Last, first & forever local
Trivia that goes a long way back, yet never leaves 412 area code
It might be the greatest two-part Pittsburgh sports trivia question of all time. Who hit the final home run at Three Rivers Stadium and who hit the first home run at PNC Park? Hint: Both are local guys. “I don’t know about that. I don’t consider Upper St. Clair to be a part of Pittsburgh,” John Wehner said, fairly giggling.
“You tell Wehner Upper St. Clair is more Pittsburgh than Carrick,” Sean Casey said. There is your answer.
Carrick’s Wehner and Upper St. Clair’s Casey. These are their stories.
The background
“I thought my career was over the year before,” Wehner said. “I couldn’t find a job in 1999. I was playing slow-pitch softball with my brothers.”
Wehner had broken in with the Pirates in 1991 and also spent time with the Florida Marlins, who won the World Series in 1997. But it wasn’t until June 1999 that the Pirates signed him back to play at Class AA Altoona and then quickly promoted him to Class AAA Nashville after injuries to Kevin Polcovich and Dale Sveum.
“I went from being a no-power utility guy to being a power-hitting shortstop,” Wehner said. “I hit like six home runs in six days in Nashville …
“I remember getting a call from [Pirates general manager] Cam Bonifay the day after Jason Kendall tore up his ankle. ‘We have to call you up,’ he told me. I don’t think he wanted to, but I was the hottest guy.”
Wehner finished the season with the Pirates but didn’t make the team in spring training in 2000. Nashville manager Trent Jewett told him the only way he could keep him was to put him on the disabled list. Wehner eventually was activated and went on to hit 16 home runs for the Sounds. But when he wasn’t called up by the Pirates on Sept. 1, he thought his career was over. That’s when injuries to others saved him one more time. Aramis Ramirez, Mike Benjamin and Keith Osik were hurt and the Pirates had no one to play third base. Wehner, again, came to the rescue.
“You might say I had a horseshoe up my [backside],” he said.
Casey’s ride in the big leagues was much smoother, although it nearly ended before it really began. As a rookie with the Cincinnati Reds in 1998, he was struck in the right eye by a thrown ball in batting practice early in the season. The team originally thought his injury was career-ending.
But Casey came back a month later and would make it to the All-Star Game in 1999. He finished his career with a .302 batting average and hit 130 home runs.
It’s one particular home run in 2001 that Casey always will remember.
The emotions
Wehner knew the significance of the final weekend of the 2000 season. The Pirates would play the Chicago Cubs to close out Three Rivers Stadium, which had opened in 1970. He spent many days there watching his hometown team before signing with the Pirates in 1988. He loves to tell of being shown on the stadium scoreboard the day he signed, sitting in the stands, wearing no shirt and drinking a beer.
“True story,” Wehner said.
Pirates manager Gene Lamont, who would be fired after the 2000 season, gave Wehner the start at third base in the final game on Oct. 1, 2000. A lot of former Pirates came back for the game, including an ailing Willie Stargell.
“Lamont knew I was from Pittsburgh and thought it was only right to start me,” Wehner said. “I thanked him for it later. He said I deserved it. What a thrill — a memory — that was.”
Casey knew all along that he would start at first base for the Reds on opening day on April 9, 2001 at PNC Park.
“I circled the date when I saw the schedule come out. I couldn’t believe we were opening PNC.”
Like Wehner, Casey had great memories of Three Rivers Stadium, spending time there with his dad and his buddies, often bribing an usher with a few bucks to get a better seat. “But I stunk as a player there,” he said, his .175 average in 63 at-bats the proof. “I couldn’t wait to get into PNC Park.”
The opening of the ballpark coincided with the passing of Stargell at 61.
“I remember standing on the field for the moment of silence,” Casey said. “Pops Stargell had meant so much to the organization. I’m from Pittsburgh. I’m a Pittsburgh guy. I knew. But as sad as his passing was, it almost was like a passing of the torch from Three Rivers to PNC.”
The moment
Wehner’s day did not start well. He tied a major league record by going 99 consecutive games without an error at third base, but his throwing error in the final game gave the Cubs an early 2-0 lead. “I still can hear some guy from the stands, yelling, ‘Way to go, Wehner. You already cost us two runs,’ ”
Wehner singled to left in his first at-bat against Cubs starter Jon Lieber, then flew out to the left-field wall in his second. “I missed by that much,” he told third-base umpire Ed Montague, holding his thumb and index finger an inch apart.
