Early agate
ON THIS DATE
Aug. 28
1951 – The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the New York Giants 2-0, snapping the Giants’ 16-game winning streak. The streak enabled the Giants to cut the Dodgers 13½-game lead to six.
1952 – NASCAR legend Lee Petty wins a 50-mile feature race at Heidelberg Raceway.
1970 – The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the New York Giants 21-6 in a preseason game, the first at Three Rivers Stadium.
1974 – Twenty-three-year-old Larry Lis of Avella upsets defending champion Craig Stadler 1-up during match play in the United States Amateur at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J.
1978 – Bill Phillips is named head football coach at Jefferson-Morgan following the resignation of Dave Eavenson.
1996 – The Pittsburgh Pirates trade pitcher Denny Neagle to the Atlanta Braves for pitcher Jason Schmidt, first baseman Ron Wright and outfielder Corey Pointer.
2004 – Quarterback Zane Zebrasky scores on a 10-yard run around left end with 42 seconds remaining to cap a 15-play drive and give Washington High School a 14-13 season-opening victory over Wheeling Central at Wheeling Island Stadium.
Aug. 29
1954 – After three consecutive losses in exhibition games, Joe Bach resigns as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is replaced by Walt Kiesling.
1980 – Quarterback Rick Zabrida scores two touchdowns and Ed Woods rushes for 146 yards as Beth-Center defeats Carmichaels, 13-0, in the season-opening high school football game.
1986 – Bob Strope passes for 186 yards and two scores, and Boyd Wass runs for 114 yards and one touchdown, as McGuffey opens the high school football season with a 27-13 victory over Apollo-Ridge.
1991 – California University’s summer-long search for an athletic director ends with the hiring of Dr. Thomas Pucci, who spent the last four years as AD at South Carolina-Spartanburg. Pucci also was the men’s tennis coach at the University of Arkansas for 10 years.
1995 – Pittsburgh’s Paul Wagner, leading the National League in losses, comes within one strike of pitching perhaps the most unlikely no-hitter in major league history, finishing with a one-hitter as the Pirates beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-0, at Three Rivers Stadium. Only Andres Galarraga’s slow-rolling single on a 3-2, two-out pitch in the ninth inning keeps the league’s least successful starter from baseball immortality.