What are your favorite off season memories of the Pirates?

[BucsFaninGA]

I was thinking about what was my favorite Pirates memory as a kid? I vaguely recall 1960 as I was only 3 years old… 1971 was my favorite team. I was 13 years old that summer...I was really into baseball, following the teams, collecting my Topps baseball cards,trading gum for extra cards, pretending I could hit like Roberto in home run derby whiffleball, field like Scoops Oliver during little league infield,wearing my Pirates  cap everywhere, and dispelling all rumors of the Cinny Reds being the only major league baseball team…



Some of my memories from the early 1971 team are during the offseason and how Joe L. Brown built the 1971 Bucs. I was a local newspaper boy for The Marietta Times and followed the Bucs through the paper and on KDKA by radio. I got my newspapers at the local gas station and it was always a busy place with folks getting gas as they traveled up I-77 North or South. I had access to all of the out of town papers. I talked a lot of baseball with anyone who loved the game. Plus Charleston, WVA was less than a 2 hour drive and the top minor league affiliate  of the Buccos. So we had a lot of news coming our way weekly on the Battling Buccos…Well recall the early December deal that brought Jim Campanis, Bob Johnson and Jackie Hernandez to the club. I hated seeing Bruce dal Canton and Freddie Patek go to the Royals, but remembered a buddy, saying you have to give up something to get something. I thought that deal was highway robbery and benefited the Royals big time! Freddie was a favorite of mine! Freddie the Flea! I kept thinking, but we have AlleyOop at SS, why do we need another back up. Jose Pagan is a super sub! I later came to value the sure hands of Jackie Hernandez! And appreciated the pitching efforts of Bob Johnson. I couldn’t believe the GM of the Royals traded his son Jim to the Pirates…Then in January, they got Nellie Briles and Vic Davalillo from the Redbirds for Matty Alou and George Brunet. I loved watching Matty hit and play the field big time. I kept thinking, who will Joe L. Brown get next. I recalled Briles from his pitching in the 1967 series vs The Redsox. I liked Nellie joining the team! I kept hoping for “Downtown” Ollie Brown-Padres slugger, former Bucco-Don Money ( Phillies) as I had an on and off love, hate thing for Richie Hebner. Or Sudden Sam McDowell of the Indians as everyone knew the Indians were going nowhere! And Sam was originally from the Steel City. And I was a big fan of Astros Larry Dierker…Joe L. couldn’t land either…I so wanted to see either Sudden Sam or Dierker toeing the old pitching rubber as a Bucco with Doc, Blass, Moose and that goofy Texas lefty- Luke Walker. They got a little known lefty from the Mexico City Reds named Ramon Hernandez in early February, right before Spring Training. Man, I thought this club sure looks different from the bunch that lost to the rival Cincinnati Reds in the 1970 National League Playoffs…My friends said you have no pitching…Heck, I agreed, then thought they are Cinny fans, and what did they know, LOL. Little did I know this team was going to go all the way…  Bucs Fan in GA…Beat’em Bucs

[DemDog]

Speaking of Freddie Patek I was at his first home game with the Pirates.



June 14, 1968, vs Houston at Forbes Field. I was seated in Section 9 just past 1B. Freddie hit 7th that day. He got a single in the 2nd Inning off lefty Denny Lemaster. Freddie promptly stole 2B and reached 3B on catcher John Bateman's throwing error. He then scored on catcher Jerry May's single. He ended up going 1 for 4 with a stolen base and a run scored. In the field at SS, he had 1 PO and 7 Assists. The Bucs won the game on a 2 hit shutout by Bob Moose.



I remember this well because there were about a dozen or so fans in the row in front of us from Columbus OH, where the Bucs had their AAA team. They came to see Freddie play MLB. It was exciting for both them and me.

[DemDog]

I've rooted for 60+ years and to pick just one would be impossible for me to do. I would need Bobster to help me write a book that would be 10 times as long as his.



I will say this though, the one offseason memory that will forever be in my mind was not a favorite but my least favorite yet most memorable. That was the '72-'73 offseason when we lost my all-time favorite Pirate, Roberto Walker Clemente in the humanitarian plane crash. The image of that man swinging at so many bad pitches and getting hits on those swings, his rifle of an arm in RF and his seeming lackluster basket catches on routine flyballs will forever remain in my mind and my heart.

