So true

The day that baseball died: Happiness was Roberto Clemente, and then he was gone

If you were a kid growing up in Pittsburgh 40 years ago, you probably feel a little different when New Year's Eve rolls around from the rest of the revelers out there. It was on Dec. 31, 1972, that Pirates Hall of Fame right fielder Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash while delivering relief supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua.

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

Joe Guzzardi thinks Alfred Lord Tennyson best summed up the Pirates 2011 season.

Pondering the Pirates

I have to say, it was fun to watch the Pirates play good baseball in meaningful games in June and early July.

Baseball is fun again in Pittsburgh

Shiver Me Timbers: The Bucs Are in First Place!

Is it something in Pittsburgh's water?

The Pirates added to their record for losing seasons by losing a hundred games this year. Not surprisingly, they just fired their manager. Maybe John Russell was the only thing standing between the Pirates and winning.

Somehow i doubt that. The guy they fired before they hired JR ended up in Colorado and somehow managed to get them into the playoffs last year. Even with an epic September collapse, the Rockies finished with a winning record this season. Pirates fans would die if we finished above .500 and chased a wild card spot into the fall.

Ron Cook suspects that Russell was not entirely blame.


Joe Guzzardi touches on another aspect of the Pirates futility. How come some of the bad players we trade away, turn out to be good players at their new clubs?

Baseball’s Most Fortunate Player: Matt Capps

Bing Crosby's Secret Pirate Tapes

by The Last Hollywood Star

Great story in the New York Times about a tape made by Pirate owner Bing Crosby of the seventh WS game versus Yankees. Possibly the only favorable story written by the Times about the Pirates in ten years!

In Bing Crosby’s Wine Cellar, Vintage Baseball

Behind the Pirates's woes

by The Last Hollywood Star


For those of you interested in how the Pirates got where they are, this Sports Illustrated article does a good job of explaining.

Not A Pretty Picture

With their rich heritage and jewel of a ballpark, the Pirates could be a major league treasure. Instead they're an object lesson in how a once-proud club can become the most futile franchise in sports

Aki Iwarmura!

by The Last Hollywood Star


Last year, the Pirates dumped off one of the teams most popular players and all around good guy, Freddie Sanchez, to San Francisco for a questionable prospect, Tim Alderson (6.00 ERA at Altoona) and replaced him at second base with a fat, non-English speaking Japanese who can neither hit (.175) nor field. To rub salt in our wounds, Aki Iwamura is the highest paid player on the team.

Why?

These are the things that when repeated season after season drain faithful fans of all their interest. Given his salary, the Pirates are committed to playing him. But, if he continues significantly below the Mendoza line, Iwamura could become Neil Huntington's Matt Morris.

I've Seen Worse---But Not Lately!

by The Last Hollywood Star

It's not much comfort to me as a lifelong Pirate fan to recall that I have seen worse major league baseball than the current edition of the Buccos.

I lived in Seattle during the Mariners' first years 1977-1986 and the team was more painful to watch. During that ten year period the M's average winning percentage was about .400

The M's had some good players like Leon Roberts and Richie Zisk. In 1982, Hall of Famer Gaylor Perry had a cup of coffee with the Mariners. Perry's stop over was long enough for him to record his 300th career victory. I still have my ticket stub.

Most Mariner players however were rejects with limited skills. A good example is one-time Bucco Mario Mendoza whose batting ineptitude created the term "Mendoza Line," a reference to hitting at least .200

The M's bumbling play drove another Hall of Famer, manager Dick Williams, out of baseball. After managing the team in 1986, 1987 and half a season in 1988, Williams left baseball for good.

A more insurmountable problem for Seattle baseball fans than the Mariners' poor play was the team's venue, the awful Kingdom.

On beautiful Pacific Northwest summer evenings, when the sun didn't set until 10:00 PM, a fan's choice was to enjoy the magnificence of Puget Sound, the view of Mt. Rainer or pay to enter the gloomy, empty Kingdom to watch the M's lose again.

For most of the Mariners' first 18 years, their poor play (they didn't have a winning season until 1991) combined with the Kingdome's design, led to poor attendance. Most games I saw had less than 5,000 people.

At one point the Mariners covered "the Tombs" right-center field seats in the upper decks in to make the stadium feel "less empty". Additionally, the Kingdome's acoustics created problems for stadium announcers who had to deal with significant echo issues.

At least Pirate fans don't have to worry about ambiance when they go to PNC Park. While the Kingdom was the dreariest place I have ever watched baseball (with Three Rivers Stadium not far behind), PNC is at the other end of spectrum. Despite the Pirates' struggles, a game at PNC is always a good way to spend time.

