Pirates clinch first playoff spot since 1992

The big news from Pittsburgh-

For the first time since 1992, the Pirates are going to the postseason. Their 2-1 win over the Cubs combined with the Nationals 4-3 loss to the Cardinals clinched a playoff spot for Pittsburgh. The Cardinals, Braves, Reds and Dodgers have all punched their postseason ticket as well, so the five-team NL field is set.

The Pirates snapped their 20-year streak of losing seasons earlier this month, so these last few weeks have been pretty special for the Pittsburgh nine. The last time the Pirates went to the playoffs, their best hitter was Barry Bonds and their best pitcher was Doug Drabek. Yeah, the times have changed.

Like that 1992 squad, the 2013 Pirates also have one of the very best players in the world in Andrew McCutchen. The center fielder is both a legitimate NL MVP candidate and the franchise's best all-around player since Bonds. Slugger Pedro Alvarez backs up McCutchen with serious power from the left side. Coming into Monday, the team averaged just 3.88 runs scored per game, which is more or less league average.

More here-

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/23809702/pirates-clinch-first-playoff-spot-since-1992

Pirates sweep Cardinals in doubleheader, lead NL Central

In a slight change of pace I have to brag on the Bucs- (best team in Baseball)

Andrew McCutchen clubbed his 15th homer of the season and the Pittsburgh Pirates completed a doubleheader sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with 6-0 victory on Tuesday night.

Brandon Cumpton (1-1) allowed three hits over seven innings to pick up his first major league win. The sweep propelled the Pirates into first place in the NL Central. Pittsburgh is a season-high 22 games over .500 (64-42).

Tyler Lyons (2-4) gave up four runs, three earned, in six innings. The rookie struck out five and walked one but received no help from a reeling offense. The Cardinals have dropped six straight and have scored five runs in their last 56 innings.

GAME 1 BOX SCORE: Pirates 2, Cardinals 1 (11)

GAME 2: Pirates 6, Cardinals 0

More here

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2013/07/30/pirates-outlast-cardinals-2-1-in-11-innings/2601549/

The Slide: The moment that begat a legacy of losing for the Pirates

Thank you for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it why don't you give me a paper cut and put lemon juice in it?

The Pirates of 1992 are not the type to believe in the supernatural. They are tried and true baseball men, believing only that, when round ball hits round bat, anything can happen.

Still, they look for answers - ways to explain the events of an Autumn night in Atlanta that now feels predestined.

"All the stars lined up against us," said Andy Van Slyke, then the Pirates center fielder.

To wonder if the cosmos were working extra hard on Oct. 14, 1992, is understandable. Thursday's opening day at PNC Park will begin the 20th season since the Pirates lost to the Braves 3-2 in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series, and Pittsburgh is still waiting for a winning baseball team to return. Nineteen straight years of losing is inexplicable, but to say it's a curse? No, the Pirates of 1992 won't go down that road.

But they'll live each day with the pain, a loyal companion all these years. Numerous times, Van Slyke, who collapsed in center field of Atlanta Fulton County Stadium when the game ended, has replayed the bottom of the ninth and argued strikes that were called balls. Mike LaValliere, then the Pirates catcher who had the best view of those disputed pitches, has never watched again. Can't. Won't.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/pirates/the-slide-the-moment-that-begat-a-legacy-of-losing-for-the-pirates-629357/

Obituary: Matty Alou / Former Pirate, part of all-Alou outfield for Giants

From the Post Gazette- (The center field wall at Forbes Field was so deep (456ft.) that they used to push the batting cage out there. I can remember watching Alou climb it to catch along fly ball)

Matty Alou, once part of the all-Alou outfield for the San Francisco Giants with older brother Felipe and younger brother Jesus and who won a National League batting championship in one of his five seasons with the Pirates, died Thursday in his native Dominican Republic. He was 72.

He died of complications from diabetes, according to his former Dominican team, Leones del Escogido. The Giants also confirmed his death and said Alou had been sick for several years.

"Matty was a special ball player and a special human being," said Manny Sanguillen, a catcher who joined Alou on the 1967 Pirates, one year after Alou won the National League batting title with a .342 average.

"When I came in to the big leagues, he made sure I could understand the big leagues and get ready to play. He took me to lunch a couple times. He loved the Pittsburgh Pirates."

Alou spent the first six of his 15 major league seasons with San Francisco from 1960-65, the next five seasons with the Pirates. He also played for St. Louis, Oakland, the New York Yankees and San Diego.