[RichD]

You guys are old as dirt !!! Seems like I`m heading that way too. Cant believe I`m almost 50. It scares the shite out of me getting old. My neighbor is 85 he was really strong and fun to be around just 5 years ago. Always working on things etc. Then it was like a switch flipped and now he sits in front of the tv.

[Bobster21]

Speaking of Ramon Hernandez: one of my all time favorite Pirate relievers. He originally signed with the Pirates as an 18 year old in 1959 and was in the system until being sold to the Angels in 1962. But he didn't make his MLB debut until 1968 with the Cubs for a handful of games at age 27. He was in the St.L. system for 1968-69 and then went to the Mexican League until the Pirates obtained him prior to the 1971 season. In AAA at age 30, he was mediocre at best with a 4.02 ERA and 1.447 WHIP. But the 1971 Bucs, as good as they were, were desperate for LHP. They had only 2 on the roster. Veale, at age 35, was their only LH reliever and was horrible (6.99 ERA, 1.799 WHIP despite somehow being 6-0). Luke Walker was the other but he made only 4 relief appearances all season as he was their only LH starter. Hernandez was briefly called up for only 2 games in June and was then a September call-up. But he was lights out with a 0.73 ERA in 10 games. Unfortunately, he wasn't eligible to be on the WS roster. Veale made 1 appearance in the WS, was ineffective in game 2 and was never called upon again as the Bucs won the WS essentially with no LHP in the BP. But for the next 5 years, Hernandez was an essential part of the BP from age 31-35. He and Dave Giusti were a very formidable L/R combo.



One year when I was attending the Pirates fantasy camp, they had a reunion of the 1971 team and they were recalling some of their teammates and one of them mentioned that Hernandez was their LH reliever in the WS. I reminded them that Hernandez was a Sept call-up that year and wasn't on the WS roster. They refused to believe me and insisted Hernandez was in the WS. Of course their memory was faulty on that but it showed that Hernandez had become such an integral part of that team that they couldn't believe he wasn't on the WS roster in 1971.

[ArnoldRothstein]

083339321E5A0 wrote: You guys are old as dirt !!!


If you remember back to the 1960s, then you are pre-Cambrian:

[ArnoldRothstein]

Sadly, I think the biggest offseason deal of my youth was the Jim Bunning trade. In looking over some news articles, I'm surprised to see it speculated that the trade would be Maury Wills for Bunning.

[SammyKhalifa]

I wasn't a kid, but one time in the Cranberry Giant Eagle about ten years ago I slammed my grocery cart into John Wehner. Oops.

[BucsFaninGA]

Thanks guys for your comments on our Buccos. Regardless of our age, the stories, memories and interaction are what make Pirate Baseball Fun...

[BucsFaninGA]

Another memory that comes to mind....As a paperboy, you roll your newspapers a certain way to aid in delivery. I had a pretty decent right arm (as a kid) due to rolling the paper and tossing them on porches! I am certain the rolling of papers and pitching them with accuracy helped develop my outfield skills for PONY League, ha ha...One afternoon in 1972, probably around spring time. As I sat beside the soda machine, in the shade, at the local SOHIO gas station on 2nd and Wooster Street...rolling papers and talking nonsense to my brother, a Reds Fan...I noticed a couple vans gassing up that had the Charleston Charlies logo on the side. Then a couple young fellas approached us for change for the soda machine. Paperboys always carry change. So we gladly helped them out. Got to talking with them. The fellas were Gene Garber, Tom Dettore and Fred Cambria. I knew of them from following the box scores of the Pirates minor league AAA Team, The Charleston Charlies. We also noticed a stocky guy named Richie ( Zisk) and a Chuck (Goggin) hanging out at the snack machine. They were just young fellas trying to make their mark in the minors. They joked with my brother and I about our working hard, breaking windows throwing papers, and drinking too my Nehi's. Asked me if I was a Pirates fan as I was wearing my black baseball cap with the gold P. My brother had to interject that he was a Johnny Bench fan. They cracked up at us and our childhood allegiances. They were very decent fellas. We finished up and headed off to do our routes. They boarded the vans and headed up Route 77 North. Probably to Toledo to play the Mudhens ( Detroit AAA team). I always thought, those fellas were good guys! And after that followed them even closer in the paper. We even got to go to a couple Charlies game that year thanks to my Grandpa ...