With the Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day fast approaching on Thursday, here’s a look at some memorable Pirates openers. Despite baseball’s declining popularity, Opening Day remains a magical day. There was a time when the Pirates opener was a big deal to youngsters. At one time in Pittsburgh, the Opening Day game would typically begin at 1:35 on a weekday afternoon. Kids would skip school to attend. Their parents, co-conspirators complicit in these blatant acts of truancy, wrote excuses packed with falsehoods. Teachers accepted them with sighs or knowing smiles and nods.
In Catholic schools where the boys were required to wear jackets and ties, those who couldn’t go to the game would slip transistor radios into their breast pockets and run the earphones through the sleeves. If the Pirates lost, the same bad joke spread throughout Pittsburgh like an annual ritual. “Hey, did you hear they’re not serving beer at Forbes Field (or Three Rivers Stadium) anymore? The Pirates lost the opener!” Continuing this trip down Memory Lane, here is one man’s opinion on the five best Pirates openers, in ascending order.
The Top 5 Opening Days in Pirates History
5. When is a Loss Not a Loss?
March 30, 2018, Pirates 13, Detroit Tigers 10 at Comerica Park, Detroit
The Pirates entered the 2018 season with low expectations. Their opening game was hardly a clinic. The Pirates and Tigers combined for five errors and three blown saves on this Opening Day. Two pitchers – Michael Feliz of the Pirates and Drew VerHagen of the Tigers – ended the game with ERAs of infinity.
Leading 4-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle gave the ball to the hard-throwing Feliz. Feliz failed to retire any of the four batters he faced, three of whom scored. Edgar Santana relieved him to try to clean up the mess, but a Josh Bell error let a fourth run in. VerHagen took the mound in the eighth to protect the Tigers’ 6-4 lead. Both runners he faced reached base and scored to tie the game. The Pirates scored four runs in the top of the ninth to take a 10-6 lead. It looked safe when Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez strode to the mound. Vazquez was ineffective and the Tigers tied the score, 10-10, to send it into extra innings.
Hurdle on the Ball
In the bottom of the 10th with the Tigers’ Nick Castellanos on second, JaCoby Jones lined a single into left-center field. Left fielder Corey Dickerson fired a strike to home plate. Castellanos slid. The umpire signaled “safe.” It had already been a long afternoon of baseball. Pirates fans watching on TV switched off their sets. Those of us following the game on computers at work exited out of Gameday. Imagine the confusion when all those Pirates fans later learned that the Pirates won! Hurdle had challenged the umpire’s safe call at home. After a lengthy replay review, the call on the field was reversed and the game continued. After five hours and 27 minutes, the Pirates picked up an Opening Day victory on a three-run home run by Gregory Polanco in the 13th inning.
Here’s some ☕️ courtesy of Gregory Polanco on this Monday morning. 25 days until Opening Day #LetsGoBucs pic.twitter.com/MWq75feXfK
— Pirates of the Allegheny (@OfTheAllegheny) March 4, 2019
4. The Stars Were Out
April 16, 1935, Pirates 12, Cincinnati Reds 6 at Crosley Field, Cincinnati
This game was otherwise unremarkable but for the sheer number of future Hall-of-Famers – eight in total – who played in this game. For the Pirates: Lloyd Waner, Paul Waner, Arky Vaughan, Pie Traynor, and Waite Hoyt. For the Reds: Sunny Jim Bottomley, Chick Hafey, and Ernie Lombardi. At the time, it was the coldest April 16 in Cincinnati history. Despite the cold and cloudy weather, circus seats were installed in left field to accommodate ticket demand.
Starting pitchers Hoyt for the Pirates and Tony Freitas for the Reds weren’t at their best, but they hung around. The score was tied, 4-4, after six innings. The left-hander Freitas began the inning against three left-handed batters. Here contemporary newspaper accounts differ from the official record. The Pittsburgh Press reporter Volney Walsh said they were the Waner brothers and Babe Herman. Online resources say they were Paul Waner, Herman, and Vaughan. In any case, the first three batters hit singles to knock Freitas from the game.
Against relief pitcher Benny Frey, there were RBI singles by Traynor, Tom Padden, and Hoyt. Gene Schott relieved and gave up a bases-loaded walk and an RBI groundout. By the time the third out was recorded, it was a seven-run seventh for the Pirates, who hung on for the Opening Day win behind Hoyt’s complete game. Gus Suhr was the only Pirate held hitless. After the game, the two teams rode the same train together for Opening Day in Pittsburgh on the 17th.
3. The Pittsburgh Kid Comes Through
March 31, 2014, Pirates 1, Chicago Cubs 0 at PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Every kid dreams of hitting the game-winning walk-off home run for his hometown team. Neil Walker got to do it for his Pirates, on Opening Day, no less. The teams were scoreless after 9-1/2 innings. In what has become typical of what passes for a pitching duel in the 21st century, each side used five pitchers. Finally, in the bottom of the 10th, the switch-hitting Walker led off against right-hander Carlos Villanueva, who had just entered the game. Walker won the eight-pitch battle by launching a 3-2 pitch into the right field stands to win it. Another pitcher began his season with an infinity ERA.