The Alou brothers made history in 1963 when they appeared in the same outfield for several games.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11308/1187373-63-0.stm#ixzz1crviYPtd

The Pirates made history, statement in 1971

From The Tribune Review-

When he reported to Salem, Va., in 1966 for his first season of professional baseball, Gene Clines lived with seven other black Pirates minor leaguers in a house owned by a black woman known simply as Mrs. Johnson. The white players stayed in a hotel.

Only five years later, Clines played center field for the Pirates in a game against Philadelphia at Three Rivers Stadium. Every Pirates' starter, including Clines, was black or Latino. Such an event had never been recorded in Major League Baseball.

This was 40 years ago today, Sept. 1, 1971. The Pirates were en route to winning the World Series, and the world was changing. Fast.

"You feel proud of being part of it," Clines said. "But it wasn't until a couple of years later you could sit back and think about what really, really happened."

Among Clines' young teammates sharing Mrs. Johnson's house was Dave Cash, who started at third base in that game.

"It was something for the ages," he said.

First baseman Bob Robertson hit 26 home runs during the Pirates' championship season and would have been the only white starter. But he was unexpectedly benched by manager Danny Murtaugh.

Robertson's initial disappointment would be superseded by the larger moment.

Read more:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_754476.html#ixzz1WjXO7HmO

Stargell honored on 2012 All-Star stamp set

From Pittsburgh- (and if he hadn't played in the "canyon" that was Forbes Field he would have had well over 500 HR. 456 ft to straight away center? Give me a break)

Pirates legend Willie "Pops" Stargell, who intimidated opposing pitchers by swinging a sledgehammer, will be immortalized on a "Forever" postage stamp in 2012.

"It's an extraordinary honor for an extraordinary human being," said Stargell's widow, Margaret, 52, of New Bern, N.C. "I know Willie would be very humbled."

Stargell died in 2001 at age 61. The stamp will be part of the Postal Service's Major League Baseball All-Star Stamp set.

The slugger, who played 21 seasons from 1962 to 1982, led the 1979 "We Are Family" Pirates to a World Series championship and hit 475 career home runs. He pounded 2,232 career hits and twice led the National League in home runs -- 48 in 1971 and 44 in 1973. Baseball's Hall of Fame inducted him in 1988.

He joins Joe DiMaggio, one of the game's most graceful athletes, and Larry Doby, the American League's first black player, in the All-Star set. The postal service will announce a fourth stamp on Sept. 2. Los Angeles artist Kadir Nelson based their designs on historic photos.

Read more:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_753386.html#ixzz1WAVB4g9O

The 1971 Series was played in a different world

Oriels are coming to town-

Charles Manson got the death penalty that spring, though it was later deemed unconstitutional.

The Pirates and the Baltimore Orioles played six World Series games in broad daylight that fall, though daylight in the World Series was later deemed unconstitutional, at least effectively.

Seven thousand people were arrested in one day in one city protesting the Vietnam War that summer, just as the Constitution's 26th amendment was ready to give 18-year-olds the vote.

Forty years may have cobwebbed all of it amid drifts of mental dust, but a lot went down in 1971.

"It did; oh, it did," Al Oliver was saying the other day. "I didn't think much about it at the time, but I do now. I feel fortunate to have been part of history."

The Pirates first baseman/centerfielder, who was delivering line drives the whole summer, was talking specifically about the first day of September 1971, when manager Danny Murtaugh wrote the first all-minority lineup in Major League Baseball history. But he could have been appreciating the entirety of a season when cultural turbulence was little else but America's day-to-day backlighting, and when America's baseball was little short of divine.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11170/1154823-63.stm#ixzz1PiYrqpvC

Stadium vendor's style captivated fans

From Pittsburgh (In our family he was known as the "Lemonade Guy")

Kenny Geidel's distinctive, high-pitched cries at Pittsburgh sporting events were virtually impossible to ignore.

No matter what the score of the game, no matter whether fans cared for the lemonade or cotton candy or other product the popular stadium vendor was peddling, they turned their head in his direction.

"Whenever I would hear him walking up and down the aisles, it made me feel happy," said Olivia Piccolo, 12, of Coraopolis, before the Pirates' game on Tuesday night at PNC Park. "When I heard that he died, I felt sad. Hearing him is something I'll miss when I come to the games."

Geidel, a fixture at games for more than 25 years, was working the Pirates-Astros game on Sunday, his calls resonating among the Mother's Day crowd, when he fell ill.

He was rushed to UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland, where he died Monday after surgery for an intestinal ailment. He was 64.

His wife of nearly 40 years, Janice, recalled his disdain for missing games.

"He burned his hands once so badly that he had to get skin grafts," she said. "The day they released him, he went down to the stadium and worked. He did it with gloves on."

