PITTSBURGH — For Bill Mazeroski, the best part of attending the Pirates Hall of Fame ceremony Saturday was catching up with old friends.
“It’s fantastic to see (Steve) Blass and (Dave) Parker again,” Mazeroski said. “I see Blass often, but I never get to see Parker.”
Mazeroski, who turns 86 on Monday, moved across the state a few years ago to be closer to his extended family. Blass, 80, still lives in Pittsburgh. Parker, 71, has Parkinson’s disease, lives near Cincinnati and doesn’t get back to Pittsburgh often.
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Former manager Danny Murtaugh died in 1976. He was represented at the induction ceremony by several family members.
“I grew up with them,” said Mazeroski, who played for Murtaugh for 11 seasons in Pittsburgh.

Mazeroski attended the event at PNC Park with his wife, Milene. They were married in 1958 at Sacred Heart Church in Braddock, Pa. According to Maz, it was Murtaugh who brought them together.
“We weren’t supposed to date the girls in the office,” Mazeroski said. “I’m walking through the office one day and (Murtaugh) grabs me and says, ‘I want you to meet this girl and take her out.’ So I went over and I met her. We met (for our date) under the Kaufmann’s clock downtown, and that was that. Sixty-six years later, we’re still here.”
That’s a good place to begin this “The things we do for love” edition of Pirates Fast Five.

‘I will never, ever forget that gesture’
When Blass lost his stuff as a pitcher, it went in a hurry. In 1972, he won 19 games and put up a 2.49 ERA. The next season, he averaged 8.5 walks per nine innings and had a 9.85 ERA in 23 games.
As spring training wound down in 1974, Blass was still struggling. Before the Pirates broke camp, Murtaugh and general manager Joe L. Brown had a sit-down with the right-hander.
“They said, ‘What do you think, Steve?’ I said I don’t know,” Blass recalled. “So they said, ‘We will let you decide. We won’t decide when we’re going to release you. We’ll let you decide.’ Can you imagine another organization doing that? I will never, ever forget that gesture.”
Blass pitched in one game in 1974. He went five innings and allowed eight runs on five hits and seven walks. Blass told Murtaugh and Brown he knew it was time to retire, and he thanked them for their patience.
“It was the toughest time in my life, professionally,” Blass said. “But then I realized (those struggles) were what I did, not who I was.”
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Blass retired as a broadcaster in 2019, capping a 60-year career with the Pirates.
“It’s all good, this ride I’ve been on,” Blass said. “I got lucky.”
The Pirates Hall of Fame was a long time coming. Broadcaster Greg Brown leaked that the Pirates were going to form a hall of fame in 2019, on the night Blass left the booth, when Brown said Blass would be an inaugural member.
Blass said the hall serves an important role.
“If people ask, ‘What do you think about the Pirates?’ I tell them I root for the Pirates,” he said. “They’re my hometown team.’ It’s not just that I played for them. I live here. And if you live in Pittsburgh, you should know the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates.”

To bunt or not to bunt?
The Blue Jays hung on for a 4-3 victory Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. The Pirates blew a chance to walk it off against closer Jordan Romano.
Jack Suwinski led off the ninth inning with a single. With the infielders shifted to the right side of the infield, Cal Mitchell rolled a single into left field. Suwinski went to third base. Greg Allen pinch ran for Mitchell and stole second.
Josh VanMeter struck out swinging on a 98 mph fastball at the top of the zone. That brought up Tucupita Marcano, who has good speed. Manager Derek Shelton mulled whether to attempt a bunt.
“(But) you’re dealing with a challenging thing,” Shelton said. “He’s either going to have to (drag) a bunt at (first baseman) Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.) or he bunts the ball right at (third baseman Matt) Chapman. With Chapman there, it’s really challenging.”
Chapman won three Gold Glove Awards in the past four seasons with the A’s. If the bunt had failed and Suwinski was thrown out at home, the Pirates would have had two outs and the potential winning run at first instead of second.
Marcano got ahead 2-1, then whiffed. Pinch hitter Kevin Newman struck out on a 2-2 slider to end it.

“We’ve got to put the ball in play,” Shelton said. “We’re talking about an elite closer there, but we get into a situation where we’ve got to find a way to make contact. I understand the execution of pitches by Romano and he’s really good, but we’ve got to give ourselves a chance and we didn’t.”
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Newman’s strikeout was punctuated by a roar from the crowd of 14,903 — most of whom, it seemed, must have driven down here for the weekend from Toronto.
🔊 SOUND UP 🔊
Home is wherever YOU are 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/xJIG05IGmk
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 4, 2022
Chasing a streak
Chase De Jong tossed two innings without allowing a run Friday, which moved him past Dillon Peters (16 2/3 scoreless innings) for the longest such stretch by a Pirates pitcher this season. De Jong got two outs Sunday to extend his scoreless streak to 17 2/3 innings.
During his streak, De Jong has held batters to a .157 average and has collected 15 strikeouts. His 1.77 ERA in August was fourth best among National League relievers.

Meet the Mets
It is the first week of September and the Pirates have played every team in the NL except the Mets. Weird, huh?
Those clubs had some great series in the late 1980s and early ’90s when they were fierce and familiar rivals in the NL East. Now, seeing a Mets-Pirates series is like when you run into that long-lost third cousin once removed at the occasional family reunion or funeral. You might have hung out together every day as kids, but now you barely remember him.
This year’s scheduling quirk means the Pirates are in for a heavy dose of the Mets — seven games over the next 14 days. Monday, the Mets will open a three-game series at PNC Park. The Pirates will visit Citi Field on Sept. 15-19.
‘No pepper’ … except in the bullpen
Those planters you might have spotted in the bullpen at PNC Park are not used for flowers. They’re a mini vegetable garden.
“It’s mostly peppers,” De Jong said. “There’s a large bush that I’m pretty sure is a blueberry bush. Somebody said there’s a cucumber plant, too.”
The grounds crew does all the hands-on gardening work, so don’t expect to see relievers picking blueberries. “No snacking during games,” De Jong said. Team chefs use the produce in meals served in the clubhouse cafeteria.
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De Jong grinned when I asked whether he’s thought about taking up farming after baseball. He could follow the lead of Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, who has a 1,600-acre farm in Georgia.
“Wainwright has a green thumb,” De Jong said. “He donates truckloads of tomatoes and stuff around Thanksgiving.”
(Top photo of Steve Blass: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)
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