Bruce Kison died from cancer this past weekend. He is survived by his wife, Anna Marie, a son, a daughter and four grandchildren.
We will eventually focus on some of his on-field moments in context. But one of the most memorable stories of the 1971 World Series was Bruce and Anna Marie's wedding.
Kison was called up to the Pirates on July 2, 1971. Later that month, 19-year-old nursing student Anna Marie Orlando met the 21-year-old pitcher while swimming during the All-Star break. "We met and had a good time, then we went out to dinner," she told The Pittsburgh Press' Margie Carlin. "That was it, I guess. I liked him right away."
They set a wedding date of October 17, when they would be married at 7:30 at Churchill Valley Country Club.
It was an interesting sidelight, with notes like Al Abrams' in the Oct. 4 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "It will be wedding bells soon for young Bucco pitcher, Bruce Kison, and the (grand)daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James 'Chippy' DeStout, former ball player and Pittsburgh police official." (It was originally "daughter" and corrected several days later.)
As the postseason went on, people noticed something. After Kison pitched 4 2/3 innings of 2-hit ball to get the win in the Game 4 NLCS clincher, Phil Musick of The Press asked him about nerves for the Oct. 7 edition.
"'I wasn't nervous. Last year my temperament hurt me, so I try to be calm. You can only give 100 per cent, right?'
"Not quite. If the Baltimore-Pittsburgh World Series stretches to a seventh game on Oct. 17, Kison will be called upon to give more than 100 per cent. Oct. 17 is to be his wedding day. 'I'll be late for my wedding,' he deadpanned."
An article in the Oct. 8 Press quoted Kison as saying, "I might be late for my own wedding. I hope we can wrap it up in six games or less." The article suggested that if Game 7 went to extra innings, the affair might have to be postponed.
And a note in the Oct. 11 Press mentioned that "Pat Jordan, a freelancer, is doing a second article revolving around Pirate rookie Bruce Kison for Sports Illustrated. Jordan did a recent story for the magazine, tracing Kison's career back to his days with Waterbury in the Eastern League. The latest piece, which probably won't be published until around World Series time next year, will depict a Series as seen through the eyes of a fledgling pitcher."
Carlin talked to Anna Marie at Game 3 on Oct. 12. "Bruce Kison's bride-to-be sat huddled in her yellow raincoat at Three Rivers Stadium, wishing on a charm bracelet. Dark-haired Anna Marie Orlando, 19, said with a hopeful grin: 'I wore this bracelet all during the playoffs and the team did really good. I'm sure hoping the charm holds true today.'
"Anna Marie, a student nurse at McKeesport Hospital, is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Steve J. Orlando, Penn Hills, and granddaughter of James 'Chippy' DeStout, former chief of Allegheny County detectives. Her wedding to the 21-year-old Pirate pitcher is set for 7:30 p. m. Sunday in Churchill Valley Country Club with Common Pleas Court Judge John G. Brosky officiating. Their logistics plans are set. 'If the team's still playing in Baltimore Sunday, Bruce has flight reservations back that evening and the wedding will go on,' she said. For a honeymoon, the couple will head for Pasco, Wash., to visit Bruce's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kison and meet the rest of the Kison clan and friends. Then they'll go to Puerto Rico where Bruce will play winter ball. Bob Moose will be in there pitching as best man for Kison, and Anna Marie hopes 'all the Pirates will come to the ceremony.
"'Of course, it all depends on how the Series goes.'"
After Kison pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings in relief of Luke Walker to win Game 4, The Press' Roy McHugh wrote:
Only at intervals did the price of sudden fame seem too steep. Over and over the sports writers asked about his wedding and he developed a singsong manner of reciting, "I will be married in Pittsburgh on October seventeenth at 7:30 p.m. If we are playing that day in Baltimore I will be late getting back, but I'll get back."
He described the bride-to-be, Anna Marie Orlando: "Italian, short, dark hair."
"Is she particularly good looking," one writer asked with jocular intent.
"What do YOU think?" Kison said. "Wow. I don't believe that one."
At last he was forced to sigh, "Everybody keeps bringing up wedding, wedding, wedding, making a big deal out of it."
By Friday, Oct. 15, with the Pirates one win from the title, the wedding was part of the Press' front-page story.
"Even before Pirate Manager Danny Murtaugh selected Moose to start tomorrow's contest, rookie pitcher Bruce Kison already had tabbed Moose 'the best man.'