Read more:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_736329.html#ixzz1M2uU8hXg

Walker's grand slam leads Pirates past Cubs, 6-3

OK let's celebrate while we can! For you soccer fans out there a grand slam is a home run with runners on all three bases.

There was that exceptional blast, the one with the bases loaded in the fifth inning Friday off the bat of Pirates second baseman Neil Walker that bounced clear out of Wrigley Field.

That shot will be the most vivid opening-day memory as the Pirates claimed a 6-3 victory against the Chicago Cubs.

And rightly so, the grand slam was just the second on opening day in Pirates history; the other hit by Roberto Clemente, the Hall of Fame right fielder, against Jim Owens and the Philadelphia Phillies April 10, 1962.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11092/1136509-63.stm#ixzz1IN1X6zj3

Chuck Tanner dead at 82

He was a great guy-

Former Pirates manager Chuck Tanner died today. He was 82.

Tanner, a New Castle native, led the Pirates to the 1979 World Series title and had a 711-685 record with the club from 1977-1985.

"Chuck was a class act who always carried himself with grace, humility and integrity. While no one had a sharper baseball mind, Chuck was loved by his players and the city of Pittsburgh because he was always positive, enthusiastic and optimistic about his Bucs and life in general," Pirates president Frank Coonelly said in a statement released by the team this afternoon.

Mr. Tanner also managed the Chicago White Sox, Oakland A's and Atlanta Braves in a managerial career that spanned from 1970-1988.

Mr. Tanner had been working in a senior advisory position to the Pirates in recent seasons.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11042/1124762-100.stm#ixzz1Dh9eBXBU

When savoring film of Bucs' game 7, credit Bing with save

From Today's Post-Gazette-

Plenty of baseball fans leave the room when they get too nervous about a ballgame. Bing Crosby (right), who was a part-owner of the Pirates in 1960, went a little farther.

He left for Europe.

"Bing liked to be casual,'' his widow, Kathryn Crosby, explained the other day when recalling how the couple spent Oct. 13 that year. "He didn't like to get his soul wrapped around the situation, and he knew the French were cool. If things didn't go our way, he could suffer in silence.''

So the Crosbys and friends listened on short wave in a Paris apartment. When Bill Mazeroski hit the home run to win the series for the Pirates, Der Bingle bungled. He tapped a Scotch bottle against the mantel and "started a conflagration.

"For a man who's supposed to be really cool,'' Mrs. Crosby said, "he lost it completely.''

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10276/1091974-155.stm?cmpid=bcpanel0#ixzz11K6OHzGQ

Former Point Breeze teen still wonders about lost Mazeroski ball

Talk about a sad story - From The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review-

Andy Jerpe did not see Bill Mazeroski's home run, at least the part where Maz connects with Ralph Terry's second pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tied Game 7 at Forbes Field. He did not see the squat form of Yogi Berra drifting back in left-centerfield, turning to play the ball off the wall, then watching forlornly as it sailed away to give the Pirates a stunning World Series victory over the mighty New York Yankees. He did not see Mazeroski rounding the bases, joyfully waving his helmet.

What Jerpe did see nearly 50 years ago was the ball materialize from the sky like a UFO and plunk down about 15 feet to his left from where he stood amid some cherry trees outside the ballpark, adjacent to Schenley Park.

"I picked up the ball and thought, 'Huh. Somebody hit a home run,' " Jerpe recalled over the phone from his home in Greenbelt, Md., last week. "Then I could tell something major happened by the reaction of the crowd. It was almost deafening. Everything was reverberating."

It was 3:36 p.m. Oct. 13, 1960, and Andy Jerpe had history's most famous World Series home run ball — and the whole wide world — in his 14-year-old hands.

More here-

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_700262.html

50 years later, Mazeroski's home run is bigger than ever

Happy Birthday Maz! The man who shies from being the center of attention will find it impossible to have many private moments today. On the occasion of his 74th birthday, Bill Mazeroski will see himself immortalized in bronze with the public dedication and unveiling of his statue.

The thought of all the fuss makes him squirm as he did when he spoke at his Cooperstown induction and had a stage-load of Hall of Famers weeping with him. "I don't feel right talking about myself," he said in a recent interview. "I like to stay in the background. I like to sit back and watch everybody else do their thing."

While humility is a quaint hallmark of the former second baseman the masses know as Maz, this reluctant luminary from the most common of backgrounds sabotaged his avoidance of the spotlight by being uncommonly good at playing a game. His No. 9 has been retired, a street outside PNC Park bears his name and he is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10248/1085218-63.stm#ixzz0yeUhFHMU

From rags to history: Finding Maz's jersey

An almost unbelievable story from yesterday's Post Gazette-

One afternoon some 30 years ago, Richard Probola was about to wash his car in his South Side driveway. But just before scrubbing away the grime with an outdated flannel baseball jersey, a dear friend drove up.