Vern Law: Cy Young Award Winner, 1960

by The Last Hollywood Star


On Thursday, I went to PNC Park to watch the Pirate-Los Angeles Dodger game but also to get Vern Law’s autograph.

Yesterday was one of the regularly scheduled Alumni Autograph Days at PNC. Law, Rich Reuschel and Manny Sanguillen were all there chatting with a long line of fans and signing away.

Law is the last Major Leaguer to pitch 18 innings in a game. One evening way back in 1955 Law, on two days rest, not only pitched the equivalent of two full games against the Milwaukee Braves, he allowed only nine hits while striking out 12. Bob Friend picked up the win in the 19th.

Four days later, Law pitched 13 more innings against the Cincinnati Reds, this time picking up the win. The Reds game brought Law’s four day total to 31 innings or three and a half full games.

When I approached Law, I reminded him of his famous game against the Braves and suggested that 18 innings is more than most pitchers today register in any three consecutive starts. Or, for that matter, any three straight starts by three different pitchers from the same team.

And by the end of the afternoon that was the case with the Pirates.

During the Bucs three game series with the Dodgers, Zach Duke threw five innings; Ross Olendorf, five and Paul Maholm, six.

Combined line for the three days: 16IP, 17H-8ER, 6SO, 5BB, ERA 4.50

Even in this era of watered down standards, that’s sub-par. And if it’s representative of what Pirate pitching will be for the season, it will be a long year.

Remembering the glory days of the Pirates

by The Last Hollywood Star



As the Pittsburgh Pirates embark on the team's 50th Anniversary celebratory season of its historic 1960 World Series triumph over the New York Yankees, fans have good reason to reach back in time to when the Buccos were truly great.

For too many fans, a 17-year sub-.500 Pirate record has blotted out the Bucco's rich history.

Others of a younger generation know nothing of previous Pirate glory days.

The place to begin your review of the early Pirates is a wonderful new book by James Forr and David Proctor, "Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography"

The book naturally focuses on Traynor and his sixteen-year Hall of Fame playing career from 1920 to 1937 (BA: .320) during which time he was widely considered to be baseball's best third baseman. The honor was officially bestowed on him in 1969 when Traynor was voted as the third baseman on baseball's all-time team.

In most of Traynor's Pirate seasons the team contended for the National League pennant.

An extraordinarily skilled fielder and a great hitter, Traynor once drove in more than 100 runs in five consecutive seasons (1927-1931). The only other third baseman to match that feat is the Atlanta Braves' Chipper Jones. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. Neither 500 home run sluggers Eddie Matthews nor Mike Schmidt did it.

Forr and Proctor also devote chapters to Traynor's post-playing years as the Pirates manager, an evening sports talk show host and an announcer for the old "Studio Wrestling" program back in the days when wrestling was more or less legitimate.

Traynor was a widely recognized and beloved figure in Pittsburgh. Since he never learned to drive, Traynor walked everywhere and was more than willing to stop and chat with his admiring fans. Unlike many of today's stars, Traynor never turned down a request to appear at a youth group or address a charitable organization.

The book is rich with Pirate history that will fascinate even the most casual fan.

Here are two examples:

-- For years, some baseball analysts claim that when the Pirates met the New York Yankees in the 1927 World Series, the Bucs were so overwhelmed when they watched "Murderer's Row" take batting practice that they knew they would lose and played accordingly.

Traynor debunks that theory completely. According to Traynor, the Pirates took batting practice first and never even watched the Yankees warm up.

Lloyd Waner, Traynor's Hall of Fame teammate, confirms it. According to Waner: "We had our workout first and I...was just leaving the field as they were coming onto the field."

--- In 1938, when Traynor was manager and the team badly needed pitchers and catchers, Chester Washington of the black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier sent Traynor the following telegram: "KNOW YOUR CLUB NEEDS PLAYERS STOP HAVE ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS RIGHT HERE IN PITTSBURGH STOP JOSH GIBSON CATCHER FIRST BASE B. LEONARD AND RAY BROWN PITCHER OF HOMESTEAD GRAYS AND S. PAIGE PITCHER COOL PAPA BELL OF PITTSBURGH CRAWFORDS. ALL AVAILABLE AT REASONABLE FIGURES STOP WOULD MAKE PIRATES FORMIDABLE PENNANT CONTENDERS STOP WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE? STOP WIRE ANSWER"

Years later, that Traynor never answered Washington puzzles many especially since if the Pirates had acquired Gibson, Leonard, Bell and Paige they likely would have run off a string of World Championships.

