Two weeks ago I lamented the loss of memorabilia when the twin oak trees in my back yard demolished my storage shed and much of its contents. Fortunately some of the things in the storage shed were salvageable, but a wee bit soggy. My collection of thirty-two Pittsburgh Pirate score cards from the 1940s and 1950s is currently spread out on my dining room table and appears to be in respectable shape. They are too valuable to lose; I must find a permanent home for them.
The earliest scorecard is from 1945. Frankie Frisch was the Pirates’ manager; his team included Frankie Gustine, Bob Elliot, Al Lopez, and Rip Sewell. His opponent, managing the New York Giants, was Mel Ott, who also starred as a right fielder. His team included Ernie Lombardi, Danny Gardella, and Van Lingle Mungo. That year was the all-time low point for major league baseball with all the stars off to war and the league relegated to the aged and infirm.
By 1949 things were back to normal. Billy Meyer was the manager. The Bucs loaded up with right-handed sluggers – Ralph Kiner, Wally Westlake, and Dino Restelli – to take advantage of Greenberg Gardens. Early in June we saw them rout a good Philadelphia Phillies team that included Robert Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Del Ennis, 12 to 6.
Before I left for the service in 1953 we experienced the era of the Rickey-Dinks. Fred Haney managed (baby-sat?) the O’Brien twins, Vic Janowicz, and Frank Thomas. A powerful Cincinnati Reds team broke up a close game by scoring eight runs in the eighth inning en route to a 15 to 7 shellacking of the Pirates. Gus Bell, Jim Greengrass, and Ted Klusewski were too much for the locals to handle.
By 1956 the Buccos were approaching respectability. Dick Groat, Roberto Clemente, Bill Virdon, and Bill Mazeroski were playing for manager Danny Murtaugh. We saw them beat Warren Spahn and the Milwaukee Braves 4 to 3 despite the efforts of Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Joe Adcock.
The last scorecard in the collection was 1961. The Pirates had added Dick Hoak, Smoky Burgess, Dick Stuart, and Harvey Haddix and were coasting on their laurels as World Champions. On this occasion the St. Louis Cardinals, led by Bob Gibson, Ken Boyer, and Tim MCarver were 3 to 2 winners.
Most of the scorecards cost a dime; in 1955 the price went up to fifteen cents, and finally to twenty cents in 1961. For my dime in 1951, I got a thirty-six page brochure “chock full” of information and advertisements, in addition to providing me with a very practical format for keeping score. I made a point of counting the advertisements in this particular score-card – they totaled 135! Full page ads for Lincoln-Mercury, the Allegheny County Free Fair, Fort Pitt and Old Shay Beer and Ale, and Chevrolet ($1,659 at Donaldson Motor on Western Avenue). There also were three full page photographs – Ralph Kiner, Roy Hamey (General Manager), and Bing Crosby (Vice President and minority owner).
Bing also showed up in an ad for Minute Maid orange juice; I think they sponsored his radio show. I was surprised to see an ad for “The Smorgasbord – A Little Bit of Sweden”, at 1500 Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon (current location of the Galleria). Frank Gustine’s Restaurant in Oakland was not a surprise; he had just retired and had opened a spot that was very popular before and after ball games. Other familiar venues include Bill Green’s at the Route 51 Cloverleaf, the Hotel Kaufman in Zelienople, Kramer’s Restaurant on Sixth Avenue, and the Jacktown Inn in Irwin.
All the earlier scorecards have an ad for Prothonotary David B. Roberts on the front cover; by 1951 he had moved to the centerfold immediately adjacent to the Pirates roster. Roberts’ biggest claim to fame was an incident in 1948 when President Truman was introduced to him at a local political rally and responded “What in the hell is a prothonotary?” We astute local observers know it as a sophisticated name for “clerk of courts”. Roberts was a classic small-time politician, a good soldier in the Democratic machine, who campaigned 365 days a year. His was a familiar face to every baseball fan.
Scattered among the ads was an amazing amount of baseball information. Biographies of future manager Danny Murtaugh and slugger Ralph Kiner are on pages 5 and 7. Page 8 has a tabulation of the dimensions of the eight National League ball parks; page 9, a list of the 58 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. On Page 11 there is a detailed explanation of a method of keeping score (not nearly as effective as the one I invented). A table recording the Pirates’ record by years beginning in 1900 is on page 14. Page 16 tabulates “National League Information” – team nicknames, managers, etc. The centerfold contained the actual scorecard, a ten-inning spread sheet for each player and each inning.
In leafing through the collection I was pleased to find one from the memorable night, July 21, 1942, when my father took me to Forbes Field to see Josh Gibson and the Homestead Grays beat Satchell Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs 5 to 4 in ten innings. We were two of the very few “white folks” in the crowd of 11,500 that night, but we were very happy baseball fans to have that opportunity.
A reminder for railfans: Good Lord willing, creeks don’t rise, and the fire hall projector works, I will be discussing the early railroads in this area – Chartiers Valley; Pittsburgh, Chartiers, and Youghiogheny; and the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railway – in the Chartiers Room of the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department at 1:30 pm on Sunday, January 29, 2023. All bets are off if the projector doesn’t work; I may have to fall back on my Jimmy Durante soft shoe routine.