In 1956, the Pirates were coming off seven consecutive losing seasons. Dale Long was their 30 year-old left-handed first baseman. For a stretch of 10 days, the longtime minor-leaguer became a major baseball story.
Long had gotten off to a good start that season. He was the Pirates' cleanup hitter and entered May 19 with a slash line of .384/.438/.657. On the 19th, the Pirates took a 5-2 lead into the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Forbes Field. With two out, Roberto Clemente punched a single to left off southpaw Jim Davis. Long took a ball, then hit the next pitch into the right field upper deck. The Bucs won, 7-3.
The next day, the Pirates hosted a doubleheader with the Milwaukee Braves that drew a standing room only crowd of 32,346, their largest since 1951. The Pirates trailed 1-0 in the fifth inning of the lidlifter when Dan Kravitz led off with a walk. Gene Freese forced him at second. Dick Groat hit a bouncer to shortstop Johnny Logan, but Danny O'Connell dropped the throw to second. With runners on first and second, Bob Friend bunted, and Freese beat the throw to third by Frank Torre. Bob Skinner pinch-hit and broke an 0-16 slump with a two-run single. Bill Virdon hit a roller to the first-base side and Friend beat pitcher Ray Crone's throw home. After Clemente made the second out, Long hit a three-run homer upstairs to right, driving in Skinner and Virdon. Those six runs held up for a 6-3 win.
In the first inning of the nightcap, Johnny O'Brien singled. After Freese struck out, Clemente forced O'Brien at second. This brought Long up to face Warren Spahn, and he hit a two-run home run into the right field upper deck. Long drove in two more runs with a seventh-inning single, and Ronnie Kline shut out the Braves, 5-0.
(Chuck Tanner pinch-hit in both games for the Braves.)
After an off day, the St. Louis Cardinals came into Pittsburgh for a two-game series. On the 22nd, Long came up with two out and nobody on in the bottom of the sixth. He put Herman Wedemeier's pitch into the upper deck in right to cut the Cards' lead to 3-2. The Pirates would get no closer, though, and lost 6-3. The crowd of 19,316 was the Pirates' largest night game crowd in four years, and many felt the need to throw empty beer cans onto the field after Freese was called out at second in the bottom of the ninth.
The next night, an even larger crowd of 19,917 braved the chilly weather to see Friend shut out St. Louis, 6-0. With one out and nobody on in the seventh, Long crushed a pitch from Lindy McDaniel over the 436-foot mark in right center field for the Pirates' sixth run. Pie Traynor couldn't remember anyone hitting a homer there before.
A four-paragraph article at the bottom of the Post-Gazette's front page mentioned that it was Long's fifth home run in five games; the major league record was seven in six consecutive games. (7 in 6 games: George Kelly of the 1924 Giants, Walker Cooper of the 1947 Giants and Willie Mays of the 1955 Giants. 6 in 6 games: Lou Gehrig for the 1931 Yankees and K.R. Williams of the 1922 Browns.)
The Pirates then traveled to Philadelphia. On May 25, Long tied the consecutive games record. In the fourth inning, with the Phillies ahead, 3-2, Lee Walls walked with one out. Long then took Curt Simmons deep to right field to give the Bucs the lead, and Pittsburgh went on to win, 8-5.
On the 26th, Long was moved to third in the order. "Maybe it`ll give him one more swing," said manager Bobby Bragan. In the first inning, he hit a long drive to right field, "missing a home run by about three inches," according to the Associated Press. The ball bounced off the wall for a double. In the eighth inning, he hit a 2-2 pitch over the high right field wall off Ben Flowers to set a new record for consecutive games with home runs. Frank Thomas followed with a homer of his own, and those were the last two runs in the Pirates' 6-2 victory.
That night, Pirate general manager Joe L. Brown gave Long a $2,500 raise, to $16,500, since league rules prohibited paying a bonus.
On Sunday the 27th, a doubleheader was rained out at Connie Mack Stadium. While the rest of the team returned to Pittsburgh for Monday's game with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Long went to New York to appear on Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town."
On the night of May 28, a crowd of 32,221 jammed Forbes Field. Long led off the fourth inning against Carl Erskine. With the count 1-2, he hit a low inside curve 380 feet into the right center field stands to tie the game, 2-2. It was the eighth consecutive game where Dale Long hit a home run. The fans continued their ovation until he came out of the dugout and tipped his cap. The Press said it was known as the first curtain call a player received in Pittsburgh, and possibly anywhere. The Bucs went on to win, 3-2, on Bob Friend's two-hitter. (One hit was a long two-run homer by Duke Snider over the same 436-foot sign that Long cleared the previous week.)
After the game, Joe L. Brown came into the clubhouse to shake Long's hand. A writer asked if there was another new contract for Long. "He can have it if he wants it," Brown said.
Long's response was, "No, thanks. I'm satisfied. At least I am right now. I wish you fellows would give some credit to Bob Friend over there, to Lee Walls and Bob Skinner and to Dick Groat for those two double plays."
There was also a note that the Dodgers used a modified Ted Williams shift on Long.
There were two banner headlines in the next morning's Post-Gazette: "Long Hits 8th in 8 Games, Bucs Win, 3-2" and "NEW FARM BILL SIGNED BY IKE".
By the afternoon, with the Pirates and Dodgers playing a day game, the May 29 Press headlines were "Long Hitless First Three Times Up" and "LOAN CHIEF ACCUSED OF SWINDLE".
The morning of the 29th, Long appeared on Dave Garroway's Today Show. Later that day, Long hit a fly ball to deep center field in the third inning, but it stayed in Forbes Field. In the eighth, he popped the first pitch to Jim Gilliam at second. The subsequent exodus by the fans reminded The Press' Les Biederman of the Ralph Kiner days. The crowd was 11,935, "a remarkable week-day attendance."
And that was the end of Dale Long's streak. He went 15-30 in the eight games with 19 RBI, and his average was up to .411. At end of the streak, the Pirates were in third, one game behind the tied Braves and Cardinals.
It was, of course, downhill from there. Long ended the season at .263 (.326 OBP, .485 SLG), with 27 HR and 91 RBI. The Pirates ended up in seventh place with a 66-88 record.
The Press ran a column on the 30th with lots of personal details, like his favorite food being steak, his favorite TV program being Wyatt Earp (because 8-year-old Dale Jr. liked it) and his favorite movie stars being Virginia Mayo and John Wayne. He thought he'd play pro football if he wasn't a baseball player; he considered signing with the Packers when he left high school in 1944, but his mother insisted he play baseball. His offseason job was in the personnel department at the Sprague Electric Co. in North Adams, Mass.
Long's record still stands, although it's been tied twice. Don Mattingly hit a total of ten home runs in eight straight games from July 8-18, 1987, and Ken Griffey Jr. hit eight in eight games from July 20-28, 1993. When Long was interviewed over the years, his responses were of the "records are made to be broken" variety.
After he set the record in Philadelphia, Long was shaving before posing for some magazine photographs. A teammate remarked, "Imagine that, a magazine. Nobody on this club has been noticed for years."
All quotes are from original newspaper coverage.