Recognizing the colors, lettering and number on the sleeveless garment, the visitor told him to stop.

"No, no, no, no, no! Are you crazy? That's part of Pittsburgh history. Give me that," Mitch Antin interrupted.

"What?" the late Mr. Probola shrugged. "It's just a rag I had lying around the house."

After the brief exchange, Dr. Antin -- now an orthopedic surgeon who lives in Squirrel Hill -- took possession. Folding it carefully into a plastic garment bag, he tucked it away for posterity in a safety deposit box kept in a bank.

"I just squirreled it away," he said.

For good reason. Not only was this a game-worn Pirates jersey belonging to a Hall of Fame player, it was the jersey on Bill Mazeroski's back from Game 7 of the 1960 World Series when he smote the home run that doomed the Yankees.

One person's rag is another person's priceless civic treasure, it seems. And now the garment is the central thread of a little-known back story being told to mark the 50th anniversary of arguably the single most electrifying moment in the city's sports history.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10164/1065339-63.stm#ixzz0qpZndibz

Karstens, Doumit stamp out Pirates' worst week

Further proof that God exists-

The Pirates' clubhouse was a tight, tense place Tuesday afternoon, gripped by one of the worst week-long stretches for any team in Major League Baseball history.

At one stall, sitting silently, was Jeff Karstens, freshly recalled from Class AAA Indianapolis with a 7.31 ERA mostly as a reliever. He would be, by all appearances, the latest sacrificial lamb served up to the Milwaukee Brewers.

Strolling across the room to break that silence was Ryan Doumit, fresh off one of the most forgettable nights of his career. He tapped Karstens on the knee with his catcher's mitt and said, "Let's do this."


And so, hours later, they did ...

Pirates 7, Brewers 3.

No, that is not backward.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10118/1053886-63.stm#ixzz0mOJtY6K1

Pirates' record 20-0 loss 'an embarrassment' Margin of defeat to Milwaukee is 124-year-old franchise's worst

From The Post Gazette- (and I was there)

The Pittsburgh Baseball Club has played in these parts for 124 years, from coal miners to millionaires, from Honus Wagner to Roberto Clemente to Willie Stargell, from five World Series championships to 17 consecutive losing seasons.

And never, never was there a loss among the franchise's first 18,813 games to rival the one displayed on PNC Park's video scoreboard at 4:04 p.m. Thursday:

Milwaukee Brewers 20, Pirates 0.

Worst loss ever.

Their previous largest margin of defeat was by 18 runs, set twice: The first came nearly a century ago, 18-0 to the Philadelphia Phillies on July 11, 1910; the other was by 19-1 to the Cincinnati Reds on July 14, 1955.

"Today was an embarrassment," reliever Brendan Donnelly said, snapping off each word in an otherwise silent clubhouse. "We should all be embarrassed to have Major League Baseball uniforms on our back today. It was an atrocity. We set a record. We should all be embarrassed about it."


Of note: Oswalt, Houston's longtime ace, has pitched well enough to win all three starts -- 17 strikeouts, four walks in 19 innings -- but has received only seven runs of support. In 25 starts vs. the Pirates, he is 13-7 with a 2.62 ERA.

"I got nothing," right fielder Ryan Church said, declining an interview request while staring into his stall. "I'm embarrassed."

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10113/1052676-63.stm#ixzz0lvGHpZHb

Pirates' 1960 champs 'a team of destiny'

The Post Gazette did a big spread on the 1960 Pirates yesterday. First link is the article and the second is "where are they now?"

Fifty years ago on Easter, the Pirates had a baseball awakening.

Trailing the Cincinnati Reds by five runs in the second game of a doubleheader and down to their last two outs, the Pirates rallied for a 6-5 win. The biggest blows were a three-run home run by Hal Smith and a two-run blast by Bob Skinner, who said his game-winning trip around the bases was like "walking on air."

A victory in the first week of a protracted season might not qualify as pivotal, but it did establish a palpitating pattern of comebacks. On 22 ensuing occasions, the 1960 Pirates won in their final at-bat, which helps explain why that season continues to enchant and enthrall.

"That game was when we really believed we could win," said team captain Dick Groat. "Then, we did it so many times it became contagious. It got to the point where we thought we weren't supposed to lose. We were like a team of destiny."

