Sheridan had its own major league baseball player in Fred Fussell; he was born there in 1895. His best year was in 1928, playing for the defending champion Pittsburgh Pirates. But he got off to a rocky start that year. On April 19th, brought in as one of six relievers in the game after starting pitcher Carmen Hill took a shot off his leg from one of the Cardinals, Fussell was tagged for four runs in the sixth and seventh innings, three earned.
As the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in the April 20th paper, “Strong men looked for help, weak men grew frantic, women, unnerved by the sight, wept quietly and children howled with innocent glee…There have been other openers, but one is safe in saying that there never has been, likely never will be, a repetition of the affair which marked the debut of the 1928 Pirates on their home lot. For three hours and five minutes, while chilling blasts made men snuggle further into their great coats and gave women a better chance to display their hosiery and lingerie, the Pirates and Cardinals first battled, then staggered, then stumbled before the Cards got the decision. And a corps of expert accountants, working far into the dark, finally came up with the announcement that, with all the outlying districts heard from, they were convinced that the game had ended, 13-10 in favor of the Cardinals.”
Fussell was wild that game, walking five in one and two thirds innings. The Pirates were seemingly in control, up 4-1 before Hill’s injury. St. Louis scored five in the fifth and five in the sixth to go up 11-5 and held on for the win.
It was 20 days before Fussell would pitch again, but he came on in a relief role again on May 10th, 1928. Against the first place New York Giants, Fussell picked up where he left off before, walking the first two batters he faced with the Pirates trailing 5-3. But then he settled down and pitched brilliantly, not allowing a run in just over five innings as the home crowd cheered him wildly. The Pirates, who were off to a rocky start, could not make up the deficit and lost 5-4, but Fussell got a lot of positive comments for his pitching that day.
On May 14th, Fussell got his first start of the year, but he was teed off on for five and two thirds innings, allowing 10 hits and five runs as the Bucs lost 7-6. He got his first win on May 21st. Tagged for two runs by the Reds in the first inning, he settled down and got the 6-3 complete game win over Cincinnati, a team that was contending at the time for first. The Reds hit it hard on him all game, but right at people.
He didn’t get out of the first inning on May 25th, a 10-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs. He came on in relief on May 29th and pitched three innings, giving up four hits but only one run in a 7-1 loss to the Cardinals. He was chased after only two thirds of an inning in relief against the Cubs on June 2nd as the Bucs lost 10-6.
Fussell didn’t pitch again for 12 days, but on June 14th, at the last minute, the Pirates decided to send him out against the New York Giants, who struggled that year against lefties. He got tagged in the first inning and left trailing 3-1 after seven, but he kept the Pirates in the game. His teammates bailed him out with two in the eighth to tie. In the 11th inning, Sparky Adams lived up to his name for the Pirates with a leadoff triple to center field, which was 460 feet deep at the Polo Grounds. Paul Waner’s sac fly brought him home and the Pirates held on for the 4-3 win over the Giants.
Despite the fact that the Pirates were 25-28 at the time, their manager, Donie Bush, was convinced that game was a turning point. After a series of injuries and bad breaks by the club, they had won 9 out of their last 13. “We are looking up now,” Bush was quoted as saying in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette following the game. “I don’t expect any phenomenal rise to the top, but you can expect us to creep up day by day on the leaders.”
(Continued Next Week)
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