Former Pirates All-Star pitcher Bob Veale, part of 1971 World Series champions, dies at 89

The famous story about Bob Veale, one Steve Blass loves to share when talking about his halcyon days with the Pittsburgh Pirates, involves the two-time All-Star left-handed pitcher’s glasses.

At 6-foot-6, 212 pounds and armed with a ferocious fastball — the great Pirates announcer Bob Prince once said he could “throw a strawberry through a locomotive” — Veale was one of the sport’s strikeout artists. That he had occasional command issues and poor eyesight only added to his intimidating reputation. When the strap on his spectacles broke, Veale tossed them to the bat boy to have them fixed and be retrieved after the inning ended. The batter, Hall of Famer Lou Brock, protested.

“Brock turned around to the umpire and said, ‘There will be no more baseball until Bob Veale gets a new set of lenses,’ ” Blass said, with a laugh. “He threw so hard you didn’t want to see him without the glasses on or your life could be in danger. He was just a huge, intimidating force. I couldn’t imagine picking up a bat against him. He was a real easygoing guy, but if you dragged a bat to the plate, you didn’t think that.”

Veale, who rose from serving as a batboy, working concessions and pitching batting practice to both the Birmingham Barons and Birmingham Black Barons at historic Rickwood Field to becoming one of the dominant pitchers of the 1960s for the Pirates, died over the weekend in his hometown. He was 89.

A two-time All-Star who helped the Pirates win three consecutive National League East Division titles and was a reliever on their 1971 World Series team, Veale went 120-95 with a 3.07 ERA and 1,703 strikeouts, 20 shutouts and 78 complete games in a 13-year major league career.

He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pirates, compiling a 116-91 record, 3.06 ERA and 1,652 strikeouts, which ranks second in franchise history behind Bob Friend, from 1962-72. Veale also is tied for ninth in Pirates history in shutouts (20), tied for 10th in wins (116) and ninth in ERA (3.06) since it became an official statistic in 1912. He also holds the club record for most wild pitches, with 90.

Veale edged Bob Gibson for a National League-best 250 strikeouts in 1964 to become the third pitcher in Pirates history to lead the league in strikeouts, along with Rube Waddell in 1900 and Preacher Roe in 1945. Veale set a club record with 276 strikeouts the following year, finishing second to Sandy Koufax, who set a major league record with 382.

“He was one of the most dominant left-handed pitchers in all of Major League Baseball during his remarkable big league career that he proudly spent a majority of as a member of the Pirates,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “He was a great man who will be missed.”

The son of Robert Andrew Veale Sr., a former pitcher for the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues, Bob Veale was a two-sport star who played baseball and basketball at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. Despite the efforts of Black Barons manager Winfield Welch, who also coached the Harlem Globetrotters, Veale’s father would not allow his son to play for the traveling basketball team.

Expected to sign with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues, Veale was invited to a tryout by the St. Louis Cardinals and spotted by Pirates scout Tuffie Hashem, who recommended signing Veale. That was seconded by Buddy Henchen, who scouted Birmingham, and Veale was signed by general manager Joe Brown in 1958 after auditioning before pitching coach Bill Burnwell at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

After improving his command over five seasons in the minor leagues — which included a 14-strikeout, nine-walk no-hitter for the Wilson Tobs of the Class B Carolina League — Veale made his major league debut for the Pirates on April 16, 1962. He tossed a complete game in his second start, a 4-3 win over the New York Mets, but was returned to the minors after 11 appearances (six starts). Veale recorded 22 strikeouts in a game against Buffalo that August.

Veale worked mostly as a reliever in 1963 but threw three complete games, including two shutouts, in his seven starts. Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh moved him into the starting rotation the following season, and Veale went 18-12 with a 2.74 ERA and had 15 strikeouts against the Milwaukee Braves that September.

It was the first of seven consecutive seasons with double-digit victories, a sub-4.00 ERA and at least 170 strikeouts in 200-plus innings for Veale, an All-Star in 1965 and ’66 who also led the majors in walks four times in that span. He also recorded the top two single-season marks for strikeouts and four of the top five.

On Sept. 30, 1964, Veale struck out a franchise-record 16 batters (and walked eight) in 12 1/3 innings in a 1-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds. The following season, on June 1, 1965, Veale matched his single-game strikeout mark while holding Philadelphia to five hits and two walks, striking out five of the final six batters he faced for a complete-game shutout and 4-0 win at Forbes Field.

“He probably didn’t get enough credit that he deserved, because Koufax was the best left-hander in all of baseball,” Blass said. “But if you look at the guys who threw hard — Koufax, Gibson, Jim Maloney and Bob Veale — that’s a pretty good concentrate package of strikeout talent. And Bob Veale was a big part of that conversation about power guys in Major League Baseball.”

Bothered by elbow problems, Veale was moved to the bullpen full-time in 1971. He relieved Dock Ellis in the third inning against the Philadelphia Phillies on Sept. 1, 1971, when the Pirates fielded the first all-minority lineup in baseball history. Veale made the only postseason appearance of his career in Game 2 of the World Series, allowing two inherited runners to score on a pair of walks in Baltimore’s 11-3 win.

Veale spent the final two seasons of his career with the Boston Red Sox, then worked as a minor league instructor for the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees before retiring. He returned to Birmingham, bringing his baseball life full circle by working as a groundskeeper at Rickwood Field. Veale was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

“He was a big, warm shining light in my life,” said Blass, a Pirates Hall of Famer who was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series. “I learned a good bit from him when I broke in. He taught me a lot. He was a gentle giant, a huge man. But at spring training, when my kids were little, he always had time to play with them. They always remembered Big Bob Veale.

“He was a big deal at that time. I thought the world of him. He wasn’t self-promoting. I don’t know if the word ‘decent’ gets enough respect. But he was a thoroughly decent man that I really learned from. I’m glad we crossed paths.”