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Max Macon, the new manager of the Montreal Royals, knew exactly what was expected of him.1 The Royals, a Brooklyn Dodgers Triple-A affiliate, were not unlike most minor-league teams in the 1950s: Turning a profit usually took precedence over player development.2 “The only orders I had were to win and draw big crowds,” Macon acknowledged.3 […]
The weather at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia was cold and miserable with 40-mph winds for the Pirates-Phillies game on April 24, 1955. Unfortunately for the Pirates, the 1955 season had so far matched the weather. It was marred by rainouts and eight consecutive losses to start the season and the 14th consecutive loss going […]
Willie Stargell, left, hugs his Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Al Oliver, center, as Roberto Clemente looks on during the 1971 season. On September 1, 1971, the Pirates fielded an all-Black lineup of African-American and Latino players, a first in the history of Major League Baseball. (MLB.COM) The 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates were a special team in […]
Roberto Clemente Day 1970, with the proud father holding Rickey with Luis on the left and Roberto Jr. on the right. (Les Banos photograph courtesy of The Clemente Museum.) That the first-place Pirates routed the fifth-place Astros was a side story for most of the 43,290 fans at the recently opened Three Rivers Stadium […]
Roberto Clemente played his entire 18-year career with the Pirates and recorded exactly 3,000 base hits, one of 32 players to reach that coveted mark as of 2021. He had a .317 batting average in 2,433 games. Clemente had four hits in 39 games and five hits in eight games, the final time on August […]
(Photograph by Duane Rieder) After winning three straight games at home, including Nelson Briles’ masterful two-hit, 4-0 shutout in Game Five, the Pirates returned to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium with the hope of clinching their fourth World Series championship in Game Six. A win in Baltimore was a tall order, 6-feet-3 to be exact, which was […]
Residents of Wampum, Pennsylvania, and neighboring towns cheered hometown hero Dick Allen at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field during his 1964 National League Rookie of the Year season with the Philadelphia Phillies, even honoring him in on-field ceremonies before three games against the host Pittsburgh Pirates. But Allen scuffled in Pittsburgh in ’64, batting .182 in nine […]
“It was almost like Roberto Clemente playing the Reds all by himself,” gushed sportswriter Les Biederman in the Pittsburgh Press, “and coming so close to wrecking them singlehandedly.”1 Affectionately nicknamed “Arriba” by Pirates radio broadcaster Bob Prince, Clemente belted three home runs and knocked in all seven Pirates runs, but his offensive heroics were not […]
All-Star week in any city is a celebration of baseball’s history, a recognition of its current and future stars, and a time of pure joy for baseball fans of all ages. This week was no exception in Washington, DC. The stars of major-league baseball had not descended en masse on the nation’s capital in nearly […]
“On a muggy, overcast night in Chavez Ravine,” the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-3, a game highlighted by Willie Stargell’s home run in the seventh inning that was the first ever hit out of Dodger Stadium. “It appeared to be Apollo 12,” one observer noted as the baseball landed in the parking […]
Tossing a shutout and striking out at least 10 batters in a game was not uncommon in Sandy Koufax’s illustrious 12-year big-league career. After all, he blanked opponents 40 times and reached double figures in punchouts 97 times in just 314 career regular-season starts. The Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw’s performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates in […]
Thanks in no small part to Bruce Markusen’s 2009 work, The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, even non-Pirates aficionados are now familiar with the story of how, at Three Rivers Stadium on September 1 of that year Danny Murtaugh filled out a lineup that featured, for the first time […]
The Pittsburgh Pirates were still enjoying the aura of their shocking 1960 World Series victory over the vaunted New York Yankees as they played their 33rd game of the 1961 season. They were in Chicago, en route from Milwaukee to St. Louis, for a two-game series with the Cubs opening on Wednesday afternoon, May 24.1 […]
The Pittsburgh Pirates went 21-12 in August and upped their record to 70-61 as September arrived. They still trailed the first-place Milwaukee Braves by 7½ games. Their record for the first week of September was 5-3. Despite beating the Braves three times in their four-game series the previous weekend, the second-place Pirates closed the gap […]
On an August night at Candlestick Park in 1972, Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Nelson Briles missed perfection by inches – and escaped with a win by an equally slim margin. Two innings after Ken Henderson’s line drive eluded first baseman Willie Stargell for the San Francisco Giants’ only hit and baserunner of the game, substitute left […]
A day after dropping both ends of a Sunday doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field, the winless Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to New York City to take on the defending World Series champion Giants on Monday, April 18, 1955. It was yet another loss for the visitors, in front of fewer than 3,000 paying […]
Roberto Clemente made five hits and drove home four runs on the same day that he criticized “a few” Pittsburgh Pirates for not hustling on the field. “They know who they are,” Clemente said.1 The Pirates were muddling along with a 72-74 won-lost mark, stuck in seventh place. During an interview with a San Juan, […]
When Roberto Clemente watched a Ferguson Jenkins pitch on the inside corner of the plate pass for a strike on September 13, 1972, young teammate Fernando Gonzalez didn’t understand. The pitch was in Clemente’s wheelhouse, and when Gonzalez questioned his mentor about why he held up on such a pitch, Clemente, an 18-year veteran, told […]
In their first visit to newly opened Three Rivers Stadium, the Chicago Cubs trounced the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-2, in the second game of a Labor Day 1970 doubleheader to secure the split. Leading a quartet of stars was Fergie Jenkins, who spanked a home run and held the Pirates to five hits for his major-league-most […]
Pirates are swashbuckling types, commanding submission from those they conquer. On April 16, 1971, however, their baseball namesake from Western Pennsylvania suffered a reversal of this paradigm in an effort that proved as ineffective as a clipper with no sails – 14 strikeouts against ace Tom Seaver in 1971’s first matchup between the defending National […]
Roberto Clemente’s greatness transcended the diamond. On it, he was electrifying with his penchant for bad-ball hitting, his strong throwing arm from right field, and the way he played with a reckless but controlled abandon. Off it, he was a role model to the people of his homeland and elsewhere. Helping others represented the way […]
“I’m going to have a good year because I’m Al Oliver. I always have a good year. The question is how good.”1 That confident self-assessment came in 1978, a little over halfway through this slashing line-drive hitter’s long and successful career. In 18 seasons, the lefty-swinging first baseman-outfielder amassed 2,743 hits and posted a .303 […]
So slender he often swam in his uniform, Lino Donoso was a popular southpaw with a durability that belied his appearance. He pitched year-round for much of a two-decade career that began on the island of his birth, Cuba, included one season in the Negro National League and parts of two with the Pittsburgh Pirates. […]
The SABR-Quebec Chapter met on November 10, 2018 at Madison’s Restaurant in Montreal for its fall gathering. We had a special guest in Robert Elias, a member of the Lefty O’Doul Chapter based in San Francisco, who is in Montreal for the current university semester. A Professor at the University of San Francisco, he is […]