42 years after his death, Pirates finally honor Paul Waner

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Posted By: neal

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/wires/07/21/2010.ap.bbn.pirates.waner.0612/

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Posted By: dennis

they could easily honor lloyd waner ,ralph kiner,roy face and bob friend to that list of retired #'s to remind what few fans they have left, that this was a once great franchise.

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Posted By: john/z28jd

Ralph Kiner's #4 is retired already,thats an oversight in the top of the article that they corrected later on. They also have 2 other numbers retired of managers and theres only 4 teams that have more numbers retired,and one of those is the Cardinals who have 1 more retired number and who retired a number for their owner he never wore,and the Giants who retired names of players who never had numbers,otherwise they also have less. The Dodgers legitimately have more retired numbers,tho Jim Gilliam is a stretch(without him theyre also even with the Pirates) and the Yankees will retire anyone's number.

I think the Pirates are in line with retired numbers and might be better off doing something like the Phillies have with their own hall of fame section in CF where they put in players who werent superstars but important to team history. If youve ever been to PNC Park youll see that the Pirates dont forget where they came from between all the statues and banners and pictures around the stadium and the giveaways and merchandise.Theyve played so bad recently that they like to remind people of the past alot.

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Posted By: peter chao

I agree with Dennis that Lloyd Waner should also be honored. The are the Hall of Fame brothers, Big Poison and Little Poison. They should have their uniforms retired together.

But Dennis, why Bob Friend? He simply wasn't as good as the Waner brothers.

Peter

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Posted By: Ed

as long as it bumps his Goudey value.

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Posted By: dennis

peter,friend is just a favorite of mine from my youth. he was an excellant pitcher who unfortuantely pitched his entire career with the pirates & ended up winning 197 games and losing 230. well, here is where my opinion of him forms. if you go to baseball reference.com there is a neutralize stats statistic. first try it for all the greats of that era...gibson,koufax,drysdale,marichal....then try it on bob friend and you will see what i'm talking about. also if anyone doubts why ted lyons is in the hall of fame neutralize his stats.

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Posted By: Phil Garry

Waner's Rookie Card...............

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Posted By: Anonymous

Paul is one of only two or three players to ever accumulate 2000 or more hits in his first 10 seasons. Puckett was another. maybe 1 or 2 since. but anyway, to not honor or celibrate this terrific ball player is a shame. Oh how the Pirates have sunk into the crapper. Clemente must be spinning in Davy's locker.

(Puckett had 1996) Close enough for government work

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Posted By: peter chao

I vote for Willie Stargell, for one year Pittsburgh and the Pirates were truly family.

Peter C.

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Posted By: Bill Stone

This thread points out the remarkable thing
about this game of baseball. I was reading The World
Champion Pittsburgh Pirates by Dick Groat and Bill
Surface (1961)just last weekend. My favorite player of all
time was Dale Long. The Pirate fans ( especially me!!!)
were wild about him when he hit 8 homers in 8 games in 1956.
The New York Times on May 29,1956 described it like this " Responding to the roar of 32,221 fans,the Bucs'spectacular first sacker exploded for his eighth four-bagger in eight
consecutive games." The article goes on to say "behind the two-hit pitching of Bob Friend, brought down Carl Erskine
and the Dodgers 3 to 2." So Dennis both our heroes had a good day on May 28, 1956!!!!!!!!.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

He was barely a Boston Brave yet he had no trouble being honored by them....