But in retrospect, the consensus is that Traynor's silence was not motivated by racism but that he acting individually did not have the authority from the Pirates' administration to integrate baseball.

Not quite a decade later, when Traynor was working as a sportscaster, he urged the Pirates to follow the lead of the Brooklyn Dodgers and sign black players.

What I also enjoy about Forr and Proctor's book is the insight into less well known early Buccos who had enormously productive careers.

Have you ever heard of Lee Meadows? In addition to being the first major league player to wear eye glasses, Meadows was the fastest working pitcher ever to take to the mound. In 1919, as a Philadelphia Phillie, Meadows was the 6-1 loser in a 51 minute complete game (!) against the New York Giants. Meadows anchored the Buc's staff from 1924 to 1928 when he won 20 games once and 19 games twice.

Did you ever wonder how Trayner's Hall of Fame teammate Hazen Shirley Cuyler became known as "Kiki"? Some think it was because of his slight speech impediment that often made it difficult for Cuyler to pronounce his name completely on his first attempt.

Others say that Cuyler was such an outstanding outfielder that players would call "Ki, Ki" for any fly ball within his reach.

How about the left-handed Cy Blanton who debuted for the Pirates in 1935 and after two and a half weeks had a 4-0 record with a 0.75 ERA. By the season's end, Blanton was 18-4 and led the league in ERA with 2.58.

Banton's story ends sadly, however. He never matched his early success and after being traded to the Phillies, was released in 1942. In 1945, Blanton died in a mental institution.

"Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography" is the first comprehensive study of Traynor's career. And the book offers many interesting and amusing anecdotes about the great Pirate teams and players from those wonderful days gone by.

Copies are available from Amazon.com and can also be ordered at http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/ or by calling 1-800-253-2187

A video interlude

by The Last Hollywood Star



Here's Part One of two of a presentation I made to the Forbes Field Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research. It covers (Early Pirates and Hollywood Stars [Pirates AAA club], Clemente in Puerto Rico, Forbes Field---and Jayne Mansfield, Miss Hollywood Stars, 1955!)

Part I

All Hail Deacon Phillippe!

By The Last Hollywood Star

The Pittsburgh Pirates got a positive national television mention after Game One of the World Series. Usually, when the Pirates' name surfaces on a major network, it's to heap scorn on the team.

But after Cliff Lee pitched a complete opening game, striking out ten and walking none, researchers went into the archives to dig out Deacon Phillippe's 1903 performances.


Phillippe was the last pitcher to put up those numbers.

Back in 1903, the World Series was a best of nine affair. In the opener, Phillippe out dueled Cy Young in a complete game effort.

Get this---Phillippe pitched four other complete games, two on back-to-back days, and went 3-2 in the Pirates loss to the Boston Americans. For good measure, Phillippe pitched in relief in two other games.

Take that, pitch count crazy Joe Kerrigan!

Phillippe's five complete game decisions are a World Series record that will stand forever unless current format reverts to best of nine.

If that ever happens, the World Series could extend to Thanksgiving.

Pirate Ownership Should Hand Out Awards To Fans Who Tough It Out At PNC Park

by The Last Hollywood Star


Wednesday night at PNC Park I saw major league baseball at its worst.

Consider this: in the top of the ninth inning Cincinnati Reds second string catcher Corky Millier (.149) hit a bloop single off Pirates mop up man Virgil Vasquez (2-5; 6.20 ERA) to score Adam Rosales (.204)

Miller’s RBI put the score at Reds 10 Pirates 2

The Reds twice more before the game mercifully ended (3:10) in a 12-2 rout when Pirate second baseman Luis Cruz (.167) nubbed a ground out.

Even after September calls ups, none of these players belong in the big leagues.

Pirate owner Bob Nutting should consider one of two options after disasters like these.

One, he could take a page from San Francisco Giant history by issuing certificates of achievement to fans who endure nine innings of Pirate baseball.

The Giants once handed out Croix de Candlestick pins (see it here) to fans who stuck it out to the end when their faithful braved nine innings of freezing temperatures and bitter cold winds at Candlestick Park. Read the pin: Veni, Vedi, Vexi (“I came, I saw, I survived)

Nutting wouldn’t even have to print many certificates up. By my count only about 250 diehards remained last night when Cruz dribbled his grounder.

Or better yet, as former San Diego Padre owner Ray Kroc did after a series of embarrassing losses, Nutting could grab the microphone to say: “People of Pittsburgh, I have never seen such stupid ball playing in all my life.”