"Moose will be the best man at Kison's scheduled wedding Sunday night here in Pittsburgh.
"The Pirate faithful would be delighted if Moose and Kison make it to the wedding with plenty of time to spare -- by winning it tomorrow."
That day, Kison was struck on the right thigh by a car leaving a downtown Baltimore parking lot, but the injury wasn't at all serious.
Saturday's Press had some details about how legendary Pirates announcer Bob Prince had arranged for a private jet to take Kison and Moose back to Pittsburgh after Game 7 if necessary. (Yes, in those days, a veteran announcer would be much more able to arrange that than a rookie pitcher.)
So after the Pirates lost Game 6 and won Game 7, Kison left the Pirates' celebration to head back to Pittsburgh. Steve Blass told the Post-Gazette's Ron Cook that, "He didn't even congratulate me for pitching a good game. He just said, 'Thanks for making it quick.'" Sports Illustrated's Jordan was along, as well as Moose, and wrote, "While the celebration swelled, Kison dressed and slipped out of the locker room. A police escort led him through a cheering crowd, across Oriole Boulevard, behind a brick high school to an open field where a helicopter waited to take him and his best man, Bob Moose, to Friendship Airport. There, a needle-nose Lear Jet, provided by Jack B. Piatt, a friend of Pirate Broadcaster Bob Prince and the president of Mill-craft Industries, stood ready to fly Kison, Moose and his wife Alberta, who was eight months pregnant, to Pittsburgh for Kison's evening wedding to Anna Marie Orlando. It was 6:30 p.m. by the time Moose reached the helicopter, weaving unsteadily. His gray baseball uniform was drenched with champagne and his Pirate cap sat on his head at a Howdy Doody angle." According to the Post-Gazette, Prince paid for the helicopter.
More Jordan:
The flight to Pittsburgh lasted 22 minutes. As soon as the jet was airborne, Jack Piatt, an immaculately dressed man with graying hair, opened the bar and poured drinks. He offered a toast to Kison's wedding. Then he asked what was happening back in the Pirate locker room.
"Nothing much," said Kison.
For the remainder of the flight Piatt extolled the virtues of his Lear Jet. "It only costs $800,000," he said, pouring second drinks for himself, Kison, Mrs. Moose and her husband, who was falling asleep against her shoulder.
When the plane began circling Pittsburgh airport, Piatt brushed back his cuff and checked his watch—7:12 p.m. "God bless Millcraft!" he declared. Kison seemed unsure of the proper response. He thanked Piatt for the trip. "You ought to get one of these, Bruce," the executive said, gesturing toward the Lear. "It's the only way to go." There was not a trace of facetiousness in Piatt's remark.
Jordan's story, which ran in the next April's Baseball Preview, leaves Kison speeding through the Squirrel Hill Tunnel in his Volkswagen, trying to catch up with his police escort at 8:03 p.m.
Both The Press and Post-Gazette had reporters at the wedding, so we know that the maid of honor was Anna Marie's sister, Lendra. The women wore formal gowns, the men black tuxedoes.
When Kison finally arrived, he "was hit full in the face with a shower of rice from an onlooker too excited to wait until after the ceremony." He and Moose went to the men's locker room and donned their tuxedoes.
"There was a genuine emergency when grandfather DeStout was asked for the rings which he had forgotten. But one of the DeStout ladies had remembered them, naturally, and the hectic pace resumed. In the main ballroom, about 200 invited guests waited patiently. By now the wedding was an hour late, but no one really expected it to get started on time. Suddenly the judge, Kison and Moose appeared out of the kitchen door. Some people thought they were waiters until 'There they are' spread through the room."
"Brosky went through an elaborate ceremony, punctuated by titters when the bride's father tripped over the gown. Kison was quite serious, Moose all smiles. Finally, the judge told Kison he could kiss his bride and camera lights immediately turned the room into the Fourth of July for the second time in one day, as far as the groom was concerned."
When it was over, Kison's only comment was, "I've been doing a lot of talking today. I really can't think of anything to say."
And so, Bruce and Anna Marie were married. Kison stayed with the Pirates through 1979, then took advantage of the free agency system that didn't exist in 1971 to go to the Angels. He finished his career with the 1985 Red Sox, then was a pitching coach and a scout before he retired to Bradenton.
As his teammate Jerry Reuss put it, "There was not a more fierce competitor than Bruce when he pitched and a nicer guy when he didn't. RIP."
(All quotes are from the original coverage, except Blass' comment to Cook and Reuss' tweet.)
