Quick’s The Word And Sharp’s The Action

 

 

 

 

 

Pirates Logo 1960-66

 

 

 

You gotta love the Pirates, if for no other reason than their team name and logo. I mean  what kid hasn’t grown up playing pirates, jumping around the living room, slashing the air with a toy sword, maybe stabbing the kid brother a few times until he runs to momma crying like a baby?

 

Advancing from playing pirates to becoming a Pirates baseball fan seemed like a natural transition for me back in 1960. You could say their logo shivered my timbers and because of that Pirate baseball cards were probably my first attempt at collecting anything. I’d save up my pennies (yeah, kids used to earn pennies for helping around the house back then) until I had enough dough to buy a five-pack of baseball cards for the princely sum of 25 cents. I’d slap my quarter down on the glass candy counter, rip open the card pack, pop the enclosed bubble gum into my mouth just to get it out of the way, then rifle through the cards with unconcealed excitement. Did I hit the mother-lode? Land one of the star Pirate baseball players; Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski, NLMVP Dick Groat, Cy Young winner Vern Law, Roy Face, Harvey Haddix, or maybe even the colorfully named Vinegar Bend Mizell? Or had I been stuck with five unknown guys from teams I didn’t care about and who’d maybe already been banished back to the minor leagues? It was a feast or famine thing. Except for the bubble gum. And of course for the inevitable tooth cavities.

 

My dad always swore baseball cards were invented by dentists. If the internet had been around back then he could’ve started another conspiracy theory for the weak-minded. This one might even have had a little bite to it. You know the drill.

 

Arrrrgh!

 

Sticking bubble gum aside for the moment, the 1960 Pirates was a heavily talented baseball team and when they met the Yankees in the World Series that year expectations for a nail-biting series were high. Few fans, however, expected the 1960 Series would turn out to be one of the weirdest World Series ever. Consider this: the Yankees outscored the Pirates over the Series 55-27, out-hit them 91-60, out-homered them 10-4, Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford threw two complete shutouts against them, and yet the Pirates won the title 4 games to 3.

 

Arrrrgh!

 

Other weird stuff: pitcher Harvey Haddix who won World Series Games 5 and 7 for the Pirates, was infamous for losing a perfect game in the 13th inning back in 1959; Game 7 is the only World Series game without a single strikeout by either team; Bill Mazeroski won Game 7 with a walk-off homerun in the 9th inning, the first (and maybe the only?) player to do so; the tapes for Games 1 thru 6 were erased when the Series was over (tapes were expensive back then so the TV studios reused them - and VCRs and DVRs hadn’t been invented yet) but Bing Crosby, who was a part-owner of the Pirates, was in Europe during the Series so he paid the Amex corporation to tape Game 7 at his California mansion so he could watch the final game when he returned home, but only if the Pirates won. Fortunately for baseball historians, the Pirates won both the game and the Series and after Bing came home and watched Game 7 on tape he tucked it away in his wine cellar where it remained, completely forgotten for 49 years. Rediscovered in 2009, its the only video record of any of the 1960 Series games.

 

More weird stuff: Bobby Richardson, a member of the losing Yankee team, was chosen World Series MVP, the only time a player from the losing team was awarded the honor; Vinegar Bend Mizell, who went 13-5 for the Pirates during the regular season and took the loss in Game 3, was elected to the US House of Representatives after he retired from baseball; and Casey Stengel, the New York manager, was “retired” after this World Series for being too old and out of step with the times and thus made his famous comment, “I’ll never make the mistake of turning 70 again.”

 

Oh, and Minnesota native (Winona) and former college pitcher for the Golden Gophers, Paul Giel, rode the bullpen pine for the Pittsburg Pirates during the Series and later spent a year (1961) on the Twins roster before retiring. Giel eventually became Athletic Director for the University of Minnesota where he served admirably for almost two entire decades. Nothing weird about that except Giel was a two-year (1952 and 1953) All-American football player for the Gophers and had turned down a $75,000 bonus to sign with a Canadian football team and instead was an MLB “Bonus Baby” taking a $60,000 bonus, a record at that time, to sign instead with the New York Giants baseball team.

 

Arrrrgh!

 

 

And now you know the rest of the story.

 

Today’s story? Well, hopefully it won’t be as weird. But if the Twins go into ten innings again… Katie bar the door!

