on September 19, 1950, Duke Snider gets a cake and a kiss on his 24th birthday at Ebbets Field. Said Carl Furillo, “It seemed the whole team belonged to Brooklyn.” The Dodgers play a double header vs Pittsburgh and Snider hits 2 homeruns in the first game a 14-3 victory, off Vern Law and goes 0-4…
On June 25, 1950 Ralph Kiner leads the Pirates to a 16 – 11 win at Brooklyn by hitting for the cycle, adding a 2nd home run, and driving in eight runs. @ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IGp1c3QgY2xpY2sgdGhlIHRhZ3MhICAiLCJhZnRlciI6IiIsImxpbmtfdG9fdGVybV9wYWdlIjoib24iLCJzZXBhcmF0b3IiOiIgfCAiLCJjYXRlZ29yeV90eXBlIjoicG9zdF90YWcifX0=@
The first-place Dodgers have a contest delayed to New York’s Sunday curfew when their game with the Pirates is halted with one out in the 8th, Brooklyn leading, 19 – 12. Five homers are hit including a Jackie Robinsongrand slam in the 8th. The game will be completed later.
On May 25, 1950, Philadelphia Phillies rookie pitcher Bob Miller shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates on eight hits for his third straight victory of the season. Phillies coach Benny Bengough spoke to the Associated Press after the game about his young hurler: “… He hasn’t any trick deliveries but he can hit a dime with…
1950 – The phrase “bullpen baron” — which will be applied much more famously to Pirates reliever ElRoy Face by beat writer Jack Hernon in 1959 — is coined by Joe Reichler of the Associated Press in his pre-season profile of the St. Louis Cardinals: “For relief they have Ted Wilks, the league’s bullpen baron with a 10-3 record for 59 assignments last year.”
1950 – The Pittsburgh Pirates sign high school pitcher Paul Pettit for a record $100,000 after buying his contract from a film producer, who had signed him to an exclusive contract as an athlete/actor. Under Major League Baseball’s “high-school rule”, scouts are barred from doing so prior to graduation. Unfortunately, with an eventual 1-2 career mark, Pettit will prove not to be worth the trouble.
1949 – For the second time in his career, Ralph Kiner hits home runs in 4 consecutive at-bats, over 2 games. He performed the same feat in 1947. The 2 homers today are numbers 33 and 34 for the season. Kiner’s 1949 total will include 25 on the road, 29 at Forbes Field, 14 of them in the bullpen enclosure still known as Greenberg Gardens (which will become known as Kiner Korner).
In Boston, Big Bill Voiselle pitches the first-place Braves to a 2 – 1 win over the Pirates, and collects his 5th hit of the year. Voiselle raises his average to .097, a point higher than his uniform number. Voiselle has the highest uniform number ever in the majors in honor of his South Carolina home town of Ninety Six.
On June 20, Ralph Kiner hits home runs every Sunday for eight successive weeks in May and June. For the year he will hit 17 round trippers in 38 Sunday games.
The Pirates, wearing their black and gold color scheme for the first time, lose baseball’s traditional opener in Cincinnati, 4-1, in a game that features scuffles between opposing players, an ump, and a photographer, a fan who jumps on the field, and the police. The Bucs, the first team to permanently change their original colors, abandoned the familiar patriotic look of red, white, and blue, choosing instead to use hues that match the Flag of Pittsburgh.
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