I know) and suffered the loss for the Bucs.
Mazeroski, Vern Law, Clemente, and Face – The anchors of the 1960 Championship team.
On this date in 1971, the Pirates:
Beat the Phillies 4-3 in Philadelphia.
Bob Johnson started for the Pirates and pitched nine strong innings, surrendering only Don Money’s three-run homer in the 3rd. The Bucs had jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning and tied the game in the 6th. The score would remain knotted at 3 before the black and gold finally broke through in the top of the 11th when Pops Stargell singled home Dave Cash with the eventual winning run. The win gave the Pirates a 4-2 record. Richie Hebner had a nice day at the plate going 3/5 with a walk.
Pirates third-baseman Richie Hebner, stylin’ and profilin’.
On this date in 1979, the Pirates:
Beat the Cardinals 3-1 at Three Rivers Stadium.
This one is a tad perplexing to me, only because of the attendance figure on the box score. It states that only 3,986 people attended the game. I’ve done some other research, to see if maybe weather was a factor, but I haven’t found anything conclusive. Truthfully, if I were able to attend on my own (I was less than a year old at the time), I would have gone to see this game. Both lineups featured a number of big names. On the St. Louis side of the diamond, you had Lou Brock and Keith “Taco” Hernandez. For the Pirates that day, Dave Parker was in right, Phil Garner at third, and Don “Caveman” Robinson on the hill. But I digress…let’s get to the game.
The aforementioned Taco took Caveman deep in the 4th inning to stake the Cards to a 1-0 lead. The Pirates scored two in the 6th, highlighted by Parker tripling home Omar Moreno. The Bucs would add an insurance run in the 8th on Rennie Stennett’s RBI single. Caveman went the distance and the Buccos upped their record to 2-4 on the young season.
The Cobra: 1/3 man, 1/3 snake, 1/3 serial killer. Dave Parker taking batting practice…in a hockey mask? I’m sure no one bothered him that day.
This Day in Pirates History
Much has been made of new general manager Neal Huntington and president Frank Coonley’s desire to “change the culture” of the current Pirates. The two men, hired by principal owner Bob Nutting this past off-season, have spoken about reminding today’s roster of the storied history of one of MLB’s oldest franchises. They have done subtle things like bringing players from the ’60, ’71, and ’79 World Series teams back into the fold of the franchise. They’ve hired Chuck Tanner, the manager of that ’79 team, as a senior adviser. They’ve also added a famous quote by Roberto Clemente to the hallway that leads from the Pirates’ clubhouse to the field, a reminder of what this franchise used to mean not only to the city of Pittsburgh, but to the sport of baseball as a whole.
Remembering Roberto and reminding today’s Pirates that this team hasn’t always sucked.
I’ve decided to add a section to the blog entitled “This Day in Pirates History” in hopes of doing my small part to “change the culture” of losing that has surrounded this team for the past 15 consecutive seasons. I hope to remind readers that the black and gold were once champions and have fielded some of the best teams in the history of Major League Baseball. Courtesy of the fantastic website, www.baseball-reference.com, I’ve been able to look up box scores from the 1979, 1971, and 1960 championship years. Box scores weren’t available for the 1925 and 1909 seasons, so I’ll limit this section to remembering ’60, ’71, and ’79.
So let’s get it started…
On this date in 1960, the Pirates:
Did nothing. Their opening day was April 12th, 1960. So we’ll get to them tomorrow.
On this date in 1971, the Pirates:
Lost to the Braves in Atlanta, 3-1.
Dock Ellis pitched a complete game and took the loss for the Bucs. The Pirates held a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th, but Ellis surrendered the tying run in that inning and two more runs in the 8th. Atlanta pitcher Jim Nash picked up the complete game win. Dave Cash drove in the only run for the Pirates that day as he hit leadoff for a lineup that boasted a 3-4-5 of Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, and Al Oliver. The loss dropped the Bucs to 3-2 on the young season, 2 1/2 games behind the first place Braves.
The greatest rightfielder of all time, Roberto Clemente, hit .341 in 1971 and won his 11th Rawlings Gold Glove Award.
On this date in 1979, the Pirates:
Lost to the Phillies in Philadelphia, 5-4.
Back in the 70′s, when men were men and pitchers went longer than 6 innings per start, the Pirates and Phillies had a natural rivalry. Before the National League Central existed and the divisions were just East and West, Bucs/Phils games were similar to today’s Pens/Flyers contests; gritty and hard-fought. The intrastate rivalry was something that only a common division could foster and in 1979, things were chippy at best between the two teams. On this day, Pittsburgh starter Bert Blyleven would hit Philadelphia starter Steve Carlton with a pitch and Carlton would return the favor by plunking both Dave Parker and Lee Lacy.
Both Blyleven and Carlton went the distance and Mike Schmidt hit a homerun in the 7th inning that turned out to be the eventual game-winning run. Phil Garner had a nice day for the Pirates, going 2/4 with a two-run homer in the 5th inning off Carlton, but it wasn’t enough as the Bucs fell to 1-4 on the young season.
Phil Garner and Dale Berra practice tai-chi and groundballs at the same time in 1979. They later debated the merits of a thick, bushy porn-stache.
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