 

On the Non-grassy Knoll Today, Two Shooters;

 

Hurling for the Stars of Late Inning Histrionics:   Michael Pineda    1-0    ERA 1.0    WHIP .72      AVG  .159

 

Sword Fighting For the Swashbucklers: Trevor Cahill    0-2    ERA   9.69    WHIP 1.77    AVG .357

 

Just eyeballing the pitching match-up it looks like the Pirates will be walking the plank. But remember, weird, not bird, is the word.

 

Today's Line-up

 

Arraez

Donaldson

Cruz

Buxton

Kirilloff

Polanco

Astudillo

Cave

Jeffers

Expecting a blowout today! Trying not to be overconfident. Because they have played some pesky games.

I like how you leave the positions as a puzzle for us to work out...

 

Donaldson is taking 3rd, so Polanco must have short leaving Arraez at 2nd and Astudillo at 1st?

 

Leaving Kirilloff, Cave, and Buxton out fielding.

 

And the other guys...

 

Adam Frazier (L) 2B
Phillip Evans (R.) LF
Bryan Reynolds (S) CF
Colin Moran (L) 1B
Erik Gonzalez (.R) 3B
Gregory Polanco (L) RF
Todd Frazier (R.) DH
Michael Perez (L) C
Kevin Newman (.R) SS

And i never connected Paul with Lee Oswald before...

 

That pooka sure gets around!

BTW Dave, I enjoyed your pregame presentation.

 

BTW Dave, I enjoyed your pregame presentation.

Concur.

Great intro Dave!

I would have thought they'd throw Gordon a start one of these days.

 

I would have thought they'd throw Gordon a start one of these days.

I had the same thought. Defensive substitution in the 9th?

 

 

Oh, and Minnesota native (Winona) and former college pitcher for the Golden Gophers, Paul Giel, rode the bullpen pine for the Pittsburg Pirates during the Series and later spent a year (1961) on the Twins roster before retiring. 

Is it Pittsburg or is it Pittsburgh?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Pittsburgh

Loved the intro! Loved walking to the store to buy baseball cards when I was a kid. I could go down a gangplank tangent here, but I will spare you

I once found a Pirates cap in the back of my cab.

A nice new cap.

 

I meticulously carved off part of the "P"

and made it an "F."

 

I thought that was a pretty cool cap.

Is it Pittsburg or is it Pittsburgh?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Pittsburgh

I think Dave the D likes to leave us Easter eggs like that to find

 

Awesome writing, Dave!

 

I think Dave the D likes to leave us Easter eggs like that to find

Merry Christmas!

Today marks 31 months since Astudillo walked. I will keep bringing this up now and then because it's, well, fascinating?

 

Today marks 31 months since Astudillo walked. I will keep bringing this up now and then because it's, well, fascinating?

Does that include winterball?

 

Awesome writing, Dave!

 

This confuses me... Dave didn't actually say "Awesome writing, Dave!", did he?

 

Something's wrotten in the state of Dave-mark...

 

(If i figure it out, i'll let ya know)

 

But it is a true statement never-the-less. And a good story to boot!

 

Great intro. Hope the warm-up doesn't show up the headliner. The pitching matchup gives me at least some confidence that we'll have a nice afternoon. The sun poking through would be a bonus.

After last nights game, I'm hoping for a fresh start.  If this team is ever 100% healthy, they can definitely do well.  Hopefully, 2 starters will emerge or perhaps a late season pickup to make the Twins a threat in the playoffs.  But, that's still a long ways off.

PTC: Jorge gets his first homer

Fly ball to left center. One outfielder looks like he's running in molasses, one glides over and makes the catch. Which one is which do you think?'

2yr/34 mill ('22-23) for Pineda right now. Who says no?

Buxton just made Kirilloff look like he was standing still. You know he’s fast but you don’t often see it in contrast to human of more normal speed.

Kirilloff doesn’t look really comfortable in left and I’m not comfortable with that.

Big Mike is underrated methinks.

Big Mike...so underrated

 

Easter egg 

That's what Jeffers looks like with all the baby blue behind home plate.

 

Kirilloff doesn’t look really comfortable in left and I’m not comfortable with that.

I don't recall which writer tweeted it this morning, but AK said he's more comfortable in right

 

Fly ball to left center. One outfielder looks like he's running in molasses, one glides over and makes the catch. Which one is which do you think?'

Molasses? That's dangerous stuff to run in.

 

They should get it cleaned up asap.