The Pirates are 3-18 for September and have lost 23 of the last 26 games.

The 2010 Clock Is Already Ticking

By The Last Hollywood Star


After last night’s humiliating 10-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, General Manager Neal Huntington somehow managed to put a positive spin on the Pirates dismal 3-21 record over the last 24 games.

According to Huntington, the Pirates need to add “pieces” to the existing squad which will he claims be better next year because they have learned tough lessons in 2009.

Happy talk is what Huntington has to say. Few from the fan base believe him. And for all I know, Huntington himself may not believe it.

But one way or the other, what the final lousy weeks mean is that come Opening Day 2010, the Pirates’ margin for error will be thin indeed.

The Pirates will need to get out of the gate fast. If April produces more of the sloppy, ugly play we’ve seen for the last two months, what little reservoir of good will Pirate management may have will quickly vanish.

Worse for Huntington, the stands will be as empty in the spring as they are in September.

Pirates Only “AA” Level?

by The Last Hollywood Star


On his Sunday pre-game show Steve Blass interviewed former Pittsburgh Pirate General Manager Ted Simmons.

During their exchange, Simmons mentioned that many major league players are brought up from the minors too soon. According to Simmons, they belong in “AA”

To think, all along I’ve been too generous in my assessment of the Pirates as a mediocre “AAA” team!

Simmons didn’t pinpoint the Pirates. But he didn’t need to.

In last night’s 11-6 loss to the San Diego Padres, the Pirates showed staggering ineptitude in all aspects of baseball: hitting, hitting with men on base, fielding, throwing, base running, starting and relief pitching

In what passes in Pirate Land for a decent performance, starter Daniel McCutchen’s line: 6IP, 8H;1 BB; 3ER, season ERA 5.25

Since August 28th, the Pirates are playing at a .150 clip that translates, if it continues over the last 14 games, to 58-104 for the season.

The Greatest San Diego Padre Ever: Ted Williams

By The Last Hollywood Star


The Los Angeles that I grew up in during the 1950s was a place so beautiful that I can hardly believe it ever existed.

So few people lived in Los Angeles that it could easily be called a small town. The beaches were unspoiled and empty. Slightly inland, orange grove and eucalyptus trees were everywhere.

Today Los Angeles is ruined, killed by too many people and too much cement.

But back then, as beautiful as Los Angeles was, when my family wanted to vacation in a truly magnificent spot, we went to San Diego.

With the Padres in Pittsburgh, this fan associates the team not with the current version but with the San Diego team that played in the old Pacific Coast League and challenged my beloved Hollywood Stars.

Ted Williams was the premier Padre.

In his contribution to a wonderful collection of essays published 1995 by the Journal of San Diego History, Williams shared his recollections about the early days of his career as a Padre from 1936-1937 before he was called up by the Boston Red Sox:

I remember my first at-bat for the Padres. The manager, Frank Shellenback, sent me in to pinch hit and I took three strikes right down the middle. Didn't even swing. Then he sent me in to pitch one night and I got hit like I was throwing batting practice. But that first time I pitched I also hit -- and I hit a double, I pitched two innings, and the next time up I hit a double. And then I was in the lineup. I went over to Lefty O'Doul one day and I said, ‘What do I have to do to be a good hitter?’ He said, ‘Kid, don't ever let anybody change you.’

That 1937 team was a good composite team: young, old, former big league players, good leadership under Frank Shellenback (the nicest man I ever met in baseball). Why we didn't win it I don't know. There was no friction. Did we win the playoffs in '37? [Yes! -Ed.]

Lane Field was an old wooden ballpark, nice park for a lefthanded hitter, and the ball carried pretty good. We played a lot of day games. I enjoyed guys like Herm Pillette (the old pitcher), Howard Craghead, Jimmy Kerr (the catcher), George Myatt, Bobby Doerr . . .

There was no particular pressure on me playing in San Diego. I didn't know what pressure was. I was nervous--not because I was born there, but because it was a whole new experience playing before crowds, professional baseball. San Diego was the nicest little town in the world. How the hell was I to know it was the nicest town in the world? I'd never been anyplace.

O’Doul was a great hitter His career stats included a .349 BA, .383 OBP, .525 SLG and .925 OPS.

And Pirate fans should note that Williams’ called the Padres “a good composite team” made up of young, old, experienced and inexperienced players.

The flailing 2009 Pirates (105 losses?) are young, inexperienced and possibly without a meaningful future in major league baseball.

Despite What Manager John Russell Says, Avoiding 100 Losses Is Critical for the Pirates

by The Last Hollywood Star


Well, the weather was beautiful. And I got a nice Pirate cap at the gate.

