Pittsburgh Pirates

As the Pittsburgh Pirates find themselves on a nine-game road trip this week, 50 years ago from April 25 through May 1 the Buccos were also on the road.

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In the span of that one week covering eight games played (there was a doubleheader on Sunday, May 2), Pittsburgh won just one game. The single victory that week came against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a shutout by Bob Veale, 2-0. The other seven games were notched in the standings as a loss.

The Pirates would finish the season as winners with an impressive 90-72 mark but that was only good enough for third place in the National League in a time when there were no divisions, just the National and American leagues with first place finishers heading to the World Series. Those same Dodgers would win the National League pennant in 1965 and defeat the Minnesota Twin in the series.

For Pittsburgh the losing pitchers in that streak of seven losses in eight games were Elroy Face, Bob Friend, Joe Gibbon, Vernon Law, Don Cardwell, and Al McBean. Most of the games played during that week 50 years ago were close. The Pirates lost by scores of 5-4, 2-0, 5-4 again, 3-2, 3-2 a second time, 9-5, and 5-4.

The first two losses came against the Houston Astros, followed by a two-game split with Los Angeles, and then four straight defeats at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The first game with the Astros went 11 innings before Elroy Face gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 11^th. Roberto Clemente who would finish the season as Pittsburgh’s leading hitter in average went 0-4.

The next day on Monday, the Pirates lost again this time suffering a shutout and managing only four hits. Ironically, the winning pitcher was Dave Guisti for Houston who would end up a star in Pittsburgh years later winning a World Series with the Bucs in 1971.

A third straight loss in Los Angeles came next despite Roberto garnering four hits in five at bats. In 1965 Harry Walker was the manager in Pittsburgh and his team managed to split the two-game series with the Dodgers on Wednesday, April 28 winning by a 2-0 margin behind the strong pitching of Veale who struck out six while walking only one and getting the complete game, something that is not seen too often these days.

Complete games are pretty much a thing of the past given the speciality pitching roles of today with the middle relief men and closers.

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Pittsburgh next flew out to St. Louis for a four-game set to pitch against the man who is often held responsible for the beginnings of free agency Curt Flood and his outfielder teammate the great Lou Brock.

Another twist to facing the Cardinals was that ex-Pirate Dick Groat was playing shortstop with St. Louis having won a World Series with Pittsburgh in 1960. The catcher for the Cards at that time was famous baseball broadcaster Tim McCarver. St. Louis would win the opening game of that series by the narrow margin of 3-2.

Infamous knuckleball throwing Wilbur Wood pitched two-thirds of an inning for Pittsburgh in relief but the loss went to Vern Law who took his third loss of the season without a victory.

The next day on May 1, the score remained the same with duplicate results. The Pirates had now lost a second straight to the Cardinals. In the game the late and great Willie Stargell hammered his first round-tripper of the 1965 season. He would finish this campaign with 27 home runs and 107 RBIs.

The series concluded on May 2 with a doubleheader, again an event that rarely takes place in baseball today but in another era playing two games on the same day back-to-back was immensely popular. If not in the afternoon, there were the “twi-night” doubleheaders that began in late afternoons and played into the evenings.

On this day in 1965, the St. Louis Cardinals would drop the Pittsburgh Pirates twice ending their week 50 years ago with four straight defeats. The Pirates would get back in the victory column a few days later with a win over the Chicago Cubs, but on this Sunday, May 2, 1965, two consecutive losses came within just hours of each other.

In the first game of the two-game set, Stargell powered his second homer of the season in a 9-5 loss. This coming off the great Bob Gibson. Jim Pagliaroni added a second dinger. Gibson, the hard throwing strikeout pitcher he was, K’d nine Pirate batters despite giving up 12 hits and five earned runs.

In game #2, the Buccos were edged 5-4 and their record dropped to 6-12 as they found themselves in ninth place in the N.L. already 6 1/2 games behind in the young season. In 1965 there were just 10 National League teams and and 10 American League teams.

As indicated, there were no divisions and just the teams that finished the season at the top of the heap automatically advanced the the world championship series. At the close of the 1965 season, Clemente’s final average was .329. He would add a second-best eight stolen bases without getting caught stealing. Donn Clendenon led the team with 32 doubles and he and Roberto shared the lead for triples with 14.

On the mound, Both Veale and Vern Law would have 17 victories to lead the team, and Veale would finish with 276 strikeouts. Law would have the better E.R.A. at 2.15 and the closer with the most saves was Al McBean with 19.

But what you might not see in 2015 or any year ahead are the amount of complete games pitchers used to accumulate. In 1965 Pittsburgh’s leader in that category was Veale who had 14 in 37 starts and Vern Law 13 in 28. Don Cardwell added 12 more in his 34 starts.

50 years later, many of those Pirate players from that year are gone. We all know the Roberto Clemente story but Willie Stargell as well passed on years ago. Hopefully 50 years later, the 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates will have better success during this week in April in their nine-game spread.

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