Before the game, three Pirates collected awards from their 2013 Wild Card season, with four former Pirates on hand for the presentations. Barry Bonds and Dick Groat presented Andrew McCutchen with his Most Valuable Player Award trophy. Jim Leyland presented Hurdle with his Manager of the Year Award trophy. Jack Wilson gave Pedro Álvarez his Silver Slugger award. Bonds spoke to the crowd, saying, “Pittsburgh is a great town. I wanted to play here for my whole career, but things changed.” Fans in attendance booed. They remembered his final year in Pittsburgh and knew it was a bunch of malarkey, to use a Joe Biden word. After the ceremony, Groat, Leyland, and Wilson were ushered to a suite to watch the game together. Purported Pittsburgh lover Bonds didn’t stay for the game.
2. The Near-Sighted Pitcher and the Bonus Baby
April 12, 1965, Pirates 1, San Francisco Giants 0 at Forbes Field, Pittsburgh
Lester J. Biederman of The Pittsburgh Press called this game “a classic,” with “tremendous pitching” and “astounding defense.” On the mound for the Pirates was Bob Veale. Veale was an intimidating six-foot-six, 212-pound, hard-throwing left-hander. In 1964, he led MLB with 250 strikeouts and 124 walks. He would go on to strike out 276 batters in 1965 and lead the NL in walks three more times. He was near-sighted and wore glasses. On one misty day, his glasses fogged up and he removed them, causing Lou Brock to refuse to step into the batter’s box.
Toeing the rubber for the Giants was right-hander Juan Marichal, who was 21-8 in the previous year and would go on to win at least 21 games six times in his 16-year Hall of Fame career. He was best known for his high leg kick and an unfortunate bat-swinging brawl with the Los Angeles Dodgers later in 1965. Both starting pitchers pitched complete games and faced formidable lineups on this day. The visitors featured Harvey Kuenn, Willie Mays, Jim Ray Hart, Willie McCovey, and Jesús Alou. The home team had Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Bob Bailey, and Donn Clendenon at the heart of the order.
Bailey Wins It
The pitchers battled to a scoreless tie at the end of regulation. Bailey led off the bottom of the 10th for the Pirates against Marichal. Bailey was a “bonus baby” under the rule in effect when he was signed by the Bucs in 1962. The bonus baby rule stipulated that any player given a whopping $4,000 signing bonus had to remain on the major league roster for two years or else be exposed to waivers. Clemente and Sandy Koufax were the most famous bonus babies. Bailey fell behind in the count, 1-2, and sent a curveball into the afternoon sky and out of Forbes Field to give the Pirates the Opening Day win. Veale missed the game-winner. He was in the clubhouse, cleaning his glasses. The game took two hours and three minutes.
1. Honoring the Great One
April 6, 1973, Pirates 7, St. Louis Cardinals 5 at Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh
It was the Pirates’ first game since the tragic, untimely death of Roberto Clemente. Before the game, there was a somber ceremony where Clemente’s number 21 was retired. His jersey and his 1972 Gold Glove Award, his 12th in total, were presented to his widow. The starters on this windy Opening Day in front of a record crowd of 51,695 were Steve Blass for the Pirates and Bob Gibson for the Cardinals.
The Pirates Opening Day lineup was an odd one, thanks to some changes the front office forced on second-year manager Bill Virdon. Catcher Manny Sanguillén took Clemente’s right field position. Young Milt May, thought to be a potential star, took over as catcher. Stargell, who played first base in 1972, was returned to left field so that Bob Robertson, who spent all of the previous year in a slump, could play first. The Pirates could have kept Stargell at first. Left field could have been manned by Gene Clines or Vic Davalillo, both .300 hitters in 1972, or even infielder Rennie Stennett, who acquitted himself well as a left fielder in the 1972 League Championship Series.
These moves would ultimately prove to be idiotic, but on Opening Day everything came up roses for the Pirates. May would gun down Brock attempting to steal in the first inning. Sanguillén would catch the final out. However, Blass couldn’t find home plate. Unbeknownst to anybody at the time, this would be the beginning of the mysterious struggles that would end his career. Blass lasted five innings and exited with the Pirates in a 5-0 hole.
Two-Out Lightning
That type of lead would seem insurmountable against Gibson. Somebody forgot to tell the Pirates. They chipped away with a run in the sixth. After missing a “take” sign, Richie Hebner hit a seventh-inning home run that hit the top of the right field wall and bounced over. In the eighth, trailing 5-2, the Pirates loaded the bases with one out against Gibson. Diego Segui replaced him and struck out Robertson.
The Pirates of the early 1970s were known for two-out rallies. Colorful Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince called it “two-out lightning.” Now the Pirates had the Cardinals where they wanted them. Hebner hit a bloop double to left field to drive in two runs. Clines, a late insertion due to a double switch, hit a long fly to left field. Brock raced for it and made a back-handed attempt, but the ball glanced off his glove for a two-run triple. Another run came in on an error. Ramón Hernández closed it out on the hill and the Pirates had a 7-5 Opening Day win to remember. Incredibly, this game was completed in two hours and two minutes.
The Last Word
The Pirates open the 2024 season in Miami’s loanDepot Park against the Marlins on Thursday. Game time is 4:10 PM Eastern time. Pitching are Mitch Keller for the Pirates and Jesús Luzardo for the Marlins. The forecast is for scattered thunderstorms, meaning the game is likely to be played under the retractable roof. What new Opening Day memories await?
Photo Credit: © Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