Nothing is older than yesterday's news, especially in this age of Twitter and the blogosphere. But even if baseball lends itself to nostalgia, 1960 stands out as a season worth remembering. It has been called the last pure season because it was the last one before expansion. And in these parts, nothing could be as pure as the Oct. 13 home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series that beat the Yankees.

Read more:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10094/1047107-63.stm#ixzz0kECmmu3I

Where are they now?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10094/1047591-63.stm

Former Pirates pitcher Jim Bibby dies

From The Pittsburgh Tribune Review-

Former Pirates pitcher Jim Bibby, who started Game 7 of the 1979 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, has died. He was 65.

Community Funeral Home in Lynchburg said Wednesday that Bibby died Tuesday night at Lynchburg General Hospital. The cause was not disclosed, and Bibby's family asked for privacy but said a statement would be released later.

Bibby is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, and daughters Tamara and Tanya.

"All of us at the Pittsburgh Pirates are deeply saddened by the passing of Jim Bibby," Pirates president Frank Coonelly said. "Jim was a well-respected member of the Pirates family, both as a player and as a coach."

Bibby spent five of his 12 major-league seasons with the Pirates, going 50-32. In 1979, he started Game 4 of the World Series against the Orioles, then came back on three days' rest to start the decisive game and "put the Pirates in position to take home their fifth World Series Championship," Coonelly said.

Bibby gave up one run and three hits in four innings and received a no-decision in the Pirates' 4-1 victory over the Orioles.

In 1980, Bibby enjoyed his finest season, going 19-6 with a 3.32 ERA. He was named to the National League All-Star team and was third in the Cy Young voting.

Bibby spent 12 seasons in the majors, also pitching for Texas, St. Louis and Cleveland. He went 111-101 with a 3.76 ERA and pitched the first no-hitter in Rangers' history, defeating Oakland, 6-0, on July 30, 1973.

More here-

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/pirates/s_667706.html

No joke: Pirates finish with 99 losses

Less than 24 hours after being satirized on a "Saturday Night Live" skit, the Pirates, now formally christened a laughingstock by the nation's arbiter of such things, suffered their final indignity with a 6-0 silencing by the Cincinnati Reds yesterday at Great American Ball Park.

That was loss No. 99.

And that, mercifully, will be all.

"It's over," center fielder Andrew McCutchen said, packing at his stall in another quiet clubhouse setting. "It stinks, with all the moves and everything else, that all this happened this year. Really, you just want to have a fresh start, and we're going to have that next spring. For this season ... hey, nothing you can do now."

Other than maybe add up all the ugly numbers for the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 123rd season one final time:

• The 62-99 record marked the eighth time in franchise history with that many losses or more. The Pirates have lost at least 94 each of the past five years, and this was their second-worst mark during the record 17-year losing streak.

• The 22-58 road record marked the franchise's fewest road victories under the 162-game schedule, which began in 1962. The Pirates won just three of their 26 series away from PNC Park.

• The last-place finish -- 28 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals -- was the fourth in five years, the ninth in these 17 years.

• The team's run total of 636 ranked 29th of 30 teams in Major League Baseball, with the .252 batting average 28th.

More here if you can bear it.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09278/1003088-63.stm

ElRoy Face and his signature forkball pioneered the role of closer

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As a pioneer in the art of relief pitching, with his signature forkball baffling the best hitters in the National League, ElRoy Face was rewarded early for a good beginning to the 1959 season.

Before private underground parking privileges became a major league perk, players forked over a dollar a game for a space at the Esso station near Forbes Field. But the man dubbed the Baron of the Bullpen got a free ride.

"I was 2-0 or 3-0, and the owner told me I wouldn't have to pay until I lost a game," he said. "Turns out, I didn't have to pay until September."

Incredible as it may seem, the greatest season ever by a relief pitcher -- according to baseball historian Jerome Holtzman, among others -- was almost over before Mr. Face lost a game. Up until Sept. 11, he had 17 straight wins. Counting the five straight wins he had to end the 1958 season, his streak reached 22. As it was, he finished 18-1 in 1959 and put up a number no pitcher -- reliever or starter -- has matched before or since. It's the best winning percentage ever posted by anyone who had a minimum of 15 decisions.

"This all happened B.C. -- before cash," joked catcher Hank Foiles, who roomed with Mr. Face during that 1959 season.

The play on words had two meanings. The accomplishment seems like ancient history, and in the pre-expansion era, baseball was about the love of the game, not the love of the almighty dollar.

"If he had that kind of season today, you'd need a Brinks truck to pay him," Mr. Foiles deadpanned. "Twenty-two straight? Nobody's ever going to do that again."

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09256/997651-63.stm