Wehner didn’t miss when he batted again in the fifth inning. He turned on an inside fastball from Lieber and drove it over the left-field wall. It stood up as the final home run at Three Rivers Stadium. It also was just the fourth and final home run of Wehner’s career.
“I knew it was gone the moment I hit it. It was the coolest moment I’ve ever had,” he said.
Unfortunately, the game didn’t end well for Wehner and the Pirates. They lost, 10-9. Wouldn’t you know Wehner made the final out, bouncing out to third base with runners on second and third?
“I couldn’t believe it ended that way,” he said. “I was convinced I was going to win the game with a walkoff hit. But that sort of summed up my career. So many ups and downs.”
Casey’s home run at PNC Park started the Reds on their way to an 8-2 win. He still can’t believe how it went down.
“All I wanted to do was get the first hit. I didn’t care about a home run,” he said. “But I was batting cleanup that day and I never hit cleanup. I was scared to death we’d go down one-twothree and I wouldn’t get a chance.”
Pirates starter Todd Ritchie quickly retired Barry Larkin and Michael Tucker in the first inning. But he hit Dmitri Young with a 1-0 pitch.
“I remember walking to the plate, thinking, ‘This is it. This is what I dreamed of. It’s here for the taking. It’s up to me now,’ ” Casey said.
Casey drilled Ritchie’s 1-0 pitch into the seats in rightcenter field. Like Wehner, he knew it was gone when he hit it.
“I’m like, ‘Holy crap! I didn’t just get the first hit. I got the first home run.’ I just glided around the bases. Talk about the thrill of a lifetime,” he said.
The balls
“My home run landed between the wall and the back wall in left field,” Wehner said. “Some guy jumped down and got it. Before a cop came to get him out of there, he threw it up in the stands to one of his buddies. I never thought I’d see it again.”
But friends of friends of the people who owned Paparazzi Restaurant on the South Side knew the person who had the ball. They hooked up Wehner with him and he got it in exchange for an autographed bat and ball.
“It’s in a box in my basement collecting dust,” Wehner said.
Casey wasn’t so fortunate.
“The ball bounced back on the field and Adrian Brown, who was playing center field for the Pirates, threw it back up in the stands,” Casey said. “I was between first and second base and saw him do it. I started screaming, ‘No! No!’
“So I come into the dugout and tell Ken Griffey Jr. to talk to the guy who caught it during the next half-inning. ‘You’re Ken Griffey Jr. You’re the Michael Jordan of baseball. Do what you have to do to get me that ball. Give him bats, balls, jerseys, go to dinner with the guy.’ ”
Griffey Jr. did talk to the guy, although Casey isn’t sure he offered that dinner. The man said he would think about it before the next game.
“It turned out he wanted $9,000,” Casey said. “I couldn’t believe it. I get holding Derek Jeter hostage for his 3,000th hit ball. But who cares about Sean Casey at PNC Park? I wouldn’t pay it. I think he ended up selling it to a card dealer for like $8,000.”
One footnote to the story: “I was signing autographs during PiratesFest after I was traded here in 2006,” Casey said. “A woman came in with the ball. I knew it was the one because it was authenticated. I asked her what I could do to get it, but she said it wasn’t for sale. I ended up signing it anyway. Imagine that. Me signing that ball.”
The memories
For Wehner, a brief conversation with Stargell stands out.
“I passed him when they were helping him out on the field after the game for the celebration. He told me, ‘I got the first one at Three Rivers and you got the last one.’ That was the last time I talked to him.”
Stargell hit the first Pirates home run at the stadium, but Hall of Famer Tony Perez hit one an inning earlier. Of course, Perez played first base for the Reds. Just like Casey. “You’re kidding? Really? I didn’t know that,” Casey said.
It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Casey got the first hit and first home run at PNC Park.
He hit the final home run off Milwaukee starter Jeff D’Amico at Milwaukee’s County Stadium in 2000. He also had the first hit at Milwaukee’s Miller Park off D’Amico three days before the game against the Pirates.
“The Hall of Fame came to get my bat after the PNC Park home run,” Casey said. “They tell me I’m the only player in major league history to get the first hit in two new parks.”
It’s all so surreal, Casey said.
“It’s funny. Every time we drive Downtown and go by PNC, I tell my kids, ‘You do know your dad got the first hit and first home run there, don’t you?’ I think they’re tired of the question.” This much is certain: Casey never gets tired of asking it.