Yesterday afternoon the Pirates put their most anemic line up yet on the field that included Neal Walker (.143), Steve Pearce, (.210), Brian Bixler, (.222) and Ryan Doumit, (.237) Those four plus the remaining Pirates scratched out five singles and scored the team’s solitary run on a sacrifice fly in its 2-1 loss to the equally hapless San Diego Padres.

The Pirates’ fielding was terrible too. The official scorekeepers charged only one error (on Bixler) but there were at least three others: a grounder that Walker muffed and errant throws by Bixler and Doumit who debuted unsuccessfully in right field.

Official scoring is so bad that only weakly hit, dropped balls right at fielders are charged as errors. Any ball that involves moving a few steps or is sharply hit become a base hit.

Earlier this week, manager John Russell said that whether the Pirates lose 99 or 101 games doesn’t really matter and that it’s all perception.

But sometimes perception is reality. That’s why managers try to get their starters’ win totals up from 19 to the magical mark of 20 or their hitters above the Mario Mendoza line of .199 (named appropriately after the former Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop)

Russell may not own up to it but losing 100 games makes it tougher to bring back fans next year.

In 2010, the Pirates have to show at least modest improvement in the standings and by 2011, the team must be in the middle of the National League Central race if management expects to have any credibility with its fan base about its “long term” plan.

If not, that will put the Pirates into 2012 or what possibly would be the 20th consecutive year of sub-.500 baseball.

Hill And Kerrigan Going? That’s More Bad News

by The Last Hollywood Star


I may be completely mistaken about the Pirates. Maybe, as management claims, the long range philosophy is coming together as proven by Lynchburg’s Carolina League championship.

Really, what do I know? I’m just a fan and the Pirate brass are the professionals.

But the likely 2010 departure of coaches Perry Hill and Joe Kerrigan cannot be taken as a good sign.

All summer, the Pirates top baseball men have promised that their scouts and coaches will mold the new players---draft choices and those who came in trades---into quality major leagues.

Now two of the best of them are leaving.

If the future looks so rosy, wouldn’t Hill and Kerrigan want to stay around to enjoy the fruits of their labor?

And if, in fact Kerrigan leaves, that means the Pirates will have to hire their fifth pitching coach in six years? That’s bad for the pitchers and the team behind them

A healthy skepticism about the Pirates is fully warranted. Let’s just leave it that seeing is believing. When the Pirates turn the corner, I’ll be more than happy to admit that I was wrong all along.

Cincinnati Reds Soar Past Buccos

by The Last Hollywood Star


On August 25, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Cincinnati Reds were locked in a virtual tie for fifth place in the National League Central.

Since then, the teams have gone in the polar opposite direction.

As of September 19, the Pirates have sole possession of last, 28.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals. The Reds have pulled away and trail the Cards by “only” 17 games.

The Reds have won 14 of their last 18 games; the Pirates have won two of 18.

The Reds and Pirates, both fielding minor league call ups and marginal major leaguers, played a meaningless double header in Cincinnati on August 31. The Reds swept both games and the series.

What does it mean when the second worst team in the Central Division (the Reds) is dramatically outplaying the worst team (the Pirates)?

Draw your own conclusions but as far as I can see the road ahead will be long and hard for the Bucs.

Explained: Why Adam LaRoche Failed As A Pirate But Succeeds In Atlanta

by The Last Hollywood Star



Yesterday, I wrote that I sympathized with Pirate pitcher Kevin Hart who must have felt chills go up his spine when he learned that he had been traded in July from the then-competitive Chicago Cubs to the hapless Bucs.

Imagine on the other hand the surge of joy that Adam LaRoche experienced when, after a half-season of being maligned, he was reunited with former teammate Jason Bay on the Red Sox and then sent off to the Atlanta Braves to hook up with Nate McClouth.

La Roche’s new surroundings agree with him. Compare his Pirate to his Brave stats.

For the Pirates: .247 with 12 home runs in 87 games.

For the Braves: .351 with 12 home runs in 40 games.

I have two comments.

First, when fans bad mouth a player long enough and when management makes widely known that he’s on the trading block, both of which happened in LaRoche’s case, production drops.

Second, the Pirates misjudged the kind of player LaRoche is. Too much was expected of him. LaRoche is not going to carry a team. He’s a laid back, Southern California guy who is a complementary player.

On the Braves, LaRoche is surrounded by quality players. On the Pirates, he was not.

How the Pirates misjudged LaRoche’s role brings again into question management’s ability to